Hi NancyAnn,

It's always so hard deciding to leave negative or neutral feedback, isn't it? I'm assuming he hasn't left feedback for you yet. If not, he'll probably retaliate and leave you negative in response. That's what always bothers me. If you tell the truth and go ahead and leave a neg or neutral, you risk your own feedback in the process. I know alot of people that have 2 different accounts, one for selling and one for buying. So that way if you leave a negative for a seller, it doesn't affect your own seller ID.

Personally I think he should have bought the new batteries also and replaced them. If he's unwilling to do that, then I'd at least leave a neutral. Sounds like he just didn't get the money he'd hoped for it. Can you file a dispute on it? I've only filed disputes on non paying bidders, so I'm not sure how it works when a seller backs out.

Just my 2 cents! :) Teresa

That's what bugs me about the feedback system. Give a bad rating and you get one in return. As long as you didn't lose any money, I would let it go. Leave him bad feedback, and he's sure to leave you one too. And you are selling too. So you don't want that glaring out at your customers.
Pam

I would let it go and go buy yourself a new plant for being such a decent person!

Pat

legally, he was obligated to you. how convenient that the batteries were stolen as the auction/bidding closed. why wasn't the charger?

i would leave neutral with the remark along the lines of
..after bid xcptrd/clzd, Slr lost items but refunded my $.
something along those lines (i was trying to abbreviate as i know there's only a set amount of characters.

best to you.

maryanne

Hi Nancy Ann

I agree with Maryanne, leave neutral feedback and be honest. Feedback is for other buyers to look at and see if they want to take a chance with this seller. I have been selling for years now and I try to be very careful with feedback. As long as he refunded your money (although he should've replaced them) he didn't take your money and run.

Good luck,
Nina

As an auction seller myself I know that things can go wrong. Once I put something up for auction and when I went to ship it, found out my husband had thrown the box in the recycling bin and it was already taken away with the garbage. Mistakes happen. Just be happy that you got your money back already, we all know there are sellers out there that will take your money and run. Perhaps the guy lives with roomates and someone took the batteries. I'm not saying the guy isn't lying, he very well could be. 98% is still fairly good for feedback, and if he hasn't relisted this item yet it shows he probably doesn't have the item. I agree that you could leave neutral feedback and say Promptly returned money after he lost item.

Well, the item he lost was batteries--Every Walmart has 'em. So they're not a hard thing to replace. He didn't lose the charger, just the batteries, so he says.

I will definitely not be leaving positive feedback. And I don't fear negative feedback. With 500 unique positive feedbacks, one negative won't hurt me much. And I can respond to his feedback and folks reading my feedback will know the seller was clearly wrong.

I do think I'll leave a negative and state "Seller says AA batteries were stolen, can't replace them?? Refunded money." It took him about 2 weeks to refund the money, so that's not really "prompt".

There's no guarantee that he hasn't already sold the item. Maybe a "roommate" offered him $15 instead of the $10 I was gonna pay. Or maybe he sells under another name or on another site. Who knows? He did refund my money so I won't leave him a negative.

Thanks for the input, y'all.

NancyAnn

Also, it seems the only (maybe) way around retalitory negative feedback is for you to leave negative (or neutral) feedback at the last possible moment. I think that would be as late as possible on the 90th day after the auction but maybe someone here knows exactly when the opportunity for feedback expires.

NancyAnn,
According to the rules and regulations of the auctions which are VERY clear, unless the seller has a Reserve posted for the item it is to go to the highest bidder. The seller can sell the item to someone else PRIOR to the start of the bid but once bidding has started he is bound by the rules of Yahoo or ebay (wherever his auction is located) to sell to the highest bidder. If he should cancel the sale AFTER the bidding has ended and there is NO reserve, you can turn him in to the auction site (again yahoo, ebay or wherever he has his auction site) There they will either kick him out(if he has prior history of doing this), charge him a fine, etc. and he'll be forced to give you the item won. I would definitely contact the auction site and tell them about it. I would also definitely leave negative feedback. Just my 2 cents and hope it helps.
Sincerely and respectfully,
Nancy aka sunshine98

just one of the reasons I gave up on e-bay. too many problems, too much wasted time and money, too few good results.

I've decided to leave a neutral, not a negative. He did refund my money. So he didn't steal from me.

Ebay is like any other place; you'll have good and bad experiences. I get great bargains on most items, like a new external 200 gig hard drive for $80, ink cartridges for my printer at a fraction of what I'd pay locally, and a particular brand of clothing I can't buy locally.

Over the years I've done 100's of transactions and only occasionally did I have any problems. I guess it depends on your expectations and what you are looking for. I'm almost always pleased with everything I've gotten from Ebay sellers.

I ended up leaving a neutral and stated that the buyer refunded my money but claimed the AA batteries were stolen and he couldn't replace them.

Today he left me neutral feedback that said TRIED TO RIP ME OFF!!!!!

How does he figure that??? I paid immediately and then he reniegged on the deal! It seems he has done something similar to this once before. So I may just report him. I hate to, but how can he say I tried to rip him off?? That just makes no sense. Because he began the auction cheaply and I was the only bidder so he didn't get as much as he wanted for it? It makes no sense to me. If you don't want to settle for $10, then start your auction at the lowest price that will make you happy.

I think I'll go see where I can report him. Thanks Nancy for reminding me of that.

NancyAnn

Nancy,
You have a chance to reply to feedback left for you.Go reply to his feedback witht the truth.
I've bought many things from ebay and only had 2 bad experiences,but no money was lost.

Nancyann,
You have to open a dispute with square trade to try to get his feedback removed. He had no right to leave feedback like that for you. You might even be able to use his statement to suggest he might still have the item and just didn't want to sell it to you for the bid price. He wouldn't have made a statement like that unless he was very dissapointed with the sale price. I wish you good luck with this.
Pat