The agony of Negative Feedback

After six years of eBay dabbling, someone left negative feedback for me.  I’m crushed.  I’ve made over 300 transactions, mostly as a buyer, and I always diligently pay for every purchase immediately.  I’m so obsessive about avoiding negative feedback that I rarely sell anything on eBay, for fear I’ll end up dealing with a crazed buyer who can’t be pleased.  About two months ago, I bought a CD from a seller in Europe, and the CD didn’t arrive.  Usually that kind of thing arrives in just a few days via airmail (I once had a CD from the Netherlands arrive in 48 hours, seriously).  After three weeks with no CD, I emailed the seller about it.  He didn’t write back to me.  I waited another week, no CD, and emailed the seller again.  He didn’t reply.  At that point a month had passed, and if I wanted to get a refund from PayPal, I needed to file a dispute fairly soon.  I sent the details of what was going on to PayPal, and they contacted the seller to have him give “his side of the story”.  He didn’t reply to PayPal!  Finally, six weeks after I first made my purchase, PayPal gave me a refund.  The seller didn’t raise a peep until about a week later, when I left him “polite but negative” feedback.  I said, “Item not received, seller didn’t reply to emails, requested refund from PayPal.”  That’s it, that’s all I said.  In response, the seller left negative feedback for me, saying, “Item received but gave me negative feedback because of the post office!  Dishonest, lives in Las Vegas—coincidence?  I think not!”  Wow.  He’s apparently sure I received the item, yet at the same time blames the post office for problems.  I think part of the problem is that the seller was from France, and I don’t think he speaks English (I translated his comments).  Perhaps that’s why he didn’t answer any of my emails, but you know, if you’re listing items on Ebay.com, you may end up needing to use English now and then.  I’ve looked at the seller’s other feedback (he gets about 5 or 6 negatives every month), and he’s always polite to people and apologetic.  Bizarre as it seems, I think I was the victim of anti-Americanism.  Thanks a lot, GWB… because you and your “freedom fry” gang have big mouths, I have negative feedback.

Completely unrelated, I want to wish a happy birthday to Greg Schatzmann, who I think is turning 44 this year.  I couldn’t find his email addy to send him an e-card, so I’m putting this greeting here instead.  One day he’ll Google himself (don’t we all?), and hopefully he’ll find it.

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 11/30 at 08:53 PM

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  1. I have little to no experience with ebay, but it does not seem right that someone can give negative feedback that is dishonest.  Is there someway you can report the inappropriate feedback responses to the ebay “watchdogs”.

    Posted by Simply Coll  on  12/01  at  08:29 AM

  2. I always say that what comes around goes around. With 5 or 6 negative comments a month, I think Mr. ebay is getting some of the “goes around.” When I was last in France (1-year ago) I had a great experience and everyone was uber friendly and polite…with the exception of one taxi driver. AGHHHH! I think he and Mr. ebay are related.

    Nice post.

    Teri

    Posted by Teri  on  12/01  at  08:49 AM

  3. Coll, eBay does not care what’s happening where feedback is related.  They’ll only remove feedback if you get a court order, or if you use their $29.95 “dispute resolution” service %-P You can also “negotiate” with the other party to have the feedback rating removed, but that means both ratings are removed, but the negative comments stay.  The eBay message boards have many threads with topics like, “What’s the most horrible feedback you’ve ever received?”  The comment I received was actually quite tame compared to insults about people’s wives, families, etc.  The only thing eBay forbids is in a feedback comment is “obscenity”.

    As for the seller’s feedback rating, he does get 5 or 6 negatives every month, but he’s also participated in over 15000 sales transactions.  So, 300 total negatives out of 15000 sales barely makes a dent in his rating.

    Posted by Leigh-Ann (aka Mudpuppy)  on  12/01  at  11:32 PM

  4. I am also experiencing a nut of a seller from New England (might as well be France). After 145 straight positives I finally have a negative mainly because the seller waited for my feedback and then lied in their reply to cover their ineptitude. Oh well, seems like a fairly easy process to get that negative off (sarcasm here).

    Does anyone have experience getting a court order for removal and suit for slanderous feedback?

    Muddpuppy, a note for you:
    GWB and the so called big mouths had no part in creating anti-americanism, this has been well in force for the last 5+ administrations. This is coming from an ex-military member and spouse of a current active duty member who has lived many years and many places in Europe. While it might be fashionable in some eyes to blame the current administration for everything unpleasant in the world it doesn’t mean that it is correct. ;-P

    Posted by KM  on  12/30  at  06:14 PM

  5. I “solved” the problem by doing a “mutual feedback withdrawal”.  I wasn’t happy about it, but it removed my negative feedback and put me back at 100%, while the seller still had numerous negatives from other people.  My comments about him remained in his account, which was some consolation to me.

    As for anti-Americanism, I’m a Canadian, although I now live in the US.  I worked in radio and television news for 13 years (on-air, as a news reader and reporter) in Canada starting in 1982.  I don’t recall any anti-Americanism to the degree that it exists with this administration, which is what my comments were based on.  I still watch Canadian news and BBC news, so I try to maintain an international perspective on things.

    Posted by Leigh-Ann (aka Mudpuppy)  on  01/02  at  12:52 AM
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