Hulk SMASH

[valis2]

ARGH EBAY!!

I have finally received my first negative feedback after selling for over two years.

For those of you not regularly involved with eBay, I'll explain. You can rate a seller or buyer either positively, neutrally, or negatively. Generally, rating someone negatively is seen as an "attack" by most people involved; it's your last option in the scale. Most people will contact you and try to work it out first before they consider posting negative feedback. Example of negative feedback: never receiving the item, receiving the item in poor condition (broken, for example), misrepresented items, etc. Negative feedback is a bitch. Most prospective buyers will ignore pages and pages of positive feedback, and only click on the negative.

So color me astonished when I receive a negative simply because the buyer "thought the description was somewhat inaccurate when compared to other sellers." I'm still puzzling this one out--there's a photo, plus a description including country of origin and sizing. I've looked at other listings--some people don't even include that information. But wait--it said inaccurate. Which can only mean that they think I'm lying when compared to other sellers--I have no idea. I'm completely confused by this phrase.

What doesn't astonish me is that, just like the single neutral feedback I've received, it comes from a brand new eBayer. Maybe I should block new buyers.

Fortunately, I'm in a pretty good mood right now, because otherwise this sort of thing would cause a meltdown.

Comments

[iibnf.livejournal.com]

That just sucks. Can you at least give them a responding negative in return? That's always a little bit satisfying. From the thousands of feedbacks I've had, I've had one neg and one neutral. The neg was someone who didn't read the auction correctly and the neutral from a seller who had a misleading auction (she said paypal, then refused to accept paypal, so I was slow to get alternative payment to her). I gave both of them resounding negs in return.

[kitschicat.livejournal.com]

Isn't it frustrating?

I received negative feedback from a SELLER who never shipped my item. She printed a label, but never actually SENT it. Gah.

Anyway, YES you absolutely should ban new ebayers. New accounts represent one of two things: a person who is actually a newb and therefore is too stupid about how it all works to leave appropriate feedback, or they are someone who got so much negative feedback they had to go and create a new account. Either way, not worth your time. :)

[verdenia.livejournal.com]

Rough. *hugs*

I had an account with tons of awesome feedback, but then it was dormant, and the email it was linked to got closed...and so I had to create a new account. ;(

[catsintheattic.livejournal.com]

That's really annoying. I guess it comes down to new ebayers not knowing the rules and not bothering to check the etiquettes before acting...

[valis2.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately, I was on the ball this week and already caught up with my feedback, and because they'd paid, I've already given them a positive.

The one neutral I had was because someone didn't realize that you can't really penalize someone for something that was very clearly stated in the auction, i.e., shipping charges. *rolls eyes* They took issue with the cost of Priority Mail. As if I set the rates or something.

[valis2.livejournal.com]

I've always wondered about banning newbies--they make up for the bulk of silly questions. They can also be tremendously annoying about fb--I've had several newbies contact me within five seconds of paying, wondering why I haven't given them feedback yet. *rolls eyes* As if I sit at the computer 24/7 and wait for people to pay.

I'm really bummed because it was the same day that I got my Powerseller status back. I lose it because I don't have sales all year round, of course. It makes me crazy that people who will not buy from anyone but Powersellers are now seeing my items, and the first thing they'll notice is a fresh neg.

Even worse, it's a neg that makes no sense. I've investigated, and I have a strong feeling that what the seller means is not inaccurate, which is a word that means dishonest to me--I think she means that I didn't define a common industry term, and she bought the wrong thing because she didn't know what it meant.

For example, if you don't know what "clad coinage" is, and you buy a JFK half dollar from 1964, and when you get it you realize it's not silver at all but the worthless modern "clad coinage"--you'll be a bit upset. Then again, it isn't the seller's fault that you didn't know what "clad coinage" meant, which is why I'm livid, because I think that's exactly what happened.

[valis2.livejournal.com]

Oh, woes! That really sucks. :(

[valis2.livejournal.com]

New eBayers often think that the positive-neutral-negative theme is literal. Like, this is how the transaction was handled for them. It's intensely subjective, because one person's neg is another's pos.

