eBay Seller Protection Improvements

[justafrog]

Among the more recent eBay seller protection improvements are some regarding feedback protection. I have had a fair few colleagues reporting that these are working well for them in some cases, and tonight I had one to try out myself:

 

On this listing:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Jerald-P-Stowell-Beginners-Guide-American-Bonsai-miniature-tree-gardening-/230920415588

 

A buyer left neutral feedback, "Not enough color illustrations, overpriced". 

 

The listing makes no mention or promises of illustrations, color or otherwise, in either the item specifics or the description. And, she knew the price when she bought it.

 

I brought this to the attention of "John" at eBay over the phone a few minutes ago, joking with him that the listing also didn't promise a pony and it would be fairly silly if the buyer left feedback complaining about that, and John agreed and removed the feedback entirely within 1 minute of the end of my call, including any low DSRs this buyer may have left.

 

eBay can be a difficult environment and no question there are times when we as sellers are between a rock and a hard place, but I like to give credit where it's due, and alert other sellers that if you did everything right and got smacked by the buyer anyway, there is, at least some of the time, some recourse.

[river41]

Among the more recent eBay seller protection improvements are some regarding feedback protection. I have had a fair few colleagues reporting that these are working well for them in some cases, and tonight I had one to try out myself:

 

On this listing:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Jerald-P-Stowell-Beginners-Guide-American-Bonsai-miniature-tree-gardening-/230920415588

 

A buyer left neutral feedback, "Not enough color illustrations, overpriced". 

 

The listing makes no mention or promises of illustrations, color or otherwise, in either the item specifics or the description. And, she knew the price when she bought it.

 

I brought this to the attention of "John" at eBay over the phone a few minutes ago, joking with him that the listing also didn't promise a pony and it would be fairly silly if the buyer left feedback complaining about that, and John agreed and removed the feedback entirely within 1 minute of the end of my call, including any low DSRs this buyer may have left.

 

eBay can be a difficult environment and no question there are times when we as sellers are between a rock and a hard place, but I like to give credit where it's due, and alert other sellers that if you did everything right and got smacked by the buyer anyway, there is, at least some of the time, some recourse.

As usual another informative post from justafrog. Thanks for the heads up

[DoNotInsertIntoMouth]

This is really the way it should be. I get bored sometimes and read Ebay feedback (yeah its pretty fun. This is my life) and its disgusting some of the things people get hit with.

 

I applaud Ebay if they are starting to put an end to this. Getting a Negative happens - some people just can't be satisfied. But giving a negative for something really stupid just kills me. This is messing with peoples businesses. If you are going to, have a good freaking reason.

 

Good job Ebay. Lets get it where it should be. As far away from Craigslist as possible. Lol.

[justafrog]

Update: Well, when it rains, it pours.   After more than a year with no negs or neutrals, got ANOTHER neutral today (and got it removed) from someone who didn't read our very simple and easy to read description.

 

I might need a bigger blocked bidder list. 

 

(Took about a minute on the phone with eBay to get it swiftly removed. Love the new protections. I do sometimes screw up and I'll take it like a frog if I get bad feedback for it, but it's nice to get these obviously undeserved ones removed.)

[asharerin]

On the flipside I left negative feedback for a seller who stated one day handling but did not ship out for 5 days. They printed the label straight away but did not drop the package off to fed-ex until 5 days later. Obviously they were abusing the system to get higher search rankings and get a discount on FVF. Within one day the seller had the negative feedback removed ready to pull the same scam on the next buyer. The shite show that is ebay continues.

[Guest TabbyBoy]

Should we have a master list of all blocked buyers on here with usernames in alphanumerical order that we can all append to and copy/paste into our eBay profiles? I have about 200 so far.

[Tom J]

guys, on a related matter. have any of you had any instances where the buyer has claimed not to receive the goods/claimed their product is damaged and sent back an empty box or something?  what can you do to protect yourself against things like this? worried about when i sell my TB etc that something like that will happen

[StarCityBrickCompany]

 

Should we have a master list of all blocked buyers on here with usernames in alphanumerical order that we can all append to and copy/paste into our eBay profiles? I have about 200 so far.

I am pretty sure that it has been mentioned before & that it couldn't be done properly (since some innocent buyers could easily get listed, and there would be no way to proof the list).

[justafrog]

Tom, if you have a solid record as a seller, you simply report the buyer, talk to eBay, and you have a good chance of beating the "empty box return" scenario (which has never happened to me in 16 years of selling, by the way, so it's largely paranoia :-)

[Tom J]

i have over 115 feedback spread over about 9 years. is that sufficient?

[StarCityBrickCompany]

Tom, if you have a solid record as a seller, you simply report the buyer, talk to eBay, and you have a good chance of beating the "empty box return" scenario (which has never happened to me in 16 years of selling, by the way, so it's largely paranoia :-)

I agree, surprisingly things like that really don't happen much. Almost 3 years doing this full time and I have only had 1 true scammer. I am sure that the scammers are out there, but I assume that they look for the easy targets (which would make sense). So follow all the ebay/paypal policies (tracking, signature over 250, etc.) and you will mostly be ok.

[Tom J]

Thanks chaps.

[justafrog]

On the flipside I left negative feedback for a seller who stated one day handling but did not ship out for 5 days. They printed the label straight away but did not drop the package off to fed-ex until 5 days later. Obviously they were abusing the system to get higher search rankings and get a discount on FVF. Within one day the seller had the negative feedback removed ready to pull the same scam on the next buyer. The shite show that is ebay continues.

 

I really hate that - and it's rampant, ever since the 1 day handling requirement for the TRS discount came into play (and probably before, but worse now). I am fanatical about having the post mark match the date I'm actually shipping - I often print labels on non-shipping days (Sundays, some Saturdays, postal holidays) but I always change the date to the actual shipping date (eBay and PayPal both permit changing the date to up to 4 days ahead).