A new approach to feedback

[springyzone]

There's a bit of discussion from time to time about how to get buyers to give feedback & I've just come across a new approach.

Background: I recently bought a second hand book for a friend.

I did have some concerns as the seller was a big volume reseller but had a LOT of negs and neutrals, almost all for being late, books taking well over a month, or cancelling sales. Alarm bells.. perhaps a drop shipper or someone overseas?

I bought & paid on 16/1 from a seller in Sydney. I am in Melbourne. I was meeting my friend on 3/2 and hoped to hand over the book then. No such luck.

On 17/1 I received what looked to be a long form message from the seller, saying how Aust post was slow, allow at least 6 business days etc etc

On 23/1 I received a message the book was posted. I thought this wasn't amazing service to be honest. On the slow side. Another message about how slow postage is these days.

On 9/2 the book arrived. It is in a large envelope, clearly stamped 6/2 @ 8.12

My suspicion is the books come from an overseas source & were posted to seller on 23/1 and when it arrived, on to me on 6/2.

I have bought things from Qld after I bought the book and they all arrived before this book!

Attached to the book is a little note: Give good feedback, 5 stars all the way and go in the draw-one of their loyal customers will win a $250 Coles voucher in Feb. This is a new initiative, they say!

Normally I would be rapt as I usually give feedback anyway. But this was one case where I was going to mark down the postage stars.

So.. should I be bribed? or tell the truth and be damned!!

And how reliable is feedback on the internet? I got $50 once for doing a google review of a real estate agent (he was brilliant so had no problem with giving 5 stars). I've won prizes and vouchers on product review too.

So.. what do you think.. is it a good tactic? I'll be watching their FB with interest.

[curraone]

My only thought on this would be that it would be better to buy a secondhand book from another Australian seller, namely me

[phorum_junkie*]

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@curraone wrote:

My only thought on this would be that it would be better to buy a secondhand book from another Australian seller, namely me

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Noooooooooooooo, me me me me

With all the porkies they told about the delivery does anyone not think it will be their mother/father/sister/brother/cousin/best mate/other id who will 'win' the prize?

I would trash them a little extra for even trying to bribe me.

[the4masters2013]

My thoughts exactly!
The bookseller sounds like one I keep finding (out of interest only) - heaps of negatives, neutrals for slow postage. Books are 2 to 3 times the cost of other sellers.

[springyzone]

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@curraone wrote:

My only thought on this would be that it would be better to buy a secondhand book from another Australian seller, namely me

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I would have if I could have found the particular title with anyone else. At a cheaper price.

In all fairness, I can't fault their wrapping, the book came shrink sealed. I can't actually tell what it is like inside though as i want to give it to my friend like this so haven't opened it.

I can't fault their communication as such and I did get the book within a month. (not tracked)

I'd be betting only buyers who give them 5 stars all the way will go into the draw though. I was a bit stunned by the figure $250. I would have thought a $50 voucher prize draw would have the same effect.

But I'm darned if I will be giving them 5 stars for postage time. I'll let you know how their feedback goes this next month & whether bribery works. The neutrals & negs must have really been starting to hurt them in some way.

[brerrabbit585]

I don't respond to two things - bullying and bribes. It only encourages them to keep doing it and it's a bit like being an accessory after the fact. In fact, I would leave feedback saying they tried to bribe you into leaving positive feedback for a less than positive transaction!

Would you like it if everyone left a seller good feedback when they don't deserve it, then you come along and buy from them purely because of their feedback but get done? Feedback is designed to tell other potential buyers what to expect and if we don't warn others about bad sellers then we can't expect other buyers to warn us either.

[digital*ghost]

I'd be pretty sceptical of a promo like this. Partly because a seller can no longer run reports on individual transactions to see the DSRs a buyer left (this means while they're not 100% anonymous, it's gone back to the days of having to run convoluted selling reports to determine what stars a buyer has left, which is often impractical for higher volume sellers), ergo the seller would either be spending vast amounts of time running these reports, or will have no way to determine who did or did not leave "qualifying feedback"; and partly because how would you ever know there was indeed a winner who received a $250 gift card, unless the personal information of the winning member was published in some way? 

And if they are published, by leaving feedback, are you automatically participating in the promotion and agreeing to whatever (seemingly unspecified) T&Cs there may be, including having your personal info published if you're the winner?

Sure fire way to make a lot of people choose not to leave feedback at all, if they actually sat down to think about the situation, methinks. 

[springyzone]

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@brerrabbit585 wrote:
I don't respond to two things - bullying and bribes. It only encourages them to keep doing it and it's a bit like being an accessory after the fact. In fact, I would leave feedback saying they tried to bribe you into leaving positive feedback for a less than positive transaction!

Would you like it if everyone left a seller good feedback when they don't deserve it, then you come along and buy from them purely because of their feedback but get done? Feedback is designed to tell other potential buyers what to expect and if we don't warn others about bad sellers then we can't expect other buyers to warn us either.

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My thoughts were along those lines-that if they suddenly get a heap of positive feedback because of their promo, it could be misleading to potential new buyers.

Many places do encourage feedback with prizes though, it is a fact of life.  I can remember basically being paid for every review i wrote on product review (till it accumulated to $20 then it could be cashed in).

The major difference is most places do not qualify it by saying it has to be positive.

I will be leaving positive feedback as i think that is fair-they sent the book, they sent it well packaged, they sent messages to say it was in its way. But I will ding their stars for postage time.

[springyzone]

This is a completely off track observation but I was just scrolling through this seller's more recent feedback when I saw this below.

My eyes nearly popped out of my head as at first I thought it was part of the feedback or seller comment, but it turns out it is simply the title of a book they sold.

I guess it's an anything goes world these days even on TV, but are ads on ebay supposed to contain bad language?

I guess the seller could not sell the book any other way as that's the title. I have no idea what it is about though.

PS great seller, fast postage??? I guess that is one buyer who is going into the draw.

[imastawka]

Attached to the book is a little note: Give good feedback, 5 stars all the way and go in the draw-one of their loyal customers will win a $250 Coles voucher in Feb. This is a new initiative, they say!

I'm curious.  Do they have their permission number listed from the Attorney-General for this raffle?

Who even says there is a raffle?   Do they publish the winner's name?

Pathetic bluff IMO.   Feedback extortion also