05-08-2024 08:43 PM
Buyer gave feedback reading "Item did not arrive". In fact, tracking shows "Item delivered on Mar 26". I asked the Buyer about his false feedback. He replied: "I left the feedback before the Item arrived (within the required delivery time). But now I don't know how the change my feedback."
After 2 week or so, seeing the false feedback is still there. I reported to eBay. Until today, the false feedback is still there. The false feedback is bad for me, as well as for eBay's business. Yet, eBay takes no action!
05-08-2024 10:06 PM
There's a procedure that you and your buyer can follow to revise the feedback. Did you send your buyer a link to this page?
05-09-2024 01:13 AM
You can add a polite calm factual Response to the feedback.
"Paid 1/4/24 Shipped 2/4/24 Due 25/4/24 Delivered 22/4/24.
"Feedback left 20/4/24."
And let any future buyers work out that the buyer is impatient and wrong.
05-09-2024 08:58 AM
eBay will often remove inaccurate (proven wrong) feedback but I'm not sure if you spoke to someone (you said you reported it but not sure how). I checked your feedback and the negative is showing in the "Past 6 months category" so it could be that too much time has past to remove it, I would, as reallynice stamps suggests, put a response under the feedback. Anyone that clicks the feedback to see would also see your response there.
05-09-2024 12:14 PM
A revised feedback is not as good as having it removed. You only have a specific amount of revisions you can use. It shows up in your profile as a revised feedback. Most of all, you're relying on the buyer being on the ball and not wasting your time. Someone who doesn't understand that the feedback system is not a message system probably will be difficult to work with.
eBay has gotten more strict and standardized with feedback removal. You used to be able to message them and explain why you felt it violated their feedback policy. Now, you have to go through this link: https://www.ebay.com/sellerhelp/feedback - it's generally more difficult to get feedback removed.
You might be in luck with tracking, but they also might feel that if it was not delivered (tracking can be wrong) that "didn't arrive" is the buyer's subjective experience.
A buyer last week left me a negative feedback. They purchased an item that was shipped lettermail (no tracking). It was shipped the same day. A delivery attempt was made a few days later, and it was back in my PO Box within a week marked as return to sender, unknown, with the employees of the location also writing "Doesn't work here" on the envelope. The mailer had official Canada Post stickers and markings on it stating there was an attempted delivery. It turned out the buyer provided an address for a Shoppers Drug Mart store, but no PO Box or identifying info. No problem, I reached out to the buyer with a photo of the returned bubble mailer and asked them for a revised address so that I could ship them their item. No reply, 2 days later (only about a week after the purchase) they drop a negative feedback on me "didn't arrive".
That doesn't qualify for removal per eBay. Even know I sent a message with reasonable proof of delivery, it was proven to be the buyer's error, and the buyer was effectively not actively engaging in the transaction (never messaged me, never replied to my message).
It's not the end of the world, but the point is that there doesn't seem to be much nuance to remove negative feedback anymore. A year or two ago, I think that would have been removed had I contacted them through the defect removal address because I had reasonable proof that it was an error outside of my control. You might fare better because you have tracking, but I wouldn't bet on it.
At the end of the day, feedback doesn't matter that much. It's always good to try and get them removed via the link I provided, because it doesn't take very long.
I would simply reply with something like "Your item was shipped within x business days of your purchase. Tracking shows that it was delivered shortly after. Since the tracking indicates the package was delivered, I assume this feedback may have been left in error. If not, please message me using eBay's message system if you cannot locate your package. I am always happy to help."
Anybody who sees that isn't going to think you're difficult to deal with or that you're not sending out items. It essentially turns the negative into a positive.
05-09-2024 01:14 PM
Just a note that an Undeliverable item is not required to be refunded.
Since the item was not tracked , this may be moot, but if you were discussing the situation with the buyer, it might be something to encourage them to remove the feedback.
05-09-2024 02:12 PM - edited 05-09-2024 02:14 PM
It isn't worth pouring any time into. I already went out of my way to help the buyer. They clearly don't understand how the platform works re: messaging system.
I took the negative feedback as an indication that the transaction has concluded, and the buyer is either unwilling or unable to actively participate in the transaction to resolve their error. So I sent them a refund because I'm not going to keep someone's money if I have the item back. It's not worth the extra time playing games with a buyer and withholding a refund in order to try and beg them to revise a negative feedback that doesn't matter anyways.
Not that I would look down on a seller who would view it as it was their error, they invalidated the terms of sale, and that they are not refunding them unless eBay forces them to. That's just not what I would do when ultimately I only lost two P-stamps on the transaction. Just issue the refund and move on.
Ironically, the automated system wrongly issued me an out-of-stock defect for the "item didn't arrive" refund. I now have to spend a half hour chatting with eBay to see if that can be removed.
I get what you're saying, and you're technically correct, I just don't think it's pragmatic to waste that time in a situation like this one when the upside is having 1 neg removed so that I can bring my feedback ratio up from 99.7 to 99.9.