Read eBay sellers refund policies very carefully and do not post feedback comments unless you are sure you want to leave those comments. Buyers and sellers can leave negative comments and those comments cannot be retracted or removed by sellers, buyers or eBay, but negative comments do affect the reputations of buyers and sellers alike.
On 11/30, I had won an auction bid on eBay from seller Hepadex (Terry L. Smith) for a Sony Walkman Sport Series NW-S205F (2 GB) MP3 Player for $128.49 and the shipping was $5.50 for US Postal First Class mail. Unfortunatly, I have done more research before placing my winning bid. After I won the auction, upon research I discovered the proprietary software (Sonic Stage) required by Sony to transfer music (mp3 files) to the their mp3 players is not user friendly and there are many bad reviews about Sonic Stage on the internet.
On 12/01, I sent a message via ebay's internal messaging system to seller Hepadex to request a refund.
On 12/06, Hepadex replied: Your item has already been shipped. Don't you think you should have researched a little sooner. Return to me unopened and I will refund your money.
On 12/11. I received the product and I promptly returned the product the same day. I paid $5.70 for US Postal Priorty Mail. Given that the merchandise took about a week for regular US mail, I gave Hepadex a positive feedback. I stated the usual: "Product received. Recommend seller."
On 12/15, Hepadex gave me a negative feedback: After winning bid & paying, He told me he did not want item. Return was allowed.
Hepadex (Terry L. Smith) did promptly refund $133.99 to my PayPal account the next day, but he dropped my 100% positive feedback down to 98.3% positive feedback with his one negative feedback.
Seller's return policy:
Item must be returned within: 7 Days Refund will be given as: Money Back
Return Policy Details: Unopened items only. Buyer is responsible for cost of shipping to return item.
Summary: 1) I tried to cancel product shipment within a day of purchase to save seller the cost of shipping. 2) Seller gives me a negative feedback even though I gave him a positive feedback a few days earlier. 3) I returned item unopened per seller's policy.
My gripe is that that the seller should not have given me the negative feedback. He should just comment that I promptly returned item for a refund with a positive comment. I was the customer and I could have been a future customer. I do not think I did anything wrong.
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