I have been an eBayer for 15 years, sold for nearly 10, then took a break from selling and only returned a year ago. 

I remember the time when, if a buyer had an issue, the very first thing they would do is contact the seller to see what they could do to fix it.  Since returning to selling on eBay, I am now finding that, not all the time, but all too often, buyers are jumping in and lodging disputes or just going straight to leaving negs, without even bothering to contact the seller to express their dissatisfaction and see what could be done.  Furthermore, they will often not respond to attempts to correct the problem, even when a seller offers a refund. 

I believe this behaviour has been instilled in some buyers by eBay's blatant promotion of the MBG and defect system.  It is far easier to push a button and request a refund through the system, than to write a message to the seller.  Okay, I can understand that part, but what's with the neg thing?  I have seen numerous posts in recent weeks and it has happened to me twice now, where the buyer just goes straight to negative feedback.  The first you know there is a problem is when you see the red dot.  I always contact the buyer, and ask what the problem is and offer a solution, which usually includes the offer of a refund, but on both occasions recently, there has been no response from the buyer.  Why would they not want to accept a refund?  And why are they so keen to jump to negs without contacting the seller first?  Is it because all eBay's so called "buyer safety" measures actually do more to erode buyer's confidence in sellers than to make them feel safer?

Open for discussion......