Coping with Complaints About You

     

Coping with Complaints About You

Of course, it's always possible that a disgruntled customer will accuse you of various types of wrongdoing. What do you do when you've been (presumably unjustly) accused?

Responding to Negative Feedback

Probably the most common form of customer complaint on eBay takes the form of negative feedback. Since maintaining a high feedback rating is important to the long- term success of your eBay business, you need to respond appropriately to any negative feedback you receive.

tip

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Unfortunately, there's not much you can do if you receive negative feedback; feedback comments cannot be retracted, except in the most extreme instances. What you can do is respond to the negative comments, thus providing some sort of balance to the original negativity.

Start by going to the Feedback Forum page (pages.ebay.com/services/forum/feedback.html) and clicking the Review and Respond to Feedback Comments Left to You link. When the next page appears, click the View Feedback button. When the next page appears, click the Respond link next to the comment in question. Then, when the next page appears, enter your response in the text box, then click the Leave Response button. Your new comment is now listed below the original feedback comment on the Feedback Profile page.

Getting Negative Feedback Removed

If you feel that negative feedback has been left maliciously, you can petition eBay to remove the feedback. They won't often do so, except in extreme cases ”but there's no harm in asking.

You can learn more about feedback removal at pages.ebay.com/help/index_popup.html?policies=feedback-removal.html#. (That's a long URL, I know; eBay doesn't like to publicize this particular service.) Scroll through the text until you find the Contact Us link; click this link to display the Web form for feedback removal. Enter the appropriate information and click the Submit button. If eBay agrees with your arguments, you'll be notified that the feedback in question has been removed. If not, you won't.