Think Before Leaving Negative Feedback Please

I'm so upset, I can't contain myself any longer. Boyfriend's at work and the dog doesn't understand English so I have talk about it somewhere...guess it'll have to be my blog. If you know anything about me, you know I'm an Ebay seller. Up until today, I have had 100% positive feedback with a couple of neutrals thrown in. Early, I checked on my Ebay listings and noticed my feedback was a point lower than it was the last time. I had received my first negative feedback rating. Why? Because the buyer had not received their package after a month of the purchase.

First of all, the buyer did not bother contacting me to let me know they had never received it. Second, I provide all of my customers a tracking number once I ship their package. If the buyer had bothered reading the email from Paypal and the personal one I sent to get their tracking information, they would have seen that I did in fact ship their item AND it shows the package was delivered on Aug 10th...just a few days after the purchase was made.

That should have told the customer that the problem lies within the postal system. Maybe they delivered it to the wrong address...maybe to a neighbor. Instead of investigating the problem, the buyer jumped the gun and left me negative feedback that I didn't deserve.

I just don't understand how a buyer could be so careless about someone elses business. I work hard to try and keep my customers satisfied and have high standards for my business. I take what I do very seriously and often go out of my way to make the customer happy. If I didn't care about my business, I would have had received negative feedback way before now.

I should have been given the benefit of the doubt. Most of my feedback comments mention "fast delivery" with no mention of any buyer not receiving their order. You would think this buyer would have taken that into consideration and realize the problem didn't lie on my end. Of course, I didn't hesitate to email the person and ask them to do some investigating. I did my part when I shipped the item so they should consider changing their negative feedback. If they don't, I'll ask Ebay to review it and see if they will remove the neg fb. They probably wont, but it's worth a shot. Especially since I have the information from the USPS showing the package was in fact delivered.

To top it off, I looked at the feedback this buyer left for other sellers. 2 were positive and there was one other negative besides mine that said almost the same exact thing. Both items were sent out about the same time. What are the chances of 2 sellers with no negatives all of a sudden deciding not to ship an item out to the same buyer in the same timeframe? It just doesn't make any sense.

Okay, enough ranting...I just want to get the word out to Ebay buyers. Please consider all possibilities and CONTACT THE SELLER if there is a problem before leaving negative feedback. Make sure the seller actually deserves it. You don't know how much that messes a seller's business up. Of course, if I actually did something wrong, I wouldn't have a problem with negative feedback. A couple of times, I caught my errors and have contacted the buyer so they are aware of it and try to resolve it the best way I could. If the mistake was made by me, I will definitely apologize for it and do something about it where the customer comes out on top.

One more thing...to all my other buyers, I appreciate your business and thank you for taking the time to leave feedback.

Okay, I feel a bit better now. Just took my "happy pill" and I'm starting to mellow out a bit. LOL