Negative feedback for eBay policy?!

[becky_kenzie]

OK, so I just received a negative feedback. Apparently there was no problem with the sale, the price, the shipping, or the product. My buyer simply took great offense to a standard note I include on every packlist. It's a simple note like those which many sellers include: 

Thanks for buying from me, hope this arrived well and you're happy, if you have any questions or concerns, please don't open a claim, contact me first so I can help, hope for a positive feedback, yadda, yadda, yadda. . 

Even though "contact the seller first before leaving negative feedback or opening a case" is well known eBay policy, this buyer gave me a negative for requesting that. Am I wrong thinking that this is unfair to me? Am I right in requesting that this feedback be removed? What should I do here? 

Becky K

[marnotom!]

The buyer’s wording in her feedback suggests you were “begging” that the buyer not contact eBay.

While the buyer is a tad out to lunch, I can see that some people might find the messages “please don’t file a claim” and “hoping for positive feedback” to be off-putting.

I would eliminate those phrases from your note and calmly respond to your buyer’s feedback with a note that you were just reminding buyers of eBay policy and your note has now been reworded. I think if you come off as professional in dealing with this, this will make you look better (and make her look flaky) and actually give you a bit of a boost.

[travis7s]

You can reach out to eBay themselves by email (or "ebay for business" on Facebook) and request the feedback be removed, its not guaranteed but its worth a shot. This buyer is already pretty unreasonable so I would just leave them alone, or try as a last resort.

Personally I don't include anything at all with my items and it works out well. I believe Its very unlikely that a "generic" thank you note is going to win you any additional business and, as you've found out, it can sometimes backfire.

[ricarmic]

I agree with @marnotom!   about leaving a professional, calm response and the benefits of doing so.

As a note, the following is the message I send out, fortunately I've so far not had any backlash but my request is worded a bit differently: "please contact me via a message."

My form letter I send at time of shipping via ebay messaging:

Thank you for your purchase and quick payment.  Your parcel has been shipped out today, Monday XXXXXXX.  Note that the global pandemic may impact the parcel delivery timeline. Some parcels move at normal speed or even more quickly, some are slowed down significantly. A lot depends on which sorting/customs centers are affected and for how long they are impacted. Once the parcel arrives, I hope you will find everything satisfactory.  If you are not completely pleased with this transaction, please contact me via a message.  I will do my very best to resolve any problem you may have.  Thank you very much in advance for your extra patience while the parcel makes the journey. Regards, RICARMIC (Ron)

================================

When one sells to a large number of people there are always going to be a (usually) small number of problem buyers that it won't matter what you did/n't do, there will be a problem. 

If you are able to get ebay to remove the feedback that would be great, but if they won't feedbacks in an of themselves aren't held against you by ebay itself anymore. I myself have learned to live with some odd/undeserved IMO neutrals and negatives this year and my sales have not diminished at all, in fact they were stronger even before COVID.

(PS I'm assuming the buyer is blocked of course!)

[zee-chan-jpn-books]

I hope you blocked that buyer. Making such a big deal out of a note in a $3.99 item.

This is what my message to buyer looks like, this is the one I send after I shipped. Generally speaking, people hate to be told "please don't do XXX" (your "please don't open a claim" phrase) so I would definitely eliminate that.

---

Hi XXX, thanks for buying from me!

Your item has been mailed on XXX from Canada via XXX service. It should take around 2-4 weeks to arrive, however potential delays could occur due to the recent global situation affecting transportation and postal services, so I would like to ask you to kindly await its arrival patiently. If there is any problem with this sale, please feel free to contact me. If everything is fine, I would really appreciate a 5 stars positive feedback from you and I will do the same.

Thank you, be safe, and be healthy ^_^

---

And then I go leave them a positive feedback with the shipped date. So that they can rest assure that I won't/cant leave them a bad feedback.

And in my packages, I include a very simple handwritten note: Hi XXX, thanks for buying from me! I hope you like the gift I included. Be healthy and stay safe! zee-chan [my-e-mail]

I usually include a little picture card or something like that as a gift. I don't think you should make your message in the package too long; the tone you used in your message hinted at the buyer that there can be a problem and the "don't make a claim" part does sound sketchy. Of course, I know that it's eBay policy since I'm a seller, but buyers are highly unlikely to be familiar with the policy. A simple thank you with a contact is suffice. I have never had anyone e-mail me about a sale issue afterwards. 

