Ebay Purchase - Bribery to Remove -ve Feedback

andycris3107

This works both ways. As a previous eBay seller I lost count of the number of times that BUYERS would request payment for NOT leaving a negative - all entirely unjustified.

JimmyTheWig

deannatrois wrote: »

I am willing to refund you a further £10 via PayPal as compensation to apologise for your bad experience.
If you can accept my personal apology and accept the offer being made I would be greatly appreciative if you could revise your feedback to a 5 Star Rating as a reflection of my efforts to try and rectify the problem.
Please reply to this email and I can send you a feedback revision request, prior to processing your refund."

I think that a further £10 refund does change the experience that you've had and is reasonable to warrant a feedback change.

How about this...
Reply to his email, saying that would would accept his offer of £10 compensation and for him to send a feedback revision request.
He sends the feedback revision request.
You wait.

If all is above board, he will refund you a further £10. [Make sure that this isn't marked as a purchase or he can claim that you haven't supplied what he bought and get his money back!]
You amend feedback to say that the item wasn't as described but that you liked the way they gave you a further £10 as compensation.

If it is blackmail then he won't refund you if you don't amend the feedback.
In which case you either do nothing, report to eBay or amend feedback to say that he's tried to blackmail you.

arcon5

Sounds good to me. They care about their reputation, they know they messed up and are now taking steps to rectify the situation to the benefit of both of you.

Principles can be expensive. I'd be taking the money.

[Deleted User]

It wasn't a mistake like a wrong order sent in error, the item was listed as a plug, but was a 2mm thick sliver of plastic. It was never going to work as a plug. The trader must have known this?

My feedback was about the transaction. I said that I received an immediate refund but what was sent was not a plug.

It was honest, and gave both sides of the story.

But I wasn't happy about the bribery attempt. Asking someone to change their feedback for a sum of money is bribery. And means other buyers will get a false idea of the reliability of the trader. Its like asking someone to change a witness statement (which is what feedback is, except there's no swearing of oaths.., but if you do, with or without an oath.., you are lying). The transaction wasn't satisfactory.., the listed item wasn't as described. Changing my feedback to five stars as asked says not only that the transaction was satisfactory on all scores, but that it was of extremely high standard. Why should I say that because they said they'd give me a tenner for doing so? I got a refund, doesn't change the sliver of plastic into a plug.

I've had genuine mistakes made and not mentioned them, because we are all human but this is bribery.., and a trader who does that is not trustworthy.

Ebay agreed with me and say they have taken action although of course, they don't say what. When I wrote, I did say that I wasn't totally sure if they would call this bribery (couldn't find any rules). They actually called it extortion.

And I don't regret reporting it to ebay. There are traders that try to do this.

Money-Saving-King

deannatrois wrote: »

I said that I received an immediate refund

If you got an immediate refund then you should not have left negative feedback.

Money-Saving-King

stugib wrote: »

do you think the OP had a '5 star rating' experience?

Leave neutral then. Negative is not justified.

Hermione_Granger

Money-Saving-King wrote: »

If you got an immediate refund then you should not have left negative feedback.

Why?
Did the immediate refund mean than an incorrect and misdescribed item wasn't sent out in the first place?

If buyers didn't leave neg feedback when this happened, why should the seller feel that they have to change their selling practices?
They could quite happily trade on ebay continually sending incorrect goods safe in the knowledge that if any buyers complained, all they had to do was to refund them and they could keep doing this as often as they liked.

Feedback is meant to be a truthful indication of how the people involved in a transaction feel about the experience and if the OP felt that their experience was a negative one then they have every right to state that fact.

Money-Saving-King

Hermione_Granger wrote: »

They could quite happily trade on ebay continually sending incorrect goods safe in the knowledge that if any buyers complained, all they had to do was to refund them and they could keep doing this as often as they liked.

Well it's obvious that won't be the case. They'd be giving away stuff for free constantly then which would run at a loss so it would be impossible for a seller to keep that up.

Money-Saving-King

Hermione_Granger wrote: »

Feedback is meant to be a truthful indication of how the people involved in a transaction feel about the experience and if the OP felt that their experience was a negative one then they have every right to state that fact.

I look at seller ratings when deciding to buy. To me this negative would be misleading. I shouldn't have to read all the comments to work out why it got left and then find out I disagree so have to ignore certain peoples scores. It should have been no more than a neutral feedback.

Hermione_Granger

Money-Saving-King wrote: »

Well it's obvious that won't be the case. They'd be giving away stuff for free constantly then which would run at a loss so it would be impossible for a seller to keep that up.

It all depends on how many buyers complained.
If the item was something of low value, many people might not bother doing anything about it and if the seller in question is selling a large assortment of items, only one or two of which are incorrectly described, they might well not care too much about having to refund the occasional buyer.

It should have been no more than a neutral feedback.

So you keep saying, but as feedback is the opinion of the people involved in the transaction, the OP had every right to leave the feedback they did.