If you agree to a “best offer” price and the buyer gets their item as described, is it against policy for the buyer to leave negative feedback because the shipping sticker was lower than what they agreed to pay for shipping?
I paid $6.50 for shipping [not including materials costs]. The guy leaves a negative feedback claiming I overcharge because he agreed to $10. (I charge a flat rate because the cost varies depending on destination)
The best part is, in his best offer message he suggested I ship it cheap as possible so that I can make up the difference between my price and his lower offer…
Handling charges are allowed per ebay rules.
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As a Seller, you are basically allowed to charge whatever you deem necessary for Shipping & Handling. There used to be an eBay Policy about excessive shipping to avoid eBay Fees; however, that policy really doesn’t apply anymore since you’re charged an F.V. Fee on the Item plus Shipping Charges. So, you’re fine with charging whatever you deem necessary for S&H just as long as you fulfill your portion of the transaction - from sale to delivery.
You charged $10.00 via USPS Priority Mail Small Flat-Rate Box with Tracking and Signature Confirmation (services you mention within your listing). Now, if that were all true, you would have been charged $9.60-ish. Instead, you mention that you only paid $6.50 Shipping - which tells me that you either mailed via USPS First Class or USPS Priority Mail without a Signature.
Unfortunately, that is what the eBay Rep. is going to see in this specific circumstance… Buyer believed that he/she was overcharged for shipping; and he/she had a right to leave feedback based-off his/her experience with you. Unfortunately, the buyer worded that perfectly too - sometimes you can get feedback removed based-off the wording.
I would HIGHLY RECOMMEND reaching-out to the Buyer! Send him/her an eBay Message asking why they felt that feedback was necessary - emphasizing that feedback is your reputation and very important to you. Ask him/her if there is anything you could do to resolve this situation - leave it open and up to them. There’s a Feedback Revisal Form that the buyer can fill-out to remove the Negative Feedback. However, they need to agree - and it’s really 100% their choice. So, be super-polite and understanding!!!
Heck, I would even offer a $10.00 Refund (just eat the shipping charges). Your reputation on eBay is worth MUCH-MORE than $10.00 - especially since you’re new to selling on eBay and this really dropped your %.
He actually reached out to me before leaving the feedback, just saying he got it and thought it was supposed to be in a box and how he didn’t sign for it. However, I paid for a signature (receipt proof) and the tracking shows he signed for it!
As for the box, the listing does mention that it will be shipped in a box, but during the messages we exchanged while haggling a price, he specifically said “I don’t need a box, ship it in a bubble mailer.” Which factored into the lower price that I accepted from him.
Do you want to share his id? I’d love to put him on my banned list.
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I really hope ebay will take care of you, because a negative feedback over $3.50 is stupid. How much are we talking here, what was the sale price?
Doesn’t matter if the shipping label charge doesn’t match up with the cost of shipping he paid because you can just say it was handling charges, cost of packaging etc. Call eBay they’ll remove it, I’ve had some negs removed before and eBay will straight up remove negs if there was no dialogue from the buyer attempting to resolve the issue, that came from a rep I spoke to. They didn’t even care about the situation when I called, before I could even explain anything they said ‘he gave you a neg without messaging you or responding to your messages, it’s required that they do so we’re just removing it right now’.
You can call ebay and they will have their team review it and deem if it will be removed or not. Based on this info and how petty it is you should have 0 issues getting this feedback removed from eBay. It will just take a few phone calls and some checking back but will get done if you try.
I find this funny because I had a very similar circumstance where a buyer left a negative feedback saying “where is it?” after a week of me shipping the item out. I tried to contact him many times to offer a refund in full for the product if it didn’t come and he never replied to any of my messages. It was a $15 item so I didn’t have tracking. I called ebay and the rep I spoke with (who was quite a bitch to be honest…) said that even though I reached out to the buyer many times to resolve the issue and even offer a full refund for the product, it is the “BUYERS OPINION” to leave the feedback and there is NOTHING they can do to change that… Wish I had called and spoke to someone else as that is the only negative feedback on my account now in about 2 years…
Pro tip going forwards… there is a selection you can make when printing the label to hide what you paid for the shipment. Check that box and make it so they can no longer see.
Pro tip 2 is ideally just make all listings free shipping if possible and factor that $10 into the pricing. A little bit more of a hassle and shift in the way that you operate than the first one sure but free shipping listings also get much better search ranking and give the buyers a warm fuzzy feeling inside even if in the end they pay the same amount.
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