1st negative feedback

[thereallygoodbookshop]

Hello everyone,  first time discussion board post for me.  I have been selling on Ebay for a short time although I have been a buyer for a number of years and thought I was getting the hang of it.  I have run a bricks and mortar shop for 10 years but after trying some small amount of online selling some years ago and then stopping I finally decided to commit to selling online more here and other places recently.

Well I haven't had a selling problem on ebay until I had a buyer 10 days ago buy 2 quite expensive books and checkout using bank deposit.  Bank deposit had not been received after 5 days and I sent a courteous reminder to which the buyer requested my bank details again which I provided again. Yesterday the buyer replied with a short curt reply stating that they could buy the items way cheaper elsewhere and to cancel the order.  No please or apologies.   I then opened an unpaid item case thinking that was following ebay policy for non-payers and the buyer gave negative feedback on one item and neutral feeback on the other item.  The unpaid item case hasn't even been closed yet and I naively thought that buyers couldn't give feedback under these circumstances.  Obviously I was wrong on that count.

I would like to find out from the experienced sellers here what they do and if there is anything else I can do to manage non paying buyers better.  Or is this just something that I have to accept will happen?

I have put in a request for ebay to remove the feedback but do you think that is something they will consider?

The buyer has 0 feedback but has been a member of ebay for a couple of years and has changed their username several times over that period.  Is there any chance that a competitor would try to sabotage me by using another userid or am I just being overly suspicious?

Any assistance would be appreciated.

Regards,

Wendy

[ausbargainbasement]

Dont  know the answer to that as has not happened yet !!! thought as just pointed out neither party could leave feedback once a unpaid item case is open, but could be wrong there, sounds like that customer is a nasty piece of work anyway, contact Ebay once case is closed pretty sure they will remove those as is unjust feedback.

[kopenhagen5]

Ausbargain - Feedback cannot be left after UIC is CLOSED, not opened.

OP - yes should be removed if UIC was closed.

[davewil1964]

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@trident-direct-online wrote:

Yes it is strange.  When you have unpaid items its best to try and get payment from the buyer and if they have bought by mistake or found it cheaper elsewhere then it would be best to cancel the order rather then opening a an unpaid case.

Also there is also a way to get the Negative feedback changed by asking the buyer to do so.  Under Ebay help center search for Negative Feedback and there is help on how to request the feedback changed.

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But the buyer has to agree to it and the number of revision requests is limited. In the OPs case I suspect it would be none.

UPI case is the way to go. A cancellation takes longer if the NPB doesn't respond, PLUS they have the option to refuse the cancellation, then the seller doesn't get their fees back and any negative feedback will stand.

The OP did the right thing.

[ausbargainbasement]

Thanks kopes was not aware of that, learn something new here everyday on the boards.

Cheers

[thereallygoodbookshop]

Thankyou kopenhagen5 and to everyone else that has replied.  I have learned a lot from this post and I am now more confident in what I need to do.  Once everything is finalised I will put a reply on with the result.  

[digital*ghost]

One has to wonder why they committed to buy the books if they were "too expensive". 

As others have said, the unpaid item route would have been the most advisable action to take anyway - the feedback should either be automatically removed once they close, but if not eBay should remove them. (The timing is 4 days to the minute, as soon as it says "you can close this case now" when you view them in the resolution centre - be sure to tick 'no' to the question that comes up 'have you received payment').

A lot of buyers will take offence to an unpaid item dispute (whether they asked for a cancellation or not), mostly because the wording of the email eBay automatically sends is a bit threatening. If a similar situation occurs in the future, you can try to curb this by sending a carefully worded message - eg I send one that's along the lines of:

Dear [buyer], thank you for contacting me and advising you no longer wish to proceed with the transaction. I'll be happy to resolve this as quickly as possible, and initiate the process to cancel the transaction shortly. This process will take up to X days, but will finalise by X date, at which point the transaction will be officially cancelled. You won't need to do anything further as you have already indicated you no longer wish to purchase the items, so please ignore any system-generated emails or payment reminders from eBay.

Kind regards

[seller]

[thereallygoodbookshop]

Thankyou digital*ghost.  I will do what you have suggested.

I finally found this in ebay policy too after much searching.

For transactions involving an unpaid item, Feedback left by a buyer may be removed when:

• The buyer didn't pay or respond to the unpaid item case.

• The buyer is suspended.

• The buyer's communication in the Resolution Center undermines the purpose of the unpaid item process and the eBay Feedback system.

[*tippy*toes*]

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@kopenhagen5 wrote:

Ausbargain - Feedback cannot be left after UIC is CLOSED, not opened.

OP - yes should be removed if UIC was closed.

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I think if you use the Unpaid Assistant, once a case is opened, buyer feedback is blocked.......unless it's changed.

[egglesdtp]

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@trident-direct-online wrote:

Yes it is strange.  When you have unpaid items its best to try and get payment from the buyer and if they have bought by mistake or found it cheaper elsewhere then it would be best to cancel the order rather then opening a an unpaid case.

Also there is also a way to get the Negative feedback changed by asking the buyer to do so.  Under Ebay help center search for Negative Feedback and there is help on how to request the feedback changed.

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Not true. Seller would get a defect for cancelling, through no fault of their own. Better to use the UID route.

[thereallygoodbookshop]

Hello Everyone, Well ebay customer service removed the negative and neutral feedback this afternoon which I am very happy about.  Pretty fast service by ebay customer service too.