You know I am a huge eBay fan and am always giving them my custom.
Even after many, many purchases, sellers can still sometimes screw me over and I thought it was important to point out that Feedback is an important tool that you can use to leave HONEST remarks to help other eBayers decide whether to shop with a seller or not.
I, for one, find overly aggressive sellers a real turn off – I have seen feedback where a seller has called a buyer a “silly cow” for not liking the the product they got and this totally puts me off from buying from them.
An eBay shop seller should be behaving like any professional retailer.
Anyway, that’s not what I’m here to talk about today! I wanted to say, eBayers – do NOT rush to leave feedback.
I know it’s tempting, when you have nothing else to do, to go through and leave positive feedback for items you’ve received. I used to do this, then I realised (because there’s a delay sometimes between the day I get post and the day I can actually test the item out) that a few days in to using an item, it would break.
Also, there are other cases where things take a bit longer to break (a few weeks) especially electronics, or cases where faults are not so obvious right away.
Yes you can open a dispute with a seller and get a refund. But once you have left feedback, it is not retractable. You can get your money back, but the feedback (even if the customer care and the product you discover is utter pants) stays the same.
So, you can’t leave positive feedback then change it if it all goes wrong – what you left is permanent except for some rare cases (where you leave negative and the seller asks that you change it – but anyway, this is rare and you definitely shouldn’t be bullied into changing feedback. You may want to change it when there has been a genuine misunderstanding though…you get the idea).
In my case, I bought a Samsung Galaxy Phone Case (only a £3 job) from an eBay shop called themobileplus (they also retail under the shop name, sinbury.group). This case broke after a few days (the plastic snapped!). I got in touch with a photograph and they sent out another one – great. I left positive feedback, thankful for the quick replacement.
The second case snapped just 2 days after use and I complained and asked for a refund. themobileplus were incredibly slow to respond and wholly unhelpful. What they should’ve done was asked for another photo and refunded me asap.
Instead they asked that I returned both phones to get a £2.99 refund – it’s not a hassle for me to get to the post office to return your two faulty products, honestly.
I said I would on the basis that they paid for the shipping but they kept insinuating they would only pay for standard shipping and not recorded. As far as I am concerned they sent me two faulty items so shipping charges laid squarely on their shoulders.
Note: DO NOT SEND AN ITEM BACK TO A SELLER WITHOUT A TRACKING NUMBER.
eBay’s dispute system will ask you for a tracking number during a dispute (where you have to return the item for a refund). They won’t even let you communicate with the seller without a tracking number so don’t believe someone that says it’s ok to send a return by normal post. For 60p or so, you are just covering yourself.
Anyway FINALLY, 6 days after returning the item they decided to refund me (still with no shipping costs included – cheeky gits!). Shipping was £2.46, the item was only £2.99 – this is not about the money this is on the principle that you can’t sell faulty goods to consumers and not take responsibility.
So I am fighting this one out – and kicking myself for leaving feedback so quickly. It’s obviously not about the £2.99 AT ALL. It’s about shoddy customer service and piss poor cheap products that are clearly not fit for purpose – and these kind of sellers, like themobileplus give naysayers a reason to hate eBay.
Oh. And they didn’t ONCE say sorry.
“If the goods are faulty or do not comply with the contract, you [the seller] will have to pay for their return whatever the circumstances”
Know your rights, beyatches!
So remember – in terms of feedback, always use your item, check it for a few weeks before leaving feedback. There’s no huge rush. It’s good to leave feedback because it tells a seller that something has arrived but don’t feel pressured to just say A+++++++++++++++++++ just because an item arrived.
You must listen to the eBay song:
Have you ever had a horrible experience on eBay?
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
This girl sold me fake mac.
told her in an email that i want a refund, she refunded it quickly but i havent sent it out yet due to snow. seeing as she tried to sell me a fake, she can wait…i dont feel guilty for her not being able to sell her fake mac online again because i havent yet sent it out.
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YES! I had a girl sell me a mini lipgloss instead of the full size one (and it clearly said full size in the description and title). She dragged her feet about it because apparently there was tiny writing in the picture that said 9mL and apparently I’m supposed to know that 9mL means mini and not full size despite the fact that the title and description SAID full size.
I eventually got a refund but ebay somehow determined I was responsible for the shipping charges. And that’s the day I decided I was done with ebay.
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OMG really? 9ML means MINI !?!?!??!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!??!?! Since when? What an idiot.
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I avoid buying anything on Ebay as far as I can … too much fake rubbish from the Far East – and having travelled and seen it all piled high in the markets of Bangkok and the souks of The Middle East it is so difficult to tell the difference until you see the quality is AWFUL. I sold a Fafi MAC lipstick I picked up in Japan with the MAC receipt in Japanese the other day .. at least people could see it was authentic – went for loads less than some of the fake stuff does!! It amazes me people really think they can get a “full set of MAC brushes” for £15 .. and don’t even get me started on the P&P .. GRRR ebay .. love your Tweets btw!
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Hi Lucy
I know! I don’t touch MAC stuff on eBay, far too many (good) fakes and it’s hard to tell until u get it and it’s crap quality!!!!
I am all for electricals from asia that are cheap (since they all come from asia anyway!) but some of the stuff…is such bad quality. I’m starting to lose my teather with eBay!
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is it really so, that the seller has to pay for return shipping, in case the goodies are faulty or they send you wrong stuff?
i have had several sellers told me, that it is my business to pay for the return shipping. for example, i bought size 5 shoes. i got same shoes, but size 4.5. i had to pay for returning them, grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. and it is not cheap shipping the shoes internationally.
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Hi Eva
A few people have told me that it’s impossible to enforce in the case of eBay however I would argue that where an item is faulty – legally, it’s the sellers fault and they shud in all cases refund the costs. Certainlly in your case I would fight it out because it’s THEIR mistake and sending shoes is £££. I would really fight them out for a refund on shipping.
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