eBay

teenytrinkets · ‎06-19-2019

I have a buyer not receive her package (going from YVR to US East). It was sent small packet air, no tracking. She contacted me 8 business days after I shipped, asking for a tracking number. I explained the shipping method, and that it had to go through customs, and asked her to wait one more week to see if it would arrive. I was professional, apologized, and even sent her a photo of the shipping receipt and what the package looks like (I take photos of all of my packages that are untracked), for peace of mind. She thanked me and agreed to wait another week.

Now all of a sudden, one week later, she is calling me a scammer, saying there's no way I would ship her small item in such a large parcel, why would I ever ship without tracking unless I planned to not send anything and it was a scam. Sigh...obviously not very informed about how shipping works in other countries. I know I shouldn't take attacks like this personally, but it's tough...

Anyway, I refunded her right away, apologized again, explained why the package looked so big, why it was shipped without tracking, assured her I was an honest seller of 17 years on ebay, and my feedback shows it. The response was dismissing feedback as fake, and re-iterating that I was a scam seller. She did thank me for the quick refund though.

Anyone know if negative feedback is left in such a situation that you can have it removed? I don't know what else I could've done differently, other than refunding her at day 8...

femmefan1946 · ‎06-19-2019

By Day 21 after shipping, the parcel should have arrived.

Send her a Paypal invoice to allow her to repay the refund, since she can't ethically have both the item and the money.

The 21 Days is enough for any parcel to arrive.

Side note- I had a request for a refund earlier in the year, eventually solved by reminding her what was purchased, but in the course of our correspondence, I told her to ask at the cafe next door and that I thought she lived in a lovely neighbourhood. (Canal-side in Amsterdam). All from Google Maps. Later I thought she might have been startled that I knew so much about where she lived.

teenytrinkets · ‎06-19-2019

Oh wow - after being called a scammer, I am convinced if I sent her an invoice in another week, I'd surely get that neg! I am trying to avoid the neg, you see! But at the moment, I am out $55... 😞

hlmacdon · ‎06-19-2019

It comes with the territory when shipping untracked, don't miss those days one bit. It sounds like you've taken all the precautions you can to satisfy an impatient buyer (photo of package/receipt). Regarding feedback, your only hope really is to stay polite and professional in your responses and hope they trip themselves up somehow in their replies (feedback extortion and such) which provides a basis for addressing subsequent feedback.

Getting negative feedback removed is quite difficult unless there is some basis for it, generally ebay considers almost everything to be a buyer's opinion and hence not removable. Even with tracking everything is a we said/they said situation so you really need something egregious in the feedback or something in their messages that can be pointed to.

teenytrinkets · ‎06-19-2019

Yeah, I figured it would be hard to remove without the extortion bit. I was wondering if being called a scam seller would qualify - as surely if I felt personally attacked, and called a liar and a scammer in my messages, that was against some sort of ebay policy. Or perhaps that's just considered common courtesy and professionalism, which doesn't really hold much weight with ebay? Oh well, I guess when you get the bad transactions, you just gotta smile and take it up the tailpipe. I am getting quite good at that, actually...

ricarmic · ‎06-19-2019

@teenytrinkets wrote:
Oh wow - after being called a scammer, I am convinced if I sent her an invoice in another week, I'd surely get that neg! I am trying to avoid the neg, you see! But at the moment, I am out $55... 😞

In these situations, your goal is to minimize the time and cost to you.

You've already refunded. I'm assuming in your refund note you mentioned that if it does arrive they should let you know so you can invoice again.

So at this point there is nothing more for you to do, the only next steps would be:

-if they contact you to advise it did arrive, that opens the window for more communication. Likely at that point they will be "positive" again and of course willing to pay again

-if they leave you negative feedback, take your time, present a factual, non-adjective based professional reply to the feedback and try to forget it ever happened.

I recently obtained a negative that I knew was going to stick, there were significant language barriers and the only option the buyer wanted was 100% of their money back and they kept the item (stamps - they have private feedback and appear to be also selling stamps - my spider senses were tingling throughout on this one). I weighed the cost of that option*, based on the conversation (which was awful) up to that point, I expected I would probably get a negative even in the 100% refund and ditch the stamps scenario so I continued the path of return for refund which they never executed.

The first negative that "sticks" is like the first scratch on the car, we all hate it but the car still works fine afterward.

Hopefully your "cookie jar" insurance has sufficient $$$ to cover this situation.

*The main reason I like to try to keep 100% is because it helps sway someone who is thinking about it to not do it when they see they would be the first "ever" to leave a negative/neutral.

hlmacdon · ‎06-19-2019

@teenytrinkets wrote:
Oh well, I guess when you get the bad transactions, you just gotta smile and take it up the tailpipe. I am getting quite good at that, actually...

One thing you can do is add a handling charge to every order, then use that as a slush fund for your cookie jar insurance or third party insure select packages over $X. On the occasion when my spider senses have really gone off I distract myself from the situation by closing out the issue then going down the rabbit hole of just how much information you can find out about a buyer. Amazing what you can find through public records, including very colorful criminal records. I've encounter some rather special people over the years spent selling here.

reallynicestamps · ‎06-20-2019

Wow! And I feel mildly guilty looking up their home on Google Maps!

*giggle*

ichopshop · ‎06-20-2019

Are you actually out $55 though? Or are you out the cost of the item plus shipping. I assume the latter.

BTW, looking at your listings... I didn't even know a $45 bottle of nail polish was a thing!

Ian

femmefan1946 · ‎06-20-2019

@ichopshop

And then there are those fancy artificial nails that take an hour for the technician to apply for the $100 fee, and another hour (and another fee ) to remove.

Still your hands would look really cute!

Anonymous · ‎06-22-2019

$55 is expensive not to include tracking number. "Cookie jar" insurance is NOT going to cover it. Use mail service with tracking number from now. And what more, more and more USA buyers expect tracking number. All Canadian sellers need to change and add mail service with tracking number from now on.