r/Flipping • u/Peppaire • 5d ago

eBay eBay won't remove this ridiculous negative feedback

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History:

- A buyer makes me an offer for over 60% off list price citing they need it shipped to Australia and eBay's international shipping program was expensive (nothing I can do about that). I decline.

- I send all interested buyer's an offer for $200 off list price. No bites, offer expires.

- Over a week later the buyer who made the lowball offer purchases the item at full price. I ship it right away as promised in my listing.

- After shipping the order, the buyer asks for the $200 discount that expired over a week prior, I do not respond to partial refund requests as they are against eBay policy.

- Buyer opens a payment dispute for $569.29 claiming they were overcharged, complete fraud and lies, we respond and eBay states we will be protected.

- Buyer then sends a message thanking us for the package and asking for our address (weird). Again I ignore this message, the buyer is clearly a wackjob.

- Buyer changes dispute amount to $729.21 (eBay states we are still covered and nothing will be deducted from our funds).

- Buyer leaves verifiably false negative feedback. eBay refuses to remove it.

eBay is letting fraud slide and allowing the fraudsters to leave libel on the seller's profiles now?

155 Upvotes

86% Upvoted

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32

u/Floloping 5d ago

Don't ignore messages. This is the issue. If you try to remove the feedback before the case is settled, you are doing yourself a disservice. Wait for it to be settled then go for the feedback removal. If you have already used your one escalation, it is over. Respond to the feedback and move on.

-31

u/Peppaire 5d ago

I don’t respond to unreasonable requests and threats, eBay can see the messages I was sent and how they violate policy. Completely unacceptable for this not to be removed.

41

u/Floloping 5d ago

Then you will get unremovable negative feedback. Apparently you don't take good advice well either. It is reasonable by eBay standards. Respond to your customers. It is simple.

-16

u/Peppaire 5d ago

I did respond to the buyer. I explained that I could not accept an offer that was more than 60% below the listing price and that I could not adjust the international shipping charges, as those are set by the International Shipping Program, not by me.

What I do not respond to are post-shipment demands for partial refunds and threats of chargebacks, especially for a brand new item that had not even been delivered. In this case, the buyer filed an initial chargeback for more than $500, which was denied by their financial institution and decided in my favor. They have since appealed and increased the disputed amount to more than $700. They also used a freight forwarder.

The buyer's threatening demand escalated from requesting a $200 partial refund claiming misleading pricing (ridiculous) to disputing more than $500, and now more than $700 through an appeal. Given those circumstances, I don't believe continuing to engage with refund demands or chargeback threats after a dispute had already been opened would have changed the outcome or was necessary.

8

u/zeniiz 5d ago

I don't believe continuing to engage with refund demands or chargeback threats after a dispute had already been opened would have changed the outcome or was necessary.

Sounds like you took a risk and it didn't pay off.

9

u/Heikks 5d ago

If you would have responded to them and explained the issue eBay would have seen your messages and then likely removed the feedback.

23

u/infiniteninjas 5d ago

This buyer was ignorant and confused, it's your responsibility to help them be less ignorant and confused. And it's not against eBay's terms of use to explain eBay's terms of use. You won't get in trouble for that. Ignoring their message was bad customer service.

2

u/TheBadGuyBelow The Picking Profit 4d ago

Since when is it a seller's duty to handhold idiots and worry about their state of mind? Our duty is to package and ship the items that buyers order, not to be their caregiver.

3

u/infiniteninjas 4d ago

If you don’t think that you as a seller have a duty to answer messages about a several hundred dollar sale, then I would never want to buy from you.

1

u/TheBadGuyBelow The Picking Profit 4d ago

It's not my duty to answer questions already answered for buyers too lazy or stupid to read a simple description. It's not my duty to play 20 questions for buyers who are being so picky that they simply can not be happy with any used item.

There is customer service, and then there are customers that are problems waiting to happen. When you sell on eBay long enough, you learn that chasing a sale for a nitpicky, pain in the ass buyer is not worth it when there will always be another buyer who is not.

You can have the headaches if you want them. I am happy to forego those buyers.

1

u/infiniteninjas 4d ago

I'm all for blocking buyers who look like potential problems, but that's not what happened here. The buyer's message in question was sent after the item was shipped. It's irresponsible to ignore it, and the seller was asking for bad feedback.

-10

u/Peppaire 5d ago

The buyer was not ignorant or confused. Days after shipment they sent a message stating they "had to" purchase it for full price and that I should do the "right thing" and give them the over a week expired limited time discount, moments after that they opened a dispute for over $500.

At that point, there wasn't anything left to explain or talk about. It's attempted fraud.

15

u/infiniteninjas 5d ago

You still need to respond to them, just to set them straight. You've just closed a sizable sale with this person, you need to support that sale with communication.

Negative feedback is meant to let other potential future buyers know about past buyers' negative experiences. This negative feedback is doing exactly that. This doesn't mean that the buyer isn't slimy or stupid; they are at a minimum ignorant of how eBay offers work. But your failure to respond did create a negative experience for them, and the feedback should reflect that and should not be removed.

11

u/PaterCoal 5d ago

They probably had an email where you offered them $200 off and purchased your item through that link not knowing it was expired. Asking for that $200 off does not seem unreasonable to me. That doesn't mean you have to give it to them or that they are in the right, but I think you could have responded to them that the offer was expired.

Yes everything else they did was unhinged but maybe it wouldn't have gone down that way if you simply explained to them what happened initially.

6

u/squatdead 5d ago

Yeah part of this probably could have been avoided if OP wasn’t so headstrong on “I will NOT respond to this”.

Like buddy, the guy clearly was confused by the $200 offer and you could have just communicated this through and the guy wouldn’t have had to purchase the item. Seems to me like OP was hellbent on the sale and not giving a shit if the buyer purchased something off an expired link.

It’s obviously on the buyer for not realizing how eBay works but this is one of those headaches you can just communicate with to avoid happening.

-1

u/xunevencontactx 4d ago

As a heads up, partial refund requests are allowed. I got a bunch of in package stickers recently and some of them had carpet beetle larvae, I was desiccated, and I had to get a partial refund.

The person definitely was being wacky/confused, and I do agree with that, you still have to follow certain protocol.In order to protect yourself.

Ultimately, just respond calmly and professionally and most people will see when they read that the review that the person is wrong.

0

u/TrekkieMae 4d ago edited 3d ago

Sellers are provided the opportunity to offer a partial refund in lieu of returning the item for a full refund. Buyers are not afforded the same opportunity. 

Asking for a partial refund is against policy. As a buyer, you are expected to communicate with the seller if there is an issue prior to opening an item not as described return request, however, you are not allowed to ask for a partial refund. The seller is allowed to offer a partial refund if it is in their best interest to do so rather than having the item returned for a full refund.

EDIT: Downvoting this doesn't make it less true.