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Buyer Gets Sued For $10,000 By eBay Seller For Leaving “Neutral” Feedback
By Tim Gross - Internet Business Blog | April 24, 2008
I warn people just starting online businesses that they’ve got to have thick skin…
No matter how nice you are, no matter how great the products you’re selling, no matter how much you try, you’re going to run into people that are going to give you grief. Don’t take it personally.
Here’s a good example:
In a news story yesterday, a guy who purchased some coins on eBay is being sued for $10,000 by the Seller because, get this… He left “neutral” feedback on eBay about the purchase.
Heh.
When you rate an eBay transaction, you can rate it Positive, Neutral, or Negative. This guy didn’t even list it as negative, just Neutral… Now he’s spent $500 on a lawyer to deal with the lawsuit and vows to never leave eBay feedback again.
I don’t want to scare you, but… Welcome to the Internet!
Topics: Marketing, Oops (Bad Move) | Trackback URL
April 24th, 2008 at 10:00 pm
that was great!!!! yes, always good to be prepared. Preparation generates the offspring we call luck!!!
April 25th, 2008 at 1:17 am
Unbelievable. I’d love to know what the feedback said. I wonder if he can countersue the seller? If the seller wins, this is going to cause so much trouble. Thanks for the info.
Kelli
April 25th, 2008 at 3:51 am
Totally agree — we all need to be ready for this kind of stuff, but quickly put it in perspective and keep moving forwards.
I had an email last week where a new (first time) customer asked for a refund and accused the product sales letter of being ‘totally unethical’.
It was a quite horrible email, and totally upset my karma… until I reminded myself of two things:
1) You can’t please all of the people all of the time. (And some marketers say “if you are, you aint going into the marketplace with a strong enough message!)
2) It’s the first refund request I’ve had for that particular product — and until then I’d only received glowing testimony.
Thanks Tim.
June 4th, 2008 at 6:11 pm
Under recent eBay feedback policy changes, a neutral feedback has the same effect as a negative one. It counts to bring down the sellers percentage and could not only impact future sales potential, but even lower where their items are listed in the best match making their listings not seen and sales….null.
June 4th, 2008 at 6:12 pm
Well, actually with E-Bay’s new feedback policy, a neutral IS A NEGATIVE and is counted as such and goes against the sellers percentage rating. You definitely cannot please everyone all the time, but this is good news for all us sellers that are now being extorted for positive feedback by unsrupulous buyers!!
June 4th, 2008 at 7:27 pm
This sort of thing became inevitable once Ebay implemented its new and utterly assinine Feedback policy that offers sellers no protection from crooks and deadbeats.
June 4th, 2008 at 7:51 pm
Now that Ebay counts neutrals as negatives and lowers sellers search results and seller discounts….this is what is going to happen.
I advise author and readers to go
http://forums.ebay.com/db2/forum.jspa?forumID=113
and see Ebay did this to the buyer and their customer the seller.
June 5th, 2008 at 11:12 am
People are forgetting that the neutral feedbacks are being counted as negatives, so it is not merely a neutral comment but a negative one that hurt that sellers reputation and standing in listing search results. It would be interesting to know what it said and all the other details, like why a neutral? what happened?
June 5th, 2008 at 12:27 pm
Although this suits seems excessive on the sellers part, Ebay is the reason this and probably future actions will be taken.
s of 5/20/08, Ebay has taken away the sellers right to post Neutral or Negative Feedback against any Buyer, good or bad. The seller has no real protection at all, so maybe this is the way to go???
Also, Ebay now counts Neutral Feedback the same as Negative, so this Neutral Feedback that this Buyer received is the same as a Negative and will probably affect his Feedback Score and seller status, let alone his reputatin.
John
June 5th, 2008 at 12:52 pm
Wonder if anyone realizes that a neutral is no longer neutral on Ebay? It is now counted as a negative, and can reduce a seller’s placement and keep them from receiving discounts.