Since when has asking a question gotten a defect

[stickerswa]

Buyer uses - contact seller ... jumps through the hoops to ask where the item is?  I asked the buyer why they opened a case and they said they didnt ...the just used the ask seller a question link.   I sorted it out with the buyer ...all good ...sent another one. He closes the case and I get whacked.

I now have a defect for it ?

This place just gets worse and worse.

[sueken4812]

Yes, and the answer from C-NO-S is

"Because the buyer felt the need to ask a question"!!!!

[twyngwyn]

...just ridiculous!

[mbselections00]

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@, it's just pathetic nowstickerswa wrote:

. . . . . . . . . . . .       I now have a defect for it ?

This place just gets worse and worse.

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You have my sympathy, it's just pathetic these days.  Can only suggest you put it behind you and move on, no matter how annoying it is, because from my experience with a defect, it's no good beating yourself up about it when you know you did nothing wrong.  Long story, and a lot of time & effort wasted - let's just say when it all boils down eBay don't appear to care about Sellers anymore !

[i-love-my-sheep]

Did they use the "my item hasn't arrived" link in the ask a question section? If they did, I think that automatically opens a dispute. Whenever I send an invoice, I always include a short message saying "if there are any issues whatsoever, please don't hesitate to contact me using the "ask about using my item or contact seller" option before leaving feedback". So far so good! The few minor issues I've had, the buyers have used that option and all was well. 

Most of the minor issues were Victorian buyers asking when their item was posted as it hadn't arrived. It's been taking 3 weeks for items to get to Victoria from rural NSW. Normally they message after 2 weeks. I ask if they would mind waiting another week and explain why. All except one sent another message a few days later saying it had arrived and thanked me profusely. One never sent a reply message, but I got no feedback and no disputes open, so I can only assume it arrived.

My latest message was from a buyer in NT. Hers still hadn't arrived after 4 weeks *sigh*. She's happy to wait another week, then I said I'd give her a full refund if it hasn't arrived. I also asked her to just reply to this message if it doesn't turn up and I'll shoot the refund straight to her. Hopefully she does that and doesn't send a new one using the not arrived option!!

[curmu-curmu]

Psssttt!  Candid photo of ebay C/S team hard at work!

[robinsonmarineparts]

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@stickerswa wrote:

Buyer uses - contact seller ... jumps through the hoops to ask where the item is?  I asked the buyer why they opened a case and they said they didnt ...the just used the ask seller a question link.   I sorted it out with the buyer ...all good ...sent another one. He closes the case and I get whacked.

I now have a defect for it ?

This place just gets worse and worse.

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I'm sunk, i've had about 8 in the last 2 weeks, thanks Australia Post.

[saarzi]

Exactly as sheep said - ""my item hasn't arrived" link in the ask a question section"

They use that link because it looks like they are asking a simple question, but it opens a case.

If they use the "contact seller" button, its literally just to contact the seller and no defect is given.

Ive had three questions in the past 24 hrs and definitely no defect.

[toysandthings12]

This defect thingy is a load of uhfdx

Cheers.
Lee.

[i-love-my-sheep]

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@toysandthings12 wrote:

This defect thingy is a load of uhfdx

Cheers.
Lee.

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I think it's eBay's way of getting rid of the small sellers. They know we can only cop so many defects before we get shut down. I got another defect the other day for a 3 star item description. The buyer gave me positive feedback and even sent me a message when it arrived saying how happy they were with it. They gave me 5 stars for everything else, so it wasn't an error. 

I replied to their feedback "appropriately" and didn't leave any feedback for them. I like calling buyers out when they do stuff like that because I'm pretty sure in a lot of cases the buyers don't know we can see what star rating they've left (even though it says so).

I defective defect system will be the death of so many small and medium sellers and eBay doesn't give a toss.