Received a neutral rating despite immediate shipping and fast delivery

Summary: lidor3073 shared frustration about receiving a neutral review after selling a Meissen plate to Italy. The issue arose from a delivery delay, which resolved quickly, yet the buyer left a neutral review criticizing the courier. lidor3073 contacted eBay to request the review's removal, and eventually, eBay agreed to remove it. Several participants, including voli-maus and samantha@ebay, offered advice and support during the process.

Hello everyone,

I just need to vent a little here. And yes, I’ve had abroad excluded for some time now; unfortunately, he was the only one who still had to bid. After recent experiences, I drew the consequences today and completely disabled international shipping. That was definitely my last sale abroad.

What happened?
On 13/07, I sold a Meissen plate to Italy and sent it as a DHL Parcel (EU). On Thursday (16/07), delivery on site didn’t work out, I informed him about it, and the buyer immediately wrote me an angry message:

It wasn’t true that the courier had been there, the doorman was always there, his wife was at home and he had not received a call. The courier just didn’t have time, that was a real letdown, and he now had to pick up the parcel in town.

The funny thing is:
The next day, Friday 17/07, the parcel was delivered quite normally by the courier and, without the buyer having to go anywhere, handed over to the doorman of the building! So the problem was completely resolved on Friday.

Nevertheless, the buyer then leaves me a neutral rating with the text:

“Item all okay, seller all okay, shipping provider used not correct.”

What kind of rating is that?!
The buyer himself confirms that everything was perfect with the item and with me. Yet he penalizes my profile because he was frustrated on Thursday about the local courier – even though the parcel was safely handed over in the building on Friday without his involvement! As a seller, once the parcel has been handed over in Germany, you have absolutely zero influence on the logistics chain, notifications, or the moods of Italian couriers.

I replied to the buyer in Italian in a factual way and publicly commented on the rating. At the same time, the request for a change is running with eBay/the buyer, since it can be proven here that only the shipping provider was rated. If he’s so unhappy, then he should take it out on the local guy.

For me it’s clear: the extra effort and the hassle of unfair ratings when shipping abroad are no longer worth it. From now on, only domestic shipping!

Has anyone here recently had similar experiences with such “frustration ratings” for international deliveries?

Best regards

P.s.: The buyer also conveniently paid only after 2 days - yes, I know, he has 4 days, but I could also say: payment discipline not correct, money wasn’t there right away!

That’s my view of things.

Pp.s. According to seller protection and the rating policy, eBay deletes the unjustified rating about the shipping provider.

https://www.ebay.de/help/policies/feedback-policies/grundsatz-zu-bewertungen?id=4208

Quote:

“Problems with the delivery of items

We remove neutral/negative feedback if the buyer’s rating refers to the following:

A delivery problem where, based on the tracking information, we can determine that the expected delivery or handling time was met”

If melina@ebay is still around: could you please take a look? Thanks a lot.

lidor3073

224 View listings

Posted 2 weeks ago · Edited 2 weeks ago·Last reply 2 weeks ago

11 comments

samantha@ebay

·2 weeks ago

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Hello @lidor3073

If you've already reported the review through the system, we'll wait for the result for now.

Thanks for sharing your experience with us and to @voli-maus for the flag :)

Best regards

Samantha

lidor3073

OP2 weeks ago

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@samantha@ebay

Thanks for the feedback. If, contrary to expectations, the system rules against me, I will get back here again.

Thank you very much. As a seller, this is very frustrating for me, since I did everything I could.

I wish you a nice day and best regards to you and @voli-maus

lidor3073

OP2 weeks ago

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@samantha@ebay

I’m getting feedback right now:

„Good day ,

thank you for using our customer service chat to ask your question and clarify your concern.

For your records, we are providing you with the transcript of your chat in this email.
This email is being sent both to your private email address and to your “My Messages” inbox on eBay.

Access to the transcript is only possible from your personal email account. It is not visible in your “My Messages” inbox.

For any further questions about eBay, we’re happy to help. Please proceed as follows:

1. Click Help at the top of most eBay pages.
2. On the following page, click the blue Contact us button. You may need to log in again.
3. Select the topic that best describes your concern, and we will tell you the easiest way to get in touch with us.

Thank you for using eBay as a marketplace.

Kind regards
eBay Customer Service“

But I didn’t use a chat!

In the transcript, it also only says the following:

„2026-07-18

07:39:23 UTC

Message“

Would you mind taking a look? I requested the deletion directly via the link that @voli-maus shared here.

I definitely did not use a chat!

Thank you so much! 😊

voli-maus

·2 weeks ago

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Hello @lidor3073 ,

Chat is probably meant to refer to the request.

Uh, it does say customer service chat.

That’s what it’s called these days. 😉

lidor3073

OP2 weeks ago

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@voli-maus

For me, chat in this sense means that I’m supposed to sort out my issue with a chatbot, but that’s not what I used — I used exactly the page you linked. If there were any communication visible in the chat, it would be printed there too. Everything that was “chatted” I copied out, and that’s really not much. I know that’s what it’s called these days; I’m not asleep at the wheel. 😉😊