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.....  

[ratman0100]

Some people are just never happy know matter what you do for them. I have only left one neg many years ago myself. If I have a problem I always email the seller and 99.99% of the time the problem is fixed and to be honest it does not happen very often. BTW I only buy so I am not seller. Well I sold a few things over the years but 99% of the time is buying. Just my opinion when I used to deal with the public.

[thecatspjs]

The main reason I have left negative feedback is for sellers that lie,  such as when items are blatantly misrepresented in their listings, for example claiming an item is new when it clearly is not new and has been used many times before. 

I have no time for sellers who treat their customers like stooges or fools.

I copped a neutral for being unfriendly to a scammer - and I was very unfriendly too 

[*crikey*mate*]

i got a neg today because a second hand book was a used book and because my postage was slow.

apparently unread means new. even when the book is listed as used with relevant faults (a name sticker on the inside cover) mentioned.

and as for the slow postage.

They paid by echeque on the 13th

cleared on the 21st

i posted on the 22nd.

(I say I have a 3 day handling time)

however the low DSR for postage time will not be removed either as it is the buyer's opinion of the sale. and my eBay thingy marks that payment as made on the 13th, even though the funds were not cleared and I was directed by PayPal to post the item until the 21st.

the buyer has made no contact with me at any time throughout the transaction.

[digital*ghost]

I have only ever left one non-positive feedback - a negative, a couple of years ago, for a CD that was in extremely poor condition and wouldn't play properly, but described as like new. I contacted the seller in question and received no response, so after waiting a reasonable amount of time (three business days from sending second message), I left a simple, factual neg. 

A couple of days later they messaged me with some excuses as to why they didn't respond to my original messages, and offered a full refund if I revised the FB. I told them I would not have requested a full refund had they responded straight away, only the costs to have the disc professionally cleaned / buffed. So they issued a 50% refund and I revised to a positive, which mentioned (in as much as 80 characters allowed), what had transpired.

My general rule of thumb is, if I don't care enough about the issue to contact the seller and try to do something about it, I leave a positive or no FB. If I contact them and we come to an agreement on how to resolve, positive. If I contact them and they ignore completely, or disregard the issue...well, that's only happened the once, as mentioned above. 

[extra-keen]

"Hi, before I leave negative feedback"

If this buyer has left you a message through the ebay messaging system with the above wording, it could be construed as "feedback extortion" Which ebay should remove if this is what happened!  I believe it is against Ebay policy to use feedback threats!

[maconii]

I'm glad people see reason! Hate those days when angry customers just pop up and DEMAND you do something about their problem.

@my*favourite*poster - I have buyers like that too! I got a neutral because the buyer thought an item was white and told me it was pink. I clearly listed that it was a "light pale pink" directly on the listing name.. They NEVER read the listings and just assume!!

Did the buyer send the payment by eCheque?? It should show up as pending on their side?

@digital*ghost - I do the same as well. If the item "okay" I generally do not leave a feedback at all. I wouldn't go all dramatic over a few dollars.. I'm not rich, but who really has time for that..

@extra-keen - Although it's against eBay's policy, eBay doesn't do anything about it! I have a negative feedback still sitting there even though the buyer threatened and abused me before feedback and after for months.. "Because it's the buyer's opinion" eBay cannot remove it.. I'll probably be arguing with eBay again if this customers comes back and bites me.

[springyzone]

I sometimes read feedback and I agee with you, the mind boggles at some of it. I am constantly amazed at those who say it 'wasn't as big as I thought it would be', when the sizes are clearly stated in the listing. or those who say "Good. Thanks' then leave a neutral!

I am pretty sure some buyers think they are rating their opinion of the product and not the transaction and whether the item matched the description.

I have had some pretty poor experiences, several where I never got the product, but didn't have a chance to leave negative FB as the sellers had gone, possibly kicked off as a few of them had a sudden deluge of egatives at the same time.

I have only left one negative and it had originally been a case where I had decided just to leave no feedback.

A seller sold my daughter a concert ticket. She was using my ebay account as she didn't have one.

She went to pick it up, (approximately an hour's round trip) paid, then glanced at the date on the ticket. The date didn't coincide with what had been in the ad and it was a date where she could not use that ticket.

The seller apologised and offered money back, said he had made a mistake. Then he had a rummage around and found another  ticket for the right date, but in a much lesser location.

He charged slightly less. Not a lot less, but slightly.

So I figured it was a poor experience, couldn't rate him positive as that was a bad error, one she may not have picked up on the spot or in time if the ticket had been posted. But he had offered money back-so we decided to just leave it at no FB.

