eBay Frustration / Vent

QuartrArcade

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Just wanted to vent about an eBay transaction, not really looking for an answer here just venting. Sold a High Impact Football board to somebody on eBay. I tested the board prior to shipping, works fine. We rarely have problems with Jamma boards like this.

Buyer receives the board and claims it doesn't work. I ask him to recheck everything and send it back and I'll retest and replace or confirm it works.

He never sends it back and just leaves negative feedback. I can guarantee you this board works just fine. This happens about once a month or two, somebody receives a board, doesn't really know what they are doing, they send it back and it works fine.

Anyway, just hate receiving negative feedback for not doing anything wrong...

Anthony
 
I feel your pain, man. Just make sure to leave a response to that feedback; it shows you're attentive and lets you tell your, although much abbreviated, side of the story. Anyone who sees your positive track record will pay no mind to said asshole's negative. It's hard to work within a such an unfair system:

I used to sell small engine parts via eBay; made a pretty damn good side business off it before eBay raised their store fees to 20 cents from 3 cents. Anyway, I had complete positive feedback; not even one neutral. I shipped out an order to someone in Florida; an expensive NOS carburetor. Shipped it the SAME DAY as they paid, tracking number and all. Well, I guess this was when Florida was having some pretty horrible rain and flooding a couple of years ago. Of course, due to the weather, the package was delayed. However, via the tracking number, you could tell it was accepted by UPS the same day it was paid for (I always drop off at the UPS terminal, get the package scanned, and get a receipt), and that it was in Florida within a day or two after leaving here, and was delayed due to weather. Exception notifications were even emailed to the buyer via UPS' system. Well, they get it a week later than they were supposed to and leave me negative feedback saying it took too long to arrive. When I tried to talk to the buyer to possibly get the feedback revised, their response was something like "I don't care who's fault it is, it took too long to get it. That's between you and UPS. I'm not revising." eBay was no help either and held that if the customer was unhappy for any reason, they could leave whatever feedback they wanted to. Said buyer was added to my block list. Fast forward a couple of months later and I get an angry eBay message wanting to know why they were blocked! Seems they wanted another carburetor assembly I was selling. I didn't even bother responding....

Sorry to partially hijack your thread. Opened up some old wounds. :(

PS - I've bought from QuarterArcade and it was a great transaction!
 
Yeah, it sucks man. Sometimes too it's something simple and since they just don't know what's up, they think it's broke. Ultimately it happens sometimes, you just have to make the best of it and move on to the next deal! I think your track record speaks for itself, Anthony.
 
When I tried to talk to the buyer to possibly get the feedback revised, their response was something like "I don't care who's fault it is, it took too long to get it. That's between you and UPS. I'm not revising." eBay was no help either and held that if the customer was unhappy for any reason, they could leave whatever feedback they wanted to. Said buyer was added to my block list. Fast forward a couple of months later and I get an angry eBay message wanting to know why they were blocked! Seems they wanted another carburetor assembly I was selling. I didn't even bother responding....

I'm no big ebay fan, but they've got some new crap now where if you put the tracking number in within whatever time you say you're going to ship it on the listing, they can't leave you a low 'star' number or whatever for shipping.

Of course that completely still lets them leave negative feedback, so what good does that do? That 'star' system is the biggest bunch of crap I've ever seen in my life. When they brought it out, their list said that 3 stars was "Good". So everybody was leaving everybody 3 out of 4 stars, since they did a good job getting it to them. If you average 3 stars on ebay, I believe you get your account suspended! So Ebay's answer? That the sellers need to better educate the buyers on what 4 stars means. So instead of ebay fixing it, or educating their buyers, now all the sellers email people begging them to leave 4 stars.

The man in me hates ebay.
 
I feel your pain, man. Just make sure to leave a response to that feedback; it shows you're attentive and lets you tell your, although much abbreviated, side of the story. Anyone who sees your positive track record will pay no mind to said asshole's negative. It's hard to work within a such an unfair system:
<snip>

One thing about responses: be careful how you word them! DO NOT respond while annoyed at the guy who left negs! I check negative feedback, and as long as the responses are appropriate (and of course, as long as the positives outweigh the negs), it's not a problem.

When they are nasty or completely blaming the buyer, they turn me off to the seller.

When they are more like 'contact me and we'll work something out', I have no qualms about the seller.

So, yes, DO respond, but if you can't keep the emotional response out of them, then don't.
 
Pretty sure you can get ebay to remove negative feedback. Especially if there is no basis for it. If the guy did not want to return the board I can think of 2 reasons:
1: nothing wrong with it.
2: wanted to see if you would offer him a discount.
 
One thing about responses: be careful how you word them! DO NOT respond while annoyed at the guy who left negs! I check negative feedback, and as long as the responses are appropriate (and of course, as long as the positives outweigh the negs), it's not a problem.

When they are nasty or completely blaming the buyer, they turn me off to the seller.

When they are more like 'contact me and we'll work something out', I have no qualms about the seller.

So, yes, DO respond, but if you can't keep the emotional response out of them, then don't.


Excellent point. Well versed, articulate responses are very telling. Well...as articulate as you can get in the few words eBay allows. I don't think this will be an issue for you, but some responses I see are pretty hostile.
 
Excellent point. Well versed, articulate responses are very telling. Well...as articulate as you can get in the few words eBay allows. I don't think this will be an issue for you, but some responses I see are pretty hostile.

Yea, that's the ones I have trouble with - There's no room for a real discourse in 80 characters, but the guys who call the buyers names (even if the buyer deserves it!) just turn me off.
 
I have never had a problem with the stuff I have purchased from you, and until you post a video on here of your guys throwing games off the roof, I will continue to buy from you. Glad there is at least one decent retailer left.
 
I study the neg feedback and the responses before making a purchase. If someone has a bunch of pos and only very few negs, especially if it is a business - you can tell if it's a bad buyer. Everyone wants to keep their feedback 100% positive and it's unfair when the buyer is a liar or a bum. If you give someone a chance to make good and then the deal goes south, different story but neg'ing before resolution is unfair. Sellers should not put too much stock in one neg out of 1000 transactions with the right feedback comment on the neg.

eBay keeps alienating sellers. I would not be surprised if one day they sell off the auction part of the business and focus on ecommerce which has to be much more profitable and much lower touch for them as it is all automated. I find myself buying and selling less and less on ebay.

Bill
 
Anthony,

I feel you. I handle fulfillment for a number of internet cartoonists and vinyl toy designers. Our entire business is web based. I process anywhere between 100-1,000 orders a week.

Some of the complaints I get are absolutely ridiculous. I have even had the occasional death threat. I go out of the way to make sure the customer is happy, but you can't please everyone.

Blah
 
<snip>
eBay keeps alienating sellers. I would not be surprised if one day they sell off the auction part of the business and focus on ecommerce which has to be much more profitable and much lower touch for them as it is all automated. I find myself buying and selling less and less on ebay.

Bill

Actually, I think the problem is that EBay ISN'T alienating sellers - they are alienating SMALL sellers (people like you and me who might sell a thing or two every couple of months). Their policies don't seem to be having much impact on the big guys who do hundreds of transactions a month - they pay for a store and list stuff for whatever they feel like for a fixed fee (I think it's like 20 cents + their monthly subscription). So you get lots of stupid shit, and stores that list stuff for totally dumb prices, but as long as they find one or two suckers every month or two, they're golden.

Lately I've only been selling on EBay when they have a 'no insertion fee' sale. It's just too much of a bother otherwise. Arcade/videogame stuff can go on GameGavel.com. It's not as good exposure, but they don't charge for insertions, so it's not rip-off.
 
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