Can anyone help me with the feedback forum and replying to negative feedback?

[yeoldecoinco]

Hello fellow sellers.

I rarely come to these boards with selling problems, preferring to try and work it out for myself, however this one has got me stumped.

Posted a nice medallion for $400 to the USA on 20th March by Registered mail.

Buyer left negative feedback, without any prior correspondence, saying item has not arrived.

He appears to be a scammer or a nasty piece of work, he has left 3 negs out of his last six transactions, so looks like I copped a bad one, booh hooh for me, such is life.

Later today I will ring Australia Post and get an investigation started.

I am trying to respond to his negative feedback, to give the tracking number and date posted, to at least show others who look at my feedback that I did post the item.

However, I cannot get into the feedback forum.

Every time I have tried to leave feedback through the feedback forum for at least the past month it comes up with this:

"Something went wrong. We're sorry.

If you want to start over, go to the homepage. If you're stuck, let us help you."

I have been getting around it, by using the seller hub, where one can at least leave feedback that way for items that have been posted.

However, there is no provision in the seller hub to reply to feedback received, I always used to do this through the feedback forum.

I contacted eBay about this problem of getting into the feedback forum, about a fortnight ago, but they have done nothing to fix it.

Is it just me, or do other sellers find it impossible to use the feedback forum? (I am using a windows 7 via Internet Explorer)

Also tried the feedback forum through Firefox with the same result.

Tried restarting computer and clearing cookies, made no difference.

Is there any other way, apart from the feedback forum, to reply to feedback left?

I don't want to leave a nasty reply, I just want to state the facts, but it seems impossible to do.

Any help would be appreciated.

[stickerswa]

First thing I would do is ditch Internet explorer and get firefox or google chrome or one of the other browsers availble. Microsucks do not support IE anymore so if ebay introduces some code that IE does not support - like a link to feedback forum ( Im guessing , just using it as an example) - then IE wont work. 

As for your problem with the buyer - the others have covered that. Hope it works out for you.

[padi*0409]

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@lyndal1838 wrote:

As a buyer who is very familiar with ebay I can tell you it is becoming a minefield for newbies.  It is almost impossible to contact a seller without opening a dispute.

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So true lyndal, it seems the main road for newbies is the one that takes them straight to the dispute process - the tiny dirt road off to the side is now the one that's very easily missed, when that road used to be the main route to solve problems with the seller.

[aussie-picker]

Suck it up and not worry about it .

You get that , the chances are slim but we all strike one sooner or later 🙂

[springyzone]

You gave an excellent reply to the feedback. 

I think for buyers, the neg would be more like a positive, because it would show you send items tracked and respond and follow up on feedback.

So don't let it worry you too much even if the neg remains.

Positives are all well and good but sometimes it is useful to see how a seller deals with problems and you come up trumps.

[countessalmirena]

This is one of the most frustrating things in the whole "buying experience". Buyers are not told that a simple question on their part, meant as an enquiry, is actually opening a case.

It's a bit like wondering "Has the light turned green yet?", and within an instant a mad-eyed toilet-brush-haired traffic light repairman appears from nowhere, wielding his tools and muttering "I've got to fix it! It won't turn green!"

[yeoldecoinco]

Thank you everyone for your kindness in taking the time to reply to my post, you have been really helpful.

I am not really worried about the occasional negative feedback.

No one LIKES to get negative feedback, especially when it is not necessary, but if I can cope with some moron leaving me 3 negs because I did not leave them feedback straight away, I can cope with most things.

It is part of business, one just has to pucker up and get on with things.

The important thing is to remain civil with the buyer and try and solve the problem and to present a professional attitude, so that other potential buyers can feel confident that the seller will try and resolve any problems.

This I learnt many years ago after a few unpleasant experiences. Most of my buyers are great (so negs out of the blue come as a bit of a shock) and eBay and I have been good for each other for many years now..

Yes, I tried Firefox, but still had the same problem with the feedback forum on the au site, ie could not access it.

Now, I notice however, that eBay is coercing Paypal into removing buyer emails, eventually eBay will take away buyers email addresses (they currently display for 45 days after a sale)

This is really annoying and will make it harder to provide proper follow up service to people who have bought things.

[imastawka]

Feedback forum was not available today on Firefox.  Had to go to 'Murrica dot com to reply

Also had a noob who included their email as part of their address.  What the??

[joztamps]

I was looking yesterday at a very large volume seller with 99% positive, so I checked out his 50 or so recent negatives, nearly all of which he had responded to as follows:

Reply by *********** (14-Feb-18 16:59):
Scamming and threat will not be tolerated

He did vary one of them, to read:

Scamming and threat will not be tolerated , No free lunch in this world

And another one read:

Scamming and threat don't work here

He clearly has a business plan in place.

[faraemami]

Very good