Unfair negative feedback

[crowebird78]

Having had what I thought was another very straightforward sale, I was stunned to find that the buyer left negative feedback which made my rating drop from 100% positive to 83% 😞

The reason was that there were apparently 10 pieces of Lego missing. Should they have contacted me first? If they had, I would have happily sent the missing pieces. 
I have since asked the buyer why they didn’t do this but have had no response. 

[game_raid]

No they are not required to contact a seller before they leave a negative, eBay does show a message before a buyer leaves the negative which is below.

Had an issue? Sellers try their best to help, so give them a chance to make it right.

Few rarely even bother to contact a seller, they are angry at that moment in time and don't want to waste even more time contacting the seller and they are certainly under no obligation to reply to a seller, these days more would rather complain than actually resolve the problem.

It is better to leave a factual response to the feedback, such as

"I do apologies this was a genuine mistake, please contact us for a resolution"

This will show you are willing to help them to other potential buyers.

[dancewithadingo]

Good Morning Crow

Put yourself in their position. I would not have been happy having spent £400.00 to find that the item was missing pieces.

You say that had they have contacted you then you would have sent the missing pieces then why not simply send them now?   You have four hundred quid of their money and they currently have an incomplete item.

Do the right thing and make your buyer and their son happy. 

[plpmr]

adding to the advice already given -

Unfortunately the neg is too old to do anything about.

[crowebird78]

Wow! I absolutely would have done this but I wasn’t given a chance. That
was quite an aggressive response. Please understand I’m trying to do the
right thing here.

[game_raid]

What they are saying is you should have realised the pieces were missing and sent them without waiting for the buyer to contact you and you should be shipping them out now to at least make things right, it doesn't matter if they have left a negative.

I would imagine you checked it was complete before you listed the set? I have sold used lego before and buyers are super critical of sets not being complete unless this is advised on the listing.

[jckl1957]

You could use suggestions from the answers you have received.

Send the missing pieces with a note apologising for not including them originally.

Add a response to the feedback saying you have done this and how sorry you were that you didn't send everything and disappointed the buyer.

Then, ask the buyer if they would be prepared to add a follow up comment to their feedback saying they now have the complete set.

As advised, it is too late to ask the buyer to revise the feedback but a reply from you and a follow up from your buyer could make it look better.

[dancewithadingo]

Good Morning Again Crow

What I don't understand is why raise this now,six months after the sale and ensuing problems?  What you should have done after receiving the negative feedback is to have sent them a heart felt apology along with the missing pieces.

It's not too late to do this.  You said in your latest response that you are trying to do the right thing well the right things,as I said in my earlier reply, is to send the ten pieces now. Although somewhat after the event you could also offer your buyer a partial refund.

While I appreciate that mistakes can be made this is a lesson to be learnt in as much it is vital to check that any item is complete before sending out.

There is no way of sugar coating my response.

[crowebird78]

Thanks for this. Your response has been the most helpful. It’s a horrible
feeling to think someone is unhappy and all you want to do is make it
better. Some comments on here are just mean. I’m here for advice, not
judgement or a telling off.

I have not gone out of my way to annoy anybody. Since 2009 I have had 100%
positive feedback and consider myself an excellent ebayer.

Someone asked me why it had taken so long to raise this. I don’t regularly
use eBay and I wasn’t sent any correspondence or notification that negative
feedback had been left. I would have dealt with the matter then.

I have already apologised and asked what I can do to rectify the matter,
but am yet to hear anything.

[johnwash1]

You have two choices now:

1) Sell lots more items, then your one neg will be small in a sea of positives and your rating will rise accordingly, even to 99%

or

2) Sit back for the next 6 months, at which point the neg will be a year old and no longer damage your credibility unless a buyer investigates your feedback in detail.  You're lucky if many even read descriptions, so I guess few bother to look through feedbacks.

Good luck with your future sales.