Looking for an ebay seller's point of view--

[dougscats]

I bought this item on ebay:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...K%3AMEWNX%3AIT

It turned out to be a reprint [I compared it to a dozen other real ones I have, and then looked at it under a microscope].
I contacted the seller, who said:

By all means send the card back and you will get a full refund ....no clue that a card in the condition it is in wold be a reproduction ..picked it up from an antique flea market but I do know peole will do anything for a few bucks ....Thanks

- rypper01

I returned it, and he gave me a refund, though not a full refund, as I wound up paying the return shipping.

I don't give negative feedback lightly, so I thought a neutral was in order, with the comment:
Sold reprint as original. Refunded, but I had to pay return shipping.

Ebay asks me to be sure I want to post such neutral/negative feedback. So, before I do: What do you think? Am I being fair? I'd particularly aprreciate a sellers point of view.

Thanks.

Doug

[slidekellyslide]

How much was return shipping? Did you ask him to refund return shipping and he refused? If when he got the card back he went into his "my ebay" account and clicked on refund buyer then it automatically sends him to paypal and the amount refunded is the amount that paypal received from you.

A negative is out of the question...a neutral is even way too harsh IMO.

Edited to add: I just checked out the sellers feedback and it's exemplary...do you really want to ruin that over a $5 card that had $2.50 shipping???

[jcmtiger]

No neutral, should be positive. Ebay states that return cost is paid by buyer. The seller did not try to deceive you did he/she?

Joe

[Jaybird]

sounds like the perfect transaction. You bought the card, he sent it. You returned the card, he refunded the money. Not sure what else he could have done. I don't think I would make the same mistake to sell a fake, but who knows. We all get fooled sometimes. At least he made good on it.

Now if he tries to sell it again, I think I would question his motives.

I once bought a trimmed modern card, but didn't know it until I measured it up against others when it was in hand. The seller gladly refunded which was great. But then he put it up for auction again. I thought that was a bit fishy since I told him the card was trimmed.

[steve B]

It's a personal choice, some people are more into feedback than I am. I've left one negative in 12+ years, and no neutrals. I've had a couple neutrals, and one negative all pretty silly. Email not responded to in under 24 hours when I was working full time, and an item the was described as incomplete, but got a neutral for being incomplete?!

As a buyer I don't think I'd bother leaving any feedback. A mistake was made and corrected, but maybe not exactly as you'd want. But the overall cost aside from time spent is about $3. Give the couch a good shake, check under the seat of your car, and you'll probably find as much if not more.

As a seller, I would be a bit put out if I got a neutral after taking something back. Yes, the return shipping probably should be on the seller.

But even with large mail order or brick and mortar shops it's not consistent. Some mail order places pay return shipping, usually with a UPS call tag. Some don't. Electronics places usually don't pay shipping on warrantees where you have to ship the item back. And I haven't heard of a retail place that will give any compensation for driving the item back to the store. Some are easy on returns, some not.

On something like your card, I'd probably have refunded and not asked for it back. Unless I felt 100% sure it wasn't actually a reprint.

Steve B

[vintagecpa]

Cut the guy a break and either leave positive feedback or no feedback. He is trying to do the right thing. As a seller, my only negative was a small dollar transaction. I bent over backwards to make the transaction right (refund, etc), and after it was all said and done, I still received a negative. It was pretty demoralizing at the time.

[Leon]

I would still give a positive feedback. I certainly wouldn't do a neg or neutral over it. If you really feel dissatisfied then don't leave a feedback at all. Those would be my suggestions.

[vintagetoppsguy]

I have to agree with the others - either positive feedback or no feedback.

Sounds like he made an honest mistake and didn't give you any hassle about returning it.

[slidekellyslide]

This is exactly what is wrong with ebay's flawed feedback system. Actually contemplating a negative on this guy in this situation??? It makes me a bit angry and I have nothing to do with this transaction.

[dougscats]

Thanks for all your input.
I will cut the guy a break, Mike,
and I won't leave any feeback, which is what I usually do.

I have to say that most ebay sellers have been good to me when I've made mistakes. I am not holier than thou. And I don't want to hurt/demoralize anyone, especially an otherwise exemplary seller, Dan.

But don't seller's have a serious responsibility when they list a card as original/authentic?

As far as the return shipping, it was more bothersome than an expense; indeed, looking at it like that, the card wasn't even worth returning. But what else should I have done?

Anyway, glad I asked [maybe saved me some guilt, and it always feels better to take the high road], and thanks again. And I'll take this occasion to say that I do appreciate all the good sellers out there.

