I did a transaction with a seller a while ago, and the transaction was a relatively poor transaction, with the seller starting with the wrong delivery details (correct details provided on the transaction), and sending the wrong item.
The seller was left a negative feedback because of both, the item being sent incorrectly, and his close attempt at addressing the item to the wrong address.
The seller didn’t like the negative, and responded with threats of leaving a negative feedback item unless I removed the feedback.
I declined, after close research revealed a negative can be removed if left as a result of blackmail / retalitory negative.
I have plenty of proof the negative is retaliatory, with a Square Trade complaint and numerous emails from this seller outlining all of his threats.
He even threatened to sue me for defamation, loss of income and stress his staff apparently suffered.. – STILL WAITING.
I am still refusing to be bullied into being silenced, and it seems that eBay do take such actions by sellers in a negative light, which is a good thing.
They could prevent all this crap though, all they have to do is restrict the feedback order, the seller must leave feedback after payment is received, and the buyer must leave feedback after the item is received.
This means that feedback can’t be subject to blackmail from sellers trying to influence the ratings (this seller liked to pride themselves on their 0 negative rating). I guess all the auctions are now misleading, as they do have 1 negative feedback now.
The system by eBay could then be enhanced more to allow feedback on not received, not paid items after a set time, or after a complaint has been opened with eBay, therefore removing the influence of negative feedback blackmail / threats.
Then, we had another idiotic seller, who sat on my payment without shipping for 2 days (admitted it), but I left him a neutrel, thought that’d be fair.
Anyway, the response from the seller after I paid quickly, was a neutrel feedback which was something along the lines of:
“Shipment delayed by x ” …
I was the buyer here.. Why punish me for HIS stuff up?
eBay really need to think out the feedback system more. It really needs to be as free as possible from outside influence, and needs to be as much as possible, operated in a procedural fashion to prevent this sort of rubbish from happening..
Sellers should be required to leave feedback to get feedback (which is generally their own motivation anyway), and buyers should be able to leave feedback after they have received an item.
Simple enough really.. maybe eBay might see the simplicity, but more to it, the accuracy increase such measures will have.
Does eBay support a seller bullying environment?
Let’s hope not, because without buyers, eBay wouldn’t really have much for sellers to stay there for.
Enjoy!