How do I dispute negative feedback?

[Bormental]

I ran into the unreasonable character here, who sent me money without checking his inbox (for an item that another person paid ahead of him), received the full refund on the same day without losing a cent, yet he goes on and on bitching and demanding apologies in my inbox (I gave him that too) and leaving me a negative feedback on my profile.

What's my retaliation here?

[EDIT] "Retaliation" is no what I need, I need to clean this up.

 

[cowanw]

Moron is no longer in use as a medical term, and it's offensive and ableist to equate someone you think is acting foolish to a person with a disability.

 

[Bormental]

@cowanw I'm ok with your definition (and my use) of the word. [edit] but I've updated it to something more neutral.

 

[BrianShaw]

Don’t retaliate. Take the high road. Apologize and add that person to your ignore list. Very unfortunate...

 

[Bormental]

@BrianShaw sorry, I just want to clean this up. "Retaliate" is a poor choice of a word, "cleanup is more like it. I recently sold 4 items and enjoyed the experience vs something like eBay. None of those transactions are visible, but only this guy's complaint. I very much prefer to continue buying and selling here, so cleaning it up is probably a good idea.

 

[David A. Goldfarb]

The best option, I think, is for the two of you to work out your disagreement privately. I'll send a group PM to both of you and the moderation team.

For the record, transactions carried out through the classifieds are private arrangements made on whatever terms that the participants agree to, and Photrio only provides the forum in which they occur. That said, when there are misunderstandings, we'll try to help sort things out, when we can.

 

[Rick A]

Moron is no longer in use as a medical term, and it's offensive and ableist to equate someone you think is acting foolish to a person with a disability.

I defer to Bugs Bunny's "what a maroon".

 

[David A. Goldfarb]

I'll ask Sean to weigh in here on responding to feedback in the classifieds system, since this isn't an issue we've had before to my knowledge, and I'm not sure what the mechanism is.

 

[cowanw]

I prefer the term "sub moronic imbecile", a more apt description of some people. Of course, there's always Bugs Bunny's "what a maroon".

You are, of course, being purposefully provocative, but I hope one day you will come to realize how hurtful your words might be to others.

 

[binglebugbob]

I left the feedback. I think you might like to hear the other side of it:

I told him I'd buy it and I was given the sellers paypal address. I told him I would be sending payment the same day, and I did.. However, within a couple of hours after our communication, he apparently got a better offer and sold it to someone else. Why should I check my email? We had a deal. You reneged. and you got the feedback you deserved.

 

[Bormental]

Nope. There was no better offer. You sent me a message and went dark for a day. That's fine, people ask for PayPal info and disappear all the time. But another buyer came in and paid instantly. Why would I reject him if he was a full day ahead of you?

And why are you lying in your feedback saying "No explanation"? I told you to NOT send me the money, but you did not listen.

When I received your payment I instantly refunded and apologized, yet you kept complaining. What else did you expect? Additional payment for "pain and suffering"?

Not once in our exchange you used words like "please" or "sorry" or "thank you". Just due to your demanding, entitled tone I should have said "no" in the first place. This is exactly the kind of experience I was running from, switching from eBay to photrio.

 

[BrianShaw]

High road... take the high road...

BTW, I was wondering about the “feedback” as I’ve never seen it before. It took a lot of hunting to find it. I doubt it’s really all that meaningful. I could be wrong, and I understand the emotions on both sides, but it really could be of little real impact.

 

[removed account4]

Why would I reject him if he was a full day ahead of you?

The reason you would reject other offers is because you and the original buyer had an agreement / contract, you agreed to sell the item to him whether it took him 20 minutes or 36 hours to PayPal you the $$.... unless of course you him you would only sell to him under the condition that you had to be paid immediately otherwise your would sell to someone else. Were there preconditions of immediate payment?

Nope. There was no better offer. You sent me a message and went dark for a day. That's fine, people ask for PayPal info and disappear all the time.

And why are you lying in your feedback saying "No explanation"? I told you to NOT send me the money, but you did not listen.

When I received your payment I instantly refunded and apologized, yet you kept complaining. What else did you expect? Additional payment for "pain and suffering"?

