And The Beat Goes On...

Hello, My Friends!~~

As you may remember from this previous post, I have expressed my disdain at recent "unruly" customers who have done thier best to take advantage of my kindness. I worked and worked with them to find a solution, but despite that they decided that they "deserve" my first born or a pint of blood. However, all worked out, and they are no longer welcome to darken my on-line doorstep. My heart was lightened by the many encouraging supportive comments you sent my way and I thank you so very deeply. It is a hard fought battle to keep my on-line selling reputation as sterling as I could make it, ie. not getting negative feedback.

Well... as my "lucky" streak would have it, I recieved my first negative feedback yesterday. I have been selling for 13 years on this popular on-line auction site and have kept my reputation untarnished through persistent hard work. Many of you know what I mean by that. BUT a customer who deserves to be called every name in the book and then some, decided to leave me a very nasty negative feedback that not only was an outright lie but was left without ANY prior communication to me so I could possibly make things right. This person is a habitual negative feedback leaver. I blame this imbecile and I blame the system that allowed him to leave his malicious lie.

I contacted a representative of this company and did get some satisfaction in that this moron is now flagged by them, which means should he leave another negative feedback his account will be suspended or removed. But they were powerless to remove the feedback from my record even after the representative saw that his accusations of me "overcharging for shipping and late arrival" were indeed not true as tracking records proved otherwise. Powerless? I think not. It is just their misguided policy that sorely needs changing.

So on the heels of this I composed a carefully worded letter to them (the representative promised that they read them) suggesting that before anyone leaves negative feedback, they MUST either contact the seller OR file a claim. And after, say 5 days, the buyer doesn't hear from the seller and get ssatisfaction, then they may leave their negative feedback. Simple. Right? This company is huge enough to hire a gaggle of nerds to write a program for that very thing.

I am skeptical that my suggestion will warrant their attention, but it was worth a try if anything to make life easier for future sellers. Because if there are no sellers there are no buyers, and thus no mega on-line auction site. N'est-ce pas?

Thanks for stopping by. I am now going to seek my bliss and continue working on new goodies for my Bethsbagz etsy shop. Even though the weather is freaking cold outside, it is springtime in the studio! Catch you later!~~~XXOO, Beth

Comments

[Heidi German]

Oh, BOO! That stinks. :( I hardly ever sell on that auction site anymore and the feedback policy is one of the big reasons. They've tipped the balance of power so that it all resides with the buyer rather than the seller--seems buyers have carte blanche to behave terribly and the sellers have no recourse to protect themselves. I don't believe for one second that they "can't" remove that unfounded negative feedback. They can, they just WON'T. I'd rather give my listing fees to sites that are more friendly to sellers.

[Cindyiscrafty.wordpress.com]

Beth, do you get those annoying what can we do better calls from seller support? I get them and if I am feeling particularly testy pick up (I have caller ID). MY biggest pet peeve is that as a seller you cannot leave negative feedback for a buyer. I have settings that prohibit people with a certain feedback score from bidding on my items, but with no negative feedback this artificially inflates the scores, so these twits can bid on my items. I have been lucky enough to not have too many, thankfully. I have, every time I spoke with them mentioned this stupid practice to them and asked how do they get a lower score? If you can only leave positive feedback you only get the low scores on the non-payers. They try to justify it by saying the sellers used the negative feedback too liberally and that is why they removed it. They must think I am really, really stupid to by that one! I then regale them with how that makes no kind of logical sense at all and they must think I am a moron to buy that one. I get nothing accomplished on the call, but feel better when I hang up knowing I made them squirm. Just keep on doign what you do and don't let the morons get you down! :O) If I have the least issue with a buyer no matter how slight, I block them from bidding on my auctions. Sorry to have to do it, but you gotta!