Bad seller bribing for a positive feedback

[13deebee]

Hi, 

I dealt with a seller who failed in communicating with me when the item that i had purchase was meant to be shipped. When i finally got the item sent to me (two weeks later from purchased date), i left a negative feedback. Later that week the seller tried to contact me and has offered me free googles in exchange for for retracting my negative feedback which i have already left. 

Just wanting to know if others have come across this from other sellers and if it is even allowed on ebay? also should i report this to ebay? because i have seen on other thread that people have reported to ebay with no action taken. 

[wishuponastarcelebrationsandgifts]

Hi deebee, in response to your question ebay will (in my experience) suggest that you "offer something to the buyer" to entice them to revise undesirable feedback.

This may be what has transpired in this situation. The seller may have felt the feedback was undeserved and has either contacted ebay with respect to this transaction, or has been given this advice in the past.

I don't agree with this philosophy as feedback should either stand, or alternatively be revised by ebay where there is evidence to support its removal (eg by examining communications between the buyer and seller via ebay messaging). This is just my personal opinion. I don't agree with offering freebies to have feedback revised as it is open to abuse.

As for the delivery timeframe, at times items do get delayed in the mail. I once had an item take 16 days to arrive at a destination that was a half hour drive away. I had sent replacements in the interim which arrived well before the original parcel arrived. Your comment regarding delivery is a little unclear as you mention it arriving 2 weeks after purchase date (presumably paid for via Paypal and not an echeque). Did you check if there was a date on the postage label? I am not sure if you asked the seller if they had posted it and they did not reply or if you were annoyed that it took 2 weeks to arrive which may have been out of the sellers hands as they posted within their stipulated handling time.

[viewmont1071]

-***t  24 08-May-13 17:50:39 Wednesday purchased item after COB

AEST 22-May-13 09:44 negative feedback left

Will usually post within 3 business days of receiving cleared payment

from Clayton, Victoria, Australia

To Pennington, South Australia, Australia

Did you pay for the item immediately OP.... ie 17.50 Wednesday the 8th May?

The seller may not have posted until the 3rd business day after payment which would make the post date a Monday or a Tuesday of the following week and it has taken 8 or 9 days to travel from Vic to SA

[dowd_hardware]

Did you pay with an echeque? ie. You pay with paypal but the money comes from your bank account which takes 5 business days to clear.

I'm guessing thats what happened.

[viewmont1071]

yes that is what I was thinking. My last echeque took 9 business days to clear

[shypansy]

May be I look at things in a different way,  in my opinion if the seller lacks basic courtesy and ignores requests for updates regarding when an item has been sent as it appears it has not been posted 2 weeks after purchase, irrelevant of how payment was made, then they are asking for less than positive reactions from their buyers.  Especially when it is stated in big green print, the item will be posted within 3 days of payment received. How long does it take to reply to a message?   They found is easy enough to jump online and offer a bribe to remove the Neg. 

Mention of echeque payment,  so a quick answer explaining the item will be sent as soon as the payment clears would not have put the buyers mind at ease?

[nicole-n-daz]

Bribing you is wrong.

But i think leaving a neg for postage time is wrong as well,There could be many reasons as to why the item took so long to get to you.

I posted an item a few months back to a place that was only 30 minutes away from here,and Australia post tool 11 days to deliver it,That was not my fault and i was very lucky that the buyer was good about it.

Negative feedback should only be left for dodgy people who are trying to rip you off,not people who make mistakes.

[shypansy]

May be I am reading this all wrong,  and forgive me if I am,  but going by what the OP wrote, it appears they purchased the item, when it had not arrived they inquired as to when it was posted, and received no reply, then discovered it was finally sent 2 weeks after the day of purchase,  sellers states postage within 3 days, not 2 weeks,  what ever the reason for the delay, ignoring the buyers requests for an update is not a way to treat paying customers.

This has little to do with the time in transit, but the fact the item was not as yet sent and no explanation given,

But as I hinted at earlier, the seller has previous history for lack of communication, ignoring buyers delayed shipping and even not sending goods at all.

[davewil1964]

If you read viewmont's post #11, you will see that the neg was left 2 weeks after the sale date, which was after business hours.  Presumably that equals the 2 weeks, but we've already knocked one day off for an evening sale, so we're down to 13 days. And the seller has a 3 day handling time. 8 May was a Wednesday, so Monday 13th or Tuesday 14th would be acceptable postage dates. Item received very early on Wed 22, going by the time of the feedback. 5 or 6 working days, which is not an unheard of timeframe for AP to deliver something in.

So, a fair chance that the delay was at least partly caused by AP. Not a valid reason for a neg, imo. Maybe a point off communication, but that would be it.

[belindabargainhunter]

I would give them a chance to fix it. If it was two weeks from the time u paid that it came to your house I would just remove. If it was 2 weeks from u paying that it was sent I would except postage fees to be returned and remove the feedback.

[boggo58]

not communicating is enough reason to put in a dispute and file a negative feedback and not just because it took two weeks to arrive.