Negative feedback i leave is often removed

[won-the-woman]

The feedback system is an entire joke.
Don't under any circumstances mention slow or late delivery as Ebay will remove that immediately regardless of waiting 15 days for postage and 32 days to receive. Next t ime it happened i tried just writing "negative" and that was it. Also removed.
Not a habitual neg leaver left about 6 negs in my life but it's useless leaving any feedback whatsoever. Except positive of course. We're now nearing the stage where just like for buyers the only feedback able to be left for sellers is positive.
so you have these sellers sitting on 100% without a neg anywhere to be seen and in both my recent cases i saw lots of negs that were removed in bulk to give the seller a clean slate. Sellers giving woeful service in so many ways appear to be a great seller.
Bordering on criminal collusion.
rant over.

[davewil1964]

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@grandads-workshop wrote:

Neutral not negative.
I'm leaving feedback on my buying experience when soemthing is advertised as delivered to your door i don't expect to have to go 3 km's to pick it up. The seller can change couriers or take it up with them. I was kind to the seller in leaving a neutal and explaining it. I wouldn't leave them a neg in that situation. I messaged them about it and was more or less told bad luck.
 On the other hand 10 days handling time and it isn't lodged until 15 days later is the sellers fault hence that seller gets a negative. Well should anyway but you're not allowed. 
I can foresee a situation where some other buyers might just resort to saying the item was very poor quality instead of being muted. Be a shame if that ever happens
Whatever,
Adding a few names to all my block lists as well so thank you too and i'll leave you all to wallow in this pit.

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So you are happy to punish a seller for ther deficiencies of the carrier? Says it all really.

Most sellers would categorise that as the buyer from hell.

You can definitely add me to your block list. If you are a seller, doubtful, you would know that the things you are penalising sellers for are not in their control. If you are only a buyer, you don't need to 'block' me (not an option btw) as you can no longer buy from any of my IDs.

[rocket2retro]

Looks like if you're unlucky enough to sell to this buyer you have about a 10 percent chance of receiving a negative/neutral or bad comment (no doubt with defects). I wish all vexatious buyers would out themselves (but my BBL limits would soon be reached).

[k1ooo-slr-sales]

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@grandads-workshop wrote:

Neutral not negative.
I'm leaving feedback on my buying experience when soemthing is advertised as delivered to your door i don't expect to have to go 3 km's to pick it up. The seller can change couriers or take it up with them. I was kind to the seller in leaving a neutal and explaining it. I wouldn't leave them a neg in that situation. I messaged them about it and was more or less told bad luck.

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I think I said it was a neutral . . . . I'll go back and check later.

Did that seller address the item correctly?  If yes, then why punish the seller with a neutral because a courier does not deliver to the address they were supposed to?

Sure, a seller could choose another courier, but what if that was the first time that courier firm had let down one of that seller's buyers?  Sellers are not mind readers.

edit:  I looked, and I did say neutral.  I know that you didn't neg that seller over this, but do you not consider a neutral under those circumstances as punishing the seller?  Not even with the benefit of hindsight?

[davewil1964]

Just a hint.

Marking your own post, especially one that asks a question, as a solution would normally call into question your motives. Or judgement. Or rent seeking.

[*tippy*toes*]

Slr, buyers like this don't care about punishing sellers, it's all about me. If they didn't have "grandad" in their ID, one could easily assume they belong to Generation Me. Care about no one but themselves.

[digital*ghost]

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@grandads-workshop wrote:

The feedback system is an entire joke.

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I agree, but not quite for the same reasons as you. I'm going to speak as a seller, for the most part, but you will have to use your own judgement regarding what I say because I don't use my selling ID to post here in the forums (if you look at my FB profile, you will see I have sold stuff on this ID, but it is primarily used to buy).

I have a few negs and neuts at the moment. One of them is a bald face lie, inflammatory and could well be considered libelous. I could not get eBay to remove it. 

I have, however, had success in getting some negative feedback removed - many sellers will tell you it is somewhere between difficult to impossible to actually get eBay to remove feedback, and often times that is very much true (if it wasn't, no seller at all would ever have any negs at all), but other times it is actually quite easy, purely because the feedback can be disproven by information that is accessible to eBay. (For example, I did have one completely false negative comment removed, because the buyer accused me of not refunding for a "lost" package, eBay took one look at the transaction history and removed the neg because the refund was recorded on eBay, other sellers get bad FB removed because the buyer complains over things that were mentioned in the listing, such as damage, faults, sizing and so on).

