I just had an issue that just about made me scream, but finally after about 10 days sanity prevailed and they removed negative feedback that a buyer unjustly left me. I had to keep after them by phone, however, which was really fraustrating.

I had an item up on eBay, and it sold to a buyer in the US. Right after the auction closed, he sends a message wanting to know what shipping service I would be using. When I responded, he responded with a "that's what I want" and that he "would be paying immediately and looked forward to me leaving him positive feedback." He didn't pay immediately, but did pay within a few hours and I shipped his item first thing in the morning.

About a day later I get a message from him asking me to "please do as requested." I wasn't sure what he meant, so I sent him a message that the item was shipped and if eBay hadn't forwarded him tracking info, let me know and I'd send it to him. Well, that wasn't what he was worried about: he wanted me to leave him positive feedback because he had paid "immediately."

Well, my policy is that I never leave feedback until the buyer has received his item and he is satisfied. Things got nasty then at that point. He accused me of making his feedback "hostage" and actually threatened to leave me negative feedback. I called eBay.

The eBay rep told me my policy was sound and that feedback is not required on any transaction, the buyer was out-of-line. I responded to the buyer and told him what the eBay rep told me, and told him he'd have to wait on his feedback.

The item arrived, and I get a message from him saying simply "Now lets see if you can do it." Well, I didn't respond immediately and a few hours later he posted negative feedback to my account because I was a "rude" and "cancerous" seller, basically warning others to "block" me. He never mentioned the item or its condition, however.

So... I called eBay again. The rep told me I had an obvious "feedback manipulation" case, and (supposedly) filed it for me, and told me the negative feedback would be removed following their "investigation" which would take "24 to 72 hours." That never happened. I called them about a week later, and the rep I talked to then could find no record of my previous call. So, we started the process again, only this time the rep said no "investigation" was needed, the buyer had obviously violated eBay's feedback policy. But... it still took them a couple of days to get the negative feedback removed from my account.

I was very frustrated over the process. IMO, given my experience as an IT guy myself, there is no excuse for something this simple taking so long. In eBay's defense, however, it was discovered that the buyer had changed his user-name at some point during this process and that may have contributed to it taking a little longer.

Anyway, I feel for you and hope nobody minds my "venting." But, you may have to get on the phone a keep after them...

Bill

that is crazy, in my case which adds to my frustration, is the buyer never even bought the item, it was cancelled. still he was able to leave feedback. I did send the buyer a message, I was not as polite as I normally would be, just said he was a disgrace to ebay and the way thie system is set up, totally unjustified, I also blocked him out as a buyer so he does not cause more trouble, I have heard horror stories where buyers that obviously have mental issues, lurk over sellers, bid on stuff, dont pay, leave bad feedback and on and on. people like this make it bad for the system, exspecially when most people go out of their way to ensure buyers are happy.

I've found that it's important to specify your shipping method, where it will ship or not ship. You have to look at all angles to cover yourself as a seller along with the description of the item/items. I haven't sold many items but am careful to avoid possible issues. If you do not accept returns, I'd leave feedback before they receive the item. If you do accept returns and wait to see if the seller is happy with the item/items before leaving feedback, it should be mentioned in the desrciption, IMO. Also, I've never received feedback from several buyers and do not entice the issue, just let it go.

Just wanted to mention an issue I've encountered. When I've purchased several items from one particular seller, the items were all shipped (free shipping) and paid for together in one transaction via Paypal. I had to leave feedback for each individual item but on their end, it was a one feedback transaction. Their count goes up for each sale of the individual items, I had only one. So now I've learned you have to pay for each item individually to up your count equally.

A lot of these reasons I don't sell/buy there anymore. I had 1 item with 2 bidders and the bidding became very heated. The guy who lost said he couldn't get his bid to go through and wanted me to cancel the winners bid and sell the item to him. I refused of course. So he bought a another inexpensive item I had and left me a neg for not doing things his way.

My son lost 2 guitars that went to Puerto Rico. Like 11-12 years ago there was a hurricane there and they were both lost in transport supposedly and were never found. He paid back the buyer in full and the guy still left him 2 negs! We threw in the towel then.

I just blocked out every country except the U.S. I should have done this sooner, the 2 transactions I had problems with were both internnational. After being on the phone with EB yesterday for 1.5 hours, they said they would not remove the feedback because I did not block out the countries I did not want to ship to. I guess with only 77 stars I'm still learning, but the more I see, its really set to favor buyers, not sellers.

Spain has always been a pain in the rear for me to sale to, I had that country block on my sellers list for a long time. Also when calling eBay the phone reps by in large are a total joke can't speak good English and are not well educated on eBay's policies. When I get an answer I always ask for the supervisor. I also have record the conversation myself on several occasions when I had a real problem and told them that I was indeed recording the conversation, I get the supervisor's name and their operator number, eBay could careless about us sellers by and large.

Unfortunately, I think you've hit the nail on the head right here. EBay is MOST concerned about the buyer, because that's where the money comes from!

I've stated this before... with me and my location, at least up 'til now, without eBay I wouldn't be in this business. HOWEVER, the longer I'm in this business, the more I'm picking up business that is non-eBay. SOMEDAY I hope to not have to rely on eBay much at all!!

Bill

Bill actually the money comes from the sellers not the buyers, I've paid this sorry company tens of thousands of dollars in fee's over the years!!