I have lost trust in ebay today.

I bought a CD from a seller who claimed this Pink Floyd CD was a rare USA 1st release (which are very collectable) and asked a premium price.  His description clearly stated it was "the rare 1983 1st USA release" with the "rare two-track mastering".  It was neither.

When I recieved the CD I found it was the common later release (they look the same) with the common mastering.  I responded to the seller with evidence that it was a later, common CD which do not have much value.  The seller was abusive and would not allow a refund.  Eventually ebay intervened and found in my favour and returned the amount paid.  I then went to send it back to the seller and more abuse followed with him saying I had to pay for return postage.  Eventually he paid for postage and I returned the CD.

I left the seller short negative feedback, which was later removed by ebay.  I was outstanded that after all that, including that he misled his claim to obtain a premium price, ebay removed the negative feedback.  So I asked ebay to investigate why the negative feedback was removed.  Eventually they replied:

Hello xxx

I understand that the feedback you've left is your opinion, however eBay has guidelines in place to ensure feedback is honest, professional and appropriate.

If feedback is not in line with our policies, we may investigate and take action. We can remove these, according to our guidelines.

We know that you may not have been aware that this was against eBay's rules. Now is a great time to become familiar with our feedback policies. Our guidelines can be found here:

http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/rfe-spam-ov.html

I know this isn’t the response you were hoping for, but I trust I've been able to explain our position clearly.

Kind regards,

Genevieve P.

eBay Customer Service

The feedback was not an 'opinion' but factual - I even had evidence that the listing was false and misleading! But what really bugs me, is the condenscending ebay reply about "now it is a great time to become familiar with our feedback policies "and I trust I have been able to explain our position clearly", when clearly they haven't!

So does this mean we cannot trust feedback on ebay?