So sad I messed up my Ebay

[nhocgreen]

Last week I received a negative feedback from a customer saying that the phone case I sold arrived broken.

I immediately contacted her and explained that the case was damaged during transit and offered a free Replacement. All she had to do was waiting the new package to arrive (20-30 days). I also asked her if she was okay with this and agreed to change her feedback (I was so neglect to state that a Positive feedback was required).

She agreed, I sent her a feedback revision request, she then changed the Negative Feedback to Neutral Feedback, which was apparently the same.

I was so upset at that time but I chose to do nothing because after all it was my fault. Then I sent out the replacement to her, like a week ago. I didn't use tracking-service as the shipping cost is about $20, when my case is only $6.49, that's too much and I had to pay for all of that.

Every email from her was responded within less than 12 hours.

From then, I haven't heard any news from her until 2 days ago, when I emailed her to ask if she could change the feedback to Positive (I didn't know the feedback can only be changed once, stupid me!!) and she replied something like this

"I never got my replacement case and I really wasn't happy with the original being how it was :/"

At that time I thought she was just explaining why she changed the feedback to Neutral and she didn't want to change it to Positive. And I was kind of upset so I didn't reply her back.

Until today, she opened a Refund Request saying that she never received the replacement and want her money back. I was like WTF when receiving the request this morning. I mean, she DID know that it would take about 20-30 days for the item to arrive but she still opened the Request just 7 days after the replacement was sent out.

So I emailed her right after receiving that god damn request LITERALLY BEGGING her to close the request and guaranteed to issue Full Refund then. I also explained that her Request would hurt my selling metrics and that my projected seller performance had already been BELOW STANDARD and I was trying to improve it, but her request would pull it down to the hole.

She then replied that I sounded like scammer and I was just trying to steal her money ($6.49 for God's Sake), that if she closed the request, she would not be able to get the refund (I mean, if I steal her money, she can always open a Dispute / Claim on Paypal, right?). and that her request wouldn't hurt my selling metrics because SOMEONE, WHO IS PROFESSIONAL ON EBAY, TOLD HER THAT, she accused me of making things up to scam her. She also said that I never replied to her emails until she opened this case (?????)

So yeah, I was extremely hopeless at the moment I received her response. But I tried to send her evidence to prove that her request, along with her Neutral feedback, DID hurt my selling metrics (I sent her screenshots of my seller performance along with a note from Ebay saying that my seller performance is at risk)

Sadly, she was so sure I'm a scammer that she refused to help me despite the fact that I was literally down on my knees begging her.

I was so mad that after refunded her money in full, I emailed to her email address (using the email I registered to Ebay AND Paypal, so basically my emails didn't go through Ebay system) something like this (I know this wasn't right and I was totally off the limits but I was so freaking madddd)

It's a god damn $6.49 ! For God's sake! It must be sooo hard for you to lose all hope in humanity! Thanks to you now my shop will be closed in no time. And this will be on yours. Karma will come back around in no time. And I promise you will be in my situation soon. Thank you for nothing!

People like you are the reason why we have middle fingers. Can't believe it, it's a god-damn $6.49 omfg! You hurt other people for $6.49 omg!!!

I also used other email addresses to swear at her (using "f" words).

So now, she's reporting me to Ebay and making sure my Ebay shop will be closed soon.

In summary, this transaction costs me:
- 2 cases
- A refund
- A shop on Ebay
- Maybe my Paypal account.

Yeah I know this is largely my fault. But somehow I'm still really mad.

And Ebay is such an @sshole . Grrr.

But do you guys think my Paypal might be suspended after this incidence? I mean, I know my Ebay shop will be closed but will it happen to my Paypal account?

Thank you for reading my story I was so stressed I need to put it out somewhere :(

[Bunneh]

sigh, firstly i feel for you and your situation, i know we have all been there one way or another.

I know this may be hard to hear, but you do need to learn self control when it comes to buyers, no matter how angry and enraged you feel. (even if you know you are right)
You will learn that most buyers use ebay as there own personal playground.

Since you have more than likely received low DSR's from this buyer, as well as bad feedback & given a refund all under the same transaction, you can only receive 1 defect.

