Feeling like you can't win!
Hi all,
Nothing I can do about this, but I guess I am just looking to share a story. I take huge pride in my business. I am a one man band and I do everything myself. I have had 2 negative feedback in 2 years… One I think was for someone elses order but wrongly applied to me, this latest one I have got is bizarre though.
I pick and pack all orders myself.
This was the feedback I got ( I hope I can share this - no order number)
While the product I ordered is a “discontinued” item, it said New and also the seller profile said it is unopened and kept in a condition buyers are happy. It looked unopened box, but the box was teared, vended and had dents. So it does not look like it was kept well while it was stocked up. Also packaging to the box was not really proper/professional either.
This was my reply to the feedback
Your Response: Please feel free to contact us about this. The item left ourselves in perfect condition. I packed it myself and inspected it. There were no dents at all present, it was brand new. Was the outer box damaged at all? Really sorry to hear this. Royal Mail can damage items in transit even when sent with Tracked 48 etc. We are very very sorry about this.
Now I packed this myself, the item was perfect as stated, I used royal mail tracked 48 with signature… Based on the feedback I can only assume it got badly handled, but buyer never contacted me at all so nothing I could do about it, just bang, negative feedback.
I do about 20 orders every 3 months, this is not a massive business but Its so upsetting when you get this.
I now have a 4% order defect rate and a big “your account is at risk of deactivation” because of this one bit of feedback - same thing happened 2 years ago but nothing bad happened just disappeared after the 60 days.
Just feels to me like a huge hit with a stick for something that I have no control over and have had no chance to resolve…
When this happened to me last time I setup Ebay shop. I now have plenty of feedback (100% positive) and I sell my “damaged” stock there as I can photo and easily show any problem… I only sell stock that is 100% pristine amazon as I know how fussy buyers have… I have had a complaint about an item not being new because of a crease in the box!
Anyway rant over. I know we are in the same boat together but it is hard sometimes.
My view now is that if Amazon do anything to me, I wont appeal, I wont do anything, ill wait 90 days, take all my money out and move the whole business to Ebay… My view is its Amazons loss as I really put my heart and soul into a good customer experience.
Hope others are having a better week!
Midlands Brick Pickers
0 replies
Seller_sFEUMUfeW5484
You are always going to get some “bad” feedback. When this is alongside low volume sales, the metrics will be hit harder.
Either up the number of items you’re selling or try to not take things personally. TBH this feedback isn’t even bad, sounds like you’ve been lucky in the past.
Seller_DTufFoxJuMU0M
As hurtful and personal as feedback is to us, you have to remember it is not to the person leaving it. They have never met us, all they have ever dealt with is a computer screen.
bad feedback can be left for any number of reasons, left for the wrong person, left for the wrong product, or simply because the person had an argument with their better half and took it out on the feedback request.
Try not to take it personally and just move on.
Seller_tRuvBEHDedp4q
Unfortunately, because Amazon rellies exclusively on percentages for its metrics, small low volume sellers are always going be at risk when something goes wrong - even when it is something totally outside their control.
I prefer the ebay system that basically allows for the odd thing going wrong. They first allow a small number of things going wrong before the percentage metric kicks in. So, for example, they will allow something going wrong with 5 orders (even if you only sent 20) and then a 95% metric before taking further action. (Dont quote me on exact figures as I dont remember).
Seller_09KaA3XjqoUPw
I hate negative feedback but sometimes you simply have to ignore it. My last one was delivered to a school and I got left negative feedback as no one in the school office had told her it was delivered and she thought it hadn’t arrived . You would think once informed the decent thing to do would be to go back and remove it but no that’s too much trouble.
Seller_y4LYYJpB7iu9g
For every 50 sales I get on e-bay I get 1 on Amazon even though I sell very unique handmade items, then when I get a sale on Amazon 10% of the time there are issues, so I say set up your shop on E-bay you won’t regret it.
Seller_u2NnBXPnwyeg6
I have been selling on Amazon since 2005 and I so emphasise with you. Sadly it’s unlikely that the situation for sellers like you and I are going to improve. So few people bother to leave feedback on Amazon that any negative feedback can cripple a business for a while. I had a buyer who emailed me saying the t shirt he’d received was fake. I replied that I was happy to refund, but everything I sell was officially licenced, in this case the MLB. He didn’t reply, complained to Amazon. I sent the invoice. Amazon agreed thankfully, and believe me, in my experience for Amazon to side witha buyer is not common. Customer left negative feedback of;
‘do not buy this is fake !!!’
