After maintaining consistently good feedback over the 16 years I've been on eBay, in the last few weeks I've suddenly received two lots of unfavourable feedback, and feel that a few words on this are warranted:

• The first was some neutral feedback.  In this case the sale went through normally and the item was delivered.  The buyer then left neutral feedback without contacting me beforehand.  When I enquired about this, it transpired that the buyer had bought the wrong item for what he needed and therefore it was of no use to him, and he did say that I hadn't done anything wrong.  He lives in the same town as me, so I collected the item from him and issued a full refund.
• The second item has a fault that I didn't notice when writing the listing, so I can understand the buyer being upset about this.  Unfortunately I'm human and make mistakes, and this was one of those times.  However, he didn't contact me about it but immediately left negative feedback instead of seeking a resolution or opening a request for a return or refund.  I have issued him with a full refund and am waiting to see whether he will reply to my message seeking to resolve the situation to his satisfaction.

Things don't always go right, and I make no pretenses about being immune to that.  I value your custom whether you're a repeat customer or not, and when something goes wrong always seek to resolve the situation to your satisfaction.  If you purchase something from me and are not happy about something, please in the first instance send me a message and I will try to resolve the problem to your satisfaction.  

I would also like to remind buyers that for all listings on eBay, you have the right to request a refund or return in the case of an item not being as described, regardless of whether the seller has specified that they accept returns or not.