Ebay feedback system is a mockery

StormWarrior

I am sick and tired of it! This is the second time it has happened. I won a pair of "size 10 full length leggings" which is how they were described. I paid immediately. About a week later they arrived. They are only half length and much bigger than a size 10. I emailed the seller, explained that they are significantly not as described and requested a refund. The seller refused and directed me to a section of the item description that says, "I do not accept returns or give refunds if you decide you don't like the item."

I explained repeatedly that the leggings are NOT AS DESCRIBED! I would never have bid on them if she had described them accurately. I said if she didn't give me a refund I would start a dispute. She just said, "Go on then."

I left her bad feedback. She in return left me bad feedback and then sent a mutual withdrawal request. I am p*ssed off! Why should bad sellers be allowed to leave innocent customers bad feedback and then get their very deserved bad feedback removed? AAARRRRGGGHH!

Now this silly person says, "If you remove the bad feedback I will refund you." This really just makes a mockery of the whole system.

Colonel Sanders

sounds about right unfortunately. It is a joke, a complete 'you scratch my back I'll scratch yours' system and ebay don't give a flying f*ck as its usually buyers who get screwed unfairly but its sellers who pay fees.

Colonel Sanders

Btw I posted a thread about this very same subject here not so long ago.

StormWarrior

Some other muppet on ebay has tried to rip me off just now! I am getting very annoyed! There is a bloke selling solid perfume in all different flavours for £9.99 each. I couldn't see the flavour I wanted, so I sent him an email asking if he has it. He does and sent me a direct paypal invoice (against ebay rules but he doesn't want to pay the ebay fees) charging me £11.99 for the perfume! Cheeky bastard! Well, I am not paying that. I have just emailed to ask why the extra charge. If anything it should be less if he's not paying ebay fees. Some people really are rip off merchants.

JJ

Pretty soon sellers won't be able to leave negative feedback so there shouldn't be this problem anymore.

jor el

StormWarrior wrote: »

Now this silly person says, "If you remove the bad feedback I will refund you." This really just makes a mockery of the whole system.

Holding feedback to ransom is against eBay's rules, so report the seller for telling you this. You'll need to forward the mail where she told you this, with all headers intact, to them.

Go ahead and start the dispute in Paypal in the meantime. You don't need the sellers permission or approval to do this. You ordered and paid for a size 10 full length leggings. You received a larger than 10, half length pair instead. This is clearly not what you ordered, and Paypal should support you. You will need to return the leggings, at your cost and by registered post, and should then receive a full refund. There's pretty much nothing you can do about the negative feedback though.

Oryx

jor el wrote: »

There's pretty much nothing you can do about the negative feedback though.

If you win a dispute isnt neg feedback removed? Ages since i traded on eBay but I thought this was the case.

Bondvillain

KtK wrote: »

If you win a dispute isnt neg feedback removed? Ages since i traded on eBay but I thought this was the case.

Not as far as I know. If the member in question is made NARU (not registered) then the feedback will be removed, but a paypal refund has no effect on ebay feedback.
Leaving a calm and factual follow up to your initial feedback stating that the seller refused to give a refund despite supplying the wrong item is probably the best course of action while you're seeking a refund.
Do not, however, mention your dispute in the follow-up, as any mention of legal or civil disputes (including the Police, Solicitors or Paypal disputes ) in feedback are in themselves grounds for ebay to remove your comment and leave his there.

The seller's email claiming that the refund would be issued if the negative feedback left was removed sounds like theres a chance you could appeal to ebay customer support to have it struck off on the grounds of feedback extortion though. Ebay dont like Sellers using feedback as a bargaining tool, and have come down heavily on it since the introduction of Detailed star ratings. It's certainly worth a shot.

Meanwhile, instigate a "significantly not as described" dispute through paypal. If you're sucessful (and you should be - paypal rarely come down on the side of the seller) , you'll have to send the leggings back by trackable means, but you'll get your payment back, and the seller gets a stern rebuke. A number of those in a set time period, and he's gone.

DesertLynx83

Over the past week, three of my positives have disappeared. No negatives, the comments are still there...just the numbers dropped. It IS a mockery!

maplanois

The most likely reason your feedback is gone is because eBay removes feedback left by a buyer/seller if they become 'Not a Registered User' within 90 days of joining.

