positive and 5 stars

[amalan11]

     I just wanted to say something about this.On a thread recently a seller said they could not understand why a buyer would leave a positive without 5 stars in every line.At the time I had to go to work and now I cannot find thread to reply but thought it was interesting.

I have only ever left one Neg in all my transactions but have marked down stars due to one thing being wrong like post;

      For example, I brought some plant bulbs off a seller and on asking for post was told they would need a 5kg express post bag at $25 ..OK I agreed I assumed they must be big

When they arrived They were actually 1.3 kg ,she had used a 5kg express post bag  stuffed with newspaper so I got what I paid for but To this day it is a mystery to me why she needed a 5kg express post bag for 1.3kg of bulbs that last fine in post.The bulbs were great big healthy ones and she had given me 20 extra so I would not consider a neg but gave pos and 5 stars for description,communication and post time but 2 stars for post cost .as everything else was great

   I think that this was fair as it would not be in anyway fair to neg her over it when that was all that was wrong and the stars are a way to reflect where there is only a small problem in one area .

[harley_babes_hoard]

Yes ILMS needed all that paper to protect the extra free 20 bulbs the buyer received.

[i-love-my-sheep]

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@casbit33 wrote:

On some of my accounts i have received glowing feedback and a defect for item not as described. Which is a load of rubbish.

If they are so happy with the item, WHY on earth give a defect.

It's scary to think buyers can affect so many sellers so easily. Just click a button. It shouldn't be that easy to defect a seller.

Sellers bend over backwards for buyers, then get kicked in the guts for it.

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I believe that some of the longer term buyers still don't realise that DSR's are no longer anonymous, so think they can leave a low rating without being found out. I think it's a pretty low act really. If there's a problem, there's a problem, do something about it. Don't be sneaky and make the seller think everything is fine when it's not.

I had a buyer contact me a few weeks ago saying the item I had send had a big crack through it. That's fine, I guess it can happen to something that is harder than concrete. I offered a replacement, or I would refund and pay for her to return it. She opted for the refund and she sent it back (no dispute opened thankfully, it was all done amicably through messaging). On return of the item, there was NO crack. I even put it under my microscope and still couldn't find a crack. I think what she saw, if she saw anything, was light reflection.

She gave me glowing feedback, then trashed my stars. She said that as I had been so good about it all, that she would happily give me good feedback. She didn't mention anything about trashing my stars though, especially when effectively it was a change of mind.

It got the better of me and I sent her a message saying it had arrived back and thanked her for being so prompt. I then thanked her for trashing my stars and leaving me with a defect on my account for what was basically a change of mind. I also pointed out that even under the microscope (at 100x 400x and 800x) there was no crack, that it was probably light reflection that she saw.

She replied with "I thought stars were anonymous".

So, it seems that some buyers still think that stars are anonymous, despite the message that comes up saying they are not.

I have no idea how long it will take for my little star to get his right arm back.

[curraone]

not enough ebay education for buyers, IMO

How easy would it have been to put in a pop-up box - when they select 3 stars or less - "be aware that leaving 3 stars or less results in a defect for your seller - have you contacted your seller to discuss the problem first - remember than sellers can now see what stars buyers leave"

[digital*ghost]

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@i-love-my-sheep wrote:

So, it seems that some buyers still think that stars are anonymous, despite the message that comes up saying they are not.

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Surprisingly, eBay decided they didn't want buyers to know that DSRs aren't anonymous anymore - there used to be a note at the top of the page when I went to leave feedback that mentioned it, but now it just says "Share honest Feedback to help members buy and sell with confidence. Give sellers detailed ratings to let them know where they're doing a great job, and where there's still room for improvement."

There's a "Learn more" link and it doesn't even mention it there, or even in the eBay help pages about DSRs - the only place on eBay I've found that still mentions it is the original announcement of the change. 

I guess they didn't want anyone to think twice about their ratings, or feel self-conscious about them. 

[harley_babes_hoard]

there is still a little box that pops up to say rating are no longer anonymous

[harley_babes_hoard]

[digital*ghost]

Where do you see it? I used to see that when hovering over the stars, but now there's nothing anywhere on the feedback page - the only boxes that I get popping up are the ones to clarify item condition, summary of order details, and if there's an auto-5 star then there's a little "why can't I enter this rating?" that shows a pop up to say why. 

Could be a browser setting I guess - I'll try switching off adblock to see if that shows it.

[harley_babes_hoard]

it pops up as soon as you click on positive and start to write a comment. I am using firefox with adblock plus.

[digital*ghost]

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@harley_babes_hoard wrote:

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That doesn't show for me - even with adblock switched off. 

[springyzone]

I don't think she was too harsh, I think she did what a lot of buyers would.

If postage costs are seen as too high, why should a buyer give 5 stars or even 4?

the problem, as someone else pointed out, is most buyers have no idea their rating will have any impact on a seller, ebay isn't explicit.

So a seller might be annoyed, while a buyer sees it as a perfectly reasonable assessment.

The ones who are really unreasonable are those who think because postage is eg $5, that that should be the exact postage cost & allow no extra for wrapping or envelope etc

In my opinion if the seller needed to wrap 1 kg of bulbs up and post in a 5kg bag, she may have been better off sending a message to the buyer to explain why.

Communication is everything and if it was necessary to protect the bulbs, that info may have soothed the buyer.

It is annoying to get something small in a huge bag, even if you know the seller paid the postage charged, you know it could have been done cheaper.