Why can a buyer leave neutral feedback on you, but you can't do the same back?

[beachbum00]

Why can a buyer leave neutral feedback so easlier. But as a seller you cant do the same?

Seller seems to have to jump throw lots of hoops to resolve this issue?

[lyndal1838]

Did the buyer do anything wrong other than leave you bad feedback?

If not, why do you want to leave them bad feedback?  If it is to "get even" with them then you have your answer.  Too many sellers were leaving bad feedback for buyers who did not deserve it, so ebay took away the ability for them to do it.

[normalane]

And now far too many conniving buyers are leaving bad feedback for decent good sellers who don't deserve it

[repentatleisure1952]

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@beachbum00 wrote:

Why can a buyer leave neutral feedback so easlier. But as a seller you cant do the same?

Seller seems to have to jump throw lots of hoops to resolve this issue?

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Hmmmm,have you looked at the buyers comment & do you have a genuine follow up comment ?

If the buyer is correct two weeks does seem an inordinately long time to reply. As for the damage I have no opinion on that.

[lyndal1838]

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@normalane wrote:

And now far too many conniving buyers are leaving bad feedback for decent good sellers who don't deserve it

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True, but I just answered the OP's question as to why she as a seller could not neg a buyer.

[modestbods]

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@beachbum00 wrote:

Why can a buyer leave neutral feedback so easlier. But as a seller you cant do the same?

Seller seems to have to jump throw lots of hoops to resolve this issue?

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@lyndal1838 wrote:

Did the buyer do anything wrong other than leave you bad feedback?

If not, why do you want to leave them bad feedback?  If it is to "get even" with them then you have your answer.  Too many sellers were leaving bad feedback for buyers who did not deserve it, so ebay took away the ability for them to do it

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@          tuckcase1989 wrote:

Hmmmm,have you looked at the buyers comment & do you have a genuine follow up comment ?

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OP, no matter how agrieved you might feel, or how badly you may want to fire off a return salvo at the buyer involved, which you could do via leaving an angry follow up comment, you need to stop and consider something...

Other potential buyers that are deciding on whether or not to do business with you will see your follow up comment, and if you are nasty in it to another buyer they will very probably choose not to do business with you, to avoid the possibility of being treated in the same manner if they too were to have a problem with your goods/service.

I can tell you that this is indeed the case, as I myself check sellers feedback before I choose to buy from them, and I pay particular attention to how they deal with problems with buyers and how they reply to negative/neutral comments made via their follow up comments. Those that do seem to resolve issues and that leave polite or apologetic follow up comments I will buy from, those however that don't resolve issues or that leave angry/nasty follow up comments I will absolutely not buy from, especilly the ones that leave bad follow ups.

 So for your own sake, you should consider only leaving a very polite & apologetic comment, if any. Ironically, such a comment would stand the best chance of making the buyer involved feel bad or guilty for the comment they left if it was in any way unfair (assuming they have a conscience), whereas if you leave a bad follow up comment, that would only reinforce in their mind that they were right to leave you a neutral/bad feedback comment.

Forget about retribution, as no good will come of it, concentrate instead on reassuring those other buyers you want to do business with in future.

Good luck.

[modestbods]

Btw OP, welcome to the eBay discussion boards. 

[k1ooo-slr-sales]

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modestbods wrote: 

OP, no matter how agrieved you might feel, or how badly you may want to fire off a return salvo at the buyer involved, which you could do via leaving an angry follow up comment, you need to stop and consider something...

Other potential buyers that are deciding on whether or not to do business with you will see your follow up comment, and if you are nasty in it to another buyer they will very probably choose not to do business with you, to avoid the possibility of being treated in the same manner if they too were to have a problem with your goods/service.

I can tell you that this is indeed the case, as I myself check sellers feedback before I choose to buy from them, and I pay particular attention to how they deal with problems with buyers and how they reply to negative/neutral comments made via their follow up comments. Those that do seem to resolve issues and that leave polite or apologetic follow up comments I will buy from, those however that don't resolve issues or that leave angry/nasty follow up comments I will absolutely not buy from, especilly the ones that leave bad follow ups.

 So for your own sake, you should consider only leaving a very polite & apologetic comment, if any. Ironically, such a comment would stand the best chance of making the buyer involved feel bad or guilty for the comment they left if it was in any way unfair (assuming they have a conscience), whereas if you leave a bad follow up comment, that would only reinforce in their mind that they were right to leave you a neutral/bad feedback comment.

Forget about retribution, as no good will come of it, concentrate instead on reassuring those other buyers you want to do business with in future.

Good luck.

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Here is an example of a seller's replies to negatives that shows what modestbods was posting about.  I will let you make a judgement about whether you would want to deal with them or not.  If you had a problem with an item you bought from this seller would you feel comfortable that you could get a reasonable outcome from them?  Would you buy from them after reading these comments?

[sweetii8]

I have only just found these, very interesting reading.

I had one buyer who made no contact ( no reply to e-mails from me or from from Ebay after I had tried to cancel the sale).   He then paid very late on the Friday night via Paypal (still no contact).   When he finally did make contact he wanted a  3 hour window for pickup (still didn't arrive on time) even though he lived 25minutes away.

He then leaves neutral feedback with the comment  'Excellent trader lookforward to more purchases'.  

One other left negative feedback after 2 months, citing 'quality not as described' although I had not described quality at all in the listing.

The item was brand new still in the box.   She stated it overheated after 5 minutes use (2 months later) even though she said she was going home to use it.  

Had she contacted me I would have happily refunded her money.

Another buyer I had (he had tried to purchase 'off Ebay' and I refused) when I re-listed he made the highest bid and two days later said he couldn't pay.   Transaction was cancelled.   I checked out his feedback and he had done this numerous times but still had 100% feedback.

As I have not sold anything since the negative feedback and purchased very little my feedback score has plummeted.

With the few items I sold even though the majority of buyers were great the few who were not make it not worth the while and now with this ridiculous 180 day return policy I'm not even going to bother using this medium.   Not worth the hassle.

Sorry, just a little/lot peeved about the way sellers are treated.   Ignorant customers are always right.

[springyzone]

I thought the replies you gave to the feedback were excellent, sweetii8.

I've seen it before where buyers say something was great but give a neutral. I am not sure why they do it, but maybe they don't understand the system and think neutral is fine for smaller items or if they just feel normally happy (as opposed to over the moon, I suppose).

As for the highlighted examples of seller replies a couple of posts higher up, I was not impressed. Not at all. It would turn me off buying from someone so aggressive, for sure, and that is the main consideration, isn't it. No seller should want to turn off new buyers.

But having said that, i do have some sympathy for the seller in that they obviously listed the postage cost in their original ad and if someone didn't like it, they probably should not have bought. It's an iffy area though as I know I have resented it sometimes if I feel ripped off a bit by postage. Not that I have ever given a neg for it as I figured I knew what I was in for. Probably in the same situation I would give a positive and say I liked the item but felt postage costs were a bit on the high side.