an opinion please

[treble99]

i have a situation which has arisen on ebay.

i am a 6 year 100% perfect feedback ebayer.
i have sold on ebay a Sheffield United home programme from 1925/26 which is ex bound volume.
it was noted that it was ex bound volume and the scan was of the back page which is the team line up page.
the front cover often carries the next game advert which i have found in the past confuses inexperienced buyers abiut what is up for sale.

at the end of the auction i was paid immediately and despacted the programme immediately.
it turns out the buyer is a 6 year 100% feedback ebayer who is also a member of this forum

with no further correspondence neutral feedback appears on my ebay feedback with note as to the condition.
i send an email basically wanting to know why i had not had the courtesy of an email saying the buyer wasn't happy.
i offered an immediate no quibble refund in full
i explained that i believed i had described the item honestly and believed i knew what i was talking about

the response was that no refund was required the programme would be kept
it was suggested that Stevie Wonder with boxing gloves could have unbound the volume better.
(a well known professional binder would not be happy i am sure)
it was also suggested that the back page only was scanned as possibly a way to deceive a potential buyer

at that point i saw my arse and called him a cunt
i asked how he thought you got a programme out of a binder without damaging the spine
i suggested he was too bone idle to ask for other scans which would have been made available
i informed him that i believed that the common courtesy of a gentleman collector would have been to send an email explaining the problem and see if a way forward by refund,discount or return would be possible as opposed to piling in like a cunt
i once again offered a full refund

the refund was a further non requirement to get this refund plus the not unexpected note that he didn't like being called a cunt
he admitted that he took my feedback on trust which was "a schoolboy error"
he had been called worse than a cunt in the past and it didn't upset him even though it had
he presumed i was an angry little man even perhaps arrogant(to be fair he is good with insults!!)

my final email to him was to explain that at 6 feet tall i am not little
i presumed that the fact he admitted making schoolboy errors was an apology(i somehow don't think it was)
i explained why i scanned the back(team line up) page
i told him he had handled it completely incorrectly
i told him again if he had a problem with the item he should have contacted me first rather than leave irrevocable feedback.
we could have sorted it out to our mutual satisfaction
i confirmed that my note of him being a cunt stood and suggested if he dealt with everything this way he surely must have been called worse

his final email to me was to note that he had asked a fellow collector if i was known to that collector
he reported that i was quote" arrogant rich,loves himself more than a (certain other prominent collector) which is hard to do.The term barge pole springs to mind"
he then noted that he wished he had asked his friend about me before he bought
(i am not sure what that would have achieved as i have continually offered him a refund which is continually declined)

he noted that he was going off to this forum to let you guys know about me calling him a cunt

unless i have missed his posting that hasn't happened yet

how would you guys have handled this as either a buyer or a seller?
if i am wrong i owe him an apology.
not sure if he will have the balls to respond personally but i hope he does
also his friend who thinks i am arrogant,rich etc.i would like to know who he is as well
i could do with a few quid

[Jake]

I think he should have contacted you first, if he wasn't happy then he should have given you the chance to resolve things before leaving feedback. Offering a refund seems pretty reasonable to me and it was a shame they never gave you the option. Calling them a cunt, while it made me laugh like hell, was probably where you went wrong...

Had a similar experience a while back, though thankfully on a much smaller scale I'd described an item wrongly, although in my defence it was a free listings weekend and I was putting up hundreds of programmes and was knackered. The buyer left negative feedback which at one stroke bolloxed my 100% rating (rage) whereas one simple message and I'd have happily refunded their money upon return of the item.

Rightly or wrongly, that annoyed me and I thought "would've happily refunded but they can sing for it now".

But I'd no doubt have a different view if I was the buyer in that situation. The joys of Ebay...

[Wullie]

wow, what a silly situation to get in to. In my opinion you offered a refund in full, so that is it, take it or leave it, end of story.
In my time i offered a refund twice. One was from a well known collector and he accepted with grace and that was that.
The other admited he had been in the hobby for two minutes, he wanted to report me to Ebay, call the police, banned for life, blah blah blah. A complete nut case who obviously didn't have a life . I offered to refund at once but the case went on for over six weeks, until the programme was returned.

[treble99]

it was indeed a free listing day

[certainlynot]

I'd of taken his money to his door and asked for the programme back . I heard a story a while ago about people buying excellent condition programmes then returning themsaying they were in poor condition . Apparently this is a regular con if you already have a shoddy programme , buy a good copy and return your shoddy one . Got to be careful with that site . Thats why i would go to his door , make sure its the original programme and not some poor copy .

[ForestPaul]

In my opinion you were fully justified in calling him a cunt i also have been on ebay for 6 years and have a 100% feedback and would have done the same as you and offered a refund, it doesnt say how much he paid for it and if it was a fair bit then if he was that unhappy why didnt he return it.

