eBay Counts All Three Negs from Impatient Buyer

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November 04, 2009

eBay Counts All Three Negs from Impatient Buyer

By: Ina Steiner

Wed Nov 4 2009 14:01:39

To the Editor:
E-Bay needs to return to the basics in the worst way! Did you know that e-Bay only counts unique buyers for positive feedback but counts all negatives from one person. I know this has been talked to death but I'm so frustrated with e-Bay and all their changes! One way feedback especially.

I just had the most horrible buyer that I've ever had in 5 1/2 years on e-Bay. She's every seller's nightmare. We were on vacation, store on vacation, auto response to email stated we would check email as often as we could and return Oct 24. Buyer sent email that I had done something wrong on her customs form (UK) and she had to pay extra VAT.

I asked for a copy of the customs form. Rec'd it a couple of days later. Informed buyer that I would take care of it upon my return Oct 24. On Oct 23 buyer left 3 negative feedbacks after my telling her I would take care of it Oct 24 & e-Bay counted all 3.

I responded more than once while we were away. What part of out of town do you not understand, buyer? What part of limited access to email do you not understand? And, Ina, did you know that the buyer gets the last word when you add a note to feedback left? She was able to respond to my reply that I was out of town & did not ignore her emails - she said my response was "untrue".

Don't bother to request "revised" feedback. Your request goes straight to the buyer who, of course, declined to revise. No one from e-Bay even looks at it. So don't bother requesting an appeal - you get nowhere. Basically, the buyer can say anything they want, call you "incompetent". And wonder of wonders, she has a very low feedback number...
So frustrating.
Mimi

Comments (22) | Permalink

Readers Comments

eBay Counts All Three Negs from Impatient Buyer

by: kevin

Wed Nov 4 14:39:24 2009

Don't sell internationally....too many problems. Not worth it

eBay Counts All Three Negs from Impatient Buyer

by: STRYKER

Wed Nov 4 15:00:59 2009

Unfortunately what happened to you is inevitablly going to happen to all of us.. Every change ebay has made , every tweak, every policy is made for one of two reasons :
One: To fatten up paypal for the marketplace, Lo the glorious day when the pig is sold and all the top execs can jetison with seven and eight figure bonuses , and, Two: too attrition out the smaller old-timers, thus focusing on their new paramours the platinums.

Every change has made it easier for even a single angry buyer to virtually destroy the reputatation and placement of any small to medium size seller. As , i am sorry to see , has happened to you

This latest change, with the unbelievably restrictive and byzintine calculations of ''1'''s and ''2'''s as wall as the counting of every neg is obviously INTENDED to wipe out another layer of sellers.

I am sorry this happened to you, but it was not accidental, nor are you alone. You would do better to focus on developing your own site, even after you recover from this, the next round of ebay-changes will simply make a similer occourance even more likely .

selling on ebay has become akin to a military obstacle course . they will simply keep making it harder until you (we) fail. In the twisted, failed management logic that has infected this once great site, somehow our failure means they have succeeded

Good luck

eBay Counts All Three Negs from Impatient Buyer

by: fast freddy

Wed Nov 4 15:36:57 2009

There is no protection for the sellers. There isn't a buyer out there that reads.

eBay Counts All Three Negs from Impatient Buyer

by: mysoapboxrant

Wed Nov 4 18:25:38 2009

Why even let sellers have Terms of Sale when eBay will not support you when buyers do not adhere to them....?

I thought that the buyer is under a legal contract/agreement by clicking that they agree to buy....?

eBay Counts All Three Negs from Impatient Buyer

by: JG

Wed Nov 4 19:05:48 2009

This is so inexcusable. It seems like the mad hatter's tea party where up is down and what is isn't. To count three negatives from a buyer gone ballistic and to not count 3 positives from a happy buyer is the height of lunacy. It is so prejudicial against the faithful sellers who are paying eBay store fees each month, FVF fees, rolling shipping in, Paypal fees, etc. etc. Get me out of here!

I sell cookbooks on Amazon and one buyer left me a negative feedback because she didn't like the recipes and the one she tried wasn't ''tasty'! I went ballistic reading this, but called Amazon and their seller support removed the feedback because she had left it on the contents of the book and not the very good service I had given her. What do you think eBay would have said to that one. Too bad -- the buyer is king!