[ricarmic]

Hey @zee-chan-jpn-books I like your wording better than mine!

I've stolen "please feel free to contact me" and have used it to replace my "please contact me via a message" in my form letter!

[becky_kenzie]

What a great bunch of responses! Thank you so much, everyone!

For those that asked, yes, I have now blocked that buyer. (I notice they gave the seller previous to me a neutral because it was too expensive, which makes me wonder why she bought whatever it was anyway.)

I am rewording my note to the buyer as well as taking out the "please don't open a claim as your first step" phrase. That might help protect me against that small group of people that apparently stay awake at night thinking up creative new ways to get offended at ordinary life.

I'm glad to know that a negative feedback doesn't count against me. I really thought it did. I did respond to hers anyway.

Again, thanks so much to everyone!

Becky K 

[ricarmic]

That's where you can turn a problem into a non-issue by replying with a professional response (I don't see your response there yet).

When I am buying, I check the sellers negatives to see what they said and did. If they yell back at the buyer etc, I know that if I happen to have a legitimate problem they probably won't look after me. If they respond professionally regardless how stupid the buyers comment is, I know they will probably be professional with me and it was just a knob buyer.

Note though that I think in this day and age very very few buyers even look at the feedback anymore so don't lose sleep over it!

[blackranda2]

I have sold on eBay for 14 years now.  Have to agree with you, the eBay feedback system has lost a lot merit now . When I first started selling,  both buyers and sellers had equal  feedback options.  Back in the good old days there was not nearly as much of a problem as there is now. It all changed drastically when eBay removed the option for sellers to send negative feedback when justified giving buyers free range to send negatives, often without valid reasons, knowing full well they could not get a negative in return.  Don't get me wrong there are still many super buyers on eBay but that percentage is going down every year.  I have monitored this closely over the years.  In the early years I received feedback from buyers on almost all my sales.  Now it has dwindled to close to 50% of my sales. The most noticeable decrease started when eBay changed the feedback policy.  When I noticed this downward trend in buyers sending feedback, I stopped sending feedback for a buyer until I received feedback from them.  I still thanked the buyer for their purchase by emailing them and also included a Thank You card in their package. Once I received feedback from the buyer, I promptly returned it. This has worked well for me.  Of course I have received a few negatives in 14 years of selling but most were not justified and the % of the negatives in relation to the number of sales I have is very minute. The bottom line is you can't please everyone all the time no matter how hard you try or how stellar of a seller you are. So I have learned to not stress over the few negatives and carry on.  I am pleased with what I accomplished and have complete confidence in the quality of my products.  A negative from 1 lone buyer looks totally out of place amongst the numerous positive ones I have received.  I do reply to the negative for the reason that my comment will appear in the buyer's feedback left for others section on the buyers profile so other sellers can check there if this buyer makes them an offer or sends them a message. From there other sellers can decide if they want to deal with this buyer or not. Again this seems to work well for me.  I immediately check the feedback of a buyer when they make an offer or message me.  Numerous times I see the red flags and block that buyer if I do not feel comfortable with them.

[reallynicestamps]

I disagree with your premise.

In my opinion, the feedback system is a relic of the 20th century infancy of the internet,when the early adopters were mostly a like-minded and flexible bunch.

Even so, there were huge problems with FB, including FB extortion from both buyer and sellers

Who do you think reads FB?
Particularly FB left by sellers?

• Not the buyer who annoyed the seller. He already knows what the seller thinks of him.
• Not eBay. EBay does not use FB to assess accounts, because only about 40% of transactions have any feedback (and most of that is left by sellers). The 21st century buyer is no more interested in leaving fB for you or I than they are in leaving it for Canadian Tire or Loblaw's .
• Not your fellow sellers. Most transactions are Fixed Price (even Auctions usually have a Buy It Now price) and sellers don't meet their buyers until they have bought

The one who will read FB is the future buyer.

And that is why a calm professional and factual Response is the only way to deal with negs.

Even better is no Response at all, letting the buyer's entitlement speak for itself.

The way to deal with bad buyers is the Resolution Centre starting Unpaid Item Disputes and responding quickly to Not Received or Not As Described disputes.  If the seller wins a Dispute, the losing buyer cannot leave feedback.