[rogerclunn]

In my humble opinion you can do no more than offer a full refund. That in my view shows common sense and good business practice. I can't understand someone getting upset in if that offer is made.
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Roger Clunn

[treble99]

he paid £42 and to be honest if he had paid 42p or £420 it wouldn't have mattered.
i can't even tell you how good or bad my description was.
i am not that rude to presume i am correct on that part.
i might have made a mistake in my description but unless i get a chance to sort it out i don't know

it is just after 6 years and 100% to have your feedback screwed by another 6 year plus 100% buyer and to not give you the courtesy of a bloody email and then accuse you of deception for £42.

[Kickoff3pm]

It's always disappointing when people choose not to try and resolve a problem. By leaving the negative feedback he shows a lack of respect. I don't use e bay much now but when I did didn't you get the right to insert a response to that feedback ?

It's one thing getting a problem it's another dealing with it and dealing with it the right way can often turn a negative into a positive. The way you dealt with it shows, at least to my mind and forgive me for saying, but you are not someone I would want to deal with.

If you had contacted him and couldn't resolve the problem then just left it at that you would have been the better for for doing that. As far as I can see upto the slanging match you handled it right and other bidders would have seen that but now he has evidence that makes you look ... well very bad indeed. Hard luck

As a side point he clearly felt he got a good deal or he would have returned it. Fact he didn't means he knew he wouldn't get another at that price.

[Heed Boy]

On eBay all the power is in the hands of the buyer. The only way to adequately strike back is if your problem buyer ever sells items themselves. Then buy something from them and return the compliment by screwing their 100% feedback.........

[Jake]

Kickoff3pm wrote:

It's always disappointing when people choose not to try and resolve a problem. By leaving the negative feedback he shows a lack of respect. I don't use e bay much now but when I did didn't you get the right to insert a response to that feedback ?

There's still that option, but that's all sellers have got really. It's wrong that sellers are unable to leave negative feedback for buyers if they're latchy with paying, but gotta take the rough with the smooth.

It's worth remembering that for every transaction like treble99's there are thousands where everything goes sweet as a nut.

[Eddie Reeve]

Treble

Was it nentral or negative feedback and was this under your treble99 user name?

[goonerboy]

i think you made a bit of a bish of the situation once you got into a slanging match. Firstly it was a neutral feedback and not a negative one. Secondly feedback can be retracted by the buyer so launching into a tirade blew any chance of that happening.

I fully recognise and sympathise with your frustration however you should have stood back and thought "big picture". I don 't know how many feedbacks you have but its likely your rating is still 99.9% and 1 neutral feedback among hundres (or thousands) of positives is hardly likely to put anyone off purchasing from you.

Of course your tirade was most amusing but not sure it was really warranted on the back on a neutral feedback and a £42 item. On the other hand from the initial correspondence it did not sound like the buyer was going to retract his view and at least the tirade stopped you kicking the cat/dog.

[Tynie Topics]

The buyer was in the wrong, if he wasn't happy with the programme then he should have messaged you first in order to give you the chance to discuss and rectify the matter if needs be.

That said, resorting to calling him a "cunt" has lost you all credibility in this situation. As others have said, keeping cool and polite could have seen the buyer agree to withdraw the neutral (not negative) feedback.

In the end, to a neutral observer, you were both as bad as each other.
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[Eddie Reeve]

That's why I asking if it was neutral feedback as that shouldn't affect your 100% feedback.

My opinion is that you are always going to get the odd person leaving negative/neutral feedback on ebay. I think that however hard you try it is par for the course and just something that as a seller you just have to accept.

Try not to worry about it and just move on.

[Wullie]

The problem here i guess is the feedback. I have 100 percent feed back from almost 1000 deals and i keep telling myself i don't care about feedback. And deep down i would probably be lying, and be fuming is someone left a negative, which seems childish.
For Christs sake, your programme was from 1925. What do they expect ?
ironically, the only time i had trouble from a buyer , is when the condition of a programme i was selling was almost mint. I should have written the score on the cover and creased it, then i guess he would have been happy...

[kcs]

If anybody has any Leeds Programmes from 1924 I would pay £42 for them...... Might even leave positive feedback.

Joking aside: I've purchased from trebble before (via eBay) and was totally happy with product & service .

However, I did chuckle at the Stevie Wonder comment....
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[paulo]

I had someone neg feedback me a few months ago for a football shirt I sold. It went abroad (middle east) and dispite the buying asking me before hand if it was guniune and me confirming it was as it was purchased from a well known UK sports shop he claimed it was fake and neg'd me straight away.

I then looked at his feedback left for others and he was at it with everyone, so I took it on the chin with a smile as I would not have ever got £25 for an old shirt to a UK seller. I had the money and its only one neg in over 1700 feedbacks, so could not get worked up about it.

Keep the money mate - the neg drops of in a year anyway and buyers are not going to worry about one silly comment. Sell a load of quick 99p items and it will be miles down the list anyway!!

[Auchinleckian]

Cunt seems a tad harsh....quim, perhaps?

[RobertD]

name ans shame, please