UPDATE to Another ebay WWYD

[1964pandora]

Hi Kristen. It seems pretty clear that the seller posted a photo of a blue outfit and mailed you an aqua outfit. She definitely made a mistake, unless you can see ANY WAY that the garment that you received could look like the item in the photo under certain lighting. Seems to me, though, that it's not the same item and that she had a blue outfit and an aqua outfit.

As for feedback, I would never DREAM of leaving negative feedback in a situation like this. I can appreciate that you're just trying to figure out the way things work on ebay and whether it's helpful to others to leave negative feedback in a situation like this one. I think the best way to think about it is whether you would want someone to leave YOU negative feedback if you made an honest mistake as a seller. The other main thing to consider in whether to leave negative feedback or not is whether or not you are satisfied with your purchase, and you say you are. I could never leave negative feedback for someone after receiving an item I am happy with. It's a "no harm, no foul" situation.

This situation simply calls for a note to the seller stating, "FYI, you sent me an aqua item, but your photo showed a different outfit. Fortunately, I am pleased with the item, but I thought you should know..." blah blah, you get the idea. Can't finish this post like I'd like to, but that's my 1 cent. As a final thought, I have NEVER left negative feedback on ebay, even though I have had some difficult situations. I find that it is definitely best to leave NO FEEDBACK at all, because if the transaction is negative in any way, if you leave feedback there is nothing stopping the other party from leaving feedback, whereas if you leave NO feedback, the other party will often resist the urge to give you negative feedback if they want to, to keep you from giving them negative feedback. I'm sure those last three or so sentences don't make sense because I'm rushing.

[brittone2]

ITA. I think people learn as they go from their mistakes sometimes...they don't know or think to clarify every detail, right or wrong.

I personally ran into a situation once where I sold a bunch of collectible items, and one of them had a flaw that I missed (I had checked them all carefully, but a small flaw still snuck by me). The buyer had already left positive feedback, then emailed me to tell me what happened once she realized it. I was really thankful that she handled it the way she did...I honestly never meant to mislead her, and I *thought* I was being careful, kwim?

I ended up giving her a choice of a refund or me sending one of several other items from the collection I had (let her choose), and she opted to take an additional item. She was sooooo nice and so thankful and thrilled to pieces that we had worked this out, and it really made me believe that most people out there want transactions to go well.

Had she jumped to negative FB right away, I never would have had a chance to make it right, and now I try to approach people the same way. Ebay can be a pain, but I do believe most people want a transaction to go smoothly.

[DanielleGuidry]

Thanks for the update. My experiences with ebay have generally been positive.