If you really want to save your account, you need to sell a lot more items, a lot cheaper & offer free shipping as you only have until the 20th of the month to save your already below standard account.

I doubt paypal will close your account over this one transaction, but if it happens repeatedly then yes they will.

[Callidus]

Originally Posted by Bunneh

I know this may be hard to hear, but you do need to learn self control when it comes to buyers, no matter how angry and enraged you feel. (even if you know you are right)
You will learn that most buyers use ebay as there own personal playground.

So true. OP forget putting any emotion into a message back to the buyer. Try and resolve the issue in future without the anger. Usually it is best to call, lots of keyboard warriors out there.

Offer them free postage return, replacements and compensation. It may kill some of your profit but without eBay you cannot sell, so it is worth it.

[Ebayorbust]

lots of keyboard warriors out there

I've seen you tackle a few on here as well in the last couple of days.

[Callidus]

Originally Posted by Ebayorbust

I've seen you tackle a few on here as well in the last couple of days.

too right, nothing that wasn't deserved.

[muzzie]

This is just how EB works. To be a successful seller, you must be stone cold and calm, otherwise you will be in a trouble. No any emotions in emails / PMs. If the buyer wants something - do it and forget it, as you will never win a case against a buyer. Alive, but wounded account is better, than instantly suspended one.

[solefoodbk]

Originally Posted by Ebayorbust

I've seen you tackle a few on here as well in the last couple of days.

I wonder what thread this was?

[jeffweico]

First, I'm sorry this happened. eBay CAN sometimes be unreasonable. But you also bear some responsibility here.

It was NOT that ONE transaction that lost you the account. You mentioned you were already "below standard". It may have been that the last transaction pushed you over the edge, but it was not the only factor involved.

First, Americans are generally impatient people. When we decide we want something, we want it YESTERDAY! We don't want to wait 3-4 weeks for it to arrive. Even when we see the seller is outside the USA and SPECIFIES that shipping will take a long time, we STILL don't want to wait (although we DO want the savings!) but we deal with it.

So, this woman received the item which was damaged in transit and was ALREADY not happy. Then you offered to send the free replacement, which is a GOOD thing, but she probably didn't want to hear that it would be ANOTHER 30 days to receive it. Of course, being outside the US, it really couldn't be avoided, but the customer is never going to be as understanding as your fellow sellers are.

Not using tracking was a mistake, because neither the buyer or you have any way of knowing just where the package IS. If you had tacking and could have shown your buyer that the replacement was going to be there in just a few days, things may have turned out differently

When things went south, you sent her the nasty message that you quoted in your original post. If eBay was on the fence, sending that message DEFINITELY guaranteed the account would be closed!

Bottom line is, you will have to start over. But to be successful, you will have to figure out exactly WHY your account went below standard in the first place to try to avoid that from happening again. Once an account goes below standard, it is VERY HARD to bring it back up, because it takes a LOT OF PERFECT SALES to make up for each bad one.

You will also have to keep your emotions in check. The message that you sent would have GUARANTEED your account would be closed, even if your DSR's were all 5's and your positive feedback was 100% with 10,000 sales. Neither eBay nor Amazon will tolerate threatening their customers or being unprofessional to the point of using foul language. The way eBay sees it, they just lost a BUYER who will probably also tell her friends about her bad experience.

While your PayPal account MAY survive, I would tend to doubt it. If it DOES survive, you would not be able to use it with another eBay account. While PayPal and eBay will be separate companies very soon, they still share FAR TOO MUCH information for that to happen.

So my suggestion would be:

1) Figure out what caused the account to go below standard and make a plan to correct it.
2) Figure out how you will keep your emotions in check in the future.
3) Set up a few new eBay and PayPal accounts so that you can spread your risk out over several accounts.
4) Nurture those accounts, doing EVERYTHING YOU CAN to avoid any buyer complaints ESPECIALLY in the beginning.

If you do those 4 things, you should be back selling on eBay very soon and should be able to build your sales up in a relatively short period of time, Unfortunately, there is no INSTANT FIX for this.

[solefoodbk]

All I can say is,

You can't expect to resolve a issue by saying I'll "send you a new one but you will get in 20-30 MORE days". That's a long time for a phone case.

