I received two defects for a brand new $5 item I sold last month – one for postage time and one for item description. I emailed the buyer to ask her why she had given low DSRs but got no reply.
So I rang ebay CS, and explained that I had posted the item less than 24 hours after receiving payment, so did not deserve the defect for postage time. The CS person said they would have to investigate, left me on hold for over 5 minutes with some awful music, then came back and said they would need to investigate further and would email me within a few days to let me know the outcome. After 10 days with no email, I rang again, and got a different CS person. I had to explain the whole situation again, and got the response she would need to investigate further – left me on hold – and came back with the same response as before. They would need to investigate further and would email their response. No email arrived.
So I rang a third time, went through the same procedure – I am convinced when they put you on hold they just go and get a cup of coffee before returning – and told the same response. But this time they actually emailed me back. This is in part what their email said:
This email is with regards about the defect rate on your account which we investigated for the past 3-5 weeks. I carefully checked your feedback rating and I can confirm that there is no any negative feedback left by your buyer....
I replied The issue my three phone calls to Customer Service over the last 10 days or so was not the feedback but the low detailed seller ratings given by my buyer xxx for shipping time and item description, both of which were low enough to have scored a defect.
As I now had an email address I added some attachments – screenshots of the Paypal transaction, which show time and date of payment, and the tracking details which are visible when clicking on the tracking number, which shows lodgement time and date. It quite obviously shows the time between payment and lodgement was less than 24 hours.
So they removed the defect for shipping time. But since I still had the defect for item description – even though I explained the item was brand new still in its box with clear photos showing details as well as a written description taken from the side of the box. But how to prove it didn't deserve a defect?
So I emailed the buyer again and this time she responded with this: look it was my mistake. I marked the wrong stars and when I realized what I did I didn't know to fix the rating so I do apologies for my mistake
I forwarded this to ebay CS with a note explaining this was the evidence I could provide to support my request for defect removal.
Their reply in part was: We've looked into your situation and as part of eBay policy, the defect can only be removed if the buyer left you a negative feedback and agree to revise it. However, the feedback you received is a positive one which means that it cannot be revised.
So according to this, you cannot get defects removed unless the buyer leaves negative feedback! BUT they said they would remove the defect for shipping time when I could provide irrefutable evidence, so they are contradicting themselves.
Good luck to anyone trying to get a defect for item description removed.
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