DesertLynx83

I checked. All my recent buyers/sellers have been on for at least a year.

keefg

It's not just the feedback system that's a joke. IMO the whole ebay site is a waste of time.

Sellers withholding feeback until you leave then positive feedback - and even then there's no guarantee that they will bother leaving feedback for you once they have received theirs.

Outrageously overpriced postage & packing costs.

Way too much fake crap on the site.

A lot of auctions now giving way to "Buy it now - Classifieds". Doesn't this defeat the object of an auction site?

The list goes on......but like Colonel Sanders said, it's the sellers who make ebay their billions so they can do as they like.

These are just some of the reasons why I have stopped using ebay.

spurious

DesertLynx83 wrote: »

Over the past week, three of my positives have disappeared. No negatives, the comments are still there...just the numbers dropped. It IS a mockery!

This can happen if more than one comment is from the same seller.
15 positive comments from one seller = one count of feedback.

Bondvillain

Two important things to remember about feedback :

1: The leaving of Feedback is voluntary

2: All the feedback in the world wont buy you chips on a Tuesday night when you're hungry.

DesertLynx83

spurious wrote: »

This can happen if more than one comment is from the same seller.
15 positive comments from one seller = one count of feedback.

I know and that might be the case...but I wish I knew for sure! Still, either way, the feedback system is broken and it needs to be fixed!

Colonel Sanders

JJ wrote: »

Pretty soon sellers won't be able to leave negative feedback so there shouldn't be this problem anymore.

Really? Is it a case that if you pay promptly you get automatically generated feedback or what?

Good news I must say, will force a lot of sellers to shape up or ship out

Bondvillain

No, Ebay have simply taken the Amazon method on board and claimed that they had it first (as they do whenever Amazon have an Idea before Ebay do) and have rendered the feedback system to be a "buyer only" experience. It still remains voluntary.


Sellers will no longer be able to leave feedback of any kind, however, that rather dubiously includes the removal of the ability for a seller to leave negative feedback for scammers, auction wreckers, non-paying bidders and hijacked accounts (all of which are sadly rife on Ebay), so while at first glance it appears to improve buyer safety, it seemingly does little to protect ebay's genuine sellers, many of whom are increasingly looking towards other avenues of sales.

New sellers too will be affected, as this new system will make it take much longer for any seller on Ebay to reach any kind of "trusted" status. (I mean, would anyone here buy something expensive from an Ebay seller with 0 feedback without even a little hesitation?
You may be forced to soon, as older established sellers move off the site to set up elsewhere and newer ones cant generate any feedback from genuine purchases before launching as a sales venue...)

I mention this because everyone on Ebay has to start somewhere - a couple of Ebay Ireland's largest dvd & Music sellers were regular buyers before setting up shop - and further down the evolutionary scale, I myself had even managed to amass 200+ positive buying feedback before selling anything, (giving me 100% positive feedback) which I had received from genuine sellers, and which proved I wasn't out to scam and with that kind of a rep, I was too well embedded to be anything other than the trustworthy soul that I appeared .

However, this avenue is closed to would-be sellers now, as established sellers can no longer confirm whether an Ebay member who has purchased from them is kosher or not, and you may easily have a scenario where 25 new-ish sellers are all selling the same thing that you really really need , and all of them have 0 feedback. Which ones are genuine and which ones are going to disappear with your cash? (And this is Ebay we're talking about. Someone is definitely there for the purpose of disappearing with your cash...)

Ebay may just have pushed this one a little too far....

StormWarrior

If you get a refund because the item was faulty, does the seller have to pay you back the postage you originally paid them?

DesertLynx83

StormWarrior wrote: »

If you get a refund because the item was faulty, does the seller have to pay you back the postage you originally paid them?

Most auctions I've seen say that you're responsible for the cost of shipping if you return the item for a refund.

jor el

StormWarrior wrote: »

If you get a refund because the item was faulty, does the seller have to pay you back the postage you originally paid them?

Yes, you get back everything you paid. You won't get back to cost of returning the item, if you have to return it.