The MLP Arena
TCB => Trader & Shipping Support => Topic started by: Sarah-Bee on December 15, 2014, 06:08:47 AM
-
Hi Ponies
I don't really need advice on this, I just wanted a little moan about it as I'm a bit upset and thought there might be sellers here who could relate. Just want to get it off my chest to someone who'll 'get it'.
I'm a pony seller on eBay and recently one of my buyers contacted me to tell me that two of the three ponies they bought from me had water inside them which had caused some rust during transit. Other than the comment "it's not the best idea to bath them just before packing them up to send" their message was perfectly polite and they didn't really ask for anything, they just told me of the issue.
I replied straight away and advised that the ponies were actually washed quite a while before they were even listed, let alone posted out and they were left to dry in an airing cupboard with their tail holes pointing downwards so that any water would run out, as I always do. I also said I hadn't noticed it when packing them up so I apologised that it had happened but I had no idea how it would have happened given what I did with the ponies. I then ended the message asking what I could do to make it right for them.
I just went onto my feedback and I've received two neutrals commenting on the wet and that I hadn't replied :(
I checked my messages and I can't find my reply either in my eBay messages or on my email so it doesn't look as if it went through but I *KNOW* I wrote it; I even thought to myself at the weekend about not having heard back from my buyer but I've had a couple of people advise me of problems before (minor marks missed off the description) and not wanted me to do anything about it so I didn't think too much of it.
I guess I'm just upset because I had really great feedback as I strive to achieve excellent customer service and maintain a great reputation and now because technology failed me I have two neutrals on my record for the next year. :(
On the one hand I completely understand because the buyer didn't get my reply (they can't have done if I can't find a record of it) but on the other I live by giving people the benefit of the doubt so if it had been me in their position, having bought something from a buyer with really great previous feedback, I would have sent another message to ask if they’d had time to look into my query yet, at which point it would have come to light that I was more than willing to resolve it to their satisfaction.
I sent them a message explaining the situation including what I put in my original message about apologising and offering to help but also mentioned that I would have appreciated the benefit of the doubt, then wished them well.
Anyways, I just wanted a little moan so thanks for reading
Love, Sarah x
-
I got a neutral once, I know how it feels. I think buyers will see your enormous collection of good feedback, scrupulously accurate and well presented listings and still have confidence.
-
:hug: thank you hun x
-
I sell on ebay a lot so I totally understand how you feel. Especially when this seems to have been out of your hands.
I've bought quite a few ponies off you in the past and they've always been exactly as described and I've been really happy with them :)
-
Sorry you got neutral feedback, as another buyer who has bought ponies from you I've always found them to be as described and been very happy with my ponies which is why I've been a repeat customer. Maybe you can call ebay and explain how you tried to message them and it didn't go through and have the neutral feedback removed? I know I've had to resend messages on ebay after the first one didn't go through before.
-
Sorry Sarah! I think we have all been there at some point. And this is especially frustrating, since you know you sent a reply. That has happened to me though. I realized I did not actually send the message or the system did not send it.
Sending you a PM...
-
:hug: I know how you feel, years ago I got a neutral because the buyer was a reseller and didn't get more than she payed me... (yes, that was the reason :lookround:) I even contacted ebay but they didn't do anything about it. I felt terrible :( but at least it's not a negative, and most people don't care too much about neutrals when they buy :)
-
Sorry to hear that! :| (that smiley is very suitable! ;) )
Hey, atleast neutral is better than negative! And you probably sell a lot so the percentage of neutrals will be low?
People seem very different when it comes to feedback. I hate giving neutral or negative feedback because I know that any serious seller would try their very best to avoid it and instead solve the issue.
I have only given negative feedback once, on a buyer, who did not pay and not communicate. But I suppose the more expensive and the more described as "mint condition" the more disappointed you would get.
One sale I made quite recently (on a swedish site) was almost hilarious. I did get positive feedback (probably because the lot sold so cheap) it was a pair of unworn brand jeans.
The title said UNISEX (name of the brand, model, size etc).
The feedback said: "you could not tell from the auction that it was a unisex model". So you could read it in the title right above the comment saying I had not informed about it! :P (hope I will have enough other feedbacks by the time the title disappears).