With your 15-day postage item, is it at all possible the discrepancy there is because handling time only counts business days, and not from the day of purchase? eg it's entirely possible for there to be two weekends in a 10-day handling period, and if your purchase was on say a Friday, the following Monday would be 1 business day later. 

Carrier issues can be frustrating (believe you me, I can tell you some horror stories), but as a seller I know there is only so much the seller can control, so there's only so much I'm prepared to hold sellers accountable for (carrier issues - as a general rule - isn't one of them, blame should go to those responsible. No decent seller on eBay would continue to use sub-standard couriers and form a partnership with them to disguise it, as most of us want our customers to be happy with all aspects of the services provided). 

Now, I'm not saying some sellers don't seem to lead something of a charmed life here on eBay, but I think a lot of the time it only looks like "charm" because only some of the details surrounding the circumstances are known to those on the outside. 

[springyzone]

grandad said:

Don't under any circumstances mention slow or late delivery as Ebay will remove that immediately regardless of waiting 15 days for postage and 32 days to receive. Next t ime it happened i tried just writing "negative" and that was it. Also removed.
Not a habitual neg leaver left about 6 negs in my life but it's useless leaving any feedback whatsoever

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 My impression from reading the boards for a while is that normally sellers cop a lot from buyers, some of it undeserved & they have to wear it. But I've sometimes read that really big sellers or businesses seem to be able to get special treatment. I don't know if it's true or not but it wouldn't surprise me.

So some of your suspicions about negatives being removed might be correct.

Sometimes you do want to leave feedback for a transaction that wasn't too good, but  if you want it to remain, I think the key is in the wording.

Don't mention disputes, just be factual. I don't know for sure, but I think if a seller has proof that delivery took place in the advertised time frame, then if you write they were too slow that might be removed too.

I also think any seller who takes 15 days before they post is slack, it isn't great service & you should be entitled to say they are slow. The delivery time after they posted is out of their hands, but the time between order and posting it away certainly is.

I think you're entitled to give your opinion, but maybe word it eg 'paid 1/6, item not posted for 15 days. Disappointing.'

[bettyboopsadaisy]

So now buyers (those that are neg feedback happy) are getting a bit of their own medicine !!!

For years sellers have been placed in an impossible position by ebay, by not being able to leave anything but positive feedback. Typical of the non-transparent policies of ebay !

Ebay always claim that the reason they decided on this policy was because sellers were leaving retaliatory feeback for buyers. All they achieved by removing sellers' right to leave neg or neutral feedback, was to virtually put sellers in the same situation.

Now, and for a long time, sellers are bound to ascede to each and every buyer demand with the implicit threat being :"if you don't agree to what I want, I will leave you neg / neutral feedback".

Often the demands of buyers are completely unacceptable but sellers just have to lie down and agree, for fear of receiving negative feedback. When a buyer request is reasonable, there's no problem but quite often it is not.

So I don't have much sympathy for your situation. . . .sorry !

[digital*ghost]

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@springyzone wrote:

I also think any seller who takes 15 days before they post is slack, it isn't great service & you should be entitled to say they are slow. The delivery time after they posted is out of their hands, but the time between order and posting it away certainly is.

I think you're entitled to give your opinion, but maybe word it eg 'paid 1/6, item not posted for 15 days. Disappointing.'

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The comment you suggest would still be removed if the postage date falls within the seller's handling time, which it very well could have (no confirmation from buyer one way or another). 

It is grossly unfair to complain about a seller doing exactly what they said they would, just the same as it's grossly unfair to buy a mobile phone listed as "for parts, not working" and then leaving a neg because it doesn't work (i.e. it's ok to hope for better than promised, it's not ok to expect better than promised and complain or neg the seller if it doesn't happen).

Just by the by, there are tons of sellers who work long hours every day of the week just to try and maintain a 10-15 day handling time, they are definitely not slack, and there's nothing wrong with their service because they're up front about it. 

[springyzone]

DG I would agree with you that it is unfair to expect better than what is promised in an ad and that if a seller follows through with what they said they would do, then they don't deserve a neutral or neg.

I personally have never given one in those circumstances.

But I gathered from what grandad wrote that it wasn't the case with his purchase.

He said:

 but not lodged at post office until 15 days after order. Handling time given was 10 days.

Even if we gave them the benefit of the doubt and put this as 10 business days, it is still outside the expected handling time.

And the cold, hard fact is if a seller delivers worse service than they promised, then quite a few buyers will give a neutral or neg.

I don't see that as necessarily unreasonable. I've probably erred on the side of giving a lot of leeway myself, but those sellers were lucky, in my opinion.