I remember something that was said at an eBay Live a few years ago that stuck with me. It was specific to buyer expectations for shipping, but now that they have free reign to do whatever they want, I think it has expanded.
"Buyers expect you to ship them a bowling ball for $1 overnight."
Yesterday I wrote to a buyer and explained that I couldn't find an item that they had won a week ago. I apologized profusely and gave them an immediate 100% refund of their full payment. I even offered them a $5 credit on any future win.
Today I got a message today that the $5 seemed inadequate for "all the time I had spent watching the auction to make sure I won."
I'm sorry, are there many sites out there that give you more than 100% refund when they screw up?
I thought I was being generous and nice, but they threw it in my face. And, I think the implication is that if I don't offer them something more, I will get negative feedback or low stars FROM THIS BUYER WHO NEVER EVEN COMPLETED A TRANSACTION WITH ME AND PAID NOTHING.
This buyer shouldn't even be ALLOWED to give feedback on my shipping (there wasn't any), or the quality of my merchandise (they never got it). THEY REALLY SHOULD NOT BE ALLOWED TO GIVE FEEDBACK OF ANY KIND, and the fact that they are allowed to impact my business is simply disgusting to me.
OK. Vent over.
I agree that we should try to give good service, regardless of the system in place, but eBay feedback and DSR sucks, and that's just how it is.