Feedback Issues

kirstle99

Hi guys, today I recieved a neutral feedback from someone who bought something from me. I feel it is really really unfair. This is what happened.

I sold something, stating clearly on the listing from the start that this item did not come with lids. The item was sold on 6th feb & posted on 15th feb after i recieved payment. (cheque had to clear)

This person (who only has 14 feedback points) has left me neutral feedback saying 'did not realise they didnt come with lids'.

I feel this is so unfair as I clearly stated on the listing this was the case, that they did not come with lids.

What can I do? Anything? They have blatantly not bothered to read my entire listing & I dont feel I should be penilised for their stupidity.

frivolous_fay

Hope you didn't leave feedback first...

... anyway. I'd think hard about the follow-up to leave under their comment. I'd be thinking something along the lines of:

Shame you felt you had to leave a neutral after this was clearly stated on listing.

Contains_Mild_Peril

Have you left them feedback yet? If not, you can leave whatever feedback you consider appropriate, and also leave a reply to the buyer's feedback explaining that the absence of lids was made clear in the listing.Unfortunately eBay will not remove unfair feedback unless it actually breaks their rules (obscenity, inclusion of personal details such as phone no. etc). They have no rule against stupidity or unreasonableness
If you've both left feedback you can ask for a mutual feedback withdrawal, but I don't think it's worth it for a neutral. Neutrals don't affect your percentage score and disappear entirely from your feedback profile after a year, whereas mutual withdrawals stay there permanently. I'm unsure whether that will change under the new feedback rules.

Jimbobby_2

Its neutral, not negative, why worry about it as it won't affect your rating. From the buyers point of view it wasn't a positive experience as he was expecting lids but it wasn't a negative experience either so neutral is how the transaction felt to him which is exactly the way that feedback is supposed to work.

Just follow up the comment with, "well the listing does state it doesn't have lids" or similar, thats a factual reply that others can see. No need to get angry about it, it won't affect your overall score.

Maybe you need to make it much clearer on the listing in future, I don't know what the item is so I can't comment on whether it would be expected.

If I bought a jar of marmite on ebay, I wouldn't read it carefully to check that it came with a lid but I'd damn well assume it would!

Cheers
JR

sham63

I wouldn't leave a negative in retaliation. I've seen quite a few sellers do that and I think it reflects really badly on them. I wouldn't buy anything from a seller who was that unreasonable. Just respond with a neutral pointing out that they didn't read the listing properly.

Jimbobby_2

sham63 wrote: »

I wouldn't leave a negative in retaliation. I've seen quite a few sellers do that and I think it reflects really badly on them. I wouldn't buy anything from a seller who was that unreasonable. Just respond with a neutral pointing out that they didn't read the listing properly.

Completely agree with that!

StaffsSW

Jimbobby wrote: »

Its neutral, not negative, why worry about it as it won't affect your rating.
Cheers
JR

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but a neutral is as bad a neg in the eyes of ebay under the seller non performance policy. A neutral is a "non-positive" transaction, and get too many of these and you're restricted.

http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/policies/seller-non-performance.html

Sellers are expected to perform consistently in a manner that results in a high level of buyer satisfaction. If a seller’s interactions with buyers result in greater than a 5% level of buyer dissatisfaction, as evidenced by negative/neutral feedback and/or Item Not Received complaints received over the recent 90-day period, the seller is in breach of the Seller Non-Performance policy. Please note that although we are not including Detailed Seller Ratings at this time, we will be using them in the future

So - a buyer can't read a description properly, yet it is the seller that is penalised?

I guess they did not contact you either to discuss the problem, so I would be quite happy to neg them for lack of communication and inability to read a description. If they suddenly realise that they were wrong, then the option is open for a mutual withdrawal - but it will make them think about being trigger happy in future, and may protect other sellers.

It was hardly a positive transaction for the OP was it?

jacksons_mum

i agree with the post above. they should get a neg to teach them to read listings properly and not give neutrals for no reason

kirstle99

Yeah, I do not leave feedback till I have recieved it as a rule anyway. So, after recieving this neutral feedback, as the guy did take almost a week to post me a cheque I also left him neutral feedback, and I did put on my feedback statement to him something along the lines of I did state on the listing there were no lids with the item.

I wouldn't leave negative feedback in retaliation to it at all, as that's just stooping to their level.

But, I do feel I am justified in my neutral feedback as I did not recieve any communication from the guy and just had to sit and wait & see if I got paid.

I hope i've done the right ting, but I cannot see I haven't.

shelly

kirstle99 wrote: »

I wouldn't leave negative feedback in retaliation to it at all, as that's just stooping to their level.

But, I do feel I am justified in my neutral feedback as I did not recieve any communication from the guy and just had to sit and wait & see if I got paid.

I hope i've done the right ting, but I cannot see I haven't.

I wouldn't have though of giving them a negative as retalitaion. It would have been a reflection of your transaction with them. Personally a neutral to me means the transaction wasn't too good but it wasn't too bad either. I think your buyer deserved a neg because a)there were comms at all and b) you got a neutral because they can't read lisitngs properly.

IMHO I think you would have been justified and wouldn't have come over as a bad seller had you left a neg. Decent ebay users need warning about [EMAIL="dumb@ss"]dumb@ss[/EMAIL] buyers like yours.

kirstle99

Thanks for these responses guys I feel much better about the whole thing now!