Leaving neutral / negative feedback

[maconii]

So, lets discuss. When would you leave a neutral or a negative feedback? What irks you?

As an eBay shopaholic of many years (8 years+?), I have only ever left one negative feedback for a seller where I did not receive the item, was told they would resend, then contacted several times with no responses, and missed out on opening a dispute against. This was left many years ago. I haven't left a neutral or negative since.

Although I've had many transactions where parcels would take 6-8 weeks to arrive (international), or nail polish bottles would arrive half empty, and many many other stories. I've always been able to resolve these problems with sellers either by obtaining a refund, discount, or having an item resent.

I would never leave a neutral or negative for these common reasons that I see:

• The colour is off
• Postage took 1 week! Should have arrived yesterday!
• Postage is expensive
• DOA
• Does not fit/suit me
• Item not available - Refunded
• ON AND ON AND ONGOIESJOIA

Sorry for the rant. Have been receiving so many of these feedbacks where buyers don't even bother sending me a message to let me know of problems, and when they do it's like this:

"Hi, before I leave negative feedback I wanted to give you the chance to rectify the issue. I received the parcel and the polish has leaked out the side and dried up. Thus polish did not look brand new. I was not overly impressed."

I would have been happy to resend them a polish back without the threat of a negative.....  

[bookdragon57]

I'm not fast joining anyone's ranks. I came onto the boards to look for something else actually (in regards to someone selling stolen property, actually), and saw this thread. I answered the OP's question.

I did not start a thread, I simply answered in one.

And in regards to the notifications, it appears to be all or none. And I archive the emails regarding messages, transaction details, etc. The stuff I want to keep for possible reference down the line.

But sure, go hate on me, instead of those people who leave negative on a great seller because the item took a while to arrive- and the seller informed me as to why on their end, so I'm going to assume they did for them. I guess it's because I'm here, not them, right?

I've dealt with some very nasty sellers, after positive feedback has been left, and wished I could change it to negative to warn others. Instead, I went to eBay customer support, and was told it would be handled (Hopefully it has been). I won't go into the details here for reasons of anonymity. I could have come onto the board and told people to avoid them, but didn't.

All I really did was answer the OP's question, and then try to clarify for someone else, and then left. In fact, I'm only posting because I didn't realise I'd left the tab open, and came across it.

And lyndal1838? 52 - 8 is 44. And of those 44 positives, some told me they used automated feedback and didn't. How can you know to trust someone when others have lied? Perhaps it shows a problem on both ends. There are bad buyers, and bad sellers, and people are getting very cautious on both ends. My comment about buying a jigsaw puzzle comes to mind. Are you going to get the nice seller, or the one that makes you feel like you don't want to return? (Am I a valued customer or not?) Sure, it's a risk you take, but a little back and forth, and give and take is not harmful for any business. I would only leave negative when something went very wrong.

So by your calculations, I have left 8 neutral (including a few that made me want to tear my hair out, but I didn't see them as warranting a negative), and 44 positive. Zero negative. Sure, I may not be the best buyer on eBay (but really, who is?), but I'm certainly not the worst. Maybe because I do try communication. I'm also rather blunt, but I do not swear.

Have a good day everyone.

[hodgo0204]

What about the  buyers? What I mean is if I buy something, then I pay for it straight away. Why do the sellers wait to leave me feedback until I've left them feedback?

I  mean as far as I'm concerned, I've fulfiled my end of the transaction. Annoys me a lot actually. I think I've only left a neutral response once and nothing negative.

However can the sellers tell me why its okay for them to wait?

Two-way street.

[davewil1964]

Because -

1. eBay allows the seller to leave feedback AFTER receiving feedback. They even allow a seller to automate the process.

2. A lot of sellers consider the transaction in its infancy at the point of payment.

As stated, a buyer can only get positive feedback, so it is basically meaningless. it is only a count of the number of transactions that sellers left feedback for. And is no real indication of the quality of the buyer, espercially if left straight after payment.

So you reckon by paying, you've fulfilled your end? What if things go agley? Do you not feel you should communicate with the seller if there are issues? Does this not form part of the overall transaction?

I am getting approximately 50% feedback, as a seller, at the moment. Two way street indeed.

[green-gifts-mkd]

I usually wait about one month before leaving feedback. The reason I do this is that sellers have a visual list that shows icons for paid, posted, feedback left, feedback received etc. It is a visual reminder to me to check on the tracking for items I have not received feedback for yet. All of my items are sent by registered post and are for important event dates, such as weddings, so a blank spot for feedback received reminds me to check on the tracking for that sale. Sometimes the item is 'Awaiting Collection' and I let the buyer know because AusPost may not have issued them with a card and AusPost are returning items to senders as soon as 10 business days now.

