Problem selling on Ebay. Your views.

sanaxe1 · 4 Dec 2018 at 11:14

Yes another ebay thread. Now i am a Powerseller and in the last year have sold around 15,000 items and only have 8 negative feedback. The problem is that 2 of these negative feedback are from 1 customer.

Here is what happened. She purchased 4 items to activate my offer of buy 3 get 1 free. To do this she purchased 2 colours of the same item and adds to 2 to the cart , she goes back and chooses 2 other colours of the same item from the same ebay selling page. Ebay then combines them and automatically deducts the price of 1 item and she effectively gets 1 free. She then pays me in 1 payment. I then send her 4 items in 1 package.

Now the problem starts when the Royal Mail lost the item. Before contacting me she left me negative feedback stating it has now been 4 days instead of the free next day delivery i offer. I then check the tracking and the tracking does not work correctly usually meaning it has been lost. While i believe this is harsh as I could have rectified it if only she had let me know. But shes unhapppy and i accept the Negative feedback. The problem is though is she then left me a second negative feedback for the same order again stating she didn't receive it.

As she added 2 colours to the shopping cart and then another 2 colours of the same item ebay are saying it was 2 transactions. My argument is it is 1 transaction as ebay combined them to make the offer valid. If she did buy them in 2 transactions then the offer would not of worked and she would have had 2 orders of 2 with no discount applied. She also only paid in 1 paypal transaction and she only has 1 order number for both but they are split into colours. They were all sent in the same package.

I have tried talking to ebay customer support but it feels like they are reading from a script and they keep repeating that it is 2 transactions. I have been passed to 4 departments and have now been told a decision will be made in 72 hours.

So what do you guys think is it 1 transaction or 2? How do you define what is 1 transaction?

Maundie · 4 Dec 2018 at 11:18

Surely it has to be 1 transaction to activate the offer?!?

Abyss · 4 Dec 2018 at 11:19

It's 1 transaction, the transaction is the point at which you pay for the goods in the cart. I've done it before by buying different items from the same seller to get a reduction.

Are the value of the items low? If so I'd be tempted to just offer a refund as a goodwill gesture if she has been charged for 4 when you advertise you charge for 3.

sanaxe1 · 4 Dec 2018 at 11:25

Abyss said:
It's 1 transaction, the transaction is the point at which you pay for the goods in the cart. I've done it before by buying different items from the same seller to get a reduction.

Are the value of the items low? If so I'd be tempted to just offer a refund as a goodwill gesture if she has been charged for 4 when you advertise you charge for 3.

Sorry i might not have made it clear. she paid for 3 and received 4. Well would have received 4 if the item made it to her but it was lost by the royal mail. The total value is only around £30. I did ask if she would remove the negative feedback if i sent the replacements before the royal mail investigation but she said no. Its more that i don't like the idea that future customers could leave so many negative feedbacks. I sell 10 colours and it is not uncommon for someone to buy 1 of each. This would leave me open to 10 negative feedback's for 1 order if it was lost in the post.

-westy- · 4 Dec 2018 at 11:28

Surely the fact that she had to buy them all in one transaction to activate the offer means that it's...one transaction? She also paid once - in one transaction.

cheesyboy · 4 Dec 2018 at 11:37

Ebay's software system is really creaking. They need a major overhaul badly.

Little holes in the system like this pop up all the time.

touch · 4 Dec 2018 at 11:41

cheesyboy said:
Ebay's software system is really creaking. They need a major overhaul badly.

This is how ebay has always worked.
I could buy 10 different items from 10 different sellers and only have 1 paypal transaction. Clearly, it wouldn't be a good idea to only have 1 feedback option for that transaction. It would also be a pain if I had to pay each one with an individual transaction so the way ebay have done it is the best option IMO.

sanaxe1 · 4 Dec 2018 at 11:45

touch said:
This is how ebay has always worked.
I could buy 10 different items from 10 different sellers and only have 1 paypal transaction. Clearly, it wouldn't be a good idea to only have 1 feedback option for that transaction. It would also be a pain if I had to pay each one with an individual transaction so the way ebay have done it is the best option IMO.

Hello, that is incorrect. If you purchased 10 items from 10 sellers then you would only have to click buy once but there would be 10 paypal transactions as the amount has to go to each seller paypal account.

If you go on OCUK or any other online website or physical store and you put a graphic card in the basket and then a PSU in the basket and then pay it is 1 transaction. But according to Ebay this is 2.

Psycho Sonny · 4 Dec 2018 at 11:54

" in the last year have sold around 15,000 items and only have 8 negative feedback"

i wouldn't worry about it tbh.

your negative feedback is so low this additional 1 negative isn't going to make any difference IMO.

unless you think now you will be getting a lot more negatives.

the buyer sounds like a typical woman tbh. they cannot be reasoned with. i've had one leave me negative feedback once i explained to her that i had set up the sale wrong and that buying multiple items shouldn't be discounting postage as the items were heavy and therefore cheaper to post individually. i would be out of pocket. she didn't care she wanted the items for the price paid and i said i could do it if she paid the correct postage and i had now updated the ebay listing to prevent further issues so i agreed a full refund and to cancel or she pay additional postage which should have been charged and get the items. she decided to get a full refund and leave neg feedback. it was an honest mistake i wasn't trying to scam her.

honestly forget about it and move on.

cheesyboy · 4 Dec 2018 at 11:57

touch said:
This is how ebay has always worked.
I could buy 10 different items from 10 different sellers and only have 1 paypal transaction. Clearly, it wouldn't be a good idea to only have 1 feedback option for that transaction. It would also be a pain if I had to pay each one with an individual transaction so the way ebay have done it is the best option IMO.

