Consumerist reader Ed recently had a rather unpleasant experience with a merchant on eBay, so he did what many of us would do — he posted a negative review detailing his problems. But then the seller reached out to him with a proposition.
The backstory: Ed ordered a 5′ VGA cable on Feb. 4 from a seller in Hong Kong. The price, including shipping, was only $2.69. But when he finally received the cable, almost a month later, on March 2, he noticed it was actually only 4 feet long.
After he posted his negative feedback on eBay, he received the e-mail shown above. In addition to an apology, it reads, “We would like to do anything possible to fix our relationship… Is there any possibility to make the revision for the negative feedback? we can give you 10usd reimbursement if you can simply remove the negative feedback for us.”
And so Ed wants to see what the Consumerist hive-mind would suggest.
“I would like to take the $10 but eBay feedback is there for a purpose,” he writes. “Should I take the $10 and feel guilty or leave the negative feedback to notify other future customers?”
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When you got the item did you tell the seller that is was too short and give him a chance to fix it before you left bad feedback? If not then you should remove the bad feedback. If you gave him every chance to fix the problem and he did not fix it then leave the feedback the way it is. Never let people buy a good or bad feedback. The feedback is there to help buyers and sellers after you know whether or not they are good people to deal with.
Ed is being a whiny cheapskate. Leaving negative feedback without first contacting seller is pretty petty and not necessary. As an eBay seller, it is always the crappy little sales you get negative feedback from. No matter what you try and do; mistakes will be made. Do you even understand how negative feedback affects a seller? First of all, eBay will hold your money for 25 days, then they will put lots of restrictions on your account and other punitive measures.
You see you can no longer leave negative feedback for buyers so the system is effectively useless. Buyers can do as they wish and keep buying running their scams. I get buyers who buy stuff then complain to eBay item wasn’t as described then send back something different. They do that all the time and eBay does nothing But a seller gets a couple negative feedback and all of a sudden their money is tied up for nearly a month. All because some neophyte who doesn’t understand how the system works decides to leave negative or neutral feedback (both have the same negative effect upon your account status) without even giving the seller a chance to rectify the situation. Please leave me your eBay name so I can block you as a buyer. I really don’t want to deal with people like you.
We make every attempt to provide items exactly as stated. We have to Paypal will come grab the money out of our accounts immediately if a case is opened up. Your seller made an honest mistake so now you kick a guy when he is down. How nice of a person are you. When there is an issue, we resolve it in house and quickly or provide a refund. We get buyer shakedowns all the time where they get an item at a good price, then complain about some very minor issue and ask for a partial refund or they will leave negative feedback. (Feedback extortion) or complain a brand new item doesn’t work and send it back (it works) buyer remorse. We have to pick up the postage and lost marketing time. Sellers hate people like you. Picky, bitchy and ignorant. Go pick up a cable at Radio Shack and stop ruining peoples lives.
You should change the feedback to positive and not take the money. Stop being a jerk and learn how eBay works before you damage someones ability to make a living. You probably took the food out of his childrens mouths and he is now probably walking the street begging for food because some self righteous prima-donna who expects everything to be perfect.
The same place you read he did, I wager.
I just went through a similar situation.
In the process of resolving the case I found the official E-bay policy.
Examples of Feedback extortion
The buyer can’t threaten to leave negative Feedback or low detailed seller ratings (DSRs) if the seller won’t:
Accept a return and pay for return shipping.
Give a full or partial refund for an item.
Lower the shipping and handling costs.
Refund payment before the buyer ships the item back to the seller.
Send an extra item that wasn’t part of the original listing. (This doesn’t include when a buyer requests a replacement for an item that doesn’t match the original item description.)
The seller can’t:
Refuse to ship the item or refund the buyer unless the buyer leaves positive Feedback or high detailed seller ratings.
Tell the buyer that they can’t use a warranty included in the listing unless the buyer leaves positive Feedback or high detailed seller ratings.
Offer monetary compensation, like a partial refund, to the buyer in exchange for positive Feedback or revising negative or neutral Feedback.
The applicable portion is the last.
Those are the rules and violations will get you banned for like.
I just went through a similar situation.
In the process of resolving the case I found the official E-bay policy.
Examples of Feedback extortion
The buyer can’t threaten to leave negative Feedback or low detailed seller ratings (DSRs) if the seller won’t:
Accept a return and pay for return shipping.
Give a full or partial refund for an item.
Lower the shipping and handling costs.
Refund payment before the buyer ships the item back to the seller.
Send an extra item that wasn’t part of the original listing. (This doesn’t include when a buyer requests a replacement for an item that doesn’t match the original item description.)
The seller can’t:
Refuse to ship the item or refund the buyer unless the buyer leaves positive Feedback or high detailed seller ratings.
