After 8 years as a member in great standing on eBay, I got my first negative feedback rating today.
I was suprised and a bit taken aback.
Apparently, a bottle of perfume I shipped to the buyer was seized by customs at the Canadian border. I'm not really sure why, but it happened; I've never had this sort of problem before and I ship internationally all the time.
The buyer posted negative feedback without ever contacting me or notifying me that there was a problem with the order. (I've checked this buyer's track record, and she's bought five things on eBay and given negative feedback three times. Seems like she might be a little reactionary and quick to give negative feedback without first contacting the seller with customer service issues or problems.)
Had the seller contacted me about the customs problem, I would have refunded her money -- even though I'm not sure the error was mine. But now I'm stuck with negative feedback, a black mark on an otherwise stellar eBay record. That makes me mad and sad.
I posted a response to the negative feedback and hope that my future customers will read that and still choose to do business with me.
In the meantime, I've offered to refund the buyer's money if she'll agree to mutually withdraw feedback.
I'd love to hear other sellers' experiences with feedback. Have you ever successfully gotten someone to withdraw feedback? What were the circumstances of your first negative feedback rating? How do you respond to negative feedback? And most importantly, what's your opinion of the feedback system on eBay? Does it protect buyers and sellers in the way that it's supposed to?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
I no longer have negative feedback. The buyer agreed to withdraw her feedback after I contacted her and offered a refund for the seized item.
I just wish that people weren't so quick to post negative feedback. This particular buyer never gave me the opportunity to make things right before posting the initial negative.
There's a lesson in that for all of us eBayers. If something that happens in a transaction makes you made, let yourself cool down before posting feedback or before contacting the other party in anger. Chances are the person on the other end of the transaction is honest and will do whatever is necessary to make things right and to make you happy.
dear amy,
shipping internationally definately has its limitation. things like perfume, foods, healthcare products and cosmetic tend to have custom issue. It is not all about duty/tax but the import permit, and relevant documents is required.
You might want to consider to limit some of your item to ship in domestic only.
ebay id: mycitymall
You are lucky. The feedback system is flawed because ANYONE can post negative feedback or file a dispute with Paypal. I still have 100 percent feedback and zero negative ratings after eight years, but I did get my first dispute lately on Paypal because a customer did not receive the product. Rather than contact me, the customer sent a dispute to Paypal complaining the product had not been received from the Post Office. The next day, I saw the dispute, popped in the delivery confirmation number at the USPS Web site and noticed the product had arrived earlier that day. I responded to the customer the shipment had been received, apologized for the slow delivery (although it was the Holiday season) and a week later the dispute was removed.
The feedback and dispute system is biased in favor of the buyer.
Warmly,
Jerome
(Infoclearinghouse on eBay)
Post a Comment