Seller getting feedback deleted.

ejmaztec

I recently agreed to buy a couple of intercoolers from these people on Ebay.co. uk, http://myworld.ebay.co.uk/2fast2cool2/&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2754

It was agreed that the postage for both items was going to be £30. The first item had £30 postage on it anyway, so I committed to buy and paid through Paypal. However, when I went onto the second item, it was impossible to change any of the figures, in particular the postage (which would normally have been £35).
I immediately sent a message to the seller, explaining that I'd paid for the first item and that I needed them to make it possible for me to pay the agreed price. Having received no reply the next morning, I contacted them again, and some hours later they sent me a link to the second item on which they had removed the postage. I immediately paid and thought that that was the end of it it.

The next day I had another message, telling me that I needed to pay them another £20 because they'd already sent the first item out, so the combined postage didn't apply.

I argued with them, because it seemed obvious to me that it was their screw-up because they hadn't made it possible for the agreed price to be paid by firstly not allowing me to change the price initially, and then not getting back to me soon enough with the amended price of the item.

They refused to budge and accepted no responsibility whatsoever. We then agreed to cancel the transaction, and they refunded the money that I'd paid on the second item (ending up with €3 less than I'd paid them thanks to the exchange rate, but that's life).

Because of all this, I gave negative feedback on the first item, pointing out that the seller agreed to a price, and then made it impossible for me to pay the agreed price.

Within a couple of days, the feedback that I'd left, completely disappeared from their list, as if I'd never bought anything from them at all. I contacted Ebay for an explanation and received this reply:

Thank you for contacting us regarding the feedback you left for your
seller "2fast2cool2" and I understand that you want to know why the
feedback you left has been removed.

When we receive an appeal from a member, we thoroughly investigate the
matter. eBay has established criteria that determine whether an appeal
is successful or not.

In this instance the member met our requirements and so the Feedback you
left against them was removed. However, as it's important that eBay
maintains member privacy, we can't share specific details of why we
removed the Feedback or a justification of the action we've taken. This
security measure is applied equally for the protection of all eBay
members.

I'm sorry if this caused you confusion. Thank you for using eBay.

Am I correct in assuming that Ebay is more than heavily biased in a seller's favour (especially as this seller has clocked up 45000 odd sales)? During this "thorough investigation" Ebay didn't contact me at all.

It seems to me that it's very easy for a seller to distort feedback by having negative feedback removed, and I'm now wondering on what scale this happens across the whole of Ebay

Am I being over-critical? Of course, if I were made party to the decision in this case, I'd know the exact reason for the feedback deletion, but as can be seen in the reply, I'm not going to find out.

jor el

Since problem was with the second item, and not the first one, then the negative feedback was technically unwarranted on the first item. It should be on the second item that you leave negative feedback. Since you've cancelled that order though, I'm not sure if you can leave feedback at all on it. I would guess not, but I've never tried in that situation.

It's also pointless to argue with eBay, they don't listen to anything you say. It's just eBay, move on.

ejmaztec

jor el wrote: »

Since problem was with the second item, and not the first one, then the negative feedback was technically unwarranted on the first item. It should be on the second item that you leave negative feedback. Since you've cancelled that order though, I'm not sure if you can leave feedback at all on it. I would guess not, but I've never tried in that situation.

It's also pointless to argue with eBay, they don't listen to anything you say. It's just eBay, move on.

I think I was justified because both items were supposed to be part of the deal, but it's academic at this stage. I know full well that I'm not going to anywhere with them, but it has given me more incentive to go to non-Ebay suppliers in future.

I had another go at them for the parting shot, but they're still keeping the reason a closely guarded secret, as per this condescending reply (in particular the bit I've highlighted:pac:):

Thanks for writing back to us. I understand you want to know the reason
why the negative Feedback you left for member "2fast2cool2" has been
removed.

I have reviewed your case again and I'm sorry to inform you that the
Feedback you left did fit one of our Feedback removal criteria and we
have removed it.

Please note that our decision to remove the Feedback does not constitute
us finding that the identified feedback is defamatory or otherwise
unlawful.

However, please keep in mind that due to eBay's privacy considerations
that are in place to protect us all, I am unable to provide you with
specific details of the investigation or the actions that were taken in
this matter.

*****, I trust this information, if nothing else, reassures you of the
level of privacy that your own account with eBay holds.

ejmaztec

I couldn't resist replying to the last email, and the funny thing is, the reply that I received was identical to the previous one, although signed off by a different person. Had someone read the entire email, they would have noticed the previous identical input from their colleague further down the page:pac:.

ejmaztec

Just one more comment:D

There was another negative feedback that some other disgruntled customer left during the past week, and I see that's gone as well. What a joke.