Your thoughts on ebay situation...

[m00sie]

Hi all,

Sorry, this will be abit of a spiel so please bear with me!

I recently purchased a stone off a popular vendor with a good feedback rating. Others on PS have purchased off this vendor and had mixed results, some have been happy and others have returned their items (usually because the colour wasn't what they expected based on the auction pictures).

I thought I would give this vendor a go and purchased a reasonably inexpensive stone. Received the stone and unfortunately the stone was a completely different colour to the auction pictures (stone was a magenta pink/purple in the pictures with excellent saturation and a brown/grape purple with poor saturation IRL).

I returned the stone as per the vendor's return policy, but the vendor never received it. Unfortunately NZ only has two postage options-international air post which is fairly inexpensive (jewellery/stones are not covered) or international courier which is about 7x the price of international air. I usually take the risk and send my stones back via standard post (most are worth less than $100 USD) and so far all the vendors I have returned stones to have received them so I was a wee bit surprised that the vendor hadn't received the item (as we are pretty close to Asia, stones usually take 3-5 days to arrive).

I posted neutral feedback on the vendor commenting on the fact that the stone colour was completely different to the pictures in the auction and the seller has been in contact offering to give me a refund if I change my feedback (they have very few neutral/negative feedbacks).

My question is would you 'give in' to bribery and retract the feedback if it meant getting your money back? I don't think a full refund would sit well with me as the vendor does not have the stone, but at the same time if the colours were accurate I would not have purchased the stone and therefore would not have had to return it.

I did note that in one of the other neutral feedbacks, the vendor mentioned that they had offered the purchaser a refund even though they had not received the stone. The purchaser then posted that they had proof the stone was delivered to the vendor. The reality is I only have the vendor's word that they haven't received the stone (I am fairly certain they are being truthful but you never know).

Your advice/opinions would be appreciated

 

[Gempassion]

Hi Moosie,

Sounds like a tough situation but I think that I would retract the feedback. If the vendor offered you a "bride" to retract the feedback, then the vendor has his/her reputation in mind and they simply want to keep their customer happy too which is important. On the other hand, if you think that getting a full refund wouldn't "sit well" with you, then don't retract your feedback. It's up to you really.

 

[Gempassion]

*bribe

 

[Arcadian]

My one rule on ebay is that I don't retract feedback. Neutrals don't count against the sellers overall score, as they don't affect their %'s one way or the other.

So, if you feel its justified, let the seller know that you will leave it as is. Even if you were to change it, you wouldn't have to be totally glowing, just that you were refunded by the seller as the stone wasn't to your taste.

I email the sellers before I leave feedback, and let them know I've not left it, and why I'm sending them an message about their products if I'm unhappy with the sale. I leave it up to them to rectify the problem at that point, and I give them 3 days to contact me back. If there's no movement, then yes, I've been known to leave neutrals and in a few cases where service and product were really was bad, negatives.

So I will give opportunity for the seller to make it right, but I always stay truthful about the product and their services.


-A

 

[JewelFreak]

Moosie, I would think about not retracting the feedback. These are the considerations: First, the customer who wrote she/he had proof of delivery of the returned stone -- any hints as to what the proof was? In other words, who does one believe, vendor or buyer? But in a sense, it doesn't really matter. You have evidence that this seller has & still is offering bribes to squash less-than-positive reviews. (Worse if they actually did get the stone back & denied it, of course.) It's plain dishonest, to my thinking. Sleazy at best. So other potential buyers see only good stuff about this company, which could be misleading; you'd wonder how many they paid off to take down their experiences. Obviously that makes the feedback system useless.

You don't need to mention this in feedback but it's something to keep in mind when deciding -- did the seller purposely misrepresent the stone in photos? Maybe they just don't take good pics, hard to do, as we've learned here. However, it sounds like what you saw online & what you got were fairly far apart. Maybe vendor manipulated photos, maybe not, but that would add to my feelings of something not right.

It's good the money isn't huge -- then you'd be in the old conflict between principle & wallet, no fun. But you're not, so I guess it depends on how strongly you feel these guys violated ethics.

--- Laurie

P.S. Whatever you do, watch their site to see if that stone comes back up for sale.

 

[chrono]

I would not retract my feedback because nothing has changed. The stone did not look like the picture and will never look like the picture the vendor posted to advertise the stone. Sure, the vendor has strong incentives to bribe you for a good feedback because he wants to continue to make good sales (lure others into a feeling of confidence that everything is honky dory with all his customers very satisfied with their purchases). I take it from your explanation that you have no way to track the package to confirm that it reached its destination? Since you said it’s an inexpensive stone, I hope it wasn’t much at all, so that you can take the loss to remain true to your beliefs.

 

[LD]

Oh dear MOOsie, this sounds very horribly familiar! Is this an Ebay store that is called T******store by any chance? I've put in * in case I'm wrong and apologies if I am!

If so, I was offered a bribe to change my feedback. I reported them to Ebay. The Vendor found my posts on here and came on saying I was a liar (nice!).

Whoever the Vendor is, report them to Ebay. Feedback is there for a reason. Go with your gut instinct. It will help others.

 

[GemPendants]

1. If they really did not receive your return package, but they care about your satisfation so much that they would refund you at their cost, then it is fair to give them a positive feedback.

2. If they did receive your package but lied to avoid refund, now they offered a refund to buy you back, then they deserve a negative feedback.

Which is more likely? I think 2. Because there was somebody who sent the package back and had the proof it arrived, the seller said they did not receive, right?

 

[gsellis]

As for tracking, FedEx and UPS will track packages. I think International Express Mail does too (US). It ain't cheap though.

 

[kelpie]

I'd take the refund. Such an offer of a refund is more than fair, making the positive feedback deserved. Then comment to the vendor you hope they'll improve their photography and descriptions.

 

[arjunajane]

As for tracking, FedEx and UPS will track packages. I think International Express Mail does too (US). It ain't cheap though.

George, the OP is in New Zealand. Also Fedex will ship loose gemstones but they wont pay in the event of loss or damage, which kinda negates the point in using them imho.

As to the original question I agree with what Gempendants has written. It also sounds suspiciously like what happened to LD. Sorry they are putting you in this position

 

[iLander]

To check retracted feedback, use this site, it's very handy:

http://toolhaus.org/

Please tell us what you find out about your particular seller.

 

[Arkteia]

I would not retract the feedback. It just doesn't sound right to me.

 

[wenwen1111]

Did you keep the receipt from post office? That would help in proving your case.