I got my first negative feedback recently, too, and it was about an item that I shipped back in July! But because it was to an APO I figured it was possible that she really didn't see them for a while (it was a batch of cards), or that she didn't have the opportunity to contact me or give feedback sooner. I was going to use the "kiss and make up" option, but it seemed odd and corny to me, so instead I just contacted the customer, said I was sorry she was disappointed, and offered to send her a new set of cards. I do recall being a little frustrated with my printer back then, and my husband saying something in an attempt to be supportive ("It's okay if they're not perfect, they're handmade") which went against my better judgment, but I sent them anyway, so I had no trouble believing her. Anyway, she was very responsive to my communications and seemed ready to be conciliatory —and I cleaned the printer heads a bunch of times before printing again! — so I am confident she will be glad to change her feedback once she gets the new ones.
I think it's best to give the customer the benefit of the doubt unless you have a compelling reason to suspect they're trying to pull something on you. Maybe some people brood over a disappointment for a while, or they're just not very forthright, or who knows? I'm from Minnesota, where the dark side of what we call "Minnesota Nice" is a kind of passive-aggressive BS that's very annoying, so I'm used to dealing with that sort of thing.
I hope yours is resolved soon. That negative just sucks, doesn't it? And even though I have one negative out of 198 that gave feedback, it still shows up as 99% positive, so I guess it doesn't do decimals (shouldn't it be 99.5% positive?)
