PSA to anyone who buys on eBay

I hear you. But customers have a right to a voice though. I have seen lots of reports about web sellers punishing people who leave bad reviews, or deleting them. I bough a Chinese tablet from a UK based seller on Amazon (Marketplace, not Amazon itself) and it stopped working after 2 weeks. I had to arrange a return and a new one came which was faulty out of the box! That went back also. They sent me an email offering a full refund of purchase and shipping and asking me not to post a bad review. I later found out it was just one guy working out of his garage.

I totally get what you are saying. However if you want to leave a review on the product itself, there is a way to do that without getting the sellers reputation involved. Buyers don’t realize that when they hit the feedback button they are giving feedback on the seller, not the product. That’s not cool.

I don’t know about your guy, maybe he was knowingly buying inferior merchandise and selling it as quality. Maybe there was something intrinsically bad about him as a seller. Maybe he was making things more difficult for you than it needed to be. That’s a different story.

However, if you receive an item and realize you don’t think the color of the shirt compliments your skin tone, or the hair gel didn’t hold the way you thought it would, or the package arrived late, even though if you tracked it and saw the seller mailed it the same or next day of your order, or your wife tells you that sh doesn’t like the gift you gave her, or many other things, the seller isn’t responsible for that.

My pleas is for the buyer to contact the seller first if there is an issue of any kind. 99% of the time they will immediately make it right, or in the case of shipping, let you know exactly where the package is at the moment.

All sellers have the return policy of the buyer paying for return shipping of an unwanted product. That’s the way the default is set up on eBay. However, on the rare occasion something was wrong with what i’ve sent, I’ve just refunded the money and told the buyer to keep it. I don’t want it back. I have actually then received positive feedback on this because the buyer didn’t expect it to be so easy. Hopefully that created an opportunity for other people want to buy from me.

I run my little business out of the small office in my house. Nothing wrong with that. I take full pride in doing things right, and it reflects in my feedback and repeat customers. Please don’t cut into my profits and reputation by giving me bad beedback because your package fell into a postal service wormhole.

If there is an issue with the product, go to product reviews and post there.

You do see some totally idiotic product reviews on Amazon. People write things like "this black and white printer doesn't print colour, so I'm only giving three stars". When Bic introduced pens for women, people lined up to complain ironically that they weren’t pink enough, and everyone had lots of fun self-righteously nodding at it for three seconds before they all drifted off to scowl at something else that could distract them from the clanging emptiness of life.

I've seen outrageous reviews on Amazon, e. g. this book arrived late so I'll take a star off for that. Sheesh, that's not the author's fault.

To show I'm not immune to poor sellers, here are 2 things that have happened to me in last 6 to 9 months, which absolutely shouldn't have occured.

#1 - bought a new screen protector for my iphone. When it arrived it was obviously for a different iphone than I had. I first check my order to make sure I had ordered the right one, then contacted the seller to send me the correct one.
The response was "We sent you the correct one"
I told them the measurements of my phone, and the measurements of what they sent.
Response: We need to see that it's the wrong size.

I took a picture of the product next to a ruler, and sent it to them.

Response: We need to see that it's the wrong size next to the phone.

Wait. You need to see the screen protector, next to the phone I'm taking the picture with?
Ok, I started to see what I was dealing with. I went over to my neighbors, took a picture of my phone and the screen protector with her phone, sent it to myself, then sent it to them.

The response was now something else indicating I was somehow making it all up.
I'll just say I ended up getting my money back.

#2 Ordered 5 little black toner cartridges. When they arrived my first thought was that the mailman dropped the package into the mud. When I opened, I saw that at least 2 of the toners had cracked, and there was ink all over.
I sent them a picture of the mess, asking for a return address label. I couldn't be sure the other 3 weren't cracked, and was going to return them all, requesting a refund. Since it wasn't my fault they were damaged, I certainly wasn't going to pay return shipping.