Not once in our exchange you used words like "please" or "sorry" or "thank you". Just due to your demanding, entitled tone I should have said "no" in the first place. This is exactly the kind of experience I was running from, switching from eBay to photrio.

calling people names ( again ) and carrying on like this in an open public forum ... none of this is really cleaning up your mess, its kind of making things worse. .. as Brian said >> "high road" ...

High road... take the high road...

BTW, I was wondering about the “feedback” as I’ve never seen it before. It took a lot of hunting to find it. I doubt it’s really all that meaningful. I could be wrong, and I understand the emotions on both sides, but it really could be of little real impact.

Brian,
I won't buy from people with negative feedback. Life is too short to be worried that someone is going to act badly when buying or selling to someone. I left someone bad feedback from a horrible purchase I made ( years ago ). My factual negative feedback impacted his sales/business enough that he wrote to me and asked me to remove it. The feedback system and seeing how people act in the forum here is the only way we know what kind of people we are buying from and selling to. Several years ago I got in a lot of hot water because I refused to sell to someone I wanted nothing to do with, and I'd do it again in a heartbeat.

YMMV
John

 

[Bormental]

The reason you would reject other offers is because you and the original buyer had an agreement / contract, you agreed to sell the item to him whether it took him 20 minutes or 36 hours to PayPal you the $$.... unless of course you him you would only sell to him under the condition that you had to be paid immediately otherwise your would sell to someone else. Were there preconditions of immediate payment?

Contract you say? Have you tried to sell much? People ask for your PayPal info and disappear all the time. People ask for your info and THEN begin negotiating the price. Rejecting quick buyers simply because someone sent you their Paypal address and disappeared is just stupid. I sold the lens to someone more responsive, closed the listing, sent him a PM and went to bed. And then he sends me the money the next day.

This is all fine with me, people are people, mistakes are easy to make and trivial to correct in this case, I refunded his payment instantly. But no, he had to go and shit on my profile.

 

[Raghu Kuvempunagar]

This kind of acrimonious situation can be avoided by explicitly informing the prospective buyer, at the time of giving your paypal address, how long you're going to wait for the payment to happen. And strictly not accept payment from anybody else during the wait period.

 

[Bormental]

This kind of acrimonious situation can be avoided by explicitly informing the prospective buyer, at the time of giving your paypal address, how long you're going to wait for the payment to happen. And strictly not accept payment from anybody else during the wait period.

Raghu, this is a good suggestion. In the future I will do exactly that. It would not have helped with this character though, as he didn't read the message I sent him, informing that the lens had been sold to someone else (I sent it the day before he paid me)

 

[removed account4]

Contract you say? Have you tried to sell much? People ask for your PayPal info and disappear all the time. People ask for your info and THEN begin negotiating the price. Rejecting quick buyers simply because someone sent you their Paypal address and disappeared is just stupid. I sold the lens to someone more responsive, closed the listing, sent him a PM and went to bed. And then he sends me the money the next day.

This is all fine with me, people are people, mistakes are easy to make and trivial to correct in this case, I refunded his payment instantly. But no, he had to go and shit on my profile.

Yes I have sold quite a bit and bought even more. I have NEVER acted as you have acted, it is inexcusable, and then call people names like that while you justify your argument, it does not paint a pretty picture. You seem to have it backwards OP, he did not $4¡T on your profile YOU did, and then you have further tarnished your reputation by calling him names repeatedly in this thread and then claiming fair business practices / accepted "norms" are stupid.. does not look good...

High road would have worked the best...

==

added later:

Sorry if I sounded harsh OP I don't mean to be. Best things is always stick to the facts, be upfront in selling threads and communicate ( and realize some people might take a little while to respond, especially in these surreal times ).

 

[removedacct1]

Yes I have sold quite a bit and bought even more. I have NEVER acted as you have acted, it is inexcusable, and then call people names like that while you justify your argument, it does not paint a pretty picture. You seem to have it backwards OP, he did not $4¡T on your profile YOU did, and then you have further tarnished your reputation by calling him names repeatedly in this thread and then claiming fair business practices / accepted "norms" are stupid.. does not look good...