Do not forget about the great buyers out there! The bad always seems to stick the most! :)
-
Thanks guys and yes, I definitely have so many good buyers who keep coming back to me who I've had really positive experiences with :)
-
I'm so sorry to hear this Sarah :( it wasn't your fault that the message didn't go through first time and you tried to work with your buyer :hug: . They can still remove that neutral though. Did they respond to your last explanation message? :what:
...and it might still be worth contacting ebay. They will probably tell you that the buyer has to agree to remove the FB but you never know ..
-
Yes, she responded to my message and apologized but then also said a bunch of stuff like she didn't want to be kept waiting for weeks and the water in the ponies wasn't her fault but I never said it was because it isn't and I didn't keep her waiting either. It wasn't weeks even though she didn't get the message, it was about a week or less between her message and the feedback. She said she didn't want anything and asked to let the matter drop.
I reiterated what I'd already said and then advised I would refund her for the two ponies in question once I had more funds in my Paypal (which I'm about to do as I just had another buyer send payment).
I'll contact eBay once that's gone through so fingers crossed.
Thanks again! :) Sarah x
-
:hug: Here's hoping it will end well eventually then. I think your buyer definitely overreacted.
-
Aw dinger! What a pain, Sarah :\ I've never bought from you before, but I can tell you're very no-nonsense and professional about your sales. I'm sorry your buyer didn't give you the chance to make things right before harming your feedback record. I hope it can be removed or adjusted or something :C
-
I'm sure it won't hurt you in the long run :) When I look at Ebay sellers with a high number of positive feedback and a handful of negative/neutrals, I figure that 1. You can't please everyone (and there is just no pleasing some people), or that 2. the buyer blamed you for something out of your control or 3. well, everyone makes mistakes and buyers leave bad feedback before giving the seller a chance to make it better.
:hug: I've bought from you before and everything was perfect :)
-
Oh, that is sad!
Not to worry - as a pony collector (and eBay seller!) I wouldn't hold that against you.
I do the same thing when I wash my ponies - I sit them on their tails to let the water drain out. Every so often, there will be one who doesn't dry!
Don't let that neutral bother you! eBay may be able to remove it and, worst case scenario, it's gone in 12 months :)
I am still bothered by a negative I received back in early the 2000's (lol!) I had sold a VHS tape of Anastasia and the comment left was "Had roaches in it!"
I still don't know what that means! XD Were there bugs inside the package? Because...that wouldn't be my fault...and also: how?!
See? Still bugs me :lol:
-
If it makes you feel better, when I see a seller with a zillion positive and one negative from a jerk off, I will often contact the seller for the user ID of the buyer so I can add them to my block list.
-
Thanks again for the pick-me-up guys, you're awesome :D
I refunded my seller buyer and she messaged me last night thanking me and asking if she should return the ponies (I said no ;) ) and said she would contact eBay about the feedback (as it was a mistake) when she gets back from vacation :)
I'm glad this seems to be working out in the end. Even if she can't sort out the feedback for whatever reason, I feel better knowing it's been sorted out anyways :)
xxx
-
I know you're a great seller!! I'm sure everyone else does too!!
Jules x
-
You can send your buyer a request for feedback revision, you can see the info here: http://pages.ebay.com/help/feedback/revision-request.html#how (http://pages.ebay.com/help/feedback/revision-request.html#how)
They only have 10 days to respond to the request so it is probably best to contact them and see when it would be convenient to send the request (such as when they get back from vacation).
Hope this helps! :)
-
I got a neutral once, I know how it feels. I think buyers will see your enormous collection of good feedback, scrupulously accurate and well presented listings and still have confidence.
This is how I feel as a buyer. If I see someone has neutral feedback and tons of other good comments, I don't really worry about it! I just assume it was a fluke, or a buyer can be overly critical, or a whole host of other things! But I wouldn't let it defer me. Don't worry about it too much!
-
As a buyer if a seller has one or 2 negatives or neutrals and a ton of positive feedback I don't worry about it at all. I think there are just some people who are way too critical.
-
As an ebayer, I have only ever given negative feedback once, and neutral once. The negative one was when a seller gave me negative feedback as a buyer, and it has been so long ago I honestly cannot remember the reason why they did, but it was probably because as a buyer, I do not leave any feedback until the seller leaves feedback... so they probably were trying to get back at me for that. After contacting them repeatedly to find out why I had negative feedback they eventually said they would change it with the feedback revision, so when they did I also changed mine but only to neutral, not positive, and included in the feedback notes that they seller gave a buyer negative feedback for asking for feedback to be left.
