MetaChat - ebay advice?

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26 February 2008

ebay advice? I bought some cute rubber boots for a friend. The seller was annoying. Frustrating. I want to leave negative feedback. Am I committing some sin?→[More:]The seller listed the boots at $25.99 with $23.00 shipping to Canada (which is awful high) and listed the shipping method as USPS, which is the only way I'll ship something from a US seller, because FedEx is criminal in their border "brokerage" fees.

So, I go to pay, and they want an EXTRA $12.00 to ship via USPS (so, $35.00). I don't pay and send them a message. They reply to say that I should just put "please ship USPS" in the special comments. Which I do.

I hear nothing for days and days, then I get an email from FedEx with a tracking number. So, I emailed them from within ebay. No reply. I sent another message via ebay. No reply. I go online, find their store and find an "info@blahblahblah" address. I sent an email there. Couple of days later, the boots arrive via USPS. A day later I get a reply from info@.

To me, they didn't honour the auction, without me making a "special request" and communicated this terribly. Good reason for negative feedback. They want me to withdraw it. I wanna tell them to stuff it, but if they want to refund my shipping, I will. Is that too far? Or should I just insist that I'm not changing it?

Whoa, quite the novel there.

post by: richat at: 13:29 | 8 comments

I've seen more and more ebay users leaving Neutral feedback, probably for this situation. I would ask for refunded shipping, and then change from negative feedback to neutral.

posted by muddgirl 26 February | 13:39

That's what negative feedback is for- to let other people know about your bad experience. Tell them to stuff it.

posted by ThePinkSuperhero 26 February | 14:10

That's kinda what I figured TPS. Thanks for confirming. And, muddgirl, I did suggest that if they want to refund my shipping costs, I would change it. Of course, in my experience with this seller, they won't reply. ;-)

posted by richat 26 February | 14:22

Huh, I stopped using eBay because of the one time I sent a negative feedback, and also filed a complaint against a seller. I ended up being called all kinds of things from other eBayers for filing the complaint (I had posted on a forum asking if anyone else had had problems with this seller, and to be careful). Short story - won bids on two Oriental items from the same seller. Asked if he could combine shipping to make it less expensive. I was told no, it wasn't possible. Lo and behold, the items arrived in the same box! I paid nearly $80.00 in shipping for items that are probably worth $20.00 - maybe. I complained to eBay; nothing was ever done. I was never reimbursed for half of the shipping costs. It was the last time I ever eBayed, and I had had 100% rating as a buyer. So I say, leave the negative, or at the very least the neutral. When I had my bad transaction, my seller had a 98% rating. But by the time of my complaint just two weeks later, he'd dropped to an 86%. Leave the feedback so others get a better picture of what they're dealing with.

It's been about two years, and can you tell I'm still bitter about it?

posted by redvixen 26 February | 14:24

eBay just changed their feedback policy, too, so sellers can only leave positive feedback for buyers. They had to do that, because sellers could leave negative feedback for a buyer after the buyer left negative feedback for them. Nasty lot, some of them!

posted by ThePinkSuperhero 26 February | 14:30

For what it's worth, I think it was wrong for you to complain too, redvixen, but I'm not going to call you names.

posted by grouse 26 February | 15:49

I'd go with neutral, not negative. In my mind negative is for when you get ripped off, the item shows up broken, it never shows at all, it's not as described, etc. I left neutral once when someone charged me $15 for shipping a skirt by priority mail, and it turns out it went parcel post for $4. And arrived two months after the auction ended. But I didn't think it warranted negative since I did get the skirt, and it was just as the auction said.

posted by kellydamnit 26 February | 18:55

I would go with negative. Negative is also when the seller essentially STEALS from you, which is what happened in this case, Kelly.

posted by Doohickie 26 February | 21:30

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