REQUEST TO ADMIN: please remove untrue libelous feedback!!!

[GretasThreadworks]

I received Feedback that was obviously untrue, libelous and unfair.

I just sent this to eCRATER admin using their contact form:

Regarding this listing: http://gretasthreadworks.ecrater.com/product.php?pid=1713274

I have an item that sold many months ago, and it is CLEARLY MARKED AS SOLD... Someone submitted a Google-Checkout order, which I cancelled and sent an explanation... and they gave me bad feedback anyways.

The text of the listing even instructs buyers to email to inquire about availability "We have only one of these, so please email to confirm availability before using Google Checkout or sending a check. THANKS!" Which this person ignored... they just submitted a Google Checkout order without inquiring.

As I said, I did NOT "process" the order, I "cancelled" it, so they never "paid" for the item, as they untruthfully claim in their feedback.

PLEASE can you remove this bad feedback? It is unfair and untrue and libelous. This buyer is unkind and irresponsible for NOT READING THE LISTING!!!!

THANKS!!!

- Greta
http://gretasthreadworks.ecrater.com/
http://gretasthreadworks.ecrater.com/category.php?cid=309365

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So... It would be good if there were a system that prevents people from leaving bad feedback when an order is cancelled! I never charged her acount, and she claims that she "PAID FOR IT" which is NOT TRUE... It makes me look like a thief, but that is totally and obviously untrue and I can prove it.

- Greta

[acread]

Hi Greta, for this issue you need to contact eCrater directly from their contact page: http://www.ecrater.com/contact.php

They might not even see it here. (Not sure they read everything on the community page)

Make sure to calm down a bit. All the exclamation marks and stuff is not an effective way of communicating things. Explain the situation completely and as brief as possible. Include all the proof for your claim. It will get removed (the negative feedback. The title clearly shows it is sold previously. I'm not sure about the neutral, I didn't look at it carefully.)

[kjscreations]

Also.... watch out cuz if this sold months ago & is not for sale...
you can not list items that are not for sale. Sold can stay up for a couple weeks but must go on hold if you are expecting more.

Ecrater is VERY GOOD about removing unwarrented feedback. They will do it as soon as they see your request from the form that AC posted. So no need for a panic attack LOL.... you only do that "over on the bay" cuz THOSE are near impossible to get rid of.

[GretasThreadworks]

I guess I'm partly to blame for leaving my sold listings up too long, but still this feedback is mis-leadingly untrue, making it sound like I took her money and kept it, but I never charged it through, I cancelled it very soon after it was submitted, and sent a polite apologetic note and a detailed explanation that I never charged her account, and I even offered her a discount for anything else from my site.

I'm surprised that buyers are even able to leave feedback when the order is cancelled.

I think I"ll wait to remove it until after I hear from the admin, so they can see it as it is. Then I'll go remove it.

Thanks for the help.

- Greta

[zickit]

WELL --

[GretasThreadworks]

I missed the nuances about leaving sold listings on the site.

I just searched general ecrater listings... there are hundreds of other listings still on the site from other sellers that are marked as SOLD or SOLD-OUT that are still active... I'm not the only one who is making this mistake. I always mark them as sold within a day of getting an order, so the buyer can look and see that I'm not still trying to sell it, and so they can look to compare after they get it.

So, I just removed ALL my sold listings, except this one for the moment, and I won't leave them on more than a week or two after they are sold... In case the buyer wants to see the listing after they get the items, if they want to compare the listing to what they get... It only seems fair to the buyer...

It would be REALLY nice if eCRATER had a way of letting us leave SOLD items on the site, but make it automatic that they can't order it. I really think it is to eCRATER's advantage to let people see that things are being sold here! I really think that allowing sellers to keep showing SOLD listings will attract other sellers and make buyers feel more confident in a seller.

Even if I made a dumb mistake, this feedback is still very misleading and harmful to me as a seller... it's untruthfully misleading and undeserved.

- Greta

[zickit]

[GretasThreadworks]

I can't find these rules... where are they?

- Greta

[maggiethehousecat]

I think putting a sold picture or icon in the default position after a sale will prevent such errors in the future. It takes a pretty dumb buyer to try to buy an item with a sold sign instead of a pic. They might click on it to see what it was, but they won't buy it.