After about a month, I finalise the transaction (in my eyes). I do one last check of the online tracking and, as I haven't heard from the customer in all that time, I assume they're satisfied. Then I leave appropriate feedback. My feedback is often descriptive too, not simply about receiving fast payment. If someone has sent me 50 emails over a $50 order, they have wasted my time when I have distinctly asked them not to in my terms of sale on every listing. I still give them basic feedback and they are then added to my blocked buyers list permanently. Absolutely wonderful buyers will receive feedback such as:

Fantastic eBayer; concise messages; a pleasure to deal with; best wishes; A+++++

Very polite & lovely buyer; a pleasure to deal with; welcome back anytime; A+++++

[green-gifts-mkd]

purpledonlkey57: A neutral sits around for 12 months on a seller's feedback wall, and all for what? That the seller didn't give you a feedback point? What do you do when you buy from other online stores? Don't tell me, you only buy on eBay because it gives you a meaningless points tally? When you buy from other online stores, feedback isn't even an issue. You buy, they send.

I actually think the feedback system on eBay is juvenile in the current 'e-commerce' climate. Being an ex-school teacher, kids loved getting points for sports, good behaviour, etc. That's what I liken the feedback system on eBay to. I sell in my own online store and never hear back from buyers. I receive the odd "Thanks so much!", which is wonderful, but I'm not itching for feedback either there or on eBay.

Buy something because you're happy with the seller and the overall price. Don't let the feedback system govern any decisions (i.e. "I can always leave bad feedback if I'm not happy"). This is not a sensible way to shop but, unfortunately, eBay seems to encourage this mentality. Think: Is this seller operating in a professional manner? Do they have store policies in place? What will my options be if I am not happy with this purchase?

The feedback system is really an artificial construct which makes buyers believe that all will be OK. Think about all of the other sites you shop through. Seller professionalism, integrity & reliability goes well beyond any feedback or review system.

[digital*ghost]

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@hodgo0204 wrote:

I  mean as far as I'm concerned, I've fulfiled my end of the transaction. 

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That would be a valid point if either A) it was up to you when a seller left a buyer feedback, or B) you could leave yourself your own feedback for buying. 

But neither of those are true / possible.

Paying for an item doesn't finalise a buyer's involvement in a transaction, just like posting an item doesn't finalise a seller's involvement in a transaction.

@purpledonkey, bottom line is you posted on a public forum and brought your feedback practices to the attention of a public forum, so you can't really blame said forum for making comment, and IMHO saying "at least it's not as bad as XXXX" does nothing to mitigate the damage you've done to those sellers, therefore doesn't excuse it.

[tstore]

To tell you the truth, I have it set to be automated once I receive positive feedback. Many buyers out there still think that they can receive negative feedback so once you give them positive feedback they feel they have all the bargaining power, where as this way they are more inclined to actually message you if there is an issue. This of course is not true as sellers cannot leave negative feedback.

Feedback is still important for buyers if they are casual sellers or want to sell things in the future

[digital*ghost]

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@green-gifts-mkd wrote:

I actually think the feedback system on eBay is juvenile in the current 'e-commerce' climate. 

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I remember you posting a similar comment recently, and the more I think about it, the more I agree with it.

[springyzone]

green-gifts-mkd wrote:

I actually think the feedback system on eBay is juvenile in the current 'e-commerce' climate. 

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I remember you posting a similar comment recently, and the more I think about it, the more I agree with it.(Digital ghost)

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I am not at all sure I do. Over the last few years, there has been a real rise in feedback forums.

I don't know if you see Productreview, but I post on that. It started small but has grown a lot and now I notice manufacturers and businesses are sitting up and paying real attention. They have publicity managers who are obviously monitoring the site and who go into damage control to sort out problems. My daughter and son in law had problems when building a house and a neg review by me soon had people in head office responding.

Google reviews-you would be surprised how many people read those.

Even recipe sites have people making comments and to me, they are a 'must read'.

I am not sure a feedback system for buyers on ebay is all that relevant (though strikes for non payment should be) but some sort of feedback for sellers can be reassuring to a buyer if it is good-gives you coinfidence you will probably get your item.

[digital*ghost]

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@springyzone wrote:

Google reviews-you would be surprised how many people read those.

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I'm one of them. 😉

I use online reviews (generally decidely more than 80 characters long), and also often use social media to verify certain things about an online business I can't otherwise find out (Facebook pages have come in very handy with seeing both the nature of customer complaints, and if/how they're responded to). 

The notion that eBay's feedback system is juvenile has been growing on me, and I think eBay needs to do some growing (up) in some areas, too. The principle (of online reviews) is essentially the same, but the execution is completely different.