Ebay seller trying to buy revised feedback

[wotnot]

I'll welcome any comment here wrt the ever opened ended question of ..."What would you do?" ...

Just to prefix this, and somewhat explain why I chose to leave 'negative feedback', not 'neutral' ...as some of you know, I'm a disability pensioner living rural, some 20klms or so from the nearest town, and with no public transport etc etc, I am very much reliant on my car being good to go at all times, and towards the end of October this year I noticed the alternator was growling away, so I decided to buy one off ebay, as for the same part it was some $100+ cheaper than from a local autoshop, plus being shown on the shelf in their Brisbane location and having bought from them before, I knew it was 4days worst case postage to get it here ~ TBH I've bought from them a couple of times in the past, and austpost managed to not drop the ball and get things to me in 2 days...yes, miracles do happen... =)

Anyhow, had the seller not dropped the ball here, what wouldn't have happened was Murphy's Law stepping in to close the deal, with the old alternator deciding the lockup and smoke the belt about (thankfully) 1klm from home, and I was able to loosen the adjuster and let it squeal itself to death getting the car home ...ie; trying to keep the water pump turning 8) ...as it was, the vibrations of driving over the first cattle grid jarred the armature free again and it coffee-grindered back to life, so I got it home and was 'stranded' with a broken car for 5 days (later when I pulled the alternator apart, I found more than half the balls from the front bearing were missing & the armature had been poling .. impressive carnage B). So now you're up to speed here, and nothing gets my goat like planning for a pending failure, and having your (normally reliable) supplier let you down ; this is not neutral ground IMHO, this is negative consequence...FTR when the replacement did arrive, it was the right part, correct fitment, and works like a Bosch BX should, but come ebay feedback time, I left this comment...



I've include the other (positive) feedback for another seller, that demonstrates Murphy's Law works both ways ...ie; worst time to be caught doing the wrong thing, is right beside someone else doing the right thing... lol...

The wording of the negative comment, pertains to the timeline and seller's conduct....that is to say, it is free of the personal affectations/inconvenience as expressed in prefix here ~ these are the facts which caused that to be so. Actually, that's an expurgated timeline, because item was actually posted Friday Nov 12th, and AustPost got it here by 10am Tuesday Nov 16th....so business as usual with austpost, with a weekend inbetween, as said they got it here 'on time' as it were. However, technically speaking I can't complain about that, because...





Note: this message was signed with a person's name, and was the response I got when I asked 'where is it? Is there a problem?'....so although it mentions the 10th, 'get it to you ASAP' ...likely means they're getting a shipment, that has to be sorted and processed...I know the drill.

I -could- have exercised my rights, and asked for a full refund at that stage, but, it turned out I wouldn't had been able to get to town to pick anything else up when the alternator said enough...so if I had've asked for a refund, I think I would've been in a tighter place =)

Get up this morning, and there's an ebay email/message from this 'seller'....





Note: This message is unsigned, no name, and also note they refer to themselves with the lower-case 'i' ....

Whilst we muse over the identity of the writer, you have to marvel at the ability of someone to 'shoot themselves in the foot' as it were. I mean...you can't agree with the content of the negative comment, admit mea culpa, then turn around with a $25 'bribe' to get you to change the comment...??..I mean, wtf.... has ebay really devolved into a place where you can make money, by leaving negative feedback, and hoping the seller tries to buy you off?...lol....from a seller's rights point of view, you've got...






...but clearly, 'i' doesn't claim this to be the case here, but acknowledges/asserts my feedback was both fair and accurate. So what are they looking to buy from me with this $25?....







...m'kay?....got all that?.....so what this seller is trying to buy from me, is -my- decision to...






FFS... lol .... which end of the ebay policy guidelines does this live on? By that, I mean the difference between this being acceptable/unacceptable behaviour on the seller's part, to contact me by ebay messages, offer me $25 to get me to file a feedback revision request through proper ebay channels so I might repeal my original negative comment ...use whatever terminology sits best with you, 'buy my silence' ...'buy a lie' ...or moralistically, not tell the truth for twenty five bucks.