One week later, without so much as an email to me, the seller put in an unpaid items dispute against me, saying we had not paid for the tickets.

I answered the dispute but I was furious. A mistake in a listing I can maybe understand, though  a ticket date is pretty basic I would have thought, something to double check.

But to launch into disputes with no attempt at communication....

He got a negative.

Guess what... he rang me about 2 hours later, really upset because I had not sent a message before giving the negative, so he could close the dispute. I said-well now you know how it feels.

[bookdragon57]

This account is reasonably new- I started it because my husband had one, and it was hard to get surprises for the other with the one account (and he always put his PayPal password in himself, btw).

I've made more than 41 transactions. I have 41 stars. I always pay as promptly as possible- if I can't pay immediately, I send a message to let the seller know when I'll be paying. Even if it's the next day.

However, I'm always pestered to leave feedback. I get emails about it, and eBay reminders on eBay. So I started asking the sellers if they could leave me feedback. I only leave positive feedback for sellers who leave me feedback. Because I feel it goes both ways. And I leave them plenty of time. I've had a few who've said "Yeah, you're right, it does go both ways, no probs" and even a few who've said "Oops! Sorry! I forgot about that! Thanks for the reminder!"

I leave them plenty of time, and if they can't be bothered to spare 5 minutes (and I know you can leave bulk feedback), I leave them a neutral. Simple. You obviously don't care enough to leave me feedback (which reflects on me as a buyer), so I'm not going to improve your business when you basically don't give a rats about my end.

If I get served in a shop by someone who doesn't seem to care that I'm buying from them, I don't feel satisfied. It's not like I'm being rude, and saying "Feedback or ELSE!" it's more "This is give and take here." And frankly, I'm sick of the buyers that take and don't give. Maybe next time they'll be nice and leave feedback for those people making their business look good.

That said, if something doesn't arrive correct, I'm straight on to the seller to sort it out. I recently bought some lingerie. I ordered purple, they sent me pink by mistake. However, I'd planned on buying the pink at a later date, when the Christmas shopping was done, and told them as such. Problem solved- they're holding one in the correct colour for me for when I can pay for it (I told them when as well), and when I make the transaction, they'll send it. They're just making sure they still have the item colour in when I buy it. And I'm fine with that. They're fine with that. We communicated back and forth about it, and solved it. Not a problem. They're getting two positives from me when I get the other colour, not one. And I might even buy one in the third colour...

If anything, my biggest failure is my need to communicate. I absolutely love the sellers that send me updates on how far along my package should be to arrival. Even if it's completely off, and probably a copy/paste send, it feels like a personal touch. Sometimes I send a message to a seller to let them know that the item looks waaaay better than they said it would, just to compliment them.

Do I feel guilty about neutrals? Yes. But my husband just says "If they can't be bothered, don't leave them positive.". And if I get a message back, I tell them to look at the previous correspondance we've had.

I've worked in retail. No matter how bad your day is, you put on a smile. I've had to smile through tears before. If those of us in retail can manage all that, I'm sure these people we never see the faces of can manage 5 minutes at most of their time.

And don't get me started on that "automated feedback" bs. I've been told it can't be done by an eBay rep over the phone. However, half the time, they can't even talk to themselves, so not sure how reliable it is, but too many say that and they're lying. You lie, I won't do business with you again.

Yes, I've been waiting a long time to vent. Call me a purist, but really, I'm just fed up making others look good and them not giving me a few minutes of their day. My husband has been a member for a long time, and he said it never used to be like this. And he said himself he's left bulk feedback on sold items, and I tend to trust his judgement for some reason, lol.

Maybe I'm turning into a cold hearted b&^$h though, I'm not entirely sure anymore... 😜

[lyndal1838]

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@bookdragon57 wrote:

Maybe I'm turning into a cold hearted b&^$h though, I'm not entirely sure anymore... 😜

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You might be right there.

Did your husband also tell you that feedback is voluntary for both buyers and sellers?

Did he tell you that many sellers have their feedback automated to leave feedback for you when you leave them positive feedback?

Did he tell you that many sellers leave feedback in bulk once a week or once a month?

Dd he tell you that feedback for buyers is pretty meaningless as you can not get negative feedback anyway.

However, feedback for a seller is important as it establishes their credentials as a seller....which in turn helps buyers find a reliable seller.

Asking for feedback is not a good habit to get into.....if you do it as a seller you may find the buyer giving you feedback you do not like or want.   There are many sellers who have had negatives given just because they asked for it.