Apparently he’s allowed to express his opinion and his comments didn’t qualify for feedback removal. So as only 4 people had left feedback that month, I had a score of 75% and sales plummeted. It took months to get back to 100%. Seller support either send a generic response which doesn’t help or one that bears no resemblance to the question asked. I posted my response, hoping that if any potential buyers did see the feedback, my response might help;
“Your Response: I supplied the invoice and proof of purchase and offered to fully refund the t shirt. Everything I have been selling on Amazon for the last 16 years is officially licenced. It’s sad that Amazon allow people to get away with an unfounded accusation like this, a lie basically, but I’d rather have this feedback displayed than be bullied by a an unreasonable customer”
Over the years there have simply been too many cases like this, but one classic was a customer who again left negative feedback. The customer was not picking up the emails on their Amazon account, so I couldn’t tell them that it was at the Post Office and that Royal Mail had allegedly left a ‘while you were out card’ with the customer [entirely possible that RM didn’t, but that’s another story]. The customer left negative feedback and got a refund from an A-Z that they opened for non delivery. Amazon Sided with the customer. I wrote to the customer and sent copies of my emails. 4 or 5 days after I sent the letter, the package was redelivered to the customer. I asked Amazon to help me get paid for the order as I had already asked the customer in my letter and they just weren’t responding. Their response and I kid you not was that I should ‘reach out’ and contact the customer and sort the issue out. However their last line was the best;
We cannot give you more information about this matter, and we may not reply to further emails about this claim.
So I suppose what i am saying is not to expect amazon to have your back. I have lost so many sleepless nights over the years that I am now reducing my items. I am losing money, but my sanity is more important. There are so many helpful people on this forum, something that Amazon should do, so God bless them all, it’s so helped me over the years. I have never posted as I never felt that I could contribute, but if it’s any consolation, you are not alone. If you are going to sell on Amazon, just factor in that it is a VERY buyer focused selling platform and if you receive any help it is a bonus, rather than the norm.
Finally, one thing I sell is New Era caps. I have a letter from New Era stating that I am authorised to sell them. I have sent this to Amazon. I have now had 6 phone calls over the last few months because for example, I am selling a Baltimore Ravens New Era snapback cap. Amazon have removed it because ‘Potential Trademark Logo Misuse’. Every time they ring up they want me to send a letter from the Ravens to say that I have permission to sell their caps. I explain that New Era the rights to see all of the 32 NFL team caps. Every time they ring, the person is unable to understand this. Their english is marginal to say the best and I now ask them ‘do you know anything about American sports’, all of them say ‘no’ and that there is no-one there who does.
That’s just my slant after all these years. Best to know what you’re up against when you plan going forward. It’s terrible practice for such a massive company.
I wish you all the very best and if I have helped lessen the number of sleepless nights, it will have worth posting.
Seller_ae51e0CJoHqCX
Sorry to hear about this and no matter the size of your business, dedicated passionate people care strongly and you think that Amazon would want to embrace this.
You cannot take it personally but you will. This is something you can do nothing about the same as when an item goes undelivered.
You have to just take it on the chin, unfortunately if you did more turnover, you will see more of it.
It is the luck of the draw when you do a few orders but the more you get, you then start becoming accustomed to them as scammers increase, stats get stricter.
You will be scapegoated for anything that is beyond yours and Amazon’s control like when you get delivery failures etc.
Chin up, it’s just the one and just ride it out for a few more weeks. Not many really take notice on feedback for Amazon service, even Amazon tend to push the product reviews.
I have 3 A-Zs running in France because of failed attempted deliveries and were raised without me knowing there was a problem until awarded, but what can you do?
You have gone above and beyond and the rest of your service should still shine through
Seller_wQUjIxGWybFgG
Keep your chin up ! I am in an identical situation to you and had an almost identical problem a few weeks ago … I just put a clear but polite response to the feedback - explaining you were not contacted or answered and you are professional as buyers can see from the other feedback !
Worrying about the Amazon “action” statements is not worth the stress, they never accept anything you say anyway … so take a deep breath and count to 60 ! 
Seller_oGFKRixtdkjxL
Most of us understand this and the desire behind it. But Amazon is a metrics driven machine, it doesn’t care about the individual seller, even though you’re a customer. Don’t care too much about it’s nonsense, or indeed the neg, just post a factual polite response. We all have to deal with customers with itchy keyboard fingers, who don’t bother contacting us.
Don’t take the negatives personally, because they’re not, half the time customers think they’re dealing with Amazon itself, they don’t even know they’re dealing with a seller.
Amazon isn’t real life, it just sucks you into thinking how it operates is normal, it isn’t and the metrics don’t accurately reflect all customer experiences, just a very, very small percentage of sales skewed toward the undue importance of negative comments.
And always remember Amazon’s customer satisfaction is stagnant at about 83% and has been for a long as I can remember, MPS consistently outperform our hosts, even when we’re not at 100%.
Seller_HuhP221NahSdW
Don’t worry about it and crack on - unfortunately we are all in the same boat with Amazon - I sold on ebay and Amazon and Amazon out sells ebay by 15-1.
