What To Do If You Get A Negative Or Neutral Feedback On eBay

I’ve got a couple of big fears that weigh on my mind when I’m running my eBay reselling business…

I worry that I’ll somehow accidentally leave the charity shop price tag on an item, revealing to the buyer that I paid just £2 for something that they forked out £40 for.

I worry that I’ll get addresses mixed up, and end up sending a pair of jeans to someone who bought a pair of shoes, and visa versa.

And I’ve also worried that at some point, a buyer will leave me a negative or a neutral feedback, wiping out the 100% positive feedback that I’ve worked really hard to build up over the past year.

Because really, it’s inevitable. At some point, you’ll make a genuine mistake and the buyer won’t give you the opportunity to rectify it, or you’ll get an awkward customer with unrealistic expectations.

Recently, the inevitable happened and I was left a neutral feedback. It’s worth noting that a neutral won’t actually impact your percentage rating, but it’s still bloody annoying.

The good news is that there are a couple of options, and depending on the circumstances, you don’t necessarily have to take the negative or neutral feedback lying down.

After a quick call to eBay, I had it removed from my account. Let’s take a look at what you need to know if the same happens to you…

AVOID NEGATIVE OR NEUTRAL FEEDBACK ON EBAY BY OFFERING GREAT CUSTOMER SERVICE

Okay, so I’m not going to bang the drum on this one for too long, because it’s common sense.

If you’re providing great service to your customers, shipping your items on time, and responding to any queries promptly, then you’re maximising your chances of having nothing but happy customers.

Remember though that as your eBay business grows, it makes sense to think about how you can develop your systems and processes so they’re fit for purpose, and you don’t drop the ball.

If your stock is out of control, the day will come when you lose an item. If you don’t have a system for getting stuff packaged and out the door, you’ll miss your own shipping deadlines.

Periodically, set aside a little time to make sure that you’re doing everything you can to stay organised and on top of the game.

MAKE SURE YOU’RE REGULARLY CHECKING YOUR EBAY FEEDBACK

Annoyingly, you don’t get any kind of notification or email from eBay when feedback is left on your account.

So really, it makes sense to make sure that you’re checking every day so you can pinpoint any issues straightaway.

You can do that on the eBay app my selecting ‘My eBay’, and then clicking on your username at the top of the screen.

Alternatively, you can do it on your desktop by visiting your Seller Hub. Here’s a screenshot of what it’ll look like:

ASK THE BUYER TO CHANGE THEIR FEEDBACK

It goes without saying here that if buyers contact you with a problem once they’ve received your item, it pays to send a prompt response and attempt to offer a solution.

Remember that most buyers are genuine, and they simply want to receive what they’ve paid for. If you’ve made a mistake, then apologise and offer a refund.

Once you’ve resolved the problem with the buyer, you can ask them to revise their feedback.

eBay provides a full guide to requesting feedback revisions from buyers.

ASK EBAY TO REMOVE THE FEEDBACK

Sometimes, your buyer will be entirely unreasonable, or they’ll not respond to your messages.

Other times, you might feel that the feedback that you were left was just unfair.

In these cases, you can get in touch with eBay and ask them to step in.

So this is what happened in my recent neutral feedback scenario…

I’d sold a vintage dress, and as I’ve covered before in my guide to selling vintage on eBay, a big challenge with these items is that they often don’t have a modern sizing label. As a matter of course, I explain this in my vintage listings, and I also provide very detailed measurements, so the buyer can make an informed decision around whether it’s likely to fit them.

So I shipped the dress, and heard no more from the buyer until she left me a neutral feedback saying the dress didn’t fit her, and that it had no sizing label.

I’ll be honest here… I was livid.

But I called eBay, explained the situation, and they agreed that it was unfair and instantly removed it.

Obviously I’ve only experienced this once, but I’m pleased to say that they were very helpful and cooperative. The issue was dealt with straightaway.

The bottom line here is that you don’t have to simply accept a feedback if you feel that it’s unfair. Give eBay a call. It may well be the case that they’ll agree with you and remove it.

For more information on when feedback may be removed, check out the seller performance and feedback policy.

eBay only allow you to request 5 feedback revisions for every 1000 feedback comments that you receive per year. In most cases, if you’re a casual seller or running a small business, this will be more than enough.

If you’re selling very high volumes though, pick your battles wisely. It makes sense to focus on the removal of negative feedback before neutral, and that will have a greater negative impact on your account.

STOP FLAPPING & CARRY ON

When you’re doing your best to provide a great service on eBay, getting a negative or neutral feedback can feel like a right kick in the teeth. But these things happen from time to time. Do what you can to try to get the feedback changed or removed, but remember that sometimes that just won’t be possible, and it’s not the end of the world.

Dust yourself off, keep listing, and keep doing your best for the customers that you serve. It’s not worth losing any sleep. And anyway, the feedback will disappear from your ratings after 12 months!

Have you ever been left a negative or neutral feedback? How did you try to rectify it, and what lessons did you learn? 

SaveSave

SaveSave