There is no helping some buyers

[clarry100]

We had a buyer a couple of weeks back who bought an item. A different selling ID to this one.

After three days she had not paid so I sent her our usual gentle reminder message.

She then paid up but shortly afterwards we got a message saying that she had not intended on buying this item and wished to cancel the order. A bit strange, we thought, as she had just paid only a few minutes earlier.

We agreed and sent out the cancellation request.

Shortly after she accepted and got her refund. Of course we are out of pocket the PayPal transaction fee anyway.

Now two weeks later she has left us a NEUT with just two words saying "was returned".

She never actually took delivery as we cancelled before we sent out the item so was returned is incorrect.

I'm thinking she could have issued us the FB when it should have gone to another seller perhaps.

So we have tried to do all the right things by this buyer and still get slammed with a defect.

It's yet another reason why not to use the cancellation process but to resort to the UPI case. Except in this case she had actually paid.

I guess our only other option would have been to ignore her cancellation request and send out the item anyway.

We did think about doing that but figured we would end up with a NEG if we went that way.

So we end up with NEUT anyway for trying to keep her happy. No win for us.

I will see if I can get ebay to remove the FB as she never actually received anything from us to give FB about. Don't like my chances tho.

If anyone wants the ID will be gald to provide it in a PM.

[springyzone]

Yes, she is very unreasonable, she really is.

Obviously she didn't really want the item, which is why she didn't pay straight off & I would say she was put out with you for issuing an UPI in the first place.

It's probably impossible to second guess what buyers will do. You would think she would be humbly grateful to you, but no.

By rights, I think if a transaction is cancelled in these circumstances (buyer request), then there should be no feedback allowed.

Good luck with having it removed because as you say, it was never returned so that is inaccurate.

I guess your best bet would have been to ignore the cancellation message for a few hours, post the thing, then message that you are so sorry but it is too late to cancel as the item is already on its way, you always post immediately after payment is received etc.

Maybe you would cop a neg but at least then you would have had the money.

This way you are out of pocket plus you have a defect.

I think in future just stick with UPI.

The thing I am noticing is that some buyers, I am sure, do not know about defects. They will put neutral as feedback because in their mind, they don't know how else to classify it, it wasn't an item they wanted and it didn't go ahead, so it is their way of saying no, they weren't that rapt in the process.

I have seen neutral feedback  happen an awful lot on cancelled transactions.

I feel a bit embarrassed to admit this now but a few years back, before I started reading this forum, I often used to give only one star for 'communication' for sellers because there had been no communication. I just didn't know what else to do. The only thing I could think of is if there had been no messages but they had marked the ebay thingy to show the item as posted, then I gave them 5 stars If they answered a message, then 5 stars. But otherwise, only one. I didn't realise I could leave it blank either.

So we can't assume buyers know how the whole FB thingy works..

[clarry100]

We never actually issued a UPI, only a gentle reminder message o day#3 that she may have overlooked payment.

Yes we will stick to UPI cases now, but in this case we could not as she paid before any case was opened and before requesting the cancellation.

[clarry100]

I compiled a message to ebay about this case asking them to remove the feedback.

I expect I will get some robot kinda reply, but if that's the case then I will call them and ask to speak with a supervisor.

[digital*ghost · Accepted solution]

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@clarry100 wrote:

I will see if I can get ebay to remove the FB as she never actually received anything from us to give FB about. Don't like my chances tho.

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eBay don't seem to be too bad at removing bad feedback where the comment is factually inaccurate, the main thing is to speak to someone who sees it as inaccurate rather than someone who looks for whatever line in eBay's protocol that makes whatever the buyer has said or done ok. 

I had a neg for about 20 minutes last week (well, could have been there longer, but it took about 20 minutes from my seeing it to having it removed). The comment was a blatant lie, so I used the 'call me' option via 'Contact Us'. When my phone rang, I answered it to this very robotic recorded voice that confirmed a callback from "Valued Customer" and I thought 'this isn't going to end well....' 

But the rep I spoke to took one look at the transaction history and processed the removal, no muss no fuss   The buyer had left 1 star across the board on the DSRs, and it took around another 48 hours for all the associated defects to disappear. So, thankfully they'll get it right sometimes. 

[thecatspjs]

I find the call back reps seem to be more clued in than the reps you get when you ring directly.

I would never ring eBay direct, if call back is available.

If the call back option does not appear as one of the options, as has been happening a bit by the sounds of it, I just keep trying other similar or related problem "issues" on the customer help pages, and have been able to get up the call back option. 

[digital*ghost]

I just always use that option because I only have a mobile, and I refuse to spend $20 being on hold with eBay.   Good to know if it makes a difference, though. 

[thecatspjs]

Very, very good reason to use that option indeed.

I started using call back to avoid being on-hold for yonks.

I have yet to wait more than a minute after the robot does its thing, unlike ringing direct where you can wait a while and then end up with an eBay parrot that has no ability nor desire to do anything else but recite carp, that is often contrary to eBay policy.   I have only struck a parrot once on call-back, for the main the customer service reps I have dealt with have been excellent (relative to eBay lol)

[5kazam2]

Unless you are on a plan, have you considered giving Amaysim a go.  Costs me $44.90 a month with totally unlimited calls so it wouldn't matter how long I was on hold. 

That said I also use the Call Me function, 'cos I've got better things to do than wait for (I think yesterday it said) 68 minutes.

Either less staff or more problems for that sort of wait time.

[cq_tech]

For those who don't know, Amaysim uses the Optus mobile network so their coverage is almost as good as Telstra's.