topic Re: Feedback Overhaul in Selling

Feedback Overhaul

campingcentralaustralia — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 21:36:20 GMT

I believe the feedback system is outdated in needs a major overhaul. Unfair negative feedback is not good for the seller and definitely not good for eBay because it turns buyers away. In a time with so much online competition ebay does not want to lose business and needs to re-think its feedback policy.

Here's a few suggestions I have and your input would be appreciated.

1. Feedback should not be positive, neutral, negative. Scrap it. It should be just feedback comments. Buyers can still read through comments etc.

2. Sellers can leave comments for buyers (again not pos,neg etc.. just comments)

3. Feedback time limit should be 30 days. Why do buyers need 2 months to leave feedback?

4. Keep the DSR ratings. They are more rellevant and can be viewed with the comments.

CampingCentralAustralia

Re: Feedback Overhaul

***super_nova*** — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 22:02:21 GMT

I think that is the worst suggestion I have heard; I do not want to be reading through 55 000 of your FB to see how many people were dissatisfied with you.

I think that FB for buyers is totally irrelevant; it should be totally abolished, and replaced by simply adding another point when they pay, which would happen automatically if paid with PP or once it was manually marked as paid.

Re: Feedback Overhaul

***super_nova*** — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 22:05:15 GMT

And 30 days only to leave FB is not long enough, actually it should be longer than the 60. Many items from o/s do not even arrive within 30 days, not to mention the buyer to have a chance to establish if it works as it should.

Re: Feedback Overhaul

***super_nova*** — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 22:08:16 GMT

If anything your suggestion would turn me as a buyer away.

Re: Feedback Overhaul

campingcentralaustralia — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 22:41:20 GMT

I should have added that buyers (like you) with their feedback set to Private should not be entitled to leave feedback. You have an opinion on feedback, yet you have yours set on private. Hilarious.

Re: Feedback Overhaul

the_hawk* — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 22:51:40 GMT

As a buyer I agree 100% with your comments nova

The op suggestion makes it so easy for a bad seller to hide and so hard for buyers to find good ones.

The idea of reducing the time FB can be left is stupid, many trasactions can take that long to sort out and the history of shonky sellers running buyers out of time to open disputes and leave FB is already a problem, this idea would only help the shonky sellers

Re: Feedback Overhaul

the_hawk* — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 22:54:57 GMT

I should have added that buyers (like you) with their feedback set to Private should not be entitled to leave feedback. You have an opinion on feedback, yet you have yours set on private. Hilarious.

well mine is not private 😛

and you have fallen for the misconception that someone with low FB or private FB is not an experienced or knowledgeable ebayer of long standing and to attack the messenger like that I am starting to understand why you want to change the system

Re: Feedback Overhaul

phorum_junkie* — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 23:55:25 GMT

As a seller I have no problem with buyers who set their feedback to private. As a buyer I do have a problem with sellers who list their items as private when they are neither of an intimate nature or an expensive collectible. If they have negs I want to know if they are for the item I am thinking of buying or are they just sour grapes.

You have very good feedback for such a high volume seller and I would have no problem buying from you if they were not private listings.

Re: Feedback Overhaul

digital*ghost — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 23:56:13 GMT

I have to say that I don't think this idea would work out well for sellers at all.

As it stands, DSRs already impact a seller's account much more than a few negs do, and can sometimes result in the 'silent negative', when a positive comment is left but the ratings are trashed. Because of that, I think I can understand, to a degree, the reasoning behind thinking the comments and related dots have become irrelevant for sellers, but they are not irrelevant to buyers, and I think they are still relevant for sellers.

Negs and neuts provide insight to a few general things for buyers - possible common problems with a specific product, for example, plus a seller's response to negs can have a significant impact on how they are viewed by potential buyers - you can't respond to DSRs and provide some insight to your customer service and so forth. Sure, you could still respond to comments, but without being able to refine them like they can now, most buyer's eyes would just glaze over trying to find relevant comments to read (if they even bothered to look anymore).

I wonder if you think the way DSRs are rated might be affected if buyers were no longer able to leave a red dot? It would be the only way to have an impact on a seller's account, and sometimes the low ratings might be unfair just like the red dots, but of course you probably won't have any idea who left them or why.

Re: Feedback Overhaul

patchoo78 — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 00:53:46 GMT

There is NO WAY I would be bothered wading through 10 000 feedback comments to find a bad one. The way it is I can just click on Negative feedback and look at it that way, and that's the way I like it

Re: Feedback Overhaul

donnashuggy — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 00:53:51 GMT

Sellers can leave comments for buyers (again not pos,neg etc.. just comments)

We can follow up on feedback left for buyers, you can word it so it doesn't violate the positive/negative policy.

Most buyers don't even look at feedback so I wouldn't worry about it too much campingcentral. 🙂

Negative feedback is still useful to weed out the shocking sellers out there.

Re: Feedback Overhaul

kangarooislandleathercraft — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 01:05:56 GMT

Whilst I have not had personal experience of having my DSRs trashed by non-working apps or smartphones as reported by other sellers, I do think the DSRs are the problem area that ebay needs to concentrate on.

