Hello Amazon,

I do not know all the details of how the ranking system for
3rd-party sellers is supposed to work, but I gave 4 stars
instead of 5 to a seller who sent me a used book whose
cover was worse than I expected from the description -
I would say it was just in "good state", not in "very good
state", and now she - the seller - is saying she is going
to "take action" against me, in a way that "could affect [my]
ability to place orders on Amazon.com in the future"...
(I am pasting the full messages below).

Could you please help us and arbitrate this matter somehow?
I do not feel able - or willing - to try to solve this issue
directly with the seller anymore without outside help;
I think that her tone has become uncivil, and unreasonable,
and she probably thinks the same of mine...

If a seller could not tolerate a single 4-star ranking on her
record without resorting to threatening to silence her customers,
then what would be the point of the feedback system?
What would happen if every seller did the same? Does
that mean that each customer is allowed to give a single
lower-than-5-stars ranking ever, and then after that its ability
to provide feedback would be removed, and possibly even
this non-5-star ranking would be deleted? Shouldn't a 4-star
ranking mean - ideally - something like "the service was ok,
but could have been better"?

I do not know if the book's cover was in pristine condition
before shipping - but I have friends who order used books from
Amazon's 3rd-party sellers often, and some of the books come
very carefully packaged, while some other books are not very
well-packaged, and some of them come a bit damaged...
Shouldn't a 4-star ranking be kept on the seller's record,
meaning "please don't be so optimistic about the state of a
book next time, you risk frustrating your customers", and/or
"please don't trust the mail so much, please package your books
more carefully the next time"? Also, I've seen books from 3rd-
party sellers that come with nice slips of paper saying things
like - I can't reproduce the exact tone from memory, sorry -
"I am trying my best to provide the best service, my e-mail
is x@y.com, if you have any suggestions or complaints
could please contact me before placing negative feedback on
Amazon? Thanks!" - This sets up a totally different way to
deal with the seller...

Also, the seller's demand of an answer "by tomorrow" looks
*very* unreasonable to me

  Thanks in advance,
    Valeria C
    etc etc

P.S.: you will probably notice that different parts of my message
are written in different ways... what happened was that I
discussed what was happening with a friend, and he was so
annoyed at the situation that he felt that he had to "take action"
himself, and he e-mailed me lots of ideas and suggestions, which
then I modified... and he uploaded a version of this e-mail to his
home page, at:

   http://angg.twu.net/amazon-diane-arbus-problem.html

On Tue, Oct 27, 2009 at 3:03 PM, Valeria <valeria@xxxxxx.com> wrote:

> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Amazon Communication Center
> To: valeria@xxxxx.com
> Cc: commmgr_buyer@amazon.com
> Sent: Tuesday, October 27, 2009 1:33 PM
> Subject: Information from Amazon seller oooooooo
> Hello from Amazon.com.
>
> The seller of the following order has sent you a message. You can reply to
> this e-mail to correspond further with the seller. The message text appears
> below.
>
>  Order ID: 105-9094469-nnnnnnn
>  * Item: 1 of Diane Arbus: Magazine Work
>  
> Seller's e-mail: fooooo@gmail.com
>
> IMPORTANT: Amazon.com's A-to-z Guarantee only covers third-party purchases
> paid for through our Amazon Payments system (via our Shopping Cart or
> 1-Click). Our Guarantee does not cover any payments that occur off
> Amazon.com including wire transfers, money orders, cash, check, or off-site
> credit card transactions.
>
> -------------- Begin seller message ---------------------
>
>
> Hello Valeria,
>
> If I do not hear back from you in regards to my previous two messages by
> tomorrow I will take action against your account that could affect your
> ability to place orders on Amazon.com in the future. I am sorry to have to
> consider such actions but I see know other choice when you refuse to
> communicate with me and leave feedback that is less than positive on my
> account negatively impacting my ability to operate my business.
>
> -Jooooo
>
> -------------- End seller message ------------------------
>
> Notice: Amazon.com may retain copies of e-mails sent through this system,
> and takes no responsibility and assumes no liability for the content of any
> messages forwarded to you.
>
> Amazon.com will never e-mail you and ask you to disclose or verify your
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