They don't realize that negs are very undesirable and how much weight they carry. I've had people leave me positives before even though they weren't 100% satisfied because the issue was subjective and they weren't dissatisfied with the service. That's only happened twice, but it does show that some people are very reluctant to leave anything but a positive.

[kitschicat.livejournal.com]

Have you asked what she meant?

Also, you can respond to negative feedback. :)

Did she even give you an opportunity to resolve it (perhaps by educating her better?) before leaving the feedback?

[celisnebula.livejournal.com]

I've had my ebay account for over four years now, and am very cautious about my rating as a buyer and as a (very limited) seller. I've always had a policy of emailing the seller if I have any questions or problems (most times my problems and questions are resolved - sometimes not).

For buyers, I go a little anal retentive. I list anything and everything I can about the item I'm selling down to minute flaws and then I have a broad disclaimer that I'm selling the item "AS IS" though I take pictures of it working (it electronic). Then I don't take bids from anyone who has less than 10 feedback unless they've been a long time member.

And I definitely look at the feedback. I learned my lesson the hard way when I sold an old lap top for the first time and got a forged check.

I've only left one negitive comment though - for a buyer who flaked out and never sent money or any contact after she bid and won an antique corset I had for sale. But hey, glad she did, cause I ended up taking it to a local re-enactment camp and got more than the $20 the ebay bidder won with.

[ook.livejournal.com]

Sorry to hear that your Neg Feedback cherry got popped by a stupid newbie. :(

And this is why I won't leave feedback for Buyers any more until they feedback me first. There's too many oddballs out there. I also banned newbies years ago, but even then people with +1 feedback can still waste a lot of your time.

I suppose you could always email the newbie and see if they might be willing to go through the Rescind Negative feedback process. I have heard of that working before.

[valis2.livejournal.com]

I've sent her a note, have yet to hear back.

And nope, she didn't contact me at all--just came right out with a neg! That's why I'm fuming. Had she just admitted to being a moron, I probably would have refunded her the price of the beads. *rolls eyes*

[valis2.livejournal.com]

At this point I usually have about 100 items up in my store and another 50 in auction. I do try to describe things well, and honestly, I do try to define things for people, but this was such a no-brainer--I'm just so disappointed.

Most of my customers are fairly educated about the market, and this was just out of left field. I'm pretty certain that they just didn't understand the term involved and was really disappointed when she got the goods.

[valis2.livejournal.com]

I definitely want to try the rescinding process, but I'm afraid they won't even answer my first email, despite how politely it was phrased. ugh.

You and I have been talking about negs for ages--I always knew there was one lurking around the corner, and it finally ran into me, lol.

My fb policy was always to leave it once I received payment, though sometimes I got a little behind. If I waited until I received fb from them...lol! Half of them still don't leave me fb, and then get pissy if I don't get to theirs quick enough...

[valis2.livejournal.com]

Oh, and I will definitely respond to the fb if I don't hear from her soon. Am already composing a little gem for the occasion. *evil grin*

[kitschicat.livejournal.com]

Oh, I'm sure you do!

I found my post about my problem with this neg feedback issue:
http://kitschicat.livejournal.com/1009332.html

[valis2.livejournal.com]

Oh, wow, I totally remember that insanity! Thank goodness most buyers/sellers aren't like her. Ugh.

[ms-hecubus.livejournal.com]

I've had a couple of negative feedbacks over the years and it's never effected my ebay experience. Now, I don't do a lot of selling, but I've still sold items for over $1000 with negatives. If your feedback is overwhelmingly positive most people will ignore a single negative. Especially if the person who has left that negative is a newbie or did it because of sour grapes.

[valis2.livejournal.com]

Thanks for replying--when I saw the notification I said to myself, "Awesome, ms_h will have something reassuring to say, because I'm sure she's dealt with ugliness on eBay before," and sure enough, here you are speaking a lot of sense. It makes me feel a lot better, seriously. ;)

[ms-hecubus.livejournal.com]

I'm glad I could help. I wanted to cry the first time I got negative feedback, it seemed so unfair!