Should I leave negative feedback? What would you do?

[maltapso]

I bought a low priced but rare and HTF item from a US seller, the shipping was 3 times the cost of the item, but I really wanted it, had been looking for one for a while and it'is difficult to find sellers who ship internarionally anyway. Can't get this thing here.

Anyway, 3 weeks later a box arrived, 3 times the weight it should have been, so I was confused. The seller had sent the wrong item, so I took a few pictures of what I got, contacted the seller and started a return with ebay. I subsequently found the item I had received  on the sellers feedback profile, he had got things mixed up, I concluded that the item I bought probably got sent to that other buyer, but wasn't sure.

I didn't hear anything for about 3 days, then the seller replied to my message in a casual tone and asked me what he had sent me. I had already detailed what had happened and included pictures. I was expecting a refund,  which would have been disappointing, I really wanted my item, but instead he said he would look into it and get back to me. A few more days and I got a message saying he had located my item and  he had sent it and that he was very sorry and would make it right. I thanked him and asked for a tracking number and an expected delivery date. I was surprised, happy but a tad suspicious.

He wrote back and said he would look for the tracking number and get back to me and would I please cancel the return with ebay because they keep sending him reminders.

My response was that I would cancel the return when my item arrived and that the tracking number would be very helpful and thanked him.... again. I was very polite and reasonable, even though I was suspicious by this stage.

His next response was to tell me that he was SO VERY sorry and that he feels really bad and would I please forgive him, but he hasn't sent the item, it's still with the person he wrongly sent it to and that he would send me a different item or send a refund.

I replied saying a refund would be acceptable. At that point I escalated the return to a claim through ebay and got an almost instant refund. I no longer trusted this guy, he was either in a huge mess or deliberately stalling. He kept calling me the wrong name and seemed to be forgetting what was going on or what had happened and he had lied about having and sending the correct item.

I went to buy a similar item which I had been watching, waiting to find out if I was in fact going to get the original item I purchased. But I found that it had already sold earlier that day. I was furious, now I've missed out of two rare opportunities to get something I really want.  It's difficult to find these things being sold by a seller willing to ship to Australia, and at a reasonable cost. Theres not one for sale anywhere on ebay now apart from one which wont ship to Australia, I cant even contact this seller to beg, he doesn't accept international messages I guess.

I checked my messages again, my seller had replied again, saying that I should check my paypal because he thought he had sent me a refund 'yesterday'.... he hadn't, I had just got my refund through ebay.

 I sent a final message to him saying he didn't refund me and that I got a refund through ebay and that I was very disappointed at being lied to and messed around for so long, I mentioned that I had missed getting the item a second time because of  his lie about sending the correct item.

I haven't heard back again.

I don't like leaving negative feedback. I'm angry and disappointed about what happened, but  I kind of feel sorry for this guy, he made a huge mess of everything and maybe he does feel bad about it. He's done this once before, one neg for the same thing, but mostly lots of glowing recommendations.

Any thoughts? Please share what you would do?

[maranock]

Going by what you have written I would give the seller the benefit of the doubt. If they are a big seller they would be handling thousands of items and getting lots of queries per day. I think they handled it ok, not great, but still definitely not worth a neg. Maybe a neutral or no feedback at all.

What does their feedback say? Is this a common occurence?

I think that you are letting your disappointment get the better of you and taking some time to calm down might help.

[springyzone]

I too am loathe to give negs but I think in this case it could be justified, mainly from the point of view that feedback is there to help other buyers and it would help them to know this seller is either totally dysfuntional or a liar.

I can understand items being mixed up. That could happen to any seller on a bad day. That alone wouldn't deserve a neg. It is the seller's actions after that that turn me off.

Firstly he tried to get you to withdraw your return claim. If you had done that, I very much doubt you would ever have got your refund, or not via the seller, anyway. Maybe paypal would have worked.

But had you been a new buyer, you may not have known what best to do.

He lied about reposting the item.

It's only when you held out (as you needed to) that he offered a refund.

We're not talking a small purchase, we're talking a rare item, so I would expect a seller to handle problems much more professionally than all this.

Yes, give him a neg and make it clear why.

[kopenhagen5]

Personally I would leave neutral with - Seller sent wrong item, eBay refunded. Disappointing.

