posted on February 21, 2005 10:41:30 AM new
I wanted to make people aware of this, since we all run across crazies who leave us unfounded negative feedback every once in a while. I'd read in an eBay book that if a member had invalid contact info. (i.e. a fake phone number...which, I suspect, about 90% of eBayers DO since no one wants anyone to have access to their real #), then you can contact eBay's Trust & Safety Dept. and have any negative comment they've left for you removed from your profile. I followed up with eBay's Trust and Safety Dept. to see if this was true.
The good news is that this IS true (see their response below). And, the BEST PART is that any NEGATIVE COMMENT YOU HAVE LEFT FOR THEM WILL STAY ON THEIR RECORD! So, it's a win/win situation for us sellers since we are able to get our licks in, plus the negative on OUR record is removed. So, the idea is that ANY time you receive a negative, you should contact eBay's Trust & Safety Dept., telling them that you suspect the member you're dealing with has false contact info. Even if you don't know for sure, the odds are in your favor that they do, and you aren't punished for having eBay look into things.
Here's what eBay said:
Hello,
Thank you for contacting eBay, I'm happy to
answer your feedback
questions.
What you read in the book is true, if a
member is found to have invalid
contact information during the transaction
period then the negative
feedback can be removed. The transaction
period is 90 days from the end
of the auction or 30 days from when feedback
was left, whichever is
longer.
The comment you received will be completely
removed in these situations,
not just withdrawn. And, the negative
feedback you may have left for them
will not be removed or withdrawn.
We appreciate your membership in the eBay
community.
posted on February 21, 2005 12:01:05 PM new
Faaaaaabulous.
___________________________________
There was once a young man who, in his youth, professed his desire
to become a great writer. When asked to define "great" he said,
"I want to write stuff that the whole world will read,
stuff that people will react to on a truly emotional level,
stuff that will make them scream, cry, howl in pain and anger!"
He now works for Microsoft, writing error messages.
posted on February 21, 2005 12:07:25 PM new
This tip can be found in "The eBay Mythbuster," by David. D. Busch. I highly recommend it, even if you think you know everything about eBay...It goes into a lot of details you may not be aware of.
posted on February 21, 2005 12:21:37 PM new
By the way "fromthismommy," you'll have to let us know if this technique works for you...My two negs are too old to try it out on. If only I'd known sooner!
posted on February 21, 2005 12:36:45 PM new
I'm not sure about the question about negatives being removed from an account after the death of a seller. Unless this was a joint account though, why would this matter...The dead seller's not going to be selling anything again, right, so his/her feedback doesn't really matter anymore does it?
I would love to know if anyone's had any experience having negatives removed after an illness, injury or family crisis. For example, if I'm hit by a car tomorrow and in a coma for 2 weeks, am I going to have to start all over from scratch when I return to the land of the living?..I'm sure I'd have a BUNCH of negatives by then. Buyers get SO crabby SO FAST!
posted on February 21, 2005 12:49:44 PM new
There doesn't seem to be an easy answer to that question, mandaray. This fellow's wife was devastated because of the unexpected death and she was unable to handle the auctions which were being generated even after his death by an auction service. I don't know if she wants to continue with the account.
Anyway, it would be good to know the protocol in cases such as this and the ones that you mentioned.
Your suggestion sounds real good, but just curious about something. If you do say that there contact information is not correct, will they know that you didn't pull there contact information?.....because if you don't pull there contact info how can you say there contact info is not good?
I would like to try what your saying but I want to make sure It's not going to cause me a problem.
posted on February 22, 2005 02:15:17 AM new
I tried this a few months ago when the same guy left me two negs. The answering machine gave his name and the phone number,the area code was incorrct for the town he listed. E-bay would not remove feedback. It was my first two negs in over 8000 positives.
posted on February 22, 2005 04:52:38 AM new
mandaray3 SO MY BIGGEST QUESTION IS HOW DID YOU GET THROUGH THE EBAY FILE A COMPLAINT EMAIL B.S. PROCESS? I really do want to know this is a most helpful thread for me as I know my only neg falls into these perameters.I just went to safe harbor and did the scroll down answer email insanity they put customers through. Is that how you started your process... and then a real person responded in a real email? Thanks BJB
[ edited by BJBOSWELL on Feb 22, 2005 04:56 AM ]
posted on February 22, 2005 12:46:49 PM new
Hey BJBOSWELL,
The sad thing is that before I became a Powerseller (gaining the benefit of personalized, MUCH better Powerseller support), I would have to write eBay back and forth at least 5 times, demanding/pleading that someone read my question, before a real person would actually respond. At one point (before I had the Powerseller e-mail support) I got so sick of things that I forwarded one of the pathetic responses I'd received from eBay to Meg Whitman, eBay's president at the time (I just chose a logical address ([email protected]) and hoped it would make it's way to her). Amazingly enough, it actually did make it to the Office of the President, and I actually received a quality response from one of her many assistants.
