stupid eBayer

I recently bid on and won a DVD of Boris Karloff’s Thriller episodes. The item was marked as ‘New’ and ‘Original’ with no mention of it being a bootleg, however, when I received it, it was clearly a burned disc. The menu screen looks just like it does on the home videos produced by my parents’ DVD burner, the packaging was cheap with the inserts printed on regular paper, the video quality wasn’t great and the film skips a bit in places, and the backs of the discs are that familiar purple color of regular DVD-R’s. However, when I checked the price of individual episodes on VHS, I realized I got a bargain on the whole set, even if it was a bootleg. So, I left the seller neutral feedback: “Quick delivery but it’s obviously a bootleg copy, and the quality isn’t great.” His response? “this buyer does not seem know arse from elbow, item is 100% original from the uk.” Lovely. He then left me negative feedback, saying “Beware! poor communication skills, no contact prior to leaving negative feedback”, to which I replied (on my eBay page): “Like I’m going to ask permission before being candid about product quality.” Then, to top it off, he submitted a mutual feedback withdrawal request, which I am denying.

I thought the whole point of eBay feedback was to let others in your position know how a buyer or seller serviced you. To me, it seems like the feedback withdrawal is a means of blackmail or extortion: one person leaves you worse feedback than you left him (as in my case), so they initiate a withdrawal in the hopes that both of you can erase bad history. Uh, no thanks, buddy. I’ll take my negative feedback that you gave me, even though it’s nonsensical (I am not going to ask a buyer’s permission before I speak my mind on how they treated me!), just so that my neutral feedback of your quality stays posted. Asshole.