posted on April 6, 2003 05:26:40 PM new
Once a seller opts to make their Feedback Profile private, is there any way a buyer who purchased something from said seller look at the seller's feedback, short of contacting the seller directly and inquiring about their feedback? This seller has a 98.3% positive feedback review, but has accumulated 3 negatives within the last week and 6 within the last month. I'm curious to know the details about these 6 negatives within the last month, considering I won several auctions from this seller and have not yet received the items. Granted, the items I purchased are books and were sent media mail, so it is possible my books may just take awhile to arrive. The seller and I have been communicating via email since the auctions closed and all has been very cordial, but seeing those new negatives is making me very curious. Hence the question....
posted on April 6, 2003 09:21:40 PM new
You bid on a seller with private feedback. Serves you right if you don't get your books. Rule #1 is check out the feedback of the seller.
posted on April 7, 2003 03:55:14 AM new
Stonecold613, at the time I bid on the auctions, the seller's feedback was available for viewing - I always check feedback on a seller before placing a bid. The previous negatives this seller had appeared to be unjustified or questionable (at least my interpretation of the situation), so I placed my bids.
I was offline for about a week, hadn't received the books, so checked my email to see if there were any messages from the seller - there were none. I sent an email to the seller asking when the books had been sent and if there was a tracking number I could follow - I am waiting for a response. I then checked eBay to see if perhaps the seller had left me feedback, since I knew via an email from seller that payment had been received - that's when I found out the seller's feedback was now listed as private. So sometime within the last week or so this seller's feedback was changed from public to private and three new negatives have appeared.
[ edited by sallyhoffman on Apr 7, 2003 03:55 AM ]
posted on April 7, 2003 10:34:21 AM new
stopwhining
the seller can make the feedback public again and then make it private after
sally tells them that she saw it (or they will just do it)
they will NOT Give her the password.
posted on April 7, 2003 11:04:54 AM new
I emailed the seller asking why their profile had been changed from public to private (inquiring minds want to know - besides, curiosity was getting the better of me!). She replied indicating that her PowerSeller representative advised that the profile be made private while an obscene comment is being removed. The comment contained nasty language and the seller indicated the comment was not deserved because she has proof the buyer received a refund. The buyer apparently filed a fraud complaint so for now the seller is sparing anyone the nasty language while the comment is being reviewed.
The seller indicated I should have received my books by now and that she will priority ship another set to me. All she asked is that I allow her to work through the problem and to make it right - sounds like a fair thing to me, so I'm going to give the seller the benefit of the doubt. I haven't had a bad experience yet on eBay, and something tells me this transaction will work out too.
Thanks everyone for your answers on private feedback. This is the first time I've encountered it.
Have a great day everyone!
[ edited by sallyhoffman on Apr 7, 2003 11:05 AM ]
posted on April 7, 2003 12:02:10 PM new
Stopwhining, no this particular seller does not have a "Me" page - thanks for the idea, though!
As mentioned before, I'm going to give this seller the benefit of the doubt that she will follow through with the auction. And through this post I learned about Private Feedback - I always tell my kids "you learn something new everyday" and this was my new thing for today!
posted on April 8, 2003 08:26:30 AM new
You can also search closed auctions by seller name and attempt to contact some of her previous bidders. You can see the FB she left for them, which might give you an idea of how the transaction went generally.
She may have simply been spooked by a really nasty interchange, or possibly been targeted for feedback bombing. (If there are lots of zero-feedback bidders who have only bid on her auctions, that would be a tipoff.)
Either way, the fact that your package went astray in the midst of her troubles seems a bit iffy ... but we all know that misfortune seems to travel in packs. It sounds as if your gut is telling you to give her a shot. In cases like this, if she's really being harassed by someone, having another person show a little understanding can mean all the difference. (And if she's taken you for a ride, you've already been taken.) The only exception to this I can think of is if you paid with a credit card - just keep an eye on the chargeback period.