As a seller, I only get feedback about half the time. I don't even care about it anymore. I should have a lot higher feedback rating than I do, but if I have to send a message to a buyer asking for them to leave feedback, instead of them just doing it, I am not even going to waste my time because most of the time they still won't do it.
(FYI, none of this was pony-related! :) )
Edit: Also, I rarely pay any attention to the feedback rating unless they are under like... 95 or 93%. If they have something like 80-85% I start reading feedback to see what the deal is. But most of the time I don't know if a buyer/seller has any negatives or neutrals unless I just happened to look at their ebay profile page. So, I understand where you are coming from, and it sucks having that tarnish on your record, but from a buyer's standpoint, it probably won't hurt your sales. :)
-
As a buyer if a seller has one or 2 negatives or neutrals and a ton of positive feedback I don't worry about it at all. I think there are just some people who are way too critical.
This. I usually check the feedback, and if the seller has few neutrals/negatives, I look when they have gotten it, and what they say. To this day, I have never desided not to buy because of a few Negs/neutrals. :)
-
Thanks again for the pick-me-up guys, you're awesome :D
I refunded my seller and she messaged me last night thanking me and asking if she should return the ponies (I said no ;) ) and said she would contact eBay about the feedback (as it was a mistake) when she gets back from vacation :)
I'm glad this seems to be working out in the end. Even if she can't sort out the feedback for whatever reason, I feel better knowing it's been sorted out anyways :)
xxx
:bigups: that's great - I'm really glad that you and the buyer managed to sort things out and hopefully that feedback will be removed now :hug:
-
You're all right about a couple negs/neutrals not really being such a bother as I buy a lot on eBay myself and it never deters me. Should have thought about that really haha!
Pony hugs xxx
-
I had this happen to me once also, but it was as a buyer sending a message to a seller and they never responded. Well, like with you, turns out, the message never sent. After that, I started ticking the box that says "send a copy of message to my e-mail address" and that way I know for sure if the message got sent out. If I can get it in my email, they should get it in theirs/on their ebay account. :)
So, for future reference, if you don't already, you can try ticking that box and if you don't get an email with the message within 5-10 minutes of you sending it, send another until you get it, haha.
-
Great minds think alike, I've started doing that too :) I have to remember to untick it when I send invoices though or I get a few hundred copies of those clogging up my inbox haha! :) xx
-
Actually I really feel for you Sarah-Bee, that happens to me all the time both here and on ebay when i send PMs on my phone. They just don't seem to work, and I always forget and send them anyway - I've missed out on so many sales/buys that way!
-
UPDATE!
The feedback has been revised by the buyer to positive :D I'm thrilled! I'm happy that I don't have a black mark against me simply because of a problem with a message not going through but I'm more happy that my buyer is happy :D :D
*happy dance*
Just wanted to let you know :)
-
Congratulations Sarah!
-
Excellent! :D I'm so happy for you!
Silverdawn
-
Happy for you, you are an amazing seller (and buyer too) !
-
Happy for you, you are an amazing seller (and buyer too) !
Aw thanks! :D xx
-
That's awesome news Sarah! I'm really happy for you! :cheer: :hug: :frolic: :squee:
-
Glad that it all worked out! :)
-
I'm glad everything worked out. I have two neutrals and both are for ridiculous reasons, honestly im fed up enough with ebay I don't care. One was because they bought a baby G3 and it was well a baby and smaller then she thought and I should of included demension. Because yes I'm going to measure every pony I sell, even though it was clearly marked in the title with the ponies name and stated in the listing she was a baby.
Second nuetral was someone who bought a funko. I work full time at a vet hospital. I usually ship on my lunch break, but emergencies come in or a animal that had surgery patient in recovery needs to be watched extra close and I don't get a lunch. Less then 24 hours after they bought the item they were asking why it hadnt shipped (my listing say 2 business days). Well then ebay puts those stupid estimated delivery dates that do t reflect you handling time. So the item arrived a day after the estimated delivery date (which by the way was two days after they bought the item). So they left me a nuetral saying it wasn't delivered in the time promised! I didn't promise a delivery time I promised a shipping time!
-
Ug I feel your pain! I had a neutral ages ago from someone who bought a coin purse from me. It was shaped like a tiny handbag and said it was 10cm long in the listing but the dozey person who bought it thought they were getting a full sized handbag and left me neutral saying it wasn't very big! Luckily eBay removed it as the length was stated. I agree with you though, you don't put dimensions of ponies on listings! They are as tall as they are! They are specific characters in a specific style so they are the size they are. Some people amaze me.