If you had wondered, you can stop now.
The answer is YES - quite emphatically.
Many of you will know I work with a seller, who is quite conscientious about their business (as well as being paranoid about Paypal scams, Feedback and DSRs). They have only ever had one neg - and that was from a buyer that went on a rampage, ripping into a number of sellers over several days. That buyer was ousted and the feedback, quite properly, was removed.
Well that was their only encounter with the red dot - until recently. Out of the blue, one appears in their feedback - and they were bewildered.
As you would expect, this occurred with a buyer making their first purchase with my seller. It appears that the item the buyer had purchased had been broken by Australia Post (the previous 10 sold to other people made it through over the last year or so). Now, while obviously disappointed at the breakage, the buyer did the right thing and tried to contact the seller - at least twice, I believe - and allowing a reasonable time for a response.
Now, while also annoyed with Australia Post, my seller would have been more than happy to replace the item - except for one small detail: They did not receive ANY of the messages sent by the buyer. The buyer had only used the eBay messaging system.
Now my seller always includes their direct email address on their invoices - but the buyer did not try that. From what I can gather, the buyer could be a casual user of the internet and (as my supposition) probably stayed within the 'safe' boundaries expounded by eBay.
As you will have gleaned from the above, my seller friend did get in contact with the buyer and has replaced the item - as well as giving them a 'heads up' about eBay's messaging system. The question of feedback revision has been broached, but I don't know where that is at.
But here is my gripe - eBay does everything it can to control communication between buyers and sellers and yet does not ensure that the enforced communication channel is reliable. As a result, eBay's negligence causes direct and unnecessary negative feelings, feedback and DSRs - AND THEN penalise sellers on the outcomes which THEY precipitated.
My seller checked their standing in the searches - and they had been dropped to the bottom because of this one neg .... and all thanks to eBay - and if the buyer does not revise the feedback, their business will suffer.
Has this happened to you or someone you know?