As a seller, how far would you go not to get a negative?

I've gone pretty far, but only when it was completely my fault. I once reimbursed a buyer's complete cost and sent the item. Because of a weird chain of events, her package was in my car at a body shop in another state for three weeks and she was very understanding. It wasn't her fault so I didn't think she should suffer.

If a product is messed up in shipping, I will sometimes send a replacement.

If a buyer just doesn't like the product, I only refund the purchase price (no shipping) if they return it.

How far do you go not to get a negative?

In august I was selling a steam curler for my Mom. I unfortunately didn't realise that the auction ended the day that we were leaving for a week long trip to Cali. My shipping price was for parcel post. I hadn't heard from the buyer before I left and honestly thought I was going to be able to access a computer while I was gone but hadn't. So when I got back, luckily she was having some sort of computer problem and hadn't contacted me for three days. Anyway I mailed it priority which cost me $2 extra and between ebay fee's and the cost of the item I think we only made $2 on it LOL but I didn't care, I just wanted to make her happy.

That is as close as I ever came to worrying about a negative though

I live on the wild side

I sold a wakeboard once and came close to getting a negative. Anybody who knows anything about wakeboarding or snowboarding knows that the bindings (the "shoes" are screwed to the board that keep your feet in place) should never be considered something that comes with the item.

Now, it also wouldn't be fair to not mention that they didn't come with. Well, I made it VERY CLEAR in my auction several times that the bindings are not includes. This auction is for the board pictured only, etc, etc.

Anyway, it sells for a good price, they paid shipping (which was like $40 I believe) and I sent the item. Then, from out of the blue a few days later, I received an email complaining that there were no bindings with the board.

We emailed back and forth a few times. The buyer didn't want to pay to ship it back, but they also didn't want to have to go out and buy their own bindings. READ PEOPLE, READ!

Well, finally I received an email from the buyer stating that after looking into the prices for other boards and bindings, they realized that they actually got a good deal on mine and apologized for the confusion.

*Phew!* Luckily I didn't have to do much to avoid that negative but for a while I was pretty scared that I would be getting one. And it wouldn't have even been my fault.

The worst part was that I had already left a positive feedback because I received payment quickly. (This is one of the rare cases where I should have waited for them to leave feedback first. I'm never really sure which way to go when it comes to who leaves feedback first, due to situations like this. )

you ahve a point there. most negatives come from people not reading properly.