Feedback issue - need advice

[draenenwen.cymru]

Buyer purchased item after Storm Darragh. Our village was without power for days. When it was restored our broadband/server connection had been knocked out and took until early Jan to be operational. We were offline for weeks and therefore had received no notifications of sale or any other messages from e-bay. Once online again we were bombarded with a batch of messages and realised we'd missed a sale and the buyer had raised a complaint and received a refund from ebay. We rectified the situation and buyer made new successful purchase. We appealed to buyer and ebay to amend negative feedback as we were a new seller and this was only our second sale which meant we were left with only 50% score through feedback. Both refused. Since the issue was caused by a technical problem beyond our control we can only ask: Is buyer mean-spirited? This is Very poor service from ebay who have asked us for feedback but will only allow us to leave positive feedback. We feel very let down and disillusioned by this - so much so, we aren't happy to continue with our ebay account.

[john1297576]

To amend negative feedback, the buyer can do nothing.

Are you not covered by the Announcement dated 22/1/2025

or You the seller have to send a proper feedback revision request https://www.ebay.co.uk/help/buying/leaving-feedback-sellers/viewing-changing-feedback-left-sellers?i...

[tressygirl]

How did you appeal to the buyer?  They may not know how to amend that feedback or the damage it's done to your new account.

Send them another polite message explaining the negative feedback resulted in a lower %  for you, and this will affect your sales,  and would they kindly complete a feedback revision you can send to them. 

The feedback revision is found at the bottom of your feedback profile page.  You may need  PC / laptop to manage this,  not the app or mobile browser.

If they ignore the request contact eBay Customer Services again,  but only very first thing on a weekday morning at 8 a.m. as there more chance of Dublin answering and they would be more familiar with this storm and damage caused to telecoms.

This is the easiest and quickest way to contact eBay Customer Services, for a Call Back option.

 https://www.ebay.co.uk/help/eua?id=5275&mkevt=1&mkpid

Lines open between 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. on weekdays.

9 a.m. to 6 p.m. on weekends.

As said I recommend contacting CS very first thing in the morning, when the lines first open,  as there's more chance of Dublin answering.

If all fails,  you have left a very good feedback anyone reading that in my humble opinion can see the circumstance for a late delivery was so not in your control!

@draenenwen.cymru 

[draenenwen.cymru]

Yes- thank you for your reply. Initially messaged the buyer to apologize and explain that we'd been offline but received no response. They did however re-purchase the item which was dispatched. We then sent a feedback revision request and subsequently told by ebay  - "The buyer did not respond to your request. That means the Feedback they left for this item won't change". 

While I accept the buyer may be unlikely to change their mind, I think it's reasonable to ask ebay to remove the negative feedback as it was given due to circumstances beyond our control. We initially went through a process with ebay, ticking the "technical" box and providing a full explanation - however ebay's decision was to do nothing.

We haven't listed any more items for sale, and have removed all other items and closed our account due to this. We feel let down by ebay. 

[red_magpie]

I think it's reasonable to ask ebay to remove the negative feedback as it was given due to circumstances beyond our control.

I agree, but eBay is often so unthinking, uncaring and robotic that you can't count on them being reasonable.

[john1297576]

You will not be able to close your account while you have been in recent transactions.

Have you tried call back, as you need to speak to a human, not an insensitive robot. It is no good ebay saying that they have made provision for delays caused by bad weather, but only humans can translate that into action.

Ebay are claiming that within the next few days they will have  a 24/7 contact service dealt with by humans. Hope it works.