[ricarmic]

Personally I think normally it is better to reply to a negative, but as you suggest in a calm and factual way.

If I look at negative feedbacks left by buyers with no response from the seller, especially for ones that suggest there was a problem with the item, lack of response from the seller etc, it says to me that the seller doesn't care about problem situations and/or they won't care if I have one if I was to buy from them.

My last negative never really told me why I got the negative, I did send them one of my form letters, advising them of their options and my willingness to work with them with no response to date*, but doing so allows me to add my response that I think allows folks to see that if they do have problems and they do contact me I will try to work with them to resolve them.

So I am of course from a silver lining perspective using my response as a way to address concerns future buyers might have, on the assumption any of them actually read feedback anymore...

*which probably saves me money, my main goal is of course to put my response in, but I can't do that if I don't try to contact them. If folks do respond (which is usually the case) it is normally resolved via a partial refund. Of course I'd rather have it fixed and the neg zapped but it doesn't look like that will be the case for this one. The neg is out of character with the buyers traditional behaviour they've only started leaving negs in the last few weeks (mine was one of 3 or 4 recently left one seller got a great one and a negative one too!), I saw no negs left before that (been on ebay for 15 years), so either they're trying new stuff and not realizing what would normally be received (which I suspect because of the type of sight unseen lot they got from me) or something else has made them grumpier than normal (or they got a few "bad" lots, mine being one of them).

[blackranda2]

Thanks for your reply. We are all entitled to our own opinions.

As I said, I have monitored this and because it works for me it doesn't mean it will work for everyone.  And for me it does seem to work because I have had at least one other seller contact me to thank me for leaving a reply to feedback I received.  It gave her some insight into a potential buyer who had messaged her with a question on her fixed price listing.  

LOL!! Guess I must not belong in the 21st Century then.  My values are probably outdated but I believe respect is not a given it is earned.  And no doubt I have lost sales because I blocked a buyer.  However, I would rather not have the sale if there is a high risk that a sale with this buyer could result in the hassle of dealing with a negative and/or an Item Not as Described dispute. If eBay rules in favor of the buyer which they often do, this could result in the seller being out the entire sale, the cost of return shipping, plus the time involved with a dispute.  I have been lucky in that respect so far. (touch wood) Yep there are definitely huge problems with feedback and feedback extortion from both buyers and sellers. However in 14 years I think I have only left  2 negatives for  sellers which were justified.  One was for a dispute involved through PayPal and I lost that dispute because I was a newbie then and selected the wrong reason for opening the dispute.  Have to love those multiple choices!!  This seller charged me for Priority Mail International and shipped by First Class International. The item was a Christmas gift and didn't make it in time.  Believe the other was for an item not received dispute which I was eventually was refunded for by eBay.

I will be likely be retiring soon so all this will be behind me then. 

Thanks again for your input.

[blackranda2]

Mostly agree with what you wrote.  I wonder if COVID -19 is making people grumpier these days and this is how they perhaps vent???

[ricarmic]

Yes I think "personal lives" sometimes cause different behaviour or stronger negative responses.

I once had someone send me a scathing note (and perhaps feedback I can't remember anymore), advising how terrible the stuff was that I sent, they said they were going to write to all the stamp papers etc to tell them how bad I was.

It was a disturbing note, however I had my pre-written form letters, and I sent one as normal outlining their options and much to my surprise I got a very apologetic response back from them the next day. The buyer told me that their partner lost their job the same day my package arrived and they lost it on me as part of the venting time. They still had frustrations with what they got, but it as very easily and amicably resolved and I didn't even block them afterwards.

That's the long version of saying we never know what's happening in peoples lives that might impact how they react with us.....I can't imagine COVID isn't somehow affecting behaviours.

[marnotom!]

“I can't imagine COVID isn't affecting behaviours.”

Oh, it surely is. We in British Columbia get constant reminders from our provincial health officer to “be kind” as well as to “be safe” and I think many B&M retailers (particularly Loblaw) are using similar lines to try to protect their frontline employees and to reduce fistfights in the aisles.

[blackranda2]

Well all I can say is this has been the strangest year I have ever had!  Really odd things have been happening to us pretty much every month since the middle of January.  Then throw COVID-19 into the pot and it seems to be close to boiling over.  It has definitely been The Year of the Rat as far as we are concerned.  I am counting the days until 2020 is over.  Next year has to be better, right?