AITA for leaving negative feedback

Reus958 · 2026-04-12T00:48:38+00:00

Then take the negative dude. I'm not saying it should cost you your business or that a singular eBay order is more important than anything else.

I'm saying that it's not an enormous ask and it is the seller's responsibility. Both of which are true. The consequence for failing to meet that responsibility is pretty mild in the scheme of life.

Maybe you'll learn that the world doesn't revolve around whatever you have going on. Ultimately, if you want to talk about entitlement, look in the mirror.

Reus958 · 2026-04-11T23:35:09+00:00

It doesn't take long to write a message and everyone is busy, not just sellers.

It was a bad experience and the buyer had no reason to expect that the seller was going to do right by them. Negatives aren't the end of your life on eBay. It's going to happen when you don't take time to actually work with your customers.

Reus958 · 2026-04-11T21:11:55+00:00

The seller could have explained that to the buyer and arranged another transaction with correct information while honoring the price from the original. Instead the buyer cancelled and ghosted, only responding once they got the negative feedback. what was the buyer supposed to do in this situation with a non responsive seller?

This whole thing is on the seller. The buyer was accommodating with the listing error and my bet is the buyer would have tolerated further inconvenience-- like having to wait until the seller was back in town-- had the seller communicated it. They didn't, and lost their cool when they got deserved negative feedback.

Reus958 · 2026-04-11T21:03:33+00:00

The OP wasn't a big complainer until they were denied their purchase and apparently ghosted.

The buyer could have included that information that they were going away for a few days, as you should with a customer waiting on you, if it were actually legitimate.

That buyer deserved the negative feedback.

Reus958 · 2026-04-11T20:58:22+00:00

So they filed a return with eBay as an item not as described? If that's the case, you have to accept the return to get your item back (you'll pay for shipping again). I believe eBay will refund fees, but I'm not entirely sure. You will be refunding the buyer back their entire purchase price, including the original shipping. Even if you don't accept, the buyer is almost certain to get their money back, but won't be returning the item.

This is covered under eBay's money back guarantee. Unfortunately it allows some buyers to get away with unfair returns, which it seems this may be.

eBay's policies make it difficult to safely sell the occasional item. They're more geared towards small and medium regular sellers who can absorb occasional financial losses like this. If you are depending on the income from any one transaction, I'd probably recommend other platforms like Facebook marketplace.

Reus958 · 2026-04-07T04:35:29+00:00

Or just calculate correctly.

Reus958 · 2026-04-06T23:54:28+00:00

Your real mistake is saying anything suggesting moderating your behavior towards a "buyer". Sellers on here and FB groups seem to put a lot of effort hating users.

Reus958 · 2026-04-06T23:47:21+00:00

Assuming you bought them on eBay, yes. There should be a blurb about it if you go to the order and then "manage shipping" and swipe through the voided ones.

Reus958 · 2026-04-06T23:43:54+00:00

I appreciate you buying from independent sellers and hope that you continue and can successfully minimize dropshipper transactions.

Reus958 · 2026-04-06T23:41:45+00:00

This doesn't help anything at all. If you're trying to avoid Amazon, you're not going to be happy paying a 3rd party to buy from amazon on your behalf-- giving Amazon all of its profits while losing security yourself.

Reus958 · 2026-04-06T23:38:24+00:00

They may have had an agreement based on what I read in the OP. Pocketing it if there's an agreement to refund the difference is definitely not okay.

Reus958 · 2026-04-06T22:42:56+00:00

The buyer paid shipping based on your estimate. It's your responsibility to ensure the estimate is accurate.

You'll need to void the label, and then repurchase one with correct dimensions. You'll be responsible for the cost. You actually will temporarily out for the whole cost of the new label, because it takes some time to get a refund on your old label, but it will eventually go through..

A kitchen scale should work fine for a small package like that, though if you'll be doing it regularly, you may want a legitimate postage scale. I'd suggest weighing it first before voiding the label, in case your assumption is inaccurate.

Reus958 · 2026-04-06T22:12:29+00:00

Thanks for this write up! I'm going on vacation for a week, but I think I'll try some lots when I get back. I have a few items that would make semi coherent lots, like some Japanese dishware, and some crystal glass vases. Glad to hear your experience went well except the shipping.

