I just unloaded a handful of things on ebay and have someone that received an item and messaged me saying they thought my post was misleading. I certainly did not intend it to be but was curious if someone here, with ebay experience, would mind PM'ing me so I can send the auction and details.

I'm torn between explaining to the person it is their responsibility to ask questions before bidding, having them contact paypal to let them decide , or just issuing a refund if others here or my friends also agree that it was misleading. I'm mostly confident that Paypal would side with me, but I also realize that may lead to negative feedback from the buyer (which I don't want).
Any help would be appreciated!

I have been a seller there since 2000. I'd be happy to give my opinion if you want to PM the details.

Thank you! Just PM'ed the info.

Buyers are dicks sometimes. You need to communicate and be firm and polite. Usually it resolves itself.

I always throw something in the bottom of my post that describes the condition of the item, then something that says, "Please message me if you have any other questions about this listing." Oh and also, at the top, I write, "Please read all of these details carefully."

I do this because I've been on the other end where I've seen something I would love, bid without reading the entire listing, then read a little closer and see that it's not exactly what I want. But little disclaimers like that puts the burden on the buyer, in my opinion.

I've been listing a high volume of items in the past couple of months (~75 items per month), and for about 1 in every 10 items sold, there's an issue, and whenever there's a doubt, I refund (mostly for karmic/feedback reasons), but then again, I rarely sell something for more than like $4.00.

Don't refund. If you sold it exactly as described and they didn't bother to read, then it's not on you. I recently had a zero feedback buyer win an item of mine and decided after she won, that she didn't want it anymore because she didn't notice that it was pre-owned (even though it clearly said so). When you bid, you are entering a contract to like, pay and stuff. She wanted me to cancel the transaction. Um no, because then I would still have to pay listing fees and stuff while she gets off the hook.

So I opened an unpaid item case and she never paid so she has a strike against her account. I get my listing fee and final value fees refunded.

If they leave retaliatory negative feedback, it can be removed.

What kind of things are you selling on ebay, Lizzie?

I hate when sellers wait for the buyer to leave feedback.

My responsibility is complete, as a buyer, when I pay you. Leave the feedback then- don't base it on whether or not I have left you feedback .

I don't leave feedback until my buyer is completely satisfied. Why leave feedback when you don't know if they're happy with their stuff yet?

Clothes.

Because Their satisfaction is irrelevant to how you rate them as a buyer. Their responsibility is to provide payment, and that is what you are rating. As a buyer, I feel like a seller is holding my feedback hostage if they wait for me to give it to them first.

If a buyer keeps bugging you with nitpicky problems after the sale is completed or didn't read the description and now wants a refund, wouldn't those be reasons to rate them lower and give other sellers a heads up?

So who should leave feedback first?

Feedback is never required. You can only leave positive feedback for a buyer and that is because their feedback doesn't really matter. Sellers aren't typically looking at buyer's feedback. Ebay polices bad buyers by cases they have won and lost, or by how many sellers have blocked that buyer from bidding on their auctions in the future.

My post was interesting since the wording could be confusing (not intentionally). I was selling a green lantern action figure named Guy Gardner. He only comes in a Walmart exclusive 5-pack of figures. My title said "DC Classics 5-Pack Green Lantern Guy Garner Figure!"
The buyer saw that and thought she was bidding on 5 figures. I can totally understand the confusion but the DC Classics 5-pack is the official name of the set it came from. It seemed like the most fitting way to word it, but in hindsight I could have added a word such as "from" in the title or even put a hyphen to seperate Guy Garner Figure from the first part.
If she read the actual description it was clear that the auction was for 1 figure. And the trump card is that the buyer does need to ask questions before bidding if they are unsure of what they are bidding on.

I decided I'm not worried if she leaves me negative feedback and I'm more interested in the ebay legal process for this one. I advised her that I will comply with whatever Ebay or Paypal decides. If/when she leaves negative feedback and Ebay sided with me I will simply reply to her feedback saying that Ebay did not agree with her complaint. I do find it laughable that she believes she should get a full refund AND keep the action figure. That makes me want to dig my heals in more.

I did already give her positive feedback since she paid promptly and that is all I require of my buyers. This "drama' now is not related to the initial transaction.

Sellers aren't looking for feedback? Then why do they solicit for it? Why does my feedback miraculously appear a couple hours after I leave it for the selller?

Sellers (maybe not you) in many cases base their feedback entirely on the feedback that has been left for them.

Oh, I'm not saying you are wrong at all. Sellers are always looking for feedback, but I don't believe the buyer is required to leave it. I always give positive feedback to a buyer as soon as they pay. I know what your saying is the truth since I buy way more than I sell and it happens to me too.

I thought the main debate was related to Ebay rules and who has to leave feedback first. I think the rule is that feedback is not required for either side, but specifically it is not required for a seller to leave feedback for a buyer. Some sellers just use it as leverage to get their own feedback and I personally don't think that's the right way. Ebay has some specific rules about using holding feedback hostage but that's really only for extreme issues I think.

For a buyer your feedback score would never prevent you from bidding on an item unless the seller himself has an issue with a low number of feedback.

Up until a few years ago, sellers could leave negative feedback for buyers. The only negative feedback I remember getting was after leaving neutral feedback for a used motorcycle part I bought that didn't work. I wanted to kick that guy's ass.

Exactly. The only negative I ever got was from a seller who sent it to the wrong address , and then didn't answer emails for a week. It took over a month to sort out and they were rude the entire time. So I left them negative feedback along the lines of *Sent to wrong address, then unresponsive"

and then they gave me negative as well for having "unrealistic expectations"