Yeah, so maybe the proposed overhaul I suggested would make it so that you could do both: have one transaction to buy from multiple sellers, but one feedback when buying multiple items from one seller.

Rifte · 4 Dec 2018 at 11:58

Psycho Sonny said:
" in the last year have sold around 15,000 items and only have 8 negative feedback"

i wouldn't worry about it tbh.

your negative feedback is so low this additional 1 negative isn't going to make any difference IMO.

unless you think now you will be getting a lot more negatives.

the buyer sounds like a typical woman tbh. they cannot be reasoned with. i've had one leave me negative feedback once i explained to her that i had set up the sale wrong and that buying multiple items shouldn't be discounting postage as the items were heavy and therefore cheaper to post individually. i would be out of pocket. she didn't care she wanted the items for the price paid and i said i could do it if she paid the correct postage and i had now updated the ebay listing to prevent further issues so i agreed a full refund and to cancel or she pay additional postage which should have been charged and get the items. she decided to get a full refund and leave neg feedback. it was an honest mistake i wasn't trying to scam her.

honestly forget about it and move on.

Yes I am of a similar opinion. 15000 and just 8 negative? If I was a buyer it wouldnt put me off.

touch · 4 Dec 2018 at 12:01

cheesyboy said:
Yeah, so maybe the proposed overhaul I suggested would make it so that you could do both: have one transaction to buy from multiple sellers, but one feedback when buying multiple items from one seller.

Ignore that, I'm wrong. As sanaxe said, you click the buy button once and authorise it via paypal but it actually shows up as individual transactions. So maybe it could be done better.

bremen1874 · 4 Dec 2018 at 12:08

If she'd bought two completely different items from you and paid for them in one go would that be one or two transactions?

If she'd bought the items she did but without the get-one-free offer would it be one or two transactions?

sanaxe1 · 4 Dec 2018 at 12:25

bremen1874 said:
If she'd bought two completely different items from you and paid for them in one go would that be one or two transactions?

bremen1874 said:

If she'd bought two completely different items from you and paid for them in one go would that be one or two transactions?

If she'd bought the items she did but without the get-one-free offer would it be one or two transactions?

Click to expand...

If she'd bought two completely different items from you and paid for them in one go would that be one or two transactions?

This would be 1 transaction as she would be filling up her shopping cart just as you would be on a online store or a supermarket. She would be entitled to a full refund and in my opinion 1 negative feedback for the order due to the nature of the issue and not a product quality issue. If you ordered your monthly shop from Tesco online and ordered 100 items in your shopping. They lose your order causing it to be late. Would you be justified to Leave Tesco 100 Negative reviews or just 1?

If she'd bought the items she did but without the get-one-free offer would it be one or two transactions?

This would be 2 transactions as they would come up as 2 separate orders and the shipping software would create 2 postage labels. She would also not save any money. The whole reason for the offer is to combine a order to save both the customer and me money.

G J · 4 Dec 2018 at 12:41

I wouldn't care about the negative feedback as I still see people more then willing to part with their money as with ebay I think it goes after a period of time. (6 months I think)

People also have no problem selling and buying from people in the MM with negative feedback so I wonder sometimes whats the point in even having it on these sites. :confused:

BoyceyLDN · 4 Dec 2018 at 13:00

sanaxe1 said:
Yes another ebay thread. Now i am a Powerseller and in the last year have sold around 15,000 items and only have 8 negative feedback. The problem is that 2 of these negative feedback are from 1 customer.

you made over ten thousand sales and worried you got 8 negative feedback instead of 7? I wouldn't worry about it and just carry on selling, I guess mishaps happen when you send that amount of volume :confused:

Diagro · 4 Dec 2018 at 13:23

As long as your reply shows that royal mail lost it. I'd buy from you. the

Puzzled · 4 Dec 2018 at 16:14

Just leave an apologetic explanation in response to the negative feedback, nothing screams amateur more than a slanging match between customer and buyer.

Hopefully it won't affect your stats much and you can just move on.

sanaxe1 · 4 Dec 2018 at 16:31

I have said nothing negative to the customer. The argument has been between me and eBay for allowing it to happen. This doesn't really affect me as I still have 99.99% positive feedback but it could in the future if someone was to make a large order with multiple colour choices and decide to spam me with a lot of negatives. Tbh It's more me venting than anything.

Puzzled · 4 Dec 2018 at 16:40

I agree that it's a silly flaw in the system but then the whole feedback idea needs to be reworked as most customers don't bother to leave any unless something goes wrong. Do you automatically leave positive feedback for every order? You could try turning that off, some buyers will be hesitant to leave a negative remark if they haven't received good feedback themselves (despite the fact sellers can't really leave bad feedback).