Still learning,

Doug

[cardinalcollector]

Heres an idea. Try ASKING the seller if he is going to refund your postage in addition to the card, at the time of your original complaint. His first reply to you was very professional and courteous, which is not the norm in many cases. I can't believe you even considered a negative or a neutral too. A little communication goes a long way.

[slidekellyslide]

Looking at the item it looks artificially aged to me, but then again I've been around prewar cards a long while now...this seller appears to sell almost exclusively postwar cards so he may not have known that it was a reprint...he also doesn't appear to be in the reprint business...myself if I were contemplating negative/neutral feedback for someone I'd take a lot more into consideration than he didn't refund my return shipping... I'm curious if you asked the seller to refund your return shipping?

[egbeachley]

Return shipping should have been 44 cents sent back in a toploader.

[t206hound]

As a buyer, I don't think it would be worth my time to return a $5 item. I'd just chalk it up as a learning experience and move on.

[Teamsets4u]

You need a microscope to determine it was reprint?
They guys history indicates that he is not trying to sell knockoffs.

He address your concerns and refunded all your money.

He is also out the shipping for the card.
Having the seller pay for return shipping is crazy.

I buy alot of sets of ebay and on the lowere end ones I will not return since return shipping is not worth the return on the refund.

[barrysloate]

No way I would leave negative feedback, but what you might do is leave a positive one with a simple message such as "thank you" and nothing more. That way even if you were a little disappointed with the transaction (you shouldn't be) you can avoid heaping unnecessary praise without hurting his feedback.

[deadballera]

I would still give a positive feedback..and leave the "star" rating alone.

[Kawika]

Your seller seems like a decent sort. A neg or neutral won't rescue humanity; save that for the egregious scumbags. Me, I leave positive feedback for positive transactions; if there's something minor I didn't like I just don't leave FB at all. EBay feedback is such a convoluted crock and ultimately such a meaningless metric that I barely bother with it anymore.

[glchen]

Out of curiosity, what do other think of the following 2 similar situations, where an item is returned because of SNAD, but the seller did not mean to deceive. How would you leave feedback?

(1) Seller will only refund the selling price and not the original cost for seller to ship the card to you.
(2) Seller will only refund the selling price after a 20% restocking fee and will also not refund the original shipping cost.

In both cases, seller has in listing that they do not accept returns, and you prefer not to open an ebay case because of 50/50 chance of success. (eg., card in CSA holder)

[Tsaiko]

I recently bought a dead cell phone battery on ebay and when I first contacted the seller they said he would send out another and I didn't have to send the original back. Two days later they said they were out of stock and weren't getting any more in, but that I could have a store credit. (His auction clearly states that there are no refunds)

Since there was nothing I wanted in their store, I asked for them to make an exception and that's where the communication ended from their side. I sent back the original and tried to contact two more times, but they never responded. I filed a claim and stated that if they refunded in full I would leave positive feedback, but if they didn't, I would leave negative feedback.

I was refunded in full and ebay closed the case. I left positive feedback only as "Fast Shipping", which was the only positive truth and left all the other feedback criteria blank. This wasn't about the money, just keeping the seller honest. He had dozens of these batteries for sale when I bought mine and I'm fairly sure he was lying about being out of stock. He had other negative feedbacks on dead batteries too.

Your seller has done at least enough to earn positive feedback, so I'd cut him some slack. My two cents.

[pgellis]

Sounds to me that you thought you were getting a very good buy at $4.99 and when you found out it was a repro, you asked for a refund which the seller complied with.

To me, it sounds like you are bummed that you didn't get a very good buy and now you want to punish the seller. He was a good seller and refunded your money. Enough said.

Give him a break and give him positive feedback for being man enough to refund your purchase price.

[GoldenAge50s]

I just don't understand today's mentality of wanting to crucify a Seller for even the tiniest error, no matter what it is. Maybe it's the way EBay has become that makes us this way.

The Seller did the right thing---There shouldn't even be a question as to wanting to leave a Neg.

There are bad sellers & crooks out there, save the Negs for them! Why try to drive away the ones that do the right thing?

[mintacular]

To what extent are you responsible for bidding on this repto? Seems like you had a clear scan and could've spotted this...

I believe eBay policy is refund + original shipping and not return shipping, if that is the case, then the rules were followed correctly. If you don't want to leave a + fbk then just don't leave any fbk at all but a neutral or negative I would reserve only for fully piss-poor service