Unfair negative

[warmtemperatetropicals]

Hi

Today I received an unfair negative from a buyer. It all started mid last week when they said their item hadn't arrived by the estimated delivery time that Ebay displayed. They purchased and paid for the item around 1am Friday morning 26/06/15 and I packed and posted it around lunch time on Friday. So the item was sent within 12 hours of the item being paid for. The tracking number 63213324700092 Aus Post. 

Anyway, the buyer sent me the first message about it not arriving by the estimated time. I responded and said the item was sent within hours of payment and told them I had no control over the item once it is in Australia Posts hands. It was travelling from Hawthorn to Sydney and told them it shouldn't be too far away.

By last Friday it still hadn't arrived and was obviously lost in transit somewhere. They sent another message about how **Bleep** off they are and how this is their worst Ebay experience ever, that I was a bad seller and thats why I will be getting bad feedback. I said "how can you blame me for what Australia Post have messed up"? I bent over backwards to send your item off on the same day you paid for it. I said I would be annoyed too if I was expecting an item, but they shouldn't look at me as a bad seller.

The next email they sent was much the same so I told them they should file a complaint with Ebay or Paypal about their item not arriving. A few days later they filed the complaint with Paypal and it was escalated to a claim.

I received a message from Paypal today and they said the case had been amicably resolved and case closed. The item had obviously been delivered today. 

I check my ebay feedback and there is a big fat negative sitting there from the buyer.

So what it comes down to is they finally received their item, which after all the messing around by Aus Post, still arrived in 10 business days.

I received a negative feedback over something that I had no control over.

I have been a member since 2007 with 971 feedback. I only started selling again in the last  6 months or so, I have sold about 22 items and now my feedback is 95%.

I messaged Ebay about my problem and told them the situation, I also told them to check the tracking number and message history. They responded with one of their generic messages and they said how frustrating it can be etc etc and told me to resolve it with the buyer.  This buyer never spelt one word correctly and used no gramma, so there is no solving anything with them.

I'm furious with the negative, as well as Ebay's response.

A 95% feedback looks shocking and totally effects how I look on Ebay before anybody even clicks on my listings.

If this case was in a court of law, they would force Ebay to remove the negative

Surely sellers have some sort of a leg to stand against Ebay here.

[imastawka]

It is against policy to leave a negative feedback for delivery times if the item is posted as stated of course. If it is lost or damaged etc then the seller is not responsible. That is Ebay policy as it is a 3rd party who was responsible.

Link please, vega

[juliejaffa74]

I had the same problem with a negative feedback for being slow to deliver. The buyer bought & paid on a Saturday and I posted on  the Monday. I rang Ebay and eventually had the negative feedback removed.Good luck with getting the feedback removed.

[springyzone]

vega said.

You are NOT responsible for deliver times no matter who you use to send items.

It is against policy to leave a negative feedback for delivery times if the item is posted as stated of course. If it is lost or damaged etc then the seller is not responsible. That is Ebay policy as it is a 3rd party who was responsible.

HOWEVER, you will find Ebay rarely lives by its own policies and will still not remove a negative feedback even though a buyer has no right to leave one for a lost item etc. Ebay will only follow its own policies when it suites.

The bottom line is you are stuck with a negative even though it is not your fault.

That is the major problem with Ebay's dishoenst feedback/rating system.

----------------------------- 

I would agree with you that sellers are not responsible for an Aust Post delay & buyers should not be able to leave a neg for postage times if a seller has evidence they posted well within guidelines.

But the problem as I see it is the neg feedback did not mention postage times at all, it just said the person was really disappointed with their buying experience. My bet is ebay will say they are entitled to their opinion. However, I could be wrong & I guess it is always worth a try to get feedback removed if you feel it is unfair.

The gist of the problem is buyers will almost always base their star rating on postage by how quickly they received the item, not by how fast it was posted. That mind frame is being reinforced as ebay also asks buyers to tick a box to say if the item arrived by the estimated date.

I am not sure about your statement about a seller not being responsible if an item is lost or damaged. I would imagine a lot of buyers would put in claims of one type or another in those cases. And I am pretty sure ebay would pay out on some of them. Maybe not on items with tracking, but damaged & broken items-be interesting to know.

[designers*n*more]

Whilst the nasty little red dot is still sitting there, reply to the feedback - ie paid 1am Fri - posted 1pm Fri or copy and paste the tracking info so ppl can see the item was posted promptly! And eBay should remove it. I had a buyer leave 2 low DSRS, 1 for postage time the other for not as described. Contacted ebay as item was posted the same day as payment. They told me to contact the buyer to ask why she left those ratings (didn't think we were allowed to do that but that's what eBay suggested). Buyer said it was a mistake and she wasn't sure about how the ratings worked and thought 1 was for excellent. Went back to eBay they happily removed the "slow post" defect yet when I queried about removing the NAD defect, they said te buyer had 400 fbs and is not new to eBay so the defect will remain!  Talk about wishy washy responses! - Either remove them both or not at all!

[the_great_she_elephant]

The bottom line is you are stuck with a negative even though it is not your fault.

That is the major problem with Ebay's dishoenst feedback/rating system.

Or in other words, "don't bother trying to do anything about it - just sit and sulk."

Actually most have given you the best advice posible: ring eBay and try to persuade them to remove the feedback. You may not succeed, indeed it is quite likely you will not succeed, but at least you will have the personal satisfaction of knowing you gave it your best shot and took the fight up to them.