Tale Of Negative Feedback

In 13 years of being an eBay member, both as seller and buyer, I have left negative feedback only three times with the last two in 2008 when a buyer went on a bidding spree and didn’t pay anyone. After 5 years of relatively positive experiences I have finally left negative feedback again.

 

I won a card in May, paid and waited. Didn’t hear from the guy for two weeks so I sent an email but he did not respond. I eventually filed a claim, sent another email and no response. A week later I escalated the case and eBay awarded me a refund the next day. Had it ended there I would have just wrote it off as a bad experience and left no feedback, I got my money back so nothing lost.

 

What finally earned the negative feedback was his next action.

 

Two days after I received the refund the guy emails me, he apologizes and tells me a story of death, destruction and pure mayhem that caused him to miss shipping the card. He claims his life was turned upside down and that he did not have access to eBay or his email, something I may have believed had he not won a number of auctions and left feedback during that time.

 

He said he wanted to make amends and told me that he packaged the card and sent it to me even though I had already been issued the refund. I figured the guy was trying make up for the error which I appreciated. Needless to say it has been almost three weeks since he “sent” the card and still nothing and this is what earned him the negative feedback.

 

I know this isn’t a horrible experience compared to some stories I have heard, but it is frustrating when you find something you want, win the auction and then wait until you are disappointed only to have some hope for a positive ending to finally end up double disappointed.