What feedback to leave?

baffcat

TAG wrote: »

Hi,
I'm in a bit of a quandary over what feedback to leave and just wanted a few opinions please.

I bought a bundle of girls clothes, paid £1.75, but I'd also put my highest bid at a little over £4.00, plus £4.00 P&P. It stated in the listing that some items have an odd mark or stain that would come out. Fair enough.

So I received the goods yesterday and OMG, it honestly is the worse purchase I've ever made on Ebay with regard to childrens clothes.
90% of the bundle have marks that will never come out no matter what you do, the rest as well as being marked also have holes in or are frayed or are very badly bobbled and all items were covered in pet hair.

I sell on Ebay as well and there is no way that I would have put this lot on even as playwear.

I messaged the buyer re item not as described and they have replied stating that it was clearly listed as playwear.........umm, no it wasn't it was listed as a 'bundle to spoil your princess with' but they have offered to refund me, after I have returned the items and paid for the return postage which is another £4.00 odd. Which clearly I'm not going to do as it's just throwing more money at a bundle of rubbish.

Having read this back I really feel that I should leave a neg despite the offer of a refund. But I would really appreciate your opinions please.

Don't bother returning, accept the loss, and NEG 'em.

annie-c

TAG wrote: »

Thanks for your replies so far.

I have no intention of messaging the seller again. I gave them the opportunity yesterday to decide what to do. And clearly, they have no intention of giving me a full refund as they have stated only refunding the £1.75 and not the P&P.
So it would end up costing me £8.50 to get a load of rubbish. Really not worth it is it.

So I think I'm going to leave a neg along the lines of -

'Very disappointed with condition of bundle. Seller offered a refund on return of goods. But not worth doing'

How does that sound?

If you raise a paypal dispute and return them then paypal will most likely refund in full the total you paid, ie the £1.75 plus the £4 p & p. What you won't get refunded is the £4 return trackable postage. However you will be £1.75 up if you want to make a point to the buyer.

You can leave a neg in any case and I would leave one stronger than you suggest to alert future potential buyers, eg

Baby clothes soiled, with holes and bobbles. Buyer offered refund if I pay return postage.

Crowqueen

annie-c wrote: »

If you raise a paypal dispute and return them then paypal will most likely refund in full the total you paid, ie the £1.75 plus the £4 p & p. What you won't get refunded is the £4 return trackable postage. However you will be £1.75 up if you want to make a point to the buyer.

You can leave a neg in any case and I would leave one stronger than you suggest to alert future potential buyers, eg

Baby clothes soiled, with holes and bobbles. Buyer offered refund if I pay return postage.

Baby clothes soiled, with holes and bobbles. Seller only offered refund if I pay return postage.

Good idea, but I've fixed it slightly. If it's over 80 characters, take out the underlined part.

km2010

i've never understood people selling things with marks or stains stating they can be removed...if the marks can be removed then do it before selling them :doh:

TAG

km2010 wrote: »

i've never understood people selling things with marks or stains stating they can be removed...if the marks can be removed then do it before selling them :doh:

Hi km2010,

I knew I was taking a chance on a few of the items, which I was prepared to do. But to have the whole bundle turn up in the state it did :mad: I sell on Ebay as well and I never would have listed this lot even as playwear.

What makes it even worse is that they have over 2000 feedback and they're registered as a business seller :eek:

It's the first time I've bought something this bad. I've had a couple of 'borderline' items in the past but this just took the biscuit.

In view of the fact that they listed it as and I quote ' a bundle to spoil your princess with' I dread to think what their kids must be dressed like. :eek:

Still it's done now and I'll just chalk it up to experience.

harveybobbles

TAG wrote: »

paid for the return postage which is another £4.00 odd

How much was the actual postage paid by the seller - do you still have the original packaging, as you may find that it was only £2. You could always send it back 2nd class to reduce the cost.

I'd still neg them to be honest, regardless of refund.

"90% of items were tatty and binned, seller unhelpful..."

NBirdy

warehouse wrote: »

Feedback is worthless to others unless it's honest. Neg them to warn others of this "shyster".

I agree with this but as a buyer I'm still very very reluctant to leave negative or even neutral feedback, as any time I've had to (3 or 4 times in 7 years) I've had unpleasant messages from the sellers which I find a bit upsetting (yes I possibly should get thicker skin!). It puts me right off, even when I've been charged £8 p+p for items that cost less than £3 to post, or the clothing has got bleach splodges/holes/is clearly fake etc.

I message the seller first, to politely and gently point out the problem and ask if it's an oversight, as I feel it's only fair to try and resolve the problem before leaving feedback - but how exactly are you supposed to say that without it being feedback extortion? You're basically saying "I'm going to leave you a negative but am giving you a chance to sort it out first", isn't that really feedback extortion?

Then I get stroppy messages along the lines of 'what did you expect' 'you shouldn't have bid then' 'if you want new then go to the shops' (um, I was hoping for something fit to wear at least?). So I go ahead and leave a negative only to get a flood of further messages saying I'm trying to rip them off/unreasonable/obviously not right in the head or similar.

As I say, I've only had to do this 3 or 4 times but it does bother me when sellers get nasty, and if I'm honest it puts me off leaving negative/neutral feedback even when it's deserved (I just don't leave any). I wonder how many others do the same.

OP I feel your pain, I've received kid's clothes with old food/sick/dubious stains before and it's just revolting _pale_

Crowqueen

You're basically saying "I'm going to leave you a negative but am giving you a chance to sort it out first", isn't that really feedback extortion?

No, strictly speaking feedback extortion is where you actively demand something more - ie "Give me another item free or I will give you a neg" - rather than being unhappy over an item and saying "I am going to leave a neg if you don't accept a return and give me a refund". People often assume that it is feedback extortion when you mention feedback early on in a case, so don't play into their hands and threaten one too early in the process.

However in this particular circumstance, it's probably better to say something like "Excuse me, I think you overcharged on postage - you charged me £12 but the stamp cost was only £4. Did you mean to send it by another more expensive service?" - don't mention feedback at all.

And if the seller deserves a neg it's better to leave them one. You don't have to even open any messages from them if you don't want to after that. Make sure you do give them a chance to respond though - feedback should be the last thing you ever do as regards a transaction. After that, the people who fly off the handle when you give them a neg only deserved it in the first place. If they leave you non-positive feedback, you can get it removed. If they throw a hissy fit in a follow-up to a neg, then that only really confirms you were right to leave one - a good, responsible seller will respond well to a neg, even a blatantly unfair one, and try not to get one in the first place.

cyberbob

NBirdy wrote: »

As I say, I've only had to do this 3 or 4 times but it does bother me when sellers get nasty, and if I'm honest it puts me off leaving negative/neutral feedback even when it's deserved (I just don't leave any).

Why? what's the worst they can do? Send a few dodgy emails which you can ignore or just forward on to ebay. I always feel a lot buyers refusing to leave appropriate feedback or DSRs actually let the system down.

soolin

Feedback is not a punishment, it only serves to warn potential future bidders what they can expect if they deal with a seller.

Therefore if there has been a problem, and only after seller has been given a chance to rectify it, appropriate feedback should be left so future bidders can avoid seller if they wish.

OP, think of it another way. If the seller had done this before and a buyer had left a neg warning about the state of the items, would you have bid? If not, that is the protection you are giving to other bidders in the future.