If you think of it from a buyers perspective buying a case, they need it to protect their phone from every day use. If they have to wait ANOTHER 20-30 days without a case thats a long time to wait. I always have a case for my iphone because I drop it, I wouldn't want to wait that long for a case either.

BUT obviously its not like the price was expensive I'm just playing devils advocate on replying with that as the first solution. Why do you sell iphone cases? I would assume to get feedback as I can't imagine its a profit generator for you, maybe it is?

With items under $10 just refund them the money and let them keep it. If its in this case a iphone case, refund them the 6 dollars and send them a new one. Is it going the extra mile? Yes.

You have to be smart when your dealing with the sharks on eBay. You can only be mad at yourself for playing victim in the end. And I only say that because when you sell items UNDER 10$ your getting the bottom of the barrel buyers WHO ALWAYS are the ones that leave negatives, usually.

I've said it before and I'll say it again.....

Look at the powersellers from china. They sell jewelry to ONLY gain feedback, nothing else. Well maybe make a few dollars on the more "expensive" 5$ jewelry but if you look at their negatives its usually always from the cheap items their selling. "cheaply made" "item took too long to ship" "bad customer service" etc etc....and these items usually sell for under $2.

You decide what you sell and if its worth the hassle. There are plenty other ways to gain feedback and small sales other than iphone cases, but to each is own.

[jeffweico]

Originally Posted by solefoodbk

And I only say that because when you sell items UNDER 10$ your getting the bottom of the barrel buyers WHO ALWAYS are the ones that leave negatives, usually.

That is SO TRUE! Most of the time, when I get a negative, it is from some buyer who bought a dirt cheap item. THOSE are the buyers I can't stand! They get something for next to nothing and expect it to be perfect in every way, even though the listing CLEARLY states otherwise...

[solefoodbk]

Originally Posted by jeffweico

That is SO TRUE! Most of the time, when I get a negative, it is from some buyer who bought a dirt cheap item. THOSE are the buyers I can't stand! They get something for next to nothing and expect it to be perfect in every way, even though the listing CLEARLY states otherwise...

I think anybody can who sells successfully on eBay can attest to this.

Anything under $10 I just expect the worse and hope for the best. The $40-$80 for me is when you get the BEST customers. Sometimes when its above $100 is when they can start getting picky. Obviously it solely depends on what your selling. Just in general I like that range the most as a seller for what I sell.

Theres ranges where you can click the price point also.

I think majority of kids 10-16 buy from that range. Obviously adults do, but I think alot of it is kids who just want to cause problems and don't look at us as "real" sellers.

[RoxJox]

Originally Posted by jeffweico

First, I'm sorry this happened. eBay CAN sometimes be unreasonable. But you also bear some responsibility here.

It was NOT that ONE transaction that lost you the account. You mentioned you were already "below standard". It may have been that the last transaction pushed you over the edge, but it was not the only factor involved.

First, Americans are generally impatient people. When we decide we want something, we want it YESTERDAY! We don't want to wait 3-4 weeks for it to arrive. Even when we see the seller is outside the USA and SPECIFIES that shipping will take a long time, we STILL don't want to wait (although we DO want the savings!) but we deal with it.

So, this woman received the item which was damaged in transit and was ALREADY not happy. Then you offered to send the free replacement, which is a GOOD thing, but she probably didn't want to hear that it would be ANOTHER 30 days to receive it. Of course, being outside the US, it really couldn't be avoided, but the customer is never going to be as understanding as your fellow sellers are.

Not using tracking was a mistake, because neither the buyer or you have any way of knowing just where the package IS. If you had tacking and could have shown your buyer that the replacement was going to be there in just a few days, things may have turned out differently

When things went south, you sent her the nasty message that you quoted in your original post. If eBay was on the fence, sending that message DEFINITELY guaranteed the account would be closed!

Bottom line is, you will have to start over. But to be successful, you will have to figure out exactly WHY your account went below standard in the first place to try to avoid that from happening again. Once an account goes below standard, it is VERY HARD to bring it back up, because it takes a LOT OF PERFECT SALES to make up for each bad one.