A neutral DOES affect the seller's account even though it's called neutral.

[k1ooo-slr-sales]

wow, what a mess.

What would I do? Well, considering the rarity of the item I would not leave feedback yet. You do have 60 days to leave feedback, so there is time to see if this rare item is returned to this seller by the other buyer.

I would suggest that if the rare item is returned to him that he relist it as a Buy-It-Now with an unrealistically high asking price and Best Offer feature.  This way you can see when the item is relisted by having that seller as a ‘saved seller’ and email notification of newly listed items.  Then, you make an offer at the same amount of the original listing which the seller accepts.  Then, you just complete that transaction and hopefully you get this rare item.

Be careful with the messaging to the seller as eBay bots try to intercept messages that might be trying to organise off-eBay transactions.

The message I would send would be something like:

”I understand that this transaction has gone pearshaped,  When you get the HTF item back from the other member please relist it on eBay in a Buy-It-Now listing with an unrealistically high asking price AND include the Best-Offer feature.  Then, when you relist that item I will offer the original listing price which you can accept and we can complete the eBay transaction for the HTF item".

No guarantee this will work, but if it does then you will end up with the item. If it doesn't, you are no worse off than you are now.

[padi*0409]

There's some red flags here with the seller's actions. Firstly he's asking what he sent you when you've shown him photos of what he sent, then he lies about having sent it to you, then he asks for the dispute to be closed when he knows he doesn't have the item and then he claims he "thought" he'd sent you the refund.

I suspect he might have been trying to string you along until it was too late to escalate the dispute with eBay.

A couple of questions, was the item sent via the Global Shipping Program ?  Does the seller have other negs or neutrals for similar behaviour ? 

Definately a neutral here, but depending on previous history I could be tempted to give a neg. Either way DO NOT mention in the feedback that eBay refunded you or that you raised a dispute with them, that can give the seller grounds to have the feedback removed. 

[11dustyattic]

Few things here. Firstly there are big red flags as already highlighted. Good for you for being smart enough to not fall for his stalling tactics, and a big thumbs up for leaving the case open. Good to hear you were refunded. There's a chance he wasn't happy with the sale price. Let's break this down. You paid for item + postage. Hypothetical but let's assume he wasn't happy with the price and decided to post something worthless to him. You open a claim, he refunds, albeit forced to, but he at that point has lost nothing, no return postage. If this was the case, he then still has the item to list at market value, hence getting the price he wants. 

You say you paid very little? How little are we talking here for this very rare item? Regardless of his ducking and weaving actions/lies, you'd have to consider what he would potentially stand to lose if he went through with the sale, given he has fees and possible purchase price to factor in. I don't condone his actions and maybe his lies alone deserve a neg, yes actually that's pretty poor behavior and could have seen you lose your money if you didn't handle it so well. Sooooo up to you in the end

[davewil1964]

I probably wouldn't leave feedback at all. It's not mandatory.

As an experienced member of 15+ years, and a seller yourself, you would be aware of the pitfalls of selling on eBay.

Edit" You now have the (incorrect) item and your money back. Have you negotiated with the seller to return said item?

[brerrabbit585]

The value of the item has no bearing on the matter at all. The seller's actions do. They are either extremely incompetent or a liar, both of which other potential buyers need to be warned about. That's what feedback is for - to tell others what to expect from the seller.

I'd give them a negative because it truly was a negative experience for you. If they kept calling you the wrong name they may be really incompetent, but if someone is going to go into the business of selling on ebay they need to make sure they can handle it and not expect others to clean up the mess they make.

Why don't you buy the one that won't send to Australia, but get it sent to a forwarding address in the US? If you do that it'll cost you extra postage but possibly not a lot more. You'll need to change your primary ebay address to that of the forwarding service before you can buy and you'll have to do it from ebay.com, but lots of people buy from overseas and use forwarding services. I haven't but I'm sure if you ask here someone will give you the name of one.

[maltapso]

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@padi*0409 wrote:

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A couple of questions, was the item sent via the Global Shipping Program ?  Does the seller have other negs or neutrals for similar behaviour ? ...

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Yes, item came via GSP and yes, the seller has a few negs and neutrals for not sending or misrepresenting items and not communicating and buyers have had to get a refund through ebay. There is one positive where he mixed up items, but refunded without problems.