Every other comment on these pages says Start your own Website, get out of eBay, and be free. And many of us are doing that. The weak traffic in the great selling month of NOVEMBER so far on eBay is going to be enough to move alot of people down that road. Do it and don't look back!

eBay Counts All Three Negs from Impatient Buyer

by: matt

Wed Nov 4 21:06:15 2009

I wish fact-checking would be done before posting these stories. Negs only count ONCE and that has never been different unless your buyer has bought items in different weeks from you.

Also, it doesn't take a genius to realize you don't send revised feedback forms until you KNOW the buyer is going to revise the feedback. Anyone who does differently is an Ebay ROOKIE.

eBay Counts All Three Negs from Impatient Buyer

by: Marvin

Thu Nov 5 05:12:17 2009

Come to think of it. ebay has a policy that allows for feedback removal. . . But.

If the feedback says there was a problem with customs or fees you can get it removed if you had it in your listing:

''International Buyers – Please Note:
Import duties, taxes and charges are not included in the item price or shipping charges. These charges are the buyer's responsibility.

Please check with your country's customs office to determine what these additional costs will be prior to bidding/buying.''

Problem is buyers blame delays on seller rather than customs and rarely make a negative reference involving vat fees. So while ebay has a policy to remove negative feedback the terms and conditions you have to meet virtually guarantees you can not get it removed.

If you are going to continue to sell on ebay your solution is to fork over $699 or so to ebay for listing fees and list 1,999 items, sell them all and get positive feedback on every one of them to offset the negative feedback . At least this is what ebay wants you to do.

A negative won't come off your file for another year so getting back to 100% will require a tremendous amount of positives. You will have to reach a feedback of 1,999 positives with one negative to get back to 100%. If you only get 1,998 positives your feedback will be 99.9% so you need 1 more positive.

Come to think of it. Ebay policies and their new commercial are self defeating. The very things they do to generate revenue is what causes them to lose revenue.

For those who have not seen the new ebay commercial a buyer disgusted because he cannot learn to play a guitar he bought off ebay busts it all to pieces at the end of the commercial. What kind of message are they trying to get across with that? Wouldn't surprise me in the least if a future ebay commercial showed that same buyer filling a claim against the seller for the guitar he busted and getting all his money back.

eBay Counts All Three Negs from Impatient Buyer

by: Lisa

Thu Nov 5 09:27:33 2009

According to eBay, each + or - counts but it goes by weeks. If those 3 negs were left in the same week, only ONE will count. If they were left in different weeks (Monday through Sunday is an eBay week) then all three would count if they were left in 3 different weeks. This is the FB policy page http://pages.ebay.com/help/feedback/howitworks.html#how and it says "If the seller receives more negatives than positives from the same buyer in the same week, the seller's Feedback score is lowered by one point."

Good luck, ebay doesn't like admitting it can't follow it's own rules.

eBay Counts All Three Negs from Impatient Buyer

by: Mimi

Thu Nov 5 22:52:07 2009

Thanks for the positive comments, Stryker. I needed that. Yes, the 3 negatives DID count against me, I don't care what e-Bay says. I had 2 that were almost 12 months old, then I had 5. I was a claim adjuster for years so I can handle just about anything or anyone. But this is too much. I'm working with a guy to develop my own site and I'm gone.

eBay Counts All Three Negs from Impatient Buyer

by: kw

Thu Nov 5 23:05:00 2009

This is not news. Despite what ebay policies say, try to find a customer service rep who knows the policy or cares.

eBay Counts All Three Negs from Impatient Buyer

by: matt

Fri Nov 6 00:51:05 2009

Do you mean they count in your 12 month rating? This has been the case since Ebay started.....you just now are realizing this?

Wow.....that's all I can say.

eBay Counts All Three Negs from Impatient Buyer

by: Sam

Fri Nov 6 04:14:33 2009

Mimi, I am sorry ebay has ruined your reputation and has run you off, but it's a good thing really.
I personally would never EVER sell to someone outside of the good ole' USA, because to me that's taking a HUGE risk because of the DSR stars and one-way feedback. I know I am not the only seller that feels this way either, which means ebay looses more money when many international buyers are not being able to bid/buy on ebay. The less money ebay makes the faster they will go down. I think ebay looks at it like ''what's one more'', but the ''what's one more'' thinking on their part is turning into thousands more, more like millions, and they only have themselves to blame. We all know they will never admit it either, and as for the ebay employee's posting responses here on auction bytes and on other sites trying to save themselves, nobody wants to hear what they have to say after what ebay has done to people. Ebay is nothing but ''noise'', so ignore it. It won't be much longer before they will be out of jobs, because of what they have done to their site, a once great site. They have done this with thousands and thousands of sellers and it won't be much longer before ebay is just a memory.