Sellers who are frustrated by not being able to neg buyers should simply take a deep breath and not post any feedback whatsoever.

A seller has the option to respond to unfair feedback and a calm explanatory reply does more to reassure potential buyers than a vent.

Changing Postage Time to Dispatch Time as mentioned on another thread would clarify the system for buyers. However if the DSRs are being trashed unintentionally because of technology glitches, this is damaging to good sellers.

Re: Feedback Overhaul

patchoo78 — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 01:24:31 GMT

Whilst I have not had personal experience of having my DSRs trashed by non-working apps or smartphones as reported by other sellers, I do think the DSRs are the problem area that ebay needs to concentrate on.

Sellers who are frustrated by not being able to neg buyers should simply take a deep breath and not post any feedback whatsoever.

A seller has the option to respond to unfair feedback and a calm explanatory reply does more to reassure potential buyers than a vent.

Changing Postage Time to Dispatch Time as mentioned on another thread would clarify the system for buyers. However if the DSRs are being trashed unintentionally because of technology glitches, this is damaging to good sellers.

Agree.. There seems to be a lot of confusion regarding postage time, some buyers think that it means how long the post took to deliver it to them rather than how long it took the seller to post it.

Changing the wording to Dispatch time would help

I have only bought a few things using the Android app and have had no problems with stars, that said; touch screens can be quite fiddly and I see how it could cause problems for those who might have bigger fingers than I do

Re: Feedback Overhaul

thecatspjs — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 01:49:19 GMT

Feedback system overhaul, yes please.

1. Reword DSR for postage time to Dispatch time.

2. Add separate DSR for Aust Post and other freight co for delivery times and send on results to them 😄 (just joking)

2. Non-paying buyers - 3 strikes - then account sanctions

3. Non-paying buyers - limited and transparent non-payment strike removal

4. Number of non-payment strikes show on buyer feedback page

5. Number of disputes show on buyer and seller feedback pages

6. Phone ap feedback console changed to be consistent with rating order on web

7. Dispute process includes a step requiring buyer to contact with seller before a neutral or negative feedback can be left

8. No feedback able to be left for transactions that are mutually cancelled.

Re: Feedback Overhaul

***super_nova*** — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 04:25:24 GMT

Feedback system overhaul, yes please.

1. Reword DSR for postage time to Dispatch time.

2. Add separate DSR for Aust Post and other freight co for delivery times and send on results to them 😄 (just joking)

No1, absolutely brilliant idea, and actually #2 is very good, it would not be counted by eBay but it would give the numpty buyers something to vent, if the item took too long in their opinion. 🙂

Re: Feedback Overhaul

***super_nova*** — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 04:39:17 GMT

I should have added that buyers (like you) with their feedback set to Private should not be entitled to leave feedback. You have an opinion on feedback, yet you have yours set on private. Hilarious.

I would have expected that somebody with so much FB would have realised that this is my posting ID, which I have recently bought 2 items on by mistake :_| but normally do not use for buying. All my other IDs, show clearly my excellent 100%FB with mostly 5 stars across the board (OK there used to be 4.9 for postage cost - even that I often undercharge on postage).

I have this ID becaues it is nobody's business here what I buy. 🙂

Re: Feedback Overhaul

zanadoo_56 — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 05:37:16 GMT

1. No thanks - I prefer the current system. I'm a buyer who does read feedback - all the Negs and Neutrals and a scan of the first page or two of Positives. It's an efficient system.

2. I assume you mean sellers can make comments that are negative/neutral in tone (after all sellers can already make positive ones)? I don't have a problem with this as long as the seller isn't dodgy and makes nasty comments in revenge for less than satisfactory service and negs from buyers.

3. Feedback limited to 30 days? Not a chance. In fact with the time it takes to get some stuff from overseas lately, plus the sellers who string you along until after 60 days, the feedback period needs to be longer....MUCH longer!

4. Agree with keeping DSRs but the posting time does need tweaking....and there have been occasions when a separate packaging star would have been handy.

I don't see how the current system turns buyers away. It doesn't turn me away unless the seller replies to neg or neutral feedback with abuse. I would definitely think twice before buying from someone like that.

Re: Feedback Overhaul

zanadoo_56 — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 05:41:36 GMT

Hmmm. I tried to edit my post before sending it and the amendments didn't save (not the first time this has happened).

Re DSRs - I also think Communication should always be open for buyers to comment on. There seems to be no rhyme or reason why it is blocked....or isn't. Whatever the criteria is, it doesn't seem to be consistent.

Re: Feedback Overhaul

thecatspjs — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 05:45:01 GMT

It is blocked if the seller or buyer don't communicate between the actual sale and leaving feedback - go figure bout the brains behind that ??

Re: Feedback Overhaul

***super_nova*** — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 06:07:22 GMT

It is blocked if the seller or buyer don't communicate between the actual sale and leaving feedback - go figure bout the brains behind that ??

That is because when the seller described the item such a way there was no need for questions, marked as posted & sent such a way that the buyer got notice from AP with the tracking number and there was no need for further communication, some buyers felt that the communication was neither good nor bad and were leaving 3 stars. I am happy with the arrangement as it is.