Again, 'round and 'round with "keep the 3 that weren't broken, we'll send you 3 more, but you have to return the broken ones" and other really stupid things like that.
After we went back and forth, I finally got a reply with a totally different tone, saying my paypal had been credited.
All I could figure out from the context of all the responses, and the sudden logic, was that some really inept person had been working for/filling in for the owner, and the owner finally came back from his 2 days off, and saw what was going on, bitch slapped the idiot and moved on. PS I had already ordered toner from someone else, and it arrived fine, I think before the 1st situation was resolved.

So yeah, I get that there are a few sellers that make people leery, and make people who are fine look bad.

I wish the bad sellers would just hurry up and run themselves into the ground.

Yelp reviews.

Rating a good restaurant 2 stars, then in the review, telling all the great things about the food, atmosphere, etc.
The only problem? The parking lot was full and they had to park on the street.

Jesus wept.

Oh. Re "punishing buyers"? I've heard that but I'm not clear on what the seller would do to punish them.
If you mean blocking them from your store and refusing to sell to them, I've done that to a couple people.

Prior to 2017, I dabbled in ebay, selling homemade jewelry and things like starbucks mugs that I found in thrift stores.
There were a handful people who asked for a custom image on their pendant (they appealed to teens, and in these cases it was something like the grandmother ordering one for them)
Without exception, these things never went well. Lengthy messages re what they wanted, but being unable to download a picture of what they wanted. Ending up sending multiple images and not being able to decide which they wanted. Finally deciding, me going ahead and producing and sending, only to be told, "Oh dear, that's not the one I wanted" Not quite understanding when I would send them the email trail, showing what they had directed me to do.
I ended up blocking a couple of these people from making purchases again from me. Not that I was angry, but I wasn't going to be able to keep track of their names, if they ordered again.

How exactly would a seller "punish" a buyer?

Pulling a star off a review for an indie author can cost us sales (although, to be fair, 100% 5-star reviews for indie authors tend to look suspect).

Better and more reviews (and more recent reviews) move us up in the standings, more people see the work, and voila, more sales.

UPS being a day late with your book costs me money - yeah, really.

I recently ordered a tablet via Amazon. UPS completely dropped the ball on it, so I put in a claim and I sent a note to the seller via Amazon, giving them the heads up that I had put in claim, here's the number, so you'll know in case UPS contacts you.

They sent us a note the next day, offering either a refund or a replacement. I told them, let me give UPS a few days, just in case it turns up. They said sure, let us know either way. UPS still didn't know its ass from its elbow so I contacted the seller again, and asked for a replacement and I offered to pay shipping because it wasn't their fault. They said no way, we'll pay shipping. They overnighted it and this time I got it.

I gave them a 5-star review on Amazon the following day, making it clear in my review how they had been super great to work with and went above and beyond to make things right. I hope they get more sales because of that.

That's the way you treat a customer.

Yep.

Goodwill is above value.

Another thing I don't think the general public, or buyers on ebay are aware of...

eBay almost never sides with the sellers.

I had already contacted the seller and explained how the negative feedback could affect me. She said she would gladly change it as she didn't realize.

However, to get the ball rolling, I had to file a specific request. When she got it she soon went in and changed it (she only had 5 days).

The thing is, ebay also sent me a reply about my request, and told me her feedback did not fall into their critera for removal.

So, someone can give neg feedback about you, which is totally out of your control, and eBay will not do anything to assist you in having it corrected. You're on your own. I know this is a common complaint on the Sellers Forum.

While this buyer was very nice, I would imagine in a lot of cases the person isn't even on ebay enough to get the message, or frankly, just doesn't give a ****.

If you want to warn others that a product you bought doesn't perform well, that great, and a nice thing to do for others.

Just don't kill the messenger.

Then there are the buyers who are either batshit crazy, and/or think they can get something for nothing.

All the following took place within minutes of a package being delivered to the customer. I get audio notices on my phone when I get messages, so can respond quickly if needed.

I had sold 3 packets of a discontinued, but popular hair product for $30. The packets look like larger versions of ketchup packets from a fast food place, but with a little removable top, which can be reclosed.

