Springyzone, what I found gave the wrong tone included that “please read” sentence. It implies that the buyer didn’t read the installation manual. If the buyer had read it, and still found that the unit wasn’t wall-mountable, that would truly irritate and upset the buyer. If the buyer had read it but the instructions were not clear, still irritating. If the buyer didn’t read the instruction manual, it’s more tactful to mention the manual/instructions in a neutral way without making the buyer feel defensive (in my view).

The way in which it was phrased definitely assumed that the buyer hadn’t read the manual, and it included an exclamation mark to punctuate that point. The assumption might be correct… but chiding the customer is only going to get their back up (right or wrong).

In my view, the feedback comment is far too long - and it just draws attention to the negative.

That’s how it strikes me, at any rate.

As we can’t see who the buyer is (and the OP can’t tell us), and obviously we can’t see the feedback that they give others, it’s not possible for us to put the buyer’s neg in context with their overall buying behaviour. Mind you, assuming the seller is correct in describing that pattern, I can understand the seller being extremely fed up with and irritated by what could well be a completely unjustified negative.

I don't judge it all on the seller's reply. I also look at what a buyer says.

This one just said

Ordered wall / ceiling mount, was delivered ceiling mount............

There was no mention of the need for any instructions, no mention of contacting seller, nothing. It is not coming across as a thorough description of what went wrong. I've seen much better.

It comes across to me as a person who could barely bother to spend the time writing detailed feedback & only got on to complain.

In contrast, the seller's reply at least starts with please and is in legible sentences. The first sentence directly addresses the issue-was the wrong unit sent?

Okay, so neither person will be up for for a Nobel prize in literature, but that's not the aim of feedback. The aim, surely, is to address the issues.

If a seller is aggressively rude in a reply, it might turn me off, but if they are just a bit snippy and I suspect they may have every right to be, then I'm okay with it. It may turn others off, but maybe if they are that nervy the seller would prefer they move on anyway.

Wait 12 months and the neg will be gone.  Problem solved

They lied to you , eBay is making negative feedbacks disappear all the time from large sellers even when the negative feedback is warranted and dozens of buyers complain about the same issues time after time. Only have to follow sellers like justwine to see the negative feedbacks climbing above 10 one week then the following one dropping to 1 or 2 to bring them back to 100%   Over the years I've had at least a dozen negative feedbacks deleted, some as recent as this month when eBay even ended up having to do a partial refund because the seller lied about resending a missing box of wine after originally only sent 1 of the 2 boxes ordered then when asked for proof they provide the old tracking number as "evidence" they reshipped it.  I wouldn't worry too much about your feedback, most buyers would know that feedback is being manipulated and distorted by sellers and eBay. That's been the case ever since they stopped allowing negative feedbacks to be given to buyers years ago.