You may want to start forwarding/copying all eBay Support messages that fail miserably to answer any of your questions to "[email protected]," the new president of eBay (he gave this address out in his intro. speech on the website). Keep in mind that Bill will never read your e-mail himself, but someone in his office is likely to, and they seem to be much better at answering questions than the typical eBay Support flunkies.
posted on February 22, 2005 03:35:17 PM new
I know this is a dumb question, but how do I contact ebay's trust and saftey dept? And how do I tell them which ones to remove? Thanks.
posted on February 23, 2005 01:17:35 PM new
tonimar, here's what eBay wrote back to me about whether or not we have to try to contact the crazy first (since eBay's response is so vague, I'd just tell them I suspect the contact info. is invalid, and have eBay do the work. If they asked me, I'd say I'd already attempted contact (who's to know?)):
Thank you for writing back.
If you suspect that a member has invalid
contact information, you should
try to contact them yourself. If you are
unable to contact them and
their information appears to be invalid,
please let us know. When we
receive your report, we will attempt to
verify the member's contact
information. We will conduct our own
investigation before any action is
taken.
posted on February 23, 2005 01:24:33 PM new
superhotbargains, to reach eBay's Trust & Safety Dept. just click "Help" at the top of any eBay page, then click "Contact Us" on the left. You will then be required to make choices to narrow your question's focus; if you choose to report something regarding suspicous or illegal activity your e-mail will usually be automatically directed to the Trust & Safety Dept.
If not, then you can click "Help" (again, at the top of any eBay page), then click "Security" on the left.
posted on February 23, 2005 05:06:52 PM new
Hi Mandaray3,
Thank you so much for taking the time out from your busy day to email Ebay for me.
I might just try what you mentioned because just the other day I got a Neg from a newbie without them even contacting me and giving me a chance to correct the problem.
It was my fault, this I do agree with him/her but, they should have communicated with me and this problem would have been solved, with them keeping the item and a full refund shipping included. So this kinda upset me that rather then try to work it out with me they just went and left a neg.
I'm over it now but it would be nice to see the neg leave........lmao..........
posted on February 23, 2005 06:00:34 PM new
Thanks for the advice mandaray3. I had no idea you could do this! I only wish I kniew earlier because one of mine is too old.
posted on February 23, 2005 06:30:23 PM new
No problem, tonimar1. I was wondering about your question myself, and I'm glad I finally asked it, rather than continue to wonder. I do that ALL the time!
This has inspired me to ask eBay another question I've always wondered about: Whether or not eBay will remove feedback if it's left within a very short time after the auction ends. For example, when newbies leave a negative half an hour after the auction ends because they can't figure out checkout or haven't been contacted (I've heard LOTS of these stories). I'll have to post what eBay's response is.
Both of my negatives are from bidders who didn't even try to contact me first too...About obscure things that I would have been more than happy to fix. If only I'd known about some of these feedback removal techniques! I know I could have had at least one removed if I'd only known about the mutual withdrawal process, since the other person regretted doing it once I explained what had happened...Though, maybe that wasn't available then. Isn't that process kinda new?
posted on February 26, 2005 01:24:30 PM new
I'm giving this a try. I just received my 3rd neg in over 5,000 transactions, wrecking my 100% feedback score.
Neg was from non-paying bidder. Bidder has 9 negs in the last month for non-payment (although not NARU'd yet).
Bidders' phone # is obviously fake (333-3333), so I should have a good chance of having the neg removed.
posted on February 26, 2005 02:12:05 PM new
Maybe they are a cab driver.... that's the number of a cab company in a couple of different cities I have been in
~~~ • ~~~ • ~~~ • ~~~ • ~~~
If it's really "common" sense, why do so few people actually have it?
posted on February 26, 2005 03:30:03 PM new
Whoa! If eBay doesn't remove the feedback with that pathetic excuse for a phone number, I'm going to be amazed. Please let us know how it turns out.
One more thing I found out in the past week: if a bidder leaves a negative very soon after an auction closes (newbies have been known to do this), you can also have the negative removed for the following reason (this is a copy of eBay's response):
My name
is Nelsin and I'm happy to help you further.
If a member leaves negative feedback
immediately after the auction, when
it is obvious that it would have been
impossible to have completed the
transaction, it is investigated as possible
intent to disrupt. In cases
that are determined to be bidding with intent
to disrupt an auction, the
feedback would be removed.
posted on February 27, 2005 09:50:03 AM new
I'm so glad you brought up this tip as I have already made use of it. I had a NPB buyer an item but never paid. Two emails bounced back from her MSN account and no response from two invoice requests. I got her contact info and called the phone number--and it's for a construction company and her name is nowhere on the directory.
I wrote to eBay and described the situation and they checked on it and found they were having "trouble" with her contact info--and have temporarily disabled her account.
It's a shame because she has 100% positive feedback...and she lives in the same area I do. But I'll be danged if I'll burned with a neg because of a claim that I never contacted her.
posted on March 1, 2005 06:06:44 PM new
I'm still waiting for the feedback removal. Bidder has 8 other negs from other sellers for non-payment in the last 2 weeks, and it looks like the bidder gave retalitory negs to the other sellers as well. Oh yeah, bidder hasn't been NARU'd yet dispite not paying for at least 9 items.
