redtires

Some good feedback here. So, full disclosure, mine isn't helpful. This is why I rarely sell anything on eBay. I'm not nice to people like that, and my response would not only include cancelling the sale, but a relatively colorful response which may require a new eBay account.

SteelThisBike

If the buyer leaves bad feedback you can answer it, and you should. As a buyer I always check that. If the seller had one or two bad feebacks, with the seller posting a reasonable response, it makes that seller look even better to me. Too many sellers simply buy good feedback. I can also tell you as a seller, I've had some costly things happen to me, with buyers damaging things then claiming I hadn't disclosed damage. The best way to sell on ebay is if you can (mentally, at least) write off the cost of the item should things go south. If you can't, it's better to sell locally. Just my opinion.

dwolsten

You posting a response doesn't change the numbers: that negative feedback ruins your feedback score (esp. if you had a 100% score beforehand), and your response doesn't do anything to change that. Potential buyers only see your responses if they bother to look for them. It's much easier to just avoid the negative feedback in the first place, by avoiding buyers like this (i.e., this guy should simply cancel the sale, which prevents the buyer from leaving feedback at all).

The feedback score is the most valuable thing to you on Ebay as a seller, much more valuable than the money you might get from a single sale (which can easily be contested by the buyer if he claims the product was misrepresented or something). All your actions should be done with the goal of preserving that feedback score.

wphamilton

As an EX seller there (high volume Power Seller), I advise you to contact the buyer and offer to cancel the order. Personally I'd offer to cancel it if you haven't sent it, or to send him a return label if he wanted to return it. If you are concerned about feedback left, this one is almost certainly going to be a ding.

As for why this happened, as a general rule you should actually ship on the day that you purchased the shipping. I know, you want him to get that notice that it's "shipped" but if you then DON'T ship, you've already set up his expectations that are going to fail.

Secondly, while you CAN specify "5 business days handling time" that's a terrible idea. 1, a lot of buyers won't read that and 2, almost all buyers are going to expect better performance, and 3, there's no reason for it. Get it in the mail within 1 day of payment at worst. SAME day is the way to do it right.

katsup

Negative feedback falls off after a year, it is not as important as it was 15 years ago. It is rare to see any seller below 90%, or even 95%, unless they are a high volume seller. I'm not scared to take negative feedback, but have only done it once in the last 15 years due to refusing a return when the buyer clearly didn't read the description.

In OP's case, I would of just cancelled the transaction, especially if he hadn't shipped yet.

wphamilton

That's good policy, generally accepting returns. I went the whole way with it, a "No Questions" return policy because it eliminates all of the back and forth, deciding on valid returns, all arguments, and having to track all that sort of thing. I know that most people see that as extreme but time saved more than made up for any extra returns. I only rejected a very few people who made a habit of buying 5 times as much as they wanted just to compare and returning most of it.


I don't think that impacts OP's main problem though since his buyer is going to be a pain if he wants to return the item regardless of OP's stated policy.

dwolsten

Yes, but because of this, when I'm buying, a feedback score of less than 95% looks very bad to me and I avoid such sellers. In other words, the bar has been raised (or, you could say, the numerical score considered "good" is different now). So, IMO, nothing has really changed except what number passes for "good". Feedback is still important to me as a buyer, and sellers with 100% feedback scores are more likely to get my business.

katsup

Not a lot of people know this and I doubt it affects much business. I only sell about ~$2k a year and didn't notice any difference when I had 1 negative mark, but my feedback was still 98%. I only use eBay to get rid of old stuff, it is easier than having a garage sale.

Homebrew01

You can cancel your shipping label through Ebay

lkoyanagi

Hes a shopper. Send it. No remourse. Dont accept returns in the future. Its his butt, not yours. Hes putting his stupidity on you.

Bigbus

Ditto. If you haven't shipped yet you can request a refund on the shipping. You can't please everyone. And because you don't accept returns, he gets to keep it even if ebay gives him a refund of your money. DO NOT SHIP!

indyfabz

I'm not the OP, so nothing is one me.

My point to the OP was that eBay's rules may limit/prescribe his available "recourse," so he should start there. No sense in people giving him options which may be not available to him.

If someone came to me and asked "I think my former employer calculated my pension incorrectly. What is my recourse." I would be remiss in telling him to file suit right away because pension law requires an aggrieved pensioner to first follow the pension plan's administrative remedies procedure. File suit without first doing that and the suit will, except in extremely rare instances, be summarily thrown out.

WizardOfBoz

Igorek,

So what did you do?

igorek

I sent him a message and he didn't reply so the next day (11/07/18) I refunded then blocked him.

Now how to figure out to make Ebay not charge me for this transaction?

wingless

WizardOfBoz

You have to cancel the transaction to avoid the charge, which may be hard since you've already refunded the money.

ak08820

Exactly what I was going to say. In addition, you could cancel it too, indicating item not available - no reason needed.
Wonder why he bought it for $20 more than new one and why you priced it like that, too.

egibson

I agree here that eBay give all the power to buyer's even when they may be bad buyers. It's time to take back the power! I recommend you eat a big bowl of chilli and then a few hours later take a dump in a box and ship that to this ****TY buyer! Now that's what I call flawless

Ok - back to reality - I can confirm that you can cancel the shipping label online through ebay - have had to do that many times.

Good luck

nextSibling

Don't offer to cancel the sale. Cancel it - no negotiation necessary. Then block the buyer. Then go on with your life. Not worth giving toxic people any more brain space than you have to.

jefnvk

Everyone is bashing on him for pricing it for $20 more than new, without considering that the new for $20 less may have been a one-off eBay listing that popped up after he created his, may have been a sale from some obscure online store that took the guy an hour to find, or may have been something completely different than what he was actually offering for sale that just looked like the item our poster was listing.

ak08820

Didn't know that asking for a clarification is now called bashing.

chazlock

Lots of scammers on eBay. Some wait til you ship and then cancel. Lose your item and eBay takes your money away

Gresp15C

When eBay started out, they were referred to as "America's Garage Sale." As they matured, they made a transition to being more of an online retail platform. What that means for the small scale individual seller is that you get to experience all the joys of being a retailer, including having to "eat" the occasional bad sale. This is what consumers expect from all retailers nowadays. It's great if you're Home Depot or WalMart, but kind of sucks if you're an individual trying to hold an online garage sale and expecting it to work like a garage sale.

This isn't to blame the OP in any way. It's just my observation of the business.

Witterings

See if the little fockers get anything for sale himself on e-bay and bid it to the roof ... he'll be really pleased with the price he's got at the end of the auction and then do the same to him .... or buy it and return a brick as goods not as described :-)

Sounds like scum ... could do with a taste of his own medicine