topic Negative feedback Woes in Selling

Negative feedback Woes

noseinabook2011 — Tue, 10 Jun 2014 03:44:51 GMT

As a seller I take great care to describe my items as closely as possible and go to the trouble of including 3 or more photos of the actual item. This morning I received a message from a buyer - strongly worded - stating her dissastifaction with her book.

While I stand by my item description, I decided it was better to cut my loses and so I immediately organised a full refund. And then... I noticed she'd already left negative feedback.

Is it too much to ask for buyers to contact a seller first and try to come to some sort of amicable solution? It's a simple matter of courtesy, something this buyer is obviously lacking.

Re: Negative feedback Woes

harley_babes_hoard — Tue, 10 Jun 2014 03:56:11 GMT

why would you refund without asking for the book to be returned. That is just teaching buyers they can say what they want and magically get a refund. Please stop doing this.

Re: Negative feedback Woes

noseinabook2011 — Tue, 10 Jun 2014 04:06:06 GMT

You're 100%.

Kneejerk reaction on my part and I've definitely learned my lesson.

Re: Negative feedback Woes

noseinabook2011 — Tue, 10 Jun 2014 04:06:29 GMT

100% right (meant to say)

Re: Negative feedback Woes

harley_babes_hoard — Tue, 10 Jun 2014 04:20:01 GMT

You are correct though it annoys me no end when buyer can't be bothered to even contact first without hitting the Neg button. You are not going to please everyone all of the time, so just keep doing what you have been doing (except for the refunding bit) LOL

Re: Negative feedback Woes

cherry*135 — Tue, 10 Jun 2014 04:45:57 GMT

When browsing items for sale and checking sellers feedback yesterday.. I came across a neg that said " Item as described, seller didnt leave feedback" ..some crazy buyers out there.

Re: Negative feedback Woes

crowsman53 — Tue, 10 Jun 2014 06:14:13 GMT

I for one only leave Feedback when I have received Positive Feed back from a buyer. Sometimes it gets a little sloppy a buyer leaves Positive with the comments as stated above so automatically they get a positive from me as it is how I set it up. I am still very greatful for the green dot and in a couple of days it is buried in the other feedback. Just Put Up With It you are still on a winner...

Re: Negative feedback Woes

i-love-my-sheep — Tue, 10 Jun 2014 07:50:36 GMT

I too only leave feedback after it's been left for me. Most of my buyers don't leave it, so I'm not giving it to them if they aren't going to return it. I used to always leave it when they paid, but then found very few left any for me, so stopped. I reckon maybe 1 in 20 will leave it for me.

The negs that make me laugh are "very happy with item, very fast postage. Great communication. A1 ebayer". Why do people do that? I know that if you try to scroll down with the down arrow it will move the check box from positive to neutral to negative, but you get a big warning asking if you really want to do this, so I don't understand?

Re: Negative feedback Woes

the_great_she_elephant — Tue, 10 Jun 2014 08:02:23 GMT

@am*3 wrote:
When browsing items for sale and checking sellers feedback yesterday.. I came across a neg that said " Item as described, seller didnt leave feedback" ..some crazy buyers out there.

I seem to rmember we had a buyer post on here a while back whinging about sellers who wouldn't leave feedback first, and proudly announcing that his policy was to neg them - could have been the same idiot.

Re: Negative feedback Woes

crowsman53 — Tue, 10 Jun 2014 08:08:28 GMT

Quite possible there are a few whingers on here including my self and i'm not a POM...

Re: Negative feedback Woes

phorum_junkie* — Tue, 10 Jun 2014 08:15:33 GMT

Well I am a pom and I am not exactly known as a whinger.

There are carp buyers and there are carp sellers, they are just something we all have to put up with and I will give up on ebay, and probably life, when a silly red dot on a computer screen means so much that I have to waste even a second whinging about it.