Of course, I could hit up ebay directly to satisfy that quandary, but I've got a couple of days to respond to this 'out of band buy off' deal .... for instance....


[response example 1]

Hello there person with no name that refers to themselves with a lower-case 'i',

Thank you for acknowledging that my feedback was fair and accurate in every respect.

As that is the case, I believe the inconvenience caused to me was worth $100 to have me revise my negative feedback.

I might negotiate on that price is you have a better offer?


[response example 2]

Hello there person with no name that refers to themselves with a lower-case 'i',

Thank you for acknowledging that my feedback was fair and accurate in every respect.

I think you will find it is against ebay policy to attempt to bribe/pay for a feedback revision request from a buyer, who has left an accurate/fair/honest negative feedback which you yourself agree is the 'truth', 'correct'.

I suggest you offer me a full refund on the purchase, let me keep the item, then I'll revise my feedback AND not inform ebay of your behaviour,



Anyone got any other suggestions?...<grin>....

[wotnot]

So I went outside last night and meditated about this to the sound of canetoads & frogs croaking in the dark....I also heard an owl.

I always wanted to know just how far you could push these bearings ....



...lol...that's too far, m'kay? =)


Apart from that priceless experience, I came to conclude that this mystery entity 'i' is something I want to know more about....this is to say, if I look at that reply, and I overlay it with the possibility that it was auto-generated by some eCommerce online shop software, in response to the trigger of negative feedback, and this software already calculated out the $25 figure out based on item cost, and whoever received this notification was supposed to fill in their name....but haven't, because they don't want to be identified with, as ebay puts it, 'feedback manipulation'...




....and I should point out in the next breath, the agent came back with....




I completely ignored the question, as I know full well ebay T&C retain the right to 'scan messages to enforce policies'.... and at a hunch, the ebay agent's put 2 & 2 together, and my ebay message bank is going to get scanned =) Certainly, the agent never pressed the question again...

So I know I'm going to come across as a right prick, but I'm actually interested to know if some software is responsible for this message or not, and if some 'innocent' online shop owner is being forced into forwarding this message to me, or if they did it themselves without considering that some ppl cannot be bought, and to try to do so can be viewed tantamount to insult...so I replied with this....





The image of course, was of the entire ebay chat transcript. No idea how/if whoever replies, but lets see if there's a human at the other end..

[wotnot]

Never replied, ebay store now displays this...



So at a hunch, ebay clobbered them after reviewing my messages ....so I guess we'll never know if it was a bot or not =)

BTW, don't shed any tears for this seller --- they have about 8 ebay stores, and if this one is gone their sister ebay store picks up the slack.....which is still active.

This is what I mean about ebay not enforcing things properly -- they will take down 1 store of a seller, but let the seller continue to conduct business with their other ebay store(s).

The disappointing thing for me, is I'm a reasonable bloke, and if a real person had of sent me a message, identifying who they were, explained (as they have done) that my feedback was accurate & fair, and then informed me that my negative feedback would cost them their ebay store front, I would've definitely considered revising my feedback from 'negative' to 'neutral'...just because I'm a reasonable bloke....and I would've done that for free ...ie; the comment would remain the same, I'd just remove the 'negative' flag....and this thread wouldn't exist.

However, they didn't -- I got treated as someone who could be bribed into manipulating ebay feedback...which is not only a 'seller' indiscretion, but also a responsibility for buyers....and if I had taken the $25, revised my feedback, as a buyer *I too* would be considered guilty of feedback manipulation.

Oh well....I might push this thread URL at them, in the attempt to draw them a fuller picture, but alas the boat has sailed and they apparently would care anyway =)

Now.....do I remain courteous by not mentioning their name here, or do I point out to all readers, who this seller is, and what ebay stores they have?