Hey ebay, treat ALL people with respect and you will get respect in return.

Mimi, have you tried selling on OLA? Many ex-ebay sellers are there and it's growing like a weed! You'll love the fee's and the friendliest there. Here's what one member says:
''I can rack up 8 bucks in fees on eBay in a few minutes . . . still no guarantee of selling anything.''
No guarantee because ebay has run off thousands and thousands of buyers too, most of those buyers were also sellers, therefore those sellers slash buyers know the truth with what's going on.
I am also selling on OLA and right after Christmas that's where I will be permanently. I've been telling all my ebay customers to check me out at OLA, which they are.

Check out myspace, facebook, and youtube. Just go to all those sites and type in ebay in the search bar. You won't believe what you find, and it's all truth. Please add your own voice on those sites and pass the word so ebay goes down faster. The faster the better.

One last thing, please post the buyers id here on this thread that gave you 3 negatives, so sellers can block the user. Don't mention her name, just her ebay user id. I won't need to block the buyer since I don't sell international, but I'm sure other sellers would appreciate it. Sellers need to stick together since this is all we have left to keep from getting undeserved negatives. This too means less money for ebay, when buyers are added to blocked lists and can't bid or buy because of ebay's outlandish changes. I am actually very surprised ebay allows sellers to have a blocked bidder list still, and I can bet it won't be long before that's history too. If and once they remove that, ebay might as well kiss their ass goodbye right then and there.
I have been offering free shipping on ALL my items as long as I can remember, and get this, my DSR Shipping and handling is a 4.7! Explain that one ebay, you dumb f@&#ks!
As a matter of fact, how about we start a list here on auction bytes of buyers to add to our blocked list.
Or is there already one in the message forum?
Are there massive ebay blocked lists on the internet? I'll do a search on that and I encourage everyone to do the same.

Mimi, good luck with your future selling.

I'm sure things will get better for you, as long as your not on ebay.

Sam

eBay Counts All Three Negs from Impatient Buyer

by: Sam

Fri Nov 6 04:20:43 2009

Mimi,

I forgot to add the link to my previous post for the OLA auction site.

Here you go:
http://www.onlineauction.com/

Pass the word around to everyone!
With our ''noise'', we will make OLA the auction site that ebay USE to be!

Take care,
Sam

eBay Counts All Three Negs from Impatient Buyer

by: Marvin

Fri Nov 6 05:32:42 2009

While the negatives will show up in your comments they should not be deducted from your overall score.

If you had a feedback score of 200 these should have knocked it down to 199 not to 197.

Allowing this to happen is deplorable on ebays part and does show the danger you face to your reputation by dealing with them.

Overall though I think it will have a more negative impact on the buyer than you. If this buyer tries to buy again off ebay seasoned sellers are more likely to check the feedback she has left for others and cancel the transaction after they see she has left three negatives.

If the buyer had left one negative feedback it would have been taken more seriously but by leaving three negatives it makes the buyer look bad not you. It's more likely the people that see the feedback will add the buyer to their blocked bidder list than hold it against you.

Terrible thing to happen but in the end the buyer hurt themselves more than you.

eBay Counts All Three Negs from Impatient Buyer

by: Understand

Fri Nov 6 08:01:01 2009

It's got to the point that if a buyer ask me a question that is clearly answered in my listing I just block them. I know already they are going to be a PIA buyer because they don't read. I just save myself some trouble.

eBay Counts All Three Negs from Impatient Buyer

by: deb

Fri Nov 6 10:49:40 2009

eBid.net, OLA, trying them both at this time. Free to list free to sell on eBid.net, seller+ status = subscription fee and I can run my business according to me, well worth it, not according to ebay, I am working for me, not ebay, get paid however I want, schedule start and finish times, run auctions up to 90 days, no extra fee, nada, zip. eBid feels good...now if only I can get the traffic. That seems to be the problem with most sites, they don't have the traffic eBay has. That will slowly change.