The only time I ever received negs I did post about them but only because the story behind them was so amusing and I was almost disappointed when ebay removed them when the member was NARUd. The word cerise is still well remembered by some of the old timers LOL.

Re: Negative feedback Woes

i-love-my-sheep — Tue, 10 Jun 2014 08:17:58 GMT

I used to add in my invoice asking them to leave feedback when their item arrived so I knew they had received it and were happy with it. Then I'd leave feedback for them. Very few did. I wondered whether buyers felt pushed, so I stopped doing that and it made no difference.

I always send sellers a message when I get what I've bought. I feel it's a courtesy, so they know, plus I leave feedback for them. Most are so grateful.....and shocked! I am very particular about sending a message to international sellers, even if it's a signature on delivery item, because I know how easy things can get lost. Every international seller has replied expressing their immense gratitude for letting them know. It only takes a few seconds to send a quick message, I wish more people would do that. I don't think I've ever got a message from a buyer, so unless they leave feedback, I never know whether they've got it or not! I suppose not having an INR opened they have got it, but sometimes it would be nice to know for sure.

Re: Negative feedback Woes

phorum_junkie* — Tue, 10 Jun 2014 08:25:05 GMT

It only takes a few seconds to send a quick message, I wish more people would do that

I hope you realise that ebay see it as a fault if you communicate with a buyer outside of the standard email messages. There are also a lot of people like me who do not need or want any more emails cluttering up our in boxes, if it were possible to turn off all the ebay notifications I would do so. I do not need an email to tell me I have paid, I do not need an email to say my item has been posted and I certainly don't want an email asking if my iitem has arrived unless it had been at least 4 weeks for domestic parcels and I have not left feedback. The ultimate do not want is the emails asking for feedback, they either get none or some they would probably rather not have.

Re: Negative feedback Woes

i-love-my-sheep — Tue, 10 Jun 2014 11:33:31 GMT

I was referring to letting a seller know when I had received the items I bought, especially from international sellers. I nearly always get a reply thanking me for the message. Is that a breach of policy, even though it's regarding the items I bought, and sent via eBay messaging?

Re: Negative feedback Woes

digital*ghost — Tue, 10 Jun 2014 11:44:21 GMT

@phorum_junkie* wrote:
It only takes a few seconds to send a quick message, I wish more people would do that

I hope you realise that ebay see it as a fault if you communicate with a buyer outside of the standard email messages.

No they don't.

They award an auto-5 star for communication if none outside the standard auto-emails was necessary (plus a couple of other specifications), that's all - bit of a difference, and it doesn't suggest that communicating with buyers is a fault, it suggests that if a seller's listing (photos, description and any other info) was communicated well enough and they did everything else post-sale "right", they can assess that as A1 communication on behalf of the buyer, as it were (communication isn't limited to direct messages - everything in a listing communicates something, as does marking items as sent etc).

If the seller doesn't meet the parameters for an auto-5 (in any of the qualifying ratings), it doesn't mean it's a fault, it means the buyer gets to rate the DSR independently.

Re: Negative feedback Woes

noseinabook2011 — Sun, 15 Jun 2014 05:41:27 GMT

Refunding was a darn kneejerk reaction.

Anyhow, what is really frusgtrating now is, to quote ebay: "primarily we haven't seen the item so we don't know exactly what is the condition of that item..."

Basically, I can upload as many photos of the item as I can and still that won't be enough to provide supportive evidence of the item's condition.

In this instance, it comes down to the buyer's ignorance of books that are printed on vellum like paper (thick). Traditionally, the pages have 'deckled edges' (rough cut). The buyer refers to this rough cut as 'torn'.

Re: Negative feedback Woes

ajarnjenny — Sun, 15 Jun 2014 08:18:34 GMT

A book? Someone left a neg for a book?

If I buy a book that I want to read the words of (isn't that what books are about?), I couldn't care less if there are marks and creases. I want to read the thing, not have it as an accessory.

I would be more inclined to buy a much read and dog eared book than a pristine, never read book.