Ok, we have all had some feedback that has made us go...."Hang on a minute!".... Well if you haven't I bet you have been dreading the day it happens to you.
You work really hard to service your customers as a seller and as a buyer you read everything properly and you paid promptly, so why would anyone want to leave you less than glowing feedback...grrr.
It happens!
The thing with feedback is it is someone's objective opinion on how they thought the transaction went and we are all different.
So what do you do if you eagerly click open your feedback page only to find a glowing red dot (why does red always seems brighter than green..hmmm?).
First thing, did you deserve it, no really. Stop and think are there areas you could improve on?
As a seller;
- Did you post the item out within a day or so of payment being received?
- Did you let the buyer know their payment was received?
- Did you description disclose EVERYTHING that it could have?
- Were you pictures clear and a correct representation of the item?
- Did you really pay straight away?
- Did you happily follow the sellers instructions or did you try and change the terms after the sale?
- Did you let the seller know of any concerns you had, before leaving them feedback?
- Did you READ the listing completely and ask all the questions you needed to before making your decision to buy?
So, your SURE you didn't deserve the feedback. What can you do?
Let's get this straight right up.....ebay will not care if this is fair or not...even if the facts are glaringly obvious....they believe in everyone's right to leave feedback, good or bad.
There are a couple of reasons for removal of feedback from eBay, they are limited, but check them out to be sure you can't get it removed by eBay painlessly.
The reasons are;
(taken directly from the eBay help section)
Feedback that meets any of the circumstances below is feedback abuse and may be subject to removal. Feedback that doesn't meet any of the reasons outlined below will not be removed:
eBay is provided with a valid court order finding that the disputed feedback is slanderous, libelous, defamatory or otherwise illegal.
The feedback comment contains profane, vulgar, obscene, or racist language or adult material. Inflammatory language, such as "fraud, liar, cheater, scam artist, con man" etc., while strongly discouraged, will not be removed.
The feedback comment contains personal identifying information about another user, including real name, address, phone number, or e-mail address.
The feedback makes reference to an eBay, PayPal or law enforcement organization investigation.
The feedback comment contains links or scripts.
Negative feedback intended for another user will be considered for removal only in situations where the user responsible for the mistaken posting informs eBay of the error and has already placed the same feedback for the correct user.
Feedback left by a person ineligible to participate in eBay transactions, according to Section 1 of the eBay User Agreement, at the time of the transaction or the time the feedback was left.
Feedback left by a user who provided eBay with false contact information and could not be contacted. In general, the transaction period is considered to be 90 days from the end of the listing or 30 days from the date the feedback was left, whichever was longer.
Feedback left by a user who bid on or purchased an item solely to have the opportunity to leave negative feedback for the seller, with no intention of completing the transaction.
Feedback left by users who are indefinitely suspended for certain policy violations within 90 days of registration. eBay takes the position that members who are indefinitely suspended soon after registration shouldn't be able to permanently impact another member's account.
Most of these are obvious, like is your feedback contains bad language, however there are times you will need to point out to eBay customer service, how it is offensive. Don't forget they are American and words are different in each language, they may need educating on some Aussie ( or other non-USA countries) words at times.
Things you can do;
Pull the other persons details from eBay. You can do that by clicking on the "advanced search" link under the normal search box at the top of the page and then clicking on "Find Contact Information" link. You will get your trading partners details and they will yours. If the details are incorrect, you have grounds to apply to eBay.
There is also the option of getting a court order finding that the disputed feedback is slanderous, libelous, defamatory or otherwise illegal. It is not always as expensive as you think, some small claims courts can put these together for next to nothing. You can also try a local law firm and see if they have a junior (or the like) who's fees will not be so high, to put together a letter for eBay, requesting the removal. You will find that eBay are very willing to comply with any orders issued against them, or more to the point against feedback on their site.
If you find you have no grounds for removal, then don't panic yet, there is still a chance for mutual withdrawal.
If you and your trading partner agree eBay will remove the "dot" and the percentage change, though the comment itself will remain (which goes back to what we said it the first blog.....Don't leave emotional feedback, you can't take it back!!!). The only thing though is once the red or grey dot is removed, no-one but you and your buyer or seller will know if it was a neg or a neutral that was left, so asked for mutual withdrawal of neutral feedback with caution.
Often once the heat of the moment in which both of you or one of you leaves negative feedback passes, one of you or both of you may feel a little differently about what you wrote about the other person.
I have used mutual withdrawal twice, (both for neutrals, which in hindsight, maybe I should have left so people didn't think they were negs, LOL). Each time the buyer had left the feedback for me without contacting me first with what ever problem it was that they had (both were very small and easy to fix problems). I emailed each buyer and explained how the feedback system worked. Lets not forget that the feedback system is not really to be taken at face value (remember I was going to leave a neutral for my first purchase, because everything was ok, but not outstanding). So after explaining the a neg (or in my case a neutral) was a BAD thing and stating exactly how I would fix the problem the customer had presented in the feedback, I simply asked for them to kindly remove the poor feedback they had left for me.
At this time, I hadn't left them any feedback and I certainly DID NOT threaten to leave them a neg or neutral if they didn't go along with the mutual withdrawal. I left a link to the mutual withdrawal section (don't won't to make it like hard work, for them to remove the feedback :0).
I had success both times, though remember I did resolve the customers issues for them, so the "reason" for the comment was for all intent and purposes removed.
I think the trick with mutual withdrawals is to step back from the "you gave me a neg, so here's yours in return" mentality and use your customer service skills to solve the issue, first and foremost. Then deal with the feedback.......Would I have given a neutral or neg to my customers if they had refused my offer to withdraw their feedback......I really don't know....It would show VERY poor communication skills by them. Leaving their feedback prior to letting the seller know there was a problem, but then to not removed it even after someone took the time out to explain the system to them AND still resolve their problem......Well, I would really have considered it ;0)
Take care and see you again soon,
Amanda
Help My Auction!
www.helpmyauction.com
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