Overseas eBay Sellers Bribing for Feedback?

leonheart1 on 26/08/2013 - 21:38

I bought a cheap item off eBay from overseas.
It took a whole month to arrive so I voted neutral with an explanation.

The seller then offered to refund me half of the price if I revise my feedback to positive.
I refused but the guy kept bugging me and eventually led to their hilariously stupid response.

What's with these sellers being so pushy?
It's not like I voted negative. A neutral vote doesn't even count towards the % rating.

From my experience, the sellers never follow up on their promises. I had a different seller offer to give me an extra screen protector after I bought a pack if I gave them positive feedback. Never got it.

Has anyone had any experiences with these sorts of sellers and how they dealt with them?

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Comments

  • scrimshaw on 26/08/2013 - 22:23
    +9

    It took a whole month to arrive so I voted neutral with an explanation.

    A month is not unusual. Very often I've had to wait over 4 weeks for an item to arrive from Deal Extreme and 95% of the time, the items do arrive as promised. You do need to be patient as the customs and declarations in HK Post are extremely busy and when something suspicious is found, a large amount of deliveries can be held back until it's investigated.

    I've never had an issue with pushy sellers, sometimes you just have to take what they offer (a partial refund or some other compensation). You could open a paypal dispute but also have to consider on whether it's worth the time and trouble for a low value item.

  • indium on 26/08/2013 - 22:56
    +18

    I think it's unfair to leave them neutral feedback if they posted the item within a few days but it was the postage service, which is out of their control, which was slow. You paid for and agreed to that method of postage

    • meroveus on 27/08/2013 - 00:24
      +1

      Agree. Four weeks is nothing. Some of my items from Asia take 2-3 months to arrive, but they do eventually get here.

    • samfisher5986 on 27/08/2013 - 10:54
      +1

      This is why I stopped selling on eBay, everyone complains about delivery times if you aren't posting it locally.

  • Ughhh on 27/08/2013 - 01:04
    +7

    A month for the item to arrive from overseas is the norm. If you want the item quicker, buy local and pay extra.

  • tomclancy on 27/08/2013 - 01:13
    +7

    Agree with other comments. You bought from overseas (presumably to save money) and then complain about it taking 4 weeks to arrive by slow boat??? What did you expect, the seller to personally fly to your house and deliver it in person the next day? You were wrong to neutral vote based on soley on this.

  • Geewhizz on 27/08/2013 - 06:27
    +2

    To be honest, I don't know why the seller bothered trying to bribe you, rather than simply leaving a note following your feedback. Anyone with any idea of the postal system would have known that your complaint was unreasonable.

  • vipulrm on 27/08/2013 - 09:29
    +7

    In my opinion the seller went out of his way to even offer you a 50% refund. You should have just taken it and given him the +ve feedback he deserved.

  • 5k on 27/08/2013 - 11:30
    +9

    Lol amateur ebayers and their first world problems

  • Wade on 27/08/2013 - 15:19
    +1

    I agree with all the previous people. I sell through websites and eBay, and once an item is dispatched, it is generally totally out of the control of the seller. It's not fair that you blame them for China Post, Australia Post, or whoever's delay it was - It wasn't the sellers fault.

    Unfortunately with eBay, they make it the sellers fault if the item doesn't arrive. As such, whenever a seller sells an item with a method of post that isn't trackable and signed for, they're taking on a risk that PayPal could refund the purchaser for something that isn't the seller's fault.

    The seller has gone out of his way to help you for something that isn't his fault.

  • kwaker on 27/08/2013 - 21:16

    Neutral feedback is the same as negative in the world of ebay. Its not that they care about your immature whinging but that they get penalised. If you dont want to wait a month then dont buy from overseas which the listing would have stated. You want it to be china prices at local speed. he attempted to rectify and made you an offer not a bribe. Your trying to ruin his business over nothing. Your a bad ebayer and a mean individual.

  • twinbag on 28/08/2013 - 14:17
    +2

    I agree with the other posters and the sellers response to you. 1 month is normal delivery time from China/HK unless you're willing to pay extra for expedited shipping which I guess you weren't.

    As I understand it neutral feedback will affect their priority in some search results and can lead to them paying extra fees if they fall below certain performance levels.

    Given that they sell on very low margins, neutral feedback is almost as bad as negative. Their offer to refund you 50% to turn your negative experience into a positive on was very generous, and your refusal says more about how bad a customer you are than what type of seller they are.

  • exc3113nce on 28/08/2013 - 14:27

    Where did the item come from?

  • morpheu on 28/08/2013 - 14:37
    +2

    Large volume eBay sellers like power sellers get discounts and privileges but to keep that they need a minimum of neutral/negative feedback and 5/5 star ratings, haven't been on eBay recently so rules may have changed, just to let people know why some sellers may be 'pushy' about feedback, IMHO feedback is overrated, a lot of buyers don't leave feedback which skews % rating(human nature means people are more likely to complain than praise) and some use it to blackmail seller, a more practical rating would be something like a sales completion rate similar to dhgate but that involves escrow

  • andyken on 28/08/2013 - 19:41
    +3

    a month from china is normal, you are one of the tightarse buyer, if you want the item quick, buy local, if you want cheap with free shipping, dont complaint for slow postage time.

  • OBone on 28/08/2013 - 20:35
    +1

    If there is a problem with any transaction, you can always try contacting the seller first before leaving negative feedback. I have received replacements for DOA's at least twice that I can recall, both from China.
    And yes, postage takes a while from China and probably says as much in their terms and conditions, so patience is a must.
    Lesson learned I guess.

  • LSGH on 28/08/2013 - 20:56
    +2

    as you can see from all the posts here and all the "+"'s they are getting, it might have been better if you just chose to not leave any feedback at all which wouldnt "even count towards the % rating"

    4 weeks is nothing, especially if you got something really cheap like a $3.99 cable probably with "free shipping"? to put things into perspective, I recently bought some sports equipment from the ever efficient USA and paid US$100 for shipping, and it still took a full week and a day…but since I read the fine print, I knew that that was the likely timeframe…

  • JepunK on 28/08/2013 - 21:06
    +1

    Apart from the neutral feedback responses above, I think that their comment is not hillarious, it's probably a case of copy and paste job from google translate and in reverse it may makes sense in chinese. Same situation if you write perfect grammatically correct comments in english and google translate it into chinese to try to communicate with them, it's also may sounds funny. Try to have some CQs…it goes a long way

  • kwaker on 29/08/2013 - 03:25

    how do you expect the seller to resolve your problem? your not giving them any opportunity you just want to abuse.

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