As you are probably aware, eBay's "no negative feedback policy from sellers" states that ONLY a buyer can leave negative feedback for their half of the transaction. Seller's can leave ONLY positive (not neutral, and not negative). This feedback policy is actually a "no real feedback" policy.
So, my story for today involves a woman who purchased personalized earrings. As I have mentioned before, we go to great lengths to provide photos, detailed item descriptions and detailed dimensions of each of our products. Anyone with a ruler or a tape measure can look at the dimensions to estimate how big the product is. This woman began emailing me telling me that the earrings were smaller than she expected and wanted me to "do something" about that. She said that they looked bigger in the picture (????) I asked her if she read the dimensions in the item description. She told me she had and it that it was totally her fault, but the earrings looked "bigger" in the photo (????). The photo, by the way, was an actual photo of these earrings. We obviously do not accept returns once an item is monogrammed for the customer and this is clearly stated in our return policy. This woman left me negative feedback saying that the picture of the earrings was much larger (larger than what??) and that I was of no help. Of course, I as a seller, have absolutely no recourse in leaving feedback on my half of this transaction - she gets to keep her feedback score intact, despite the fact that she readily admitted the error was her fault, but she expected me to give her bigger earrings for free. This type of ridiculous interaction, where people take absolutely no responsibility for their own, well, (pardon me for saying this) stupidity, leaves me with my jaw hanging quite frankly. Her negative feedback had nothing to do with the product being substandard, or of poor quality (our products are top notch). It was simply that the picture looked bigger than the earrings did in person. I am dumbfounded by that as a rationale for negative feedback when the dimensions of the earrings are part of the item description. If we sold items that were not personalized, I would have no issue taking a return but I am always stymied by those who think I should just take back an item with their initials on it because they did not bother to actually read what they were buying before the purchase. I completely understand that customers like this exist everywhere, but ONLY on eBay can a person malign a sellers reputation giving potential buyers a completely inaccurate description of the actual course of events through this lopsided "feedback" system that has now become more like duct tape over my mouth.
I feel completely vulnerable to unscrupulous (and/or stupid) buyers. In some of my recent Blogs, I have described some of my most recent interactions with some of these buyers. Not only have sellers been denied the right to free speech since eBay has censored my ability to leave fair negative or neutral feedback, but eBay has not leveled the playing field. Without a system in place to hold buyers accountable for their actions, it’s no wonder we sellers are feeling vulnerable. There are no fair ways to rate Buyers or to hold buyers accountable for late payments, insufficient funds, unjustified chargebacks, fraudulent payments, innuendoes or blatent extortion. Buyers are free to post their defamatory remarks. And with eBay's genius "Buyer Protection Policy", buyers can get a refund AND keep your merchandise just by saying they don't like your product. So come and get me eBay buyers ~ wreak havoc on my reputation, extort money from me in so many different way. Lord knows, eBay will do nothing to stop you!! A personal idea for eBay? There does seem to be something ridiculous in having a company offer a feedback system if one side can only say positive things. That is not the democratic process. eBay - do away with the feedback system all together ~ that is a better alternative to playing this "favorite child" theme. You should love your buyers AND your sellers equally because without sellers, you business will not exist!