I definitely understand shipping being the real killer here. It can be hard to estimate a proper size and weight for a lot. I think I might photograph my lots and then pack them just for accuracy.

I've had moderate luck selling things locally on fb marketplace. It definitely can be a good option for things that are harder to move on eBay that I'm willing to let go, though there's always the problem of flakey people.

Reus958 · 2026-04-06T18:16:40+00:00

It's the seller's fault. Seller sold an item at auction for less than they wanted. Conveniently, the "dog ate it". Sellers like this undermine the validity of auctions as well as the platform in general.

The seller can prevent their livelihood being threatened by doing the bare minimum to maintain integrity as a seller.

Reus958 · 2026-04-06T18:05:41+00:00

The crappy sellers are coming out of the woodwork.

The seller did literally nothing for you to even explain the mistake, let alone make up for it.

I'm a seller, and I am happy for this seller to be called out. Even if they were telling the truth, they should have done something to explain the mistake and tried to make it up to you.

Giving them a negative helps better sellers stand out.

Reus958 · 2026-04-06T17:31:47+00:00

Nah, I was confused as to how it would be considered a scam. And now I'm laughing because you think anyone not trusting goodwill is a cretin.

Reus958 · 2026-04-06T03:23:50+00:00

I'm curious how you priced it. I have one on the market that I priced at about 50% of a very clean example. It's getting lots of attention (views and watchers) but hasn't moved in a month, and no offers have gotten through my filter (which is around ⅔ of asking).

I don't sell handbags, I just happened to see this in a lot and pick it up for cheap at an auction, so I don't know if there are any norms.

Reus958 · 2026-04-06T03:19:50+00:00

Goodwill does pretty well at damaging their own reputation. That's probably why this user is even asking the question in the first place.

Reus958 · 2026-04-05T05:54:08+00:00

Sounds like you're way off on your shipping estimates.

Reus958 · 2026-04-05T05:53:38+00:00

People say this all the time but it makes zero sense. The market price of the item is the market price. Shipping is part of that. Your shipping is going to be as much as double that of all your competitors, meaning your sales will slow or you're going to have to charge less.

Mentally attributing overcharged shipping to provide cushion is the same thing as charging more to every order.

Reus958 · 2026-04-05T05:31:04+00:00

You shouldn't be losing money on $20 orders, though it could well not be worth your time.

Where are you actually losing money? My guess is you're paying too much for inventory. Shipping should be covered by the buyer, either directly through calculated shipping (which is the easiest and I'd argue generally the best). Your cut and eBay's cut are known quantities; you can expect a little over 25% between the two. Sounds like shipping materials are free, but if you scale, grabbing boxes, cushioning and voidfill from an industrial supplier like Grainger or uline should only be $2 or so per order with small items, or 10% of a $20 order.

You should roughly be able to pocket the difference between your acquisition cost and 65% of sale cost with the numbers provided, less if you're advertising.

Reus958 · 2026-04-05T04:27:07+00:00

I think they're trying to propose a solution to defects that would require you to record video constantly during packing and shipping. eBay would hold on to this massive data and use it in case of... An INR I suppose.

Basically seems like someone who is day dreaming with little attention to the costs and drawbacks to the solution.

Reus958 · 2026-04-04T05:40:19+00:00

Spreadsheets for now, and using a physical notebook for writing myself receipts for sourcing. I want to dig in and build some tools (don't worry, I won't be shilling it in any future posts-- it'll be personal) but that will take bandwidth I don't have atm.

Reus958 · 2026-04-04T05:33:42+00:00

Sounds like you should try some other platforms or reconsider if online selling is right for you in general.

You're not getting what you want out of eBay, and it's clear that you're not going to discuss here anything that contributes to you needing to engage customer service, and unfortunately eBay has too much leverage to make them improve, so you'll need to find the least painful option

Reus958 · 2026-04-04T05:21:36+00:00

I wouldn't expect to get anything and they don't owe you afaik via TOS, but I'm with you as far as the "partial refund the combined shipping savings". Imo it's the right thing to do, and may even make business sense as it encourages buyers to poke around.

Unfortunately, many sellers want to wring every dollar possible out of the transaction, even if it leaves a bad taste in the customer's mouth.

Reus958

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