You have been carefully locating items to sell on eBay, preparing pictures, writing ads, researching and studying the so-called gurus. You try to be as polite and prompt as possible, when answering emails and delivering items to your customers. As the saying goes, you love yourself.

Boom! An email arrives from Square Trade, stating, among other things:

"Unfortunately, you have received a new negative feedback for your eBay ID (id withheld). SquareTrade can help you dispute this feedback and potentially even have it withdrawn from your feedback record (restrictions apply) by going through mediation! It takes less than 2 minutes to file a case and there's a simple, low fee for our services."

Quickly, you login to your Ebay About Me page and gaze at your first negative feedback. It's like a loud, heavy, red, annoying noise. Beneath it, already beginning to groan, are 137 warm, uplifting, positive comments sent by all the other satisfied customers.

You report the matter to eBay, explaining that you have received a totally unjustified and unfair negative feedback, and you would like the situation to be attended to.

Ebay's reply begins like this:

"Thank you for writing to eBay. I am sorry to hear about this situation. I understand your frustration and concern over the issue."...

More interestingly, it ends like this:

"I understand this does little to ease your frustration regarding this matter and apologize for any inconvenience it might have caused you."

Boy! Did they get that right. Precious little has been done so far to ease your frustration, really.

With a feeling of failure, you remind yourself that you are mature enough to understand. There are rules governing what goes on on eBay, and you must constantly try to stay informed and prepared.

One of your options in the Square Trade email is to pay for a dispute resolution specialist. That reality annoys even further, but you understand that you must use the system to clear your name.

Over the next several days, you constantly check your inbox. It's time to ask and answer questions. Exactly what would your customer's argument be? You are eager to be called upon by Square Trade, to get the resolution on the way.

You have diligently saved your emails into your folder. You are ready to prove things like:

1. Your auction promised to deliver ebooks via email attachments, but the buyer insisted on finding out:

"Am i going to receive the 6 books in the mail or not. We need to solve this now. Thanks (name removed)."

2. Your emails explain that the items have already been delivered via email attachment. You also offer to assist if the buyer does not understand how to download the attachment. You receive a reply:

"what is via email attatchment."

3. You had spoken to the buyer's relative by phone in the earlier days, soon after the auction had ended. At that time you actually offered to deliver the items up front, even while you awaited the Money Order in the mail (courteous service).

You attempt to phone again and assist with the attachment download procedure, this time unsuccessfully.

You email the customer asking if there's a different contact number and get a response:

"No i do not have any other numbers you can reach me at. I know how to open attatchments but i think its stupid to have paid 1.45 for something i have to download online."

Ouch!

You know now that you have been trapped by an aggressive newbie. She thinks (correctly) that it's her duty to be assertive, and she thinks (incorrectly) that she has been cheated by you.

At this point she has zero feedbacks and may or may not really be aware of how she is doing damage to you.

Someone who obviously was attracted to your auction and participated without fully understanding. You are dealing with someone who is very quick to post this feedback for you (your very first negative):

"I didnt get what i paid for. Would not do buisness again!!!"

Does this sound like a winning case or what?

Well, apparently, that buyer must have eventually come to realize her errors in judgement. Apparently she failed to respond to any of the contact efforts made by Square Trade. On the 15th day after the negative feedback was posted, you receive emails from Square Trade, stating in part:

"We have not yet heard a response from (name removed). As per eBay's feedback withdrawal policy, your negative feedback on eBay is NOW eligible to be withdrawn. Your case is now being assigned to a Dispute Resolution Specialist. Feedback withdrawal can ONLY be done if all of eBay's requirements are met. Payment information can be found when you log into your cases."

Soon after, you receive another email from Square Trade stating in part:

"Your SquareTrade Case #(number removed) has successfully passed our review for nonresponse feedback withdrawal. We have submitted a request for the withdrawal of feedback to eBay."

That loud negative feedback has since been removed. The comments remain but that red negative symbol is now moderately dressed in neutral garb.

What are some of the really important lessons to be drawn from this experience? They will be explored in an upcoming article (Part 2).

Kelwyn S., former teacher, is involved in researching various topics of interest. These include, Fitness and Health, Personal Development, Computers and Internet, and many others, including Ebook Creation.

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