How do you respond to negative feedback from a crazy person? Truly this buyer must be a nutbar!

[elle-tuxedo-cat]

I recently had a buyer leave negative feedback - frankly I expect the odd negative FB - it's the cost of doing business and there are not a lot but some scammers out there who want things for free....anyway...I don't sweat the negative FB anymore. But what galls me are crazy people who pay for things then say, after you've shipped them, I don't want it anymore...then boo hoo hoo 'you ignored my request, etc" Then the other day a buyer says I shipped the wrong item - the short version of the item  - just how many identical used IRO silk tanks does she think I have? It was beyond belief. I had one tank & sent it to her. She got what she bought. Actually she did write to me - just to rant unintelligibly - possibly bipolar - that's my diagnosis - additionally a  paranoid schizophrenic. Thanks for letting me let off steam - felt good!!!

[roblinsgarage]

Try not to put too much emotion in to your feedback follow-ups.  Force them to look like the crack pot, not you.

[marnotom!]

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@roblinsgarage wrote:

Try not to put too much emotion in to your feedback follow-ups.  Force them to look like the crack pot, not you.

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Even without emotion, you can still put "loaded" words into feedback that won't make you look good.

If I were a buyer reviewing a seller's feedback, I'd be really leery of a seller who labels a buyer a "possible scammer" as it sends out the message to me that they don't trust any of their buyers from the get-go.

[surplusdealdude]

I suggest that you start worrying more about negative and neutral feedback, too.

You have 2 neutrals that say you cancelled the transaction - there may be policy violations that ride along with that.

Ususally, anybody that gets about 1% combined negs and neutrals is heading for trouble - you're at almost 3%

I'm not saying you're going to get kicked off the site tomorrow, but it's a problem you should deal with.

[femmefan1946]

Those "cancelled by seller" neutrals do need responses. If the cancellation was at the request of the buyer (Mutual Cancellations allow both buyer and seller to leave fb for the ended transaction)  perhaps "Happy to oblige with your request" would make you look the good guy rather than possibly sketchey.

What you should NEVER do is use all CAPS or exc!amat!on marks!!!! or any vulgar or slanderous words. Let the other guy look like a drooling anger monkey. Your responses should be calm and factual. Two of your responses to those negs would have been fine until you started calling names.

It's not personal. It's business. Readers of the feedback are forming opinions of you as well as of your buyer.

[oldbazaar]

I've had two nuts. One left a negative due to breakage in shipping. I contacted her and offered refund/replacement, and she then showed her true craziness, saying that I had sent the item already broken, and that she didn't want a refund she wanted to warn the whole world about me...yada yada. So I simply didn't reply. She then took it to an eBay dispute, they took their "no fault" action - refunded the seller, but did not take the money from me, and removed the negative, so justice was done. 

The other one was a neutral which I ignored, but the comment was obviously from a very odd person, about how it "wasn't her type of thing". So why buy it? Beats me.

A percentage of people are nuts. They just are. And yes, some of them shop online. The important thing is to stay professional. Respond to direct questions with polite answers, and do not respond to crazy stuff. Save it, pass to eBay (or the police if necessary!) but never, never, ever get into an argument with them.

[marnotom!]

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@oldbazaar wrote:

A percentage of people are nuts. They just are. And yes, some of them shop online. The important thing is to stay professional. Respond to direct questions with polite answers, and do not respond to crazy stuff. Save it, pass to eBay (or the police if necessary!) but never, never, ever get into an argument with them.

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If the OP or anybody else reading this needs to put things into perspective, this site brings back memories of my years working in the retail trenches:

http://notalwaysright.com/

[elle-tuxedo-cat]

Thanks everyone for the replies - actually I didn't expect any - I really just wanted to get this off my chest. In a very strange way - and I won't explain why - this buyer did me an enormous favour inadvertently -  she's still a crazy trailer park in-bred - educated guess...poor thing lives in a hell hole area (I googled her address) but all's well that ends well!  I'm sorry was that catty? - oh well, meow! LOL!  Seriously, I wish we could share our banned list of sellers then all of us sellers can benefit from other sellers bad interactions - that way we could prevent others from having to deal with these A holes. Is that possible? I'd share if other will. Perhaps I'll start a new thread and we could share - I think this is a fabulous idea!!! Just copy and paste - easy as pie! What do you think Ena Sharples? (I've seen your pic! - don't think you could fool someone who watched Corrie St as a child!)

[inuk_the_polar_bear]

I watched Coronation St 30 years ago, not as a child. The Mrs and her Mom love the show. There are still continuing characters!

I remember Stan dying. Sure miss Hilda Ogden.

[bb_cool_stuff]

My wife still watches the program. She went to an autograph session in town last winter.

All i can remember is that Curly was dismissed from a lot of jobs.

[elle-tuxedo-cat]

Yup, had another one...please don't reply...allow me to get this off my chest...LOL! Why is it that when you try to do someone a favor - buyer wanted an item by a certain date - thought I could - then realized once paid the delivery frame was way past her specified date. She said send it anyway - what? - so it would be late and then she could **bleep** more. But what gets me is the paranoid buyers and there's lots of them - the buyers who think you're 'saving' something for more money - or you want to keep the item - or what ever else these crazy-assed people think. I'm just amazed I can sell anything here, really! I'm thrilled when anything sells. I'm not a pushover - I'm not going to sell my Chopard jewelry for $5 but still, an old pair of shoes for $25 - yahoo! Happy days!!! And all this talk of the buyer being right, what a load of **bleep** - I don't subscribe to that sorry. I'm kind and considerate but not an idiot. Thank you for reading this - if anyone does...lol...do not reply, I'm really not interested in what other people think.

[ricarmic]

What I've done to try to avoid writing emotional responses is pre-write messages and feedback responses. Here's an old thread I put up a while ago, make use of anything that works....

http://community.ebay.ca/t5/Seller-Central/Neutral-Negative-ratings-or-threats-thereof-the-form-lett...  

PS You'll see I have 11 revised feedbacks, those are the success stories of using this approach...