any advice please re. ebay warning

cheryldon

Please could any ebay seller experts please give me a little advice?

I have all positive feedback on my account, except for 2 neutral feedbacks which are recent. Both relate to items which the buyers did not pay for for nearly 3 weeks. I emailed both buyers many times asking them to pay.

The first said twice that she would pay but didn't. After nearly 3 weeks, I got fed up and opened an 'unpaid item' dispute. she then paid and I sent the item quickly. She left neutral feedback, no reason given, didn't reply to my email afterwards.

2nd buyer did not respond to any emails asking her to pay. Again, after nearly 3 weeks, I reported as unpaid again. She paid, I sent item out promptly. She left neutral feedback, saying she had not even received an email saying she had won the item. I sent email explaining that ebay automatically send an email to a buyer once item is won, and that i had sent her a number of emails, which she maybe didn't receive? She replied, saying exactly the same thing as she put in her neutral feedback, did not address my comments at all.

Only other problem I have had is a buyer who did not receive an item from me. he opened a dispute, we communicated well about it, I refunded him without question and he left me very positive feedback.

Now I have received a warning email from ebay saying that I will be stopped from selling if I receive any further negative comments over the next 4 weeks. I feel quite upset to be honest as I can honestly say I have not done a single thing wrong and feel I have been punished for opening unpaid disputes, rather than the buyers being punished for not paying within the agreed guidelines. This seems crazy and so heavily weighted towards the buyers.

I have emailed ebay to explain the situation but have not had a reply. Any advice please? Very very sorry for the long message.

frivolous_fay

Unfortunately you were just unlucky. As they both paid it's very unlikely that ebay will do anything about the neutrals. You could ask the first one to change it though, if you thought they were intelligent enough to do so :rolleyes:

Best thing is probably to flog a few more items asap and hope you get some positives...

soolin

I agree with fay on this one, you are caught in the 5% buyer disatsfaction trap due to neutrals and claims.

Get some stock listed ASAP, list it as cheap as you dare , at cost if necessary and on short auctions or BINs. Ship it quick and wait for feedback, if you can get some decent positives on your account quickly this problem should go away.

bluebell13

I would also make sure that you have blocked by the late payers from bidding on your items, and also set your preferences to block people with recent unpaid item strikes, so that hopefully you get decent buyers for the items as you need positive feedback quickly,

frivolous_fay

Oh by the way, if there hasn't been any contact, I open the dispute after a week.

sandycheeks

I sympathise with you Cheryl - now that they have taken away the negative feedback option there are a lot of prople flaunting the rules - I have had people bidding and then refusing to pay for goods, buying goods and saying that they didn't work but wanted a refund without sending the goods back and one person even reported me for selling her a DVD for 99p that did not have subtitles (it just so happened that subtitles were not available when that version was released). Consequently I am now down to 97.7 from 100% positive and it is extremely annoying as all my goods are 100% legitimate.

Ebay don't really care because at the end of the day they are still getting their cut from the profits.

Hopefully you wil get some genuine buyers soon - and if you can afford it take a little break away from Ebay>

All the best x

bertbugman

There are definately a lot more numptys taking the p*** now that sellers cant leave negatives for buyers. I've had quite a few recently who have won my auctions then simply send messages along the lines of "oh sorry - i bid on the wrong thing - bye" :mad: then i have the hassle of reclaiming ebay fees, relisting and worrying about wether or not i will make my money back on my goods this time around. On top of that these "buyers" are still able to leave me negative feedback even though they never even completed the transaction. :mad: oh dear i can feel my blood pressure going up again you'll have to excuse me while i go off to lie down in a cool dark room for a while.

shoppaholic_returns

bertbugman wrote: »

There are definately a lot more numptys taking the p*** now that sellers cant leave negatives for buyers. I've had quite a few recently who have won my auctions then simply send messages along the lines of "oh sorry - i bid on the wrong thing - bye" :mad: then i have the hassle of reclaiming ebay fees, relisting and worrying about wether or not i will make my money back on my goods this time around. On top of that these "buyers" are still able to leave me negative feedback even though they never even completed the transaction. :mad: oh dear i can feel my blood pressure going up again you'll have to excuse me while i go off to lie down in a cool dark room for a while.

I just love those negatives from non completing buyers!! Why should they be allowed to leave ANY feedback!!!!!!!!!!!

cheryldon

Thank you all for your comments. What a shame that ebay has ended up punishing sellers so much! I guess I'll just follow your advice then re. getting some more items on to sell quickly. Also, I think I will HAVE to be very wary about opening unpaid disputes in the future as it seems to lead to trouble for me as a seller - The buyer really is in such a powerful position now! Seems such a shame as ebay was such a great idea for people wanting to sell a few items and make a little bit of extra money!!