Unfair Neg - Feedback Removal Policy is Rubbish!

[calsrus]

Hi Fellow Sellers,

I have full of anger but nowhere to vent so thought I'd do it here.

Warning - long rant below.

A buyer named <REMOVED> purchased an item from us that required them to leave a message at checkout regarding the design they wanted (it was a listing with multiple variations). Anyway, immediately after the payment, we didn't see a message. So we messaged the buyer and told him that we will not post until he replies back with the design he wanted. A few weeks went pass and still no reply so we continued to wait. Now all of a sudden out of the blue, this idiot left us a negative feedback citing 'I have not received this item yet which was local postage .very poor service'. Trying to stay as calm as possible, I sent a response explaining the situation and told him that I'll send as soon as he picked a design! Still no reply for days, I called ebay to explain the siutation and asked for the feedback to be removed. The fella over the other end sympaphized with me but suggested that if I refunded the byer, then the feedback will definately be removed. He said you don't have to worry as everything is recorded. BUT GUESS WHAT? after the refund (mind you, PAYPAL took the fee out of my pocket!), they say it still cannot be removed! (see below).

"I have thoroughly investigated and reviewed the Feedback for you, and I’ve validated that the Feedback has not met any of our criteria for removal. If I only had the ability to change the Feedback for you, I would certainly do so. We, in eBay, very rarely interfere with Feedback left by our members. We only change Feedback when they are in violation of our terms, such as when the member who left it is no longer on eBay or if the member who left the Feedback is underage. Please understand that if we constantly accept requests to change or remove Feedback, it undermines the whole purpose of the system which is to be a platform where members can leave their professional and truthful opinions about their transactions. The time will come when no one will believe in the system if they find out that we constantly or easily change it."

I then tried to contact the Seller's mobile number using what was provided by ebay but the guy on the other end said wrong number. Can't even get in contact to resolve even if I wanted to! Later, the buyer said ok, i've done wrong, can you send me design 'x'. I said I already refunded and plus you unfairly left us a negative feedback. However, I also told him I'll send 1 free of charge provided he remove the feedback. He said send him the request to revise the feedback in which I did. BUT THEN, he declined it! This buyer idiot who did ALL THE WRONG THINGS vs SELLER WHO DID EVERYTHING AND BENDING OVER BACKWARDS TO TRY AND GET THE UNFAIR NEGATIVE FEEDBACK REMOVED in the end lost. Because of incompetent liars at ebay and this unfair 'feedbacl removal policy'. 

ebay needs to listen up, YOU NEED TO JUDGE CASE ON ITS MERITS, LOOK AT THE WHOLE SITUTATION AND DO WHAT IS COMMONSENSE AND RIGHT!

[digital*ghost · Accepted solution]

Do yourself a favour, have a default design that is sent if no other choice is made / indicated, and include a note with the package stating why that particular design was sent. You could even send a message prior to postage saying that to avoid delays to postage, the default design will be sent by [X date] if you can't confirm a specific choice by then, if you wanted to cover all your bases. 

[calsrus]

Thanks, the other option would be to create a new listing with variations so it can't go wrong. But doing so would lose all selling history. There really should be a way to update existing listings to allow variations or allow qty sold history to be migrated across

[digital*ghost]

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@calsrus wrote:
Thanks, the other option would be to create a new listing with variations so it can't go wrong. But doing so would lose all selling history. There really should be a way to update existing listings to allow variations or allow qty sold history to be migrated across

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I thought of that as well, but I wasn't sure if the format is available in all the categories you list. Any new listings you make where it's available, I'd definitely be using it, and maybe relist some of the older / less popular ones with variations, then if you find it's working better, do the rest in stages so that you can retain several listings with decent purchase history at any one time.

[harley_babes_hoard]

The old cut and paste "I have thoroughly investigated and reviewed the Feedback" reply is getting rather old. trust and security or whoever do those feedback reviews suck at it.

[englishrosegardens]

Choice listings aren't allowed unless you're offering the exact same thing in different colours or sizes. If you're talking about something like your keyrings, they're all different so a listing offering a choice is against the rules (fee avoidance) and your listing could be pulled if someone reports you. You'll lose the selling history if that happens so you'd be better to bite the bullet and do a multi-variant listing straight away. I've had a choice listing pulled for a product that was the same item but with different 'designs' so I know what I'm talking about.

If you do list something with choices that are allowed, always say somewhere prominent that if they don't tell you their choice you'll send something of your choosing. Putting it in the postage section is a waste of time because it won't get seen, and it's not relevant to postage - it's relevant to the description.

[honest.johns.phones]

Epic, as per usual you do everything you possibly can, argue a sensible case for feedback removal, demonstrated the circumstances were out of your control but handled to the best of your ability and all you end up with is eBay consoling you almost teasingly saying the same rant, we would love to help, but we can't and won't. By the way, we implore you to to contact the seller and treat him like your god and work it out or by him off.