Recovering from an eBay mistake

Mai-Kero

So, I've only had five transactions on the site so far. That show up on my rating, anyway, I had some older purchases but they seem to have slid off. I've only tried selling one thing, and I fucked up, and I wasn't willing to take the tremendous hit on money so I welshed out of the transaction, which made me feel really bad even though I'm sure the guy found a similar deal from somewhere else.

The problem, along with me being a douchebag, is that now I've got a 20% bad rating. I'm worried that if I try to sell anything else (and next time I won't bother posting it unless I'm absolutely willing to part with it for the amount people bid) no one will even consider buying it because I've only got five ratings and one of them is negative. Is this something to worry about? Is there any way to recover from bad feedback?

Nappuccino

If you buy from people and use paypal speedily, your feedback should revert shouldn't it?

Or, is buyer feedback and seller feedback seperate now? I haven't used ebay in almost 2 years so it may have changed or I might just not remember it correctly.

eternalbl

If its any consolation I hardly even look at feedback when I buy something.

Until something goes wrong.

oldsak

To be fair, you do deserve it. As a buyer I'd want to know if someone had a history of backing out of deals, especially if it was the only thing he tried to sell.

You don't have much feedback to being with, so maybe you should just start a new account. This time, try not being a dick, and if you don't want to sell something for less than a certain price, set a minimum amount.

Shark_MegaByte

I always look at feedback before buying something. But as you've seen, some people don't.

Worse case scenario, your stuff will take longer to sell, or sell for less, for a while until the negative you got slides off into the past. You can still sell it, it just might not do as well as if you had 0 negatives. Buy something now and then until it goes off the recent history (I think it takes about a year)

Szechuanosaurus

eternalbl wrote: »

If its any consolation I hardly even look at feedback when I buy something.

Until something goes wrong.

Way to be part of the problem :P

You might as well just start a new account Mai-Kero. Most experienced buyers aren't going to go near a seller who has negative feedback for stuff like pulling-out of a sale, especially as in most circumstances they will be able to find a more trusted buyer selling the same item as you. Attempts to repair your feedback with strategies like substantially under-pricing items to make your auctions more favourable than a better rated competitor to increase your sales are just likely to make you look even more like a scammer using a 'to good to be true' lure.

Six

Yeah, you have that feedback problem for a reason - you're not a trustworthy seller.

Your options are to either create a new account or have a bunch of good transactions to minimize the effect of the bad. Since you don't have much of an ebay history at all, a new account is probably in order.

And don't sell on ebay in the future unless you understand how it works.

Killgrimage

I've done a bunch of ebaying in the past and used to lurk actively on the discussion forums there. I think some things have changed (they've messed with the feedback system for buyers for some reason) but from what I remember you can do two things.

You can make a new account and start over. This is the easiest way to get out from under that terrible 20%. No one is going to buy from you with that if you are selling something that worth anything over 5 bucks.

That said, the other option would be to sell many small, cheap items for very cheap. I'm talking about stuff you would buy at the dollar store or something and sell for 50 cents. This way is harder and you have to take a hit with money (though not that much if the stuff you sell is cheap anyway), but with each positive you will improve your score by a lot. Other good things to do are be prompt, communicate with the buyer if s/he has questions/issues and send a thank you note with the stuff you sell (I really liked it when I got these).

Sorry you had a bad eBay experience, I hear they are going downhill these days

eternalbl

Szechuanosaurus wrote: »

eternalbl wrote: »

If its any consolation I hardly even look at feedback when I buy something.

Until something goes wrong.

Way to be part of the problem :P

You might as well just start a new account Mai-Kero. Most experienced buyers aren't going to go near a seller who has negative feedback for stuff like pulling-out of a sale, especially as in most circumstances they will be able to find a more trusted buyer selling the same item as you. Attempts to repair your feedback with strategies like substantially under-pricing items to make your auctions more favourable than a better rated competitor to increase your sales are just likely to make you look even more like a scammer using a 'to good to be true' lure.

Actually I think in this case I'm part of his solution :P

Figgy

I suggest you:

A) Read how selling items works on ebay. You clearly don't understand the process, or you would have used a reserve on that item and wouldn't have to worry about "parting with it for the amount people bid."

Create a new account.

C) Shape up.

As has been said, you deserved the shitty feedback rating, and your probable inability to successfully sell anything is just testament to the ebay feedback system working as intended.

Rethius

Your account is salvageable.

I would recommend that you buy on the site until you build up a bit more feedback. Any positive feedback you get will look good. Also, you might lose some buyers due to your newly registered account and negative FB, but not all of them.

You're just starting out on eBay, and they allow a seller to make a mistake.

In the future if you realize that you need to back out of a transaction, communicate with the buyer. You will be amazed how many of them are willing to work with you.