High road would have worked the best...

I agree. Your poor judgement has created these issues, not the actions of the other person.

In the future, having a "buyers agreement clause" that the potential customer must read and agree to before you even begin to discuss payment would be very helpful in avoiding a similar outcome. Because terms of purchase were not clearly stated at the outset, both buyer and seller made choices that were unsatisfactory to both.

 

[BrianShaw]

I don’t want to take sides here (or even imply taking sides) but a common phrase in business once was “money talks; bulls**t walks”. After once having a similar buying disappointment I’m now clear in my desire/intention to close a deal and very fast to pay. Avoids situations like this!

Feedback is an expression of both an experience and attitude. It’s a personal opinion. The best way to deal with negative feedback is to balance with even more good feedback. (Spoken as a 10-year Yelp Elite who has more than once counseled merchants on responding to negative feedback.)

in the end, though, the sooner both sides suck-it-up and move on make life better for everyone.

 

[ts1000]

I would side with the seller on this.


There is certain speed anticipated for electronic payments vs physical remittals.
And sellers on marketplace such as this, cannot be expected to have 'real-time inventory' function, where they would reject a paypal if the item was sold.

If I put something into my shopping cart on amazon/ebay/shoplifty -- and then not pay for a few hours, I could fully expect that item to be gone by the time I choose to pay.
Yes, of course, I would also expect them to reject my payment, if inventory is gone, but this is not realistic to expect a real-time inventory function for transactions that we have here.


If send a payment, seller accepted and did not reply in 24 hours, then rejected it (because the inventory is gone).
I would be upset with it, because in 24 hours I could have purchased that item from somewhere else.
So my money were tied up, unfairly.

Perhaps, there could be a standard 'understanding' (not a binding contract), that the classified section participants have been assumed to be informed about.

 

[Pioneer]

Sorry. IMHO I believe that the buyer has a legitimate complaint in this case. Communication implies a two way process. You send a message and your buyer responds. It doesn't sound like that happened here. Perhaps waiting a day or two would have been more helpful for your profile.

And I think that there are lots of us on this forum who sell here and other places quite frequently so you may find their responses helpful. Or maybe not.

As for the buyer, obviously your are frustrated and it sounds as if you have reason. But, since the money was immediately refunded you were quickly made whole again, at least financially. Remember, feedback goes both ways. Don't let your disappointment overtake your good judgement here.

Hopefully there is some middle ground for both of you. Everyone makes mistakes.

 

[Raghu Kuvempunagar]

Hopefully there is some middle ground for both of you.

+1. Frankly, a phone conversation between the buyer to the seller can help reach the middle ground quickly. This thread was totally avoidable IMO.

 

[Vaughn]

...Hopefully there is some middle ground for both of you. Everyone makes mistakes.

Good words.

 

[awty]

Its a occupational hazard being self employed and not pissing anyone off these days. Any negative feedback will impact on a small business, so you just have to be very patient with your customers and take it on the chin if their being a pain. The upside is if you dont have any negative feed back you get more customers.

 

[StepheKoontz]

IMHO any sort of online forum sale requires trust on both sides. Also, not everyone checks their emails/PMs multiple times a day and people live in different time zones/have different schedules. I know I have bought a few items on this forum and I'm sure a couple of times it was at least 24 hours between the "OK it's your's, here is my paypal address" and my sending them payment. Also have had situations I was interested and the seller said "I already have a buyer, I will give him a couple of days to pay and if not, I will get back with you". Never have I run across a seller that said "I already promised this to someone else, but if you can pay me before they respond, it's yours." Like seriously OP it was ONE DAY! I could understand if the buyer didn't pay/respond for 4-5 days then moving on.

Also I know personally when buying at auction sites, I look at the negative feedback not to see what the buyer said, but how the seller responds. If the seller is argumentative and/or abusive, I will 100% avoid them in response to negative feedback. Looking at this thread, I would never buy anything from the OP. If they are being this rude and hostile about this issue, can you imagine what it would be like if an item wasn't as described or another problem and you wanted a refund?