You will also have to keep your emotions in check. The message that you sent would have GUARANTEED your account would be closed, even if your DSR's were all 5's and your positive feedback was 100% with 10,000 sales. Neither eBay nor Amazon will tolerate threatening their customers or being unprofessional to the point of using foul language. The way eBay sees it, they just lost a BUYER who will probably also tell her friends about her bad experience.

While your PayPal account MAY survive, I would tend to doubt it. If it DOES survive, you would not be able to use it with another eBay account. While PayPal and eBay will be separate companies very soon, they still share FAR TOO MUCH information for that to happen.

So my suggestion would be:

1) Figure out what caused the account to go below standard and make a plan to correct it.
2) Figure out how you will keep your emotions in check in the future.
3) Set up a few new eBay and PayPal accounts so that you can spread your risk out over several accounts.
4) Nurture those accounts, doing EVERYTHING YOU CAN to avoid any buyer complaints ESPECIALLY in the beginning.

If you do those 4 things, you should be back selling on eBay very soon and should be able to build your sales up in a relatively short period of time, Unfortunately, there is no INSTANT FIX for this.

Outstanding definition, Jeffweico!

[nhocgreen]

Hi guys, thank you so much for your thoughtful advice, I really appreciate it!

I want to explain a bit about the reason why my Seller performance went to Below Standard.

The thing is living in Vietnam makes it so hard when it comes to shipping service. The post office does not provide tracking-service for International Standard Shipping. In order to obtain a tracking number for a shipment, I have to upgrade the service and it costs hell a lot of money (usually $20++). I find myself trapped in a shipping stalemate.

Ebay also does not allow new sellers to set up the shipping time. They forced me to choose Expedited US Shipping (3-6 days) so it caused a lot of confusions for buyers. All of the Request and Negative feedback came from this problem and I still couldn't figure out how to deal with it with my new Ebay :(

[nhocgreen]

Originally Posted by solefoodbk

I think anybody can who sells successfully on eBay can attest to this.

Anything under $10 I just expect the worse and hope for the best. The $40-$80 for me is when you get the BEST customers. Sometimes when its above $100 is when they can start getting picky. Obviously it solely depends on what your selling. Just in general I like that range the most as a seller for what I sell.

Theres ranges where you can click the price point also.

I think majority of kids 10-16 buy from that range. Obviously adults do, but I think alot of it is kids who just want to cause problems and don't look at us as "real" sellers.

Well I absolutely agree with you on this. My main customers are mostly kids and teenagers. And they are extremely unreasonable to talk to

[dan_ebay]

Originally Posted by nhocgreen

Hi guys, thank you so much for your thoughtful advice, I really appreciate it!

I want to explain a bit about the reason why my Seller performance went to Below Standard.

The thing is living in Vietnam makes it so hard when it comes to shipping service. The post office does not provide tracking-service for International Standard Shipping. In order to obtain a tracking number for a shipment, I have to upgrade the service and it costs hell a lot of money (usually $20++). I find myself trapped in a shipping stalemate.

Ebay also does not allow new sellers to set up the shipping time. They forced me to choose Expedited US Shipping (3-6 days) so it caused a lot of confusions for buyers. All of the Request and Negative feedback came from this problem and I still couldn't figure out how to deal with it with my new Ebay :(

Not much you can do really, i set all mine to second class delivery (2-3 days) and send first class and still end up with like 3% on dsrs lol. You sure you can't chose a different shipping? Doesn't sound right

[tannedweekend]

I always show longer estimate time when it takes.
I know i am loosing some sales but i am a bit safer on DSR
We alll have options there and can make changes anytime.

[Freakman]

A little late to your conversation party but yeah you need to communicate with your buyers better. Let them know it will be delayed with a msg or two. Ebay is a sucking up game to the buyers when they are confused or mad. Offer partial refund or full refund like you did. Most of the time it will prevent negative feedbacks. Not everyone is as bright as you think.

Self control and if you never heard this one, it's a good one. The customer is usually always wrong, but in business practice, they are always right.

[Knotorious]

It was going All downhill once you shipped the refund with no tracking. And when the angry emails like that start flowin "Dont Hit Send" because a US seller will go all out to make sure things go bad for you .

Time time get that stealth guide.

[Knotorious]

*US Buyer will go all out