Ridiculous eBay Sellers

I generally like online sellers, and I think eBay is a great marketplace. I've found so many great things that I probably couldn't find anywhere else for the level of ease. But, I do have a grievance...

Well, I probably have two grievances, but I'm only going to concentrate on the one.

I thought it would be nice to mount an iPad to a tripod, so it stand at my desk, or even under a camera to act as a teleprompter. Some simple keywords into eBay's search box revealed what I had wished I had for years. When I saw a seller with a very positive rating, I hit BuyItNow, and I was jumping with excitement... Well, maybe not jumping...

I do sell some things from time to time on eBay, but I'm no pro. I don't have all the eBay rules memorized, but I believe generally a seller is supposed to ship items within 2 days of receiving payment (I believe there is an option to extend this when creating a listing). At any rate, a processing time is practically always posted with any listing, and with a favorable rating there is nothing to worry about when you buy right?

Well, I waited a week, and when I went to check up on the purchase, I found the seller had printed a shipping label, but it was never taken to a post office. I'm pretty generous, maybe too naive, but if I have no reason to doubt someone, I always give them the benefit of any emotions. I sent an eBay message politely reminding the seller to send it. I probably forgot about it, and checked a week later, and still it had not been shipped, and there was no response to my message. Now this thing was only $25 or so, so I wan't freaking out or anything, but I was rather annoyed. I went through eBay's resolution system and asked to cancel the transaction for not receiving the package, and requested a refund. The seller didn't contest it, and promptly I was returned my money.

I didn't expect it, but I was apparently still able to leave feedback for the transaction. So I did. I wasn't too harsh, after all it probably could have been a genuine mistake. I did include that the seller promptly returned my money.

I soon started receiving a barrage of eBay messages (that eBay also relates to me in emails) from the seller:

Dear buyer,

Would you please consider remove the negative feedback.

We are the victim of this happening. Package lost in mail and we take the lost and you got the money back from us. Most buyers want their money back if the package lost in mail. I always think that give back the money is the best way and buyer can re purchase again. I can't imagine this would give me a negative feedback.

Would you please consider remove the negative feedback.

Thank you very much

This got me pissed. The seller was clearly ignoring his/her failure, but was placing blame on innocent postal workers, who never got involved in this mix. Aside from my political stance, this is downright wrong. If the seller simply said something to the degree of, "Sorry, this was my mistake", I probably would have revised the review for the seller. I try to be a pretty nice guy. But this was just foolhardy.

I informed the buyer that this attitude was wrong, and that he/she is lucky I don't accept to revise the review, and leave a worse one that includes words on this continued negligence.

Grinds my gears.