I bought a fairly cheap item on 20th January. It was quickly listed as ‘dispatched’, within 24hrs.
Nothing arrived so today I sent a message enquiring as to why, and got this reply

I will have to refund you for the item as we don’t have them in stock.

Is that worth a neutral feedback? I reckon it might be. I’ve not actually had my refund yet either….

Fair enough, people make mistakes, but why list an item AND say it’s dispatched what you don’t have one?

I noticed the other week when selling that just printing the postage label through eBay automatically marks an item as despatched. So there is scope for a genuine error on that.

Fair enough. I might just not bother.

Very frustrating, been there. But it happens and as long as you get your money back it’s no big issue. I do not leave any feedback in such circumstances. I mostly leave positive, not yet had to leave negative but have refrained on a few occasions. There’s always something else.

Shouldn’t that be negative, isn’t one of the rules of eBay that you have thew item to sell?

neutral saying it was not in stock IMHO

Might be genuine error might but it is hardly great business device.

ignore if a private seller

Business seller.

neutral at least as i tend to avoid sellers that do this if I need the item quick – ok you get nothing quick from ebay but you know what I mean

I love how it’s implicit in this thread that neutral feedback is a bit of a mean thing to do. So British.

Explains why an item I bought last night flagged as despatched at 1045 last night.

I’d lean for neutral with ‘transaction issue resolved rapidly’ maybe … or none.

TBH, with ebay, a lack of effusive positive feedback says much in the first place.

I’d reserve negging a seller for serious ‘dispappeared with the cash’ or ‘seriously not as advertised and seller didn’t give a toss’ situations personally.

Don’t forget ebay doesn’t exactly apply a level playing field for small businesses and actually negging someone for a mistake they’ve resolved will penalise them financially.

I left negstive feedback for the first time ever this week.

Seller sent wrong colour item, and refused to pay postage for the return. Would have cost me more to send back registered than the item was worth.

I’d reserve negging a seller for serious ‘dispappeared with the cash’ or ‘seriously not as advertised and seller didn’t give a toss’ situations personally.

Agreed. Neutral for minor stuff like this, and negatives for when their is genuine malice/fraudulent etc intent.

Shrug it off – it’s just ebay

No sorry negative from me.
1st listing something that’s not in stock is bad. You may have wanted it in a hurry. What are you going to do?
2nd There is absolutely no excuse for not letting you know that they were out of stock. He was hoping the new stock would arrive before you could complain.
Failure to give a negative will just encourage him to do it again and you are letting down buyers by not letting them know. Most people click on negative feedback to see this sort of info. You are also letting down good sellers who are not being recognised as much as they should.
Negative because that’s what he deserves.

. honourablegeorge – Member
I left negstive feedback for the first time ever this week.

Seller sent wrong colour item, and refused to pay postage for the return. Would have cost me more to send back registered than the item was worth.

In your case I would simply say it has not arrived why should you lose out? In your case he has all your money. You have done nothing wrong. The other day I received an item that was faulty. The seller would have sent a courier to pick it up but did not think it was worth it, so just gave me my money back. Positive Feedback and deserved it.

definitely negative from me!

not a negative from me, not even a neutral yet. i would wait to see how he resolved the issue before i considered any feedback
i think genuine sellers get a bum deal these days and i would not want to penalise them any more.

Is he out of stock now that the item has failed to arrive, or did he never have it??

.Lester – Member
not a negative from me, not even a neutral yet. i would wait to see how he resolved the issue before i considered any feedback
i think genuine sellers get a bum deal these days and i would not want to penalise them any more.

No stock and he and does not inform the buyer that he has no stock, not my definition of genuine seller. He has (the seller) attempted to resolve the issue by refunding his money that is not resolving the issue, it is simply saying go away.

.Don’t forget ebay doesn’t exactly apply a level playing field for small businesses and actually negging someone for a mistake they’ve resolved will penalise them financially.

No a negative. If your buying from someone I/you always check the negative feedback and as long as you say why you are giving a negative then buyers can make there mind up on wherever they want to take the risk. If they need the item in a hurry. Also they can email them and ask is it in stock and tell him I need it in a hurry.

Well, he’s STILL not refunded my money.
I’ve opened a case for my refund, and the best he can now expect is neutral, If I don’t get my refund tomorrow he gets a big fat negative.

eBay seller “hids-direct” if anyone wants to know

http://www.ebay.co.uk/usr/hids-direct?_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2754

I’ve had it happen to me before, trouble is if you leave negative feedback, then they may well leave the same for you.

You can’t leave negative for buyers anymore

EBay now give you the option of not having the money taken from your account for 14 days, so if your item has not arrived you don’t end up out of pocket.

Still no refund and he got his negative.

Quite right too. I thought you were being unduly lenient when you’d had to open a case and yet were still considering “Neutral”!

HAAAA!

He’s just sent me a message:

Hi there,

I’ve been going through our recent feedback and noticed you have left us a negative or neutral score and i assume a low score on the star ratings.

Any feedback/low seller rating can have a detrimental effect on future sales and how we appear as a company on the web.

I hope that if we can offer a suitable remedy to the issue that you can consider a feedback revision.

If not please advise to what you feel would be a suitable remedy to the issue faced and I’d be happy to look into this for you.

I look forward to your reply,

To which I replied:

Well, I paid for my item, and it was apparently ‘dispatched’
But it never arrived, so I asked why. You said you didn’t have any in stock (I thought it was against eBay rules to advertise something you didn’t have in stock..?) and offered me a refund
I didn’t get a refund
I asked again and got no reply
I opened a case and got no reply
So you got negative feedback because you deserve it. And I hope it is detrimental to your business because your business is detrimental to my bank balance.

I’ve STILL not had my refund

More cheek than a cows arse… 🙂

Who, me or him? 😉

Him..