Package delivered 3/7/18. Within a couple minutes I get a message that the item was "busted"
I asked for a picture please, and was sent in a minute or 2 a photo of one packet where it was pretty apparant the top was removed, some of the product (bright red) was smeared around a very small area around the top, and then the top cleanly replaced.

Whatever. I'm totally prepared to send the refund. It's not worth debating damage.
I immediately ask "I assume it was just the one item?"
Immediate response....."Yes. Two were busted"

<sigh> I quickly ask for a picture of all 3 items next to each other so I can see the damage to 2 of them (and prove the 3rd wasn't in question) This is totally normal procedure. This protects me from changing her story later.

Like I said, these messages were all within rapid fire succession, and immediately after the product was delivered. I had first checked the tracking.

Suddenly buyer says "I'm not home right now. I'll send them later"

That's the last I hear of the customer, and was thinking she realized how lame her story was. Also, even if there was damage to the packets, she would have been able to use the product anyway. It wasn't something that would go bad from being exposed to air.

Later that evening I looked that buyer up, and saw from previous reviews she gave that she must live under a dark cloud. So many of the things she ordered arrived "damaged" and she had been repeatedly been mistreated by sellers.

Well, that's the last I hear from the buyer until yesterday. I had actually forgotten about her when she she gives me negative feedback, saying my product was overpriced, low quality, that they were "busted" and does not recommend me as a seller.

I contacted her saying I had been waiting for her response, that she had agreed to send me pictures, and I had no issue with refunding her, so would she please remove the negative feedback.

Her response was that she didn't answer to me, that she had reported me and my abusive practices to ebay, that I should be ashamed I sold such poor quality product that was so overpriced, I had wasted so much of her time and why did I send "busted" things through the mail. Further she said even if I refunded all the money she still wouldn't remove the negative feedback since I had given her all this attitude and I needed a lesson so no one else would buy from me.

I could her the bats in her belfry squeaking all the way here.

The problem is, there's no way to warn other sellers about buyers like this. Sellers can leave negative or even neutral feedback on buyers. Sure, I can now block her from buying from me again, but that doesn't help the next person.

At the end of the day, she got her money back, but ebay won't remove negative feedback if the buyer refuses to.

Sheesh.

In the world of indie authorship, someone can buy a Kindle version of your work (lots of these retail for $1.99 or even 99 cents), keep it for a couple of days, and then return it and get a refund from Amazon. So -

• The 'buyer' gets to enjoy the book for a couple of days. Most of these are shortish works so it's entirely possible the book is read to its end during that time frame. Hence the entire reading experience is stolen from the writer. Yes, yes, people borrow each other's books all the time, and that's the concept behind libraries. But libraries buy books; they don't steal them. And the borrower generally borrows from someone who purchased, even if they bought the book used so the initial buying experience is a few degrees removed from the borrower. Still, at some point, the writer was paid for their labor.
  
• And, despite our best efforts, books are pirated. ALL. THE. DAMN. TIME. This includes, I kid you not, $2 anthologies I've participated in for charity. Because giving $2 to the Alzheimer's Association or the American Cancer Society in exchange for a dozen or more short stories is apparently too much.
  
• And having an electronic copy of a work for a few days is plenty of time to pirate it, if you're a practiced thief who pulls this crap regularly.
  
• Returns of course make our sales numbers go down. Our sales numbers are tied directly into our rankings on Amazon. Lower-ranked works, as you can well imagine, don't sell as fast as higher-ranked ones. So the 'buyer' has not only denied the writer the sales price for that one book, they have also scotched potential future sales.
  
• Rankings and sales momentum (along with reviews, good or bad) also define how many people are served the book as one of those 'you read X you might like to also read Y' sidebars. Hence, more future sales are lost.

On your behalf, I say, feh.

I am certain not all bad reviews are deserved. In my wife's case, she ordered something for perhaps $7. She never received it, but the seller claimed she did. They would not offer her a refund and would not sent her the item. There was a mess up somewhere that did not involve my wife. They got a very bad review.