[zickit]

[GretasThreadworks]

Of course I have seen this page... I just can't find where it says anything about Sold Listings... or anything about a 2-week limit for leaving sold listings active. Can you show me where to find it? Am I just blind?

- Greta

[zickit]

3.3 What is not allowed to post?
IT used to say in there - items that were not for sale.
That appears to have been removed and I am questioning as to why. I think it was an error when something else was changed.
BUT I think it's sort of covered under this
- Free items and items with prices that are not "real"
- Pre-order items

The part about sold images on items only being allowed 2 weeks was an after thought because many sellers complained about removing them instantly because buyers could not compare the item to the listing once it was received. eCrater.com agreed to allow the sold images to remain for up to 2 weeks.

BUT you don't even have a sold image - you have a 4 letter word in the title only that can easily be missed by anyone. As I said, I didn't see it at first and I was looking for it.
Shopper look and read every other word if you are lucky.


HOWEVER, it is clearly stated on the terms of using google base, which ecrater.com does a feed to of all the items listed on the site. I know of one other site that has gotten themselves into a heap of trouble with google and now nothing shows up on google from that site.
I for one do not want to see that happen with ecrater.com.

[zickit]

There are 1562 items currently with the word SOLD in the title.
Many of which the word SOLD is part of the title of a book or cd etc.
Many of which the seller uses SOLD OUT as meaning that it is no longer available in stores not the fact that the ecrater store is sold out of them.
Some use the word sold like - Sold by the case etc


There is no way for any mod to know when the items that are marked SOLD were sold. therefore this is almost impossible for a mod to report items that stores have sold items showing too long.

Stores that have every item marked sold and show zero as unrated feedback - well that's a different issue but again impossible for mods to find.
This is where the help of the whole community is needed. If you see such a store - please report it!

[GretasThreadworks]

I certainly want to HELP eCRATER... I love it! I am a stay-at-home mom with a bunch of kids and a disabled husband, so I really need a few extra pennies to help us just survive... and this place has been good for me, I've sold well over a dozen things in the several months I've been selling here.

I have tried to read and follow the rules... I just never saw anything that said anything about time-limits on leaving listings for sold items as active listings. I still can't finds any mention of such limits anywhere.

I also made a good effort for the "sold" attribute to be seen... I put it into the text of my listing both at the top and the bottom of the listing, in addition to the title... People have to be blind or very careless to miss it.

Still, I think eCRATER would be smart to add a separate feature that lets sellers showcase their sold listings... It would be good for all parties, including sellers, buyers AND eCRATER... showing people that sales happen, showing potential sellers that the site works, and letting buyers see sales-prices is a good way to get more people to look at eCRATER.

ALSO... I think it would be good to let sellers respond to any kind of feedback. It's unfair to sellers to not let them explain or comment... I got one neutral feedback from someone who ordered several similar items, and I added in an extra one for free which had missing instructions... and they gave me neutral feedback that mentioned the missing instructions but didn't mention that they were missing from the free extra one I threw in just to be nice. They also mentioned a "smoky" odor, which I can't dispute since I have an impaired sense of smell, but I was puzzled since everything was stored in zip-lock baggies for along time before they were sold. I didn't complain about that neutral feedback, but I would have liked to be able to at least make a comment to follow-up.

Despite these issues with the feedback system being somewhat primitive, I still love eCRATER and I want to do whatever I can to make it successful!

- Greta

[GretasThreadworks]

So... I looked again at listings with "sold" in the title, which show 20 per page ---

first 20 - 10 are actually sold
second 20 --- 18 are actually sold
third 20 - 15 are actually sold
fourth 20 - 16 are actually sold, several offer pre-orders, also not allowed
fifth 20 - 6 are actually sold
sixth 20 - 8 are actually sold
seventh 20 - 19 are actually sold
eigth 20 - 18 are actually sold
ninth 20 - 17 are actually sold
tenth 20 - 19 are actually sold

So... based on 200 listings with sold in the title, ,there are a really high percentage that are actually sold. When I guessed that there are hundreds of such currently active listings for sold items, I think it is a fairly accurate estimate. It's common practice to leave sold listings active, and it should be supported with a special feature, to avoid unhappy customers and to maximize exposure to eCRATER in general.

Given this... I really think eCRATER should add a mechanism to allow sellers to do this without risking problems with Google or other partners... We really need a good way to showcase our sold listings!

- Greta