Tell the buyer that they can’t use a warranty included in the listing unless the buyer leaves positive Feedback or high detailed seller ratings.
Offer monetary compensation, like a partial refund, to the buyer in exchange for positive Feedback or revising negative or neutral Feedback.
The applicable portion is the last.
Those are the rules and violations will get you banned for like.
did they also give you a full refund?
as an ebay seller i would have offered a refund before it even came to negative feedback- but i assume this is somesort of “ebay company” not a lone individual selling stuff out of their basement (like me.)
IF the buyer tried several times to contact the seller and after several weeks the only way to finally grab his attention was to leave negative feedback- then please leave the feedback as is.
If a seller makes a mistake, and offers a reasonable solution, the feedback should then reflect the solution, not the mistake. Give positive feedback and state the truth, “Seller sent item not as described, but has made amends.”
On the other hand, the seller should not be offering monetary compensation for removal of negative feedback. I agree with a previous poster who said they should be focused on the customer satisfaction portion to resolve the situation, and then politely ask that if their opinion had changed, that they would appreciate the feedback updated accordingly.
Folks dont realize how bad a screwing ebay now gives to a seller who makes even the tiniest mistake. We have received a low “star” rating in the past for a problem we didnt know about and always ask our customers that if they have an issue, we will work with them to make sure they are satisfied. If a seller gets 4 low STARS in any category or over a 1% bad rating out of all of your sales, they knock you down to the lowest level and then start holding all your received payments from your customers and make you ship on your dime and let you have your money 3 days after tracking info shows your item was received by your customer. Ebay makes life extremely difficult for sellers and buyers can rip them off so easily. I personally dont care what ebay thinks anymore. The days of happy trading are long gone. And Paypal can bite me also (owned by ebay).
You owe it to other people to leave it there. If someone had written that the cables were only 4ft long, it’d have saved you the inconvenience. For all you know, someone DID write it and they paid to have it removed and it resulted in you getting shafted. Keep the bad review. Your integrity is surely priceless?
I left a negative comment once due to a seller shipping me the wrong item (I had bought a Sega Saturn RF cable and he sent me an incompatible Genesis RF cable). I left negative feedback, bought (and received) the CORRECT item from another seller (who also sold me a factory-sealed NiGHTS for $12, but I digress…).
Anyway, the original seller contacted me by email, and then by phone (which honestly sort of creeped me out), and in the end, I accepted a refund, gave the wrong item to a friend who needed it, and agreed to remove my feedback altogether.
Couldn’t fault the guy for trying, really.
Another vote to reject the dishonest bribe. An Ebayer once sold me something defective, refused to return my calls until I left negative feedback and then suddenly called wanting to “help.”
If anything there should be a policy to report bribes to Ebay and get them kicked off.
Have EBAY refund the money (product not as described). Then tell the company you do not need to be reimbursed more than once.
Maybe they really did make an honest mistake. Give them a break.
Personally, I took the bad seller’s money, left them negative feedback, got a separate ebay refund, AND kept the item. I wanted to screw them as much as possible for selling a counterfeit Canon battery to me. As it turned out, battery was not that bad (but maybe not genuine Canon quality).
I had a seller (Also from Hong Kong) offer to refund me the cost of a cable and send me a new working one if I changed the feedback. I agreed, but he never sent the replacement cable. New policy? Never buy from Hong Kong.
Buyer should have contacted seller about the problem. Buyer should ask seller to send the right item, express, and change it to a neutral feedback (mentioning the problem&fix) after the right item arrives.
I voted No for the simple fact his review may help future buyers. However, if the seller offered to correct the specs of their item I would consider taking down a negative review.
I think Ed needs to ask himself why he posted the negative comment in the first place. Was it to lash out at the seller or was he trying to help future buyers? Maybe both….if so, what does Ed consider more important?
Take the $10 and remove the negative feedback. Should have contacted the seller before posting the negative feedback and given him a chance to make the situation right.
Seller is now trying to fix the situation letting you keep the cable and giving you $10 for your trouble… $10 you can take to Radio Shack and buy a 15′ foot cable and have money left over to buy yourself a Coke.
http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2484252
Take your free 4′ cable, sell it on eBay and then profit!
Or, you can just be a mean person and let the feedback stand.
I hope the seller gets the feedback removed, and then DOESN”T pay. F this guy for giving negative feedback for something this trivial. If he contacted the seller, I’m sure he would have been given either a refund or been shipped the correct cable for no charge. Ebay’s police is bulling sellers, since they can’t leave anything but positive feedback.
It’s a 3$ item people. It’s not like he bought a 50k Mercedes. Come on folks. He can get 2 extra cables with that $ for god sakes stop being so damn cheap. Stop squeezing the Nickle till the buffalo poops.