I am actually seeing a full circle with my business. 11 years ago I started on ebay selling antiques, I couldn't say enough good about them. We did less shows, moved out of a few shops, remaining in 2. Now, We are doing less ebay, doing more shows, going into more shops, extra booths & showcases and it seems the buyers are following, looking less online and once again doing their field trips shop hopping & attending shows!
ebay is becoming more of a financial drain, then a profit making endeavor they once were for us.

With shipping fees going up, paypal fees, and eBay and Paypal taking their fees out of the shipping I do not keep and at times from the sales tax I collect for my in state sales, my profits dwindle.

There are allot of good auction sites out there online, the buyers / bidders need to be made aware of them. Instead of looking in one place, look around at many. ebay is not the only game in town anymore.

As far as negatives go, it's inevitable all sellers will get one or a few numb skulls leaving them just because they can and ebay doesn't care! Saves them money when they do.

eBay Counts All Three Negs from Impatient Buyer

by: sparky

Fri Nov 6 11:30:57 2009

Ebay allows buyers access to seller's phone numbers. A buyer called me from NM and was absolutely abusive threatening all negative feedback on the 6 items she purchased from me. A classic 'feedback extortion' scenario. The problem: she got her package 2 days after she expected it. I asked her what I could do for her to help. I even offered to refund her entire purchase. She explained she just wanted to be angry at me. Asked me if I'd seen her website. I hadn't. She told me it is on the bottom of each note to me. Note: most correspondence was not through the eBay system! After the call I looked. She's a pychotherapist. Geeezz! I have over 3400 positive feedback and this is the result: customer threatens to 'devastate my feedback' to get something they want from me. I called eBay. "You signed the user agreement" so they can freely give out my telephone number without my knowledge. I think I should be informed by eBay with a 'canned' email. They have an array of other canned emails for every other situation! This was a very unnerving experience.

eBay Counts All Three Negs from Impatient Buyer

by: sandra

Fri Nov 6 12:41:39 2009

I am another ex ebay full time seller - get out and don't look back. I did and it is such a relief! I now sell at Antiques Centres for a much higher price than I used to get on ebay.
lizandarcy

eBay Counts All Three Negs from Impatient Buyer

by: Just wondering

Fri Nov 6 14:14:04 2009

Have you all not noticed? It is all about the "BUYER" Not the seller. eBay feels they can get all kinds of sellers but not buyers. So look sellers you don't mean anything to eBay.
Just wondering?

eBay Counts All Three Negs from Impatient Buyer

by: LegendsOfBatman

Fri Nov 6 21:53:43 2009

Regarding Stryker's comments:

We have all pretty much known this to be true. Perhaps we have not believed it, but, we have known it to be true.

So, what exactly can we do?
In Feb 08, we all banded together and boycotted eBay. We did some amazing things. I was proud of each and every boycotter out there, as we united and gained momentum and grew stronger.
Unfortunately, I made some mistakes, which at the time I didn't realize, otherwise I would never have made those mistakes. Those mistakes, sadly, helped split the boycott efforts. However, despite that fiasco, I am pleased to say the boycott efforts are still going strong; and eBay recorded one of it's worst years last year!
So, while we may not all be actively boycotting on any particular site, that is ok. We are still there, and, you are all pretty much boycotting eBay still. BUT; we still need to do more.

How great would it be if we all emailed, no, bombarded the email boxes of these "Diamond powersellers" and informed them, we have zero intentions of shopping with them, because they have crossed our picket line, and tell them exactly why we are boycotting!

Tim
http://forums.delphiforums.com/boycottebay/start
htt
p://myspac.com/boycottebay

eBay Counts All Three Negs from Impatient Buyer

by: Fly On The Wall

Sat Nov 7 09:39:29 2009

Mimi...do the following...it is outside of ebay's reach and we've found it effective.

First of all I hope you placed this person on your Blocked Bidder Page (BBL)

Second, as the seller you have all of their real name, address info...put it out there on the web for all to see...nothing ebay can do about it and it does have an effect.

I learned long ago that buyers treasure their anonymity...there are black lists out there and they don't want to be placed on it for all to see...

if the buyer is going to treat you like that why not return the favor...

eBay Counts All Three Negs from Impatient Buyer

by: mimi

Mon Nov 9 17:21:42 2009

I've started taking international shipping off all my auctions. Seller is heidigymparrot. Thanks for the ideas about other web sites. I'm opening stores on others. Hope to be off e-Bay by the 1st of the year.

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