So it happened, for the second time in my illustrious eBay career (well, thats a bit of a stretch) I received that nasty little minus sign in a red dot. The dreaded negative feedback had been left! And what was the situation? Had I cheated someone out of something, had I lied, stolen or treated them horribly. Nope, far from it. I had bent over backwards for this customer who I imagine probably gets their jollies from harassing sellers.
But still, negative feedback was left, my ego was bruised & worst of all now I had to worry about new, potential buyers seeing that big red sign & thinking that I really was a shady seller. So what do you do when you get negative feedback, especially if it’s undeserved? Well unfortunately eBay hasn’t made it very easy for seller in the last few years. Who knows why since that is who pays them in fees and sells the very products that get people to their site? I digress, eBay now won’t even allow you to leave negative feedback for a buyer. Instead they leave you helpless and then give you an attitude when you call the ‘powerseller hotline’ to complain. Nice.
Well I had to dig deep within myself and take my own advice at dealing with this, since the buyer left negative feedback that was rash & angry I immediately filed a complaint with eBay and am having them review it to see if they can wipe it from my slate on a technicality (the only way to get feedback removed). Secondly, I posted a ‘follow up to feedback left’ where I said very professionally & calmly: “Buyer received refund because item was lost, but still continues to threaten me and attempt to defame my good record”. This allows anyone who is reading through your feedback to get the REAL side of the story and at least gain a more balanced look. Besides that you can attempt to smooth things over with the buyer & kiss butt one more time in hopes they will retract their feedback, but if not you just have to suck it up & deal with it.
Yep, not fun but it’s life. And as the sarcastic, bitter eBay employee said to me on the phone “that’s life miss”. Gosh, thanks for the heads up “hotline” operator… it was enlightening. For those of you who are in the same boat as me please leave your own buyer horror stories. Like the saying goes “misery loves company” and its nice to know other’s are sharing your same trials! 
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