Sellers extorting feedback by intimation?

[robert_053]

When selling I have ALWAYS given feedback when the customer pays for the item. The quicker they pay the better the feedback.  AS IT SHOULD BE.

 - - - - - - - - - - - -

When buying how ever I have found a lot of sellers do not leave feedback until you leave them feedback.  Is this GOOD practice?  I don't think so, in fact it causes me to give poorer feedback than I may have originally as I class this activity as bad customer relations in the 'seller's communication' area.  As a rule I start asking why I had not received any feedback after four to five days, then if I do not receive a reasonable answer and immeadiate feedback the seller loses points.  As a majority of postal times from sellers average at least 7 days I usually wait that long before "reducing" the stars on communication.  Then every four days they lose another.

Today I contacted a seller asking "why?" on an item 320731808127 purchased on the 9th of May and received this reply:

"Dear robert_053,

Hi
thank you for your information.
our system work that when customer leave me positive feedback.
the system leave him positive also.
please leave me first.
miranda"

to which I have replied:

Hello Miranda,
That is very rude.
I order and pay for items straight away and so I expect positive feedback STRAIGHT AWAY!
What YOU are doing is extorting good feedback from customers so they will get good feedback too.
IF you had checked my members profile page you would have discovered that this is a particular "HATE" of mine.
It also causes those sellers who do it to LOSE 'points' when it comes to me making my assessment.
To me that is a "failure for proper seller's communication"
**excerpt from my page
**quote**
Business Information

NOTICE TO SELLERS!When I purchase your product and Pay immediately, I EXPECT feedback immediately!! Should you delay feedback, until I receive the item and give YOU feedback, you WILL receive LESS STARS in communication the longer you delay!
**endquote**
Sincerely,
Robb

Do YOU think I am right in doing this?

[jillywinkle]

Good morning everyone...and what a cheery, fun little discussion this one is. My two bits worth......ebay is realistically a good old fashioned mail order business except nowadays we can do it online. How lucky we are.

If the feedback thing is there, it can be used to promote yourself rather than be a negative "waiting waiting" aspect. I've been selling in ebay for about 6 years and concluded the best and smoothest policy is to leave feedback for all my buyers immediately I have posted the item.It cuts out any flack, you have done it and you move on.

I also use the feedback field as a tool. Inserting the date I posted the item. Beginning all with "posted 15/5" or whatever the date was on the day. This way if things go awry I find it easier to trawl through feedback to find date posted rather than go through archived sales & if buyer is a feedback checker, they see immediately that their item is on it's way.

It's good public relations, good manners/etiquette & good business practice & has served me well. And I use to worry about the item being received, which is a good reason for buyers to leave feedback for sure...but hey, heaps don't leave it ever. If I'd had feeback for everything I had ever sold my feedback score would be double what it is now.

Without buyers we have no biz. No point ruffling feathers....otherwise, no return biz...

Having this policy in place, I rarely have problems with buyers, ever. My feedback has almost always been 100% during my whole time in ebay.

Personally, I don't like being badgered to leave feedback, how annoying. But have been asked before and just thought "whoops I forgot"...silly to get hot under the collar about it though. If you had your own website would you bug folks about same? Customers are precious commodities.

By the way Robert.....your "Rember" title in red, in your listing?....you missed out some letters there....its "Remember". Thanks for posting I enjoyed reading the conflicting thoughts here ....

signing off...grammar policelady

Jilly 😄

[jillywinkle]

and I don't think sellers should lose stars for not leaving feedback. Good lord we lose enough stars as it is and many sellers give over the top service in ebay.

Owing to a wide variety of people from all spectrums of society, trading on ebay, casuals to pros...that just makes things too complicated really. What a ghastly thought. Nevertheless a provoking idea...jilly

[lane-ends]

Good morning everyone...and what a cheery, fun little discussion this one is. My two bits worth......ebay is realistically a good old fashioned mail order business except nowadays we can do it online. How lucky we are.

If the feedback thing is there, it can be used to promote yourself rather than be a negative "waiting waiting" aspect. I've been selling in ebay for about 6 years and concluded the best and smoothest policy is to leave feedback for all my buyers immediately I have posted the item.It cuts out any flack, you have done it and you move on.

I also use the feedback field as a tool. Inserting the date I posted the item. Beginning all with "posted 15/5" or whatever the date was on the day. This way if things go awry I find it easier to trawl through feedback to find date posted rather than go through archived sales & if buyer is a feedback checker, they see immediately that their item is on it's way.

It's good public relations, good manners/etiquette & good business practice & has served me well. And I use to worry about the item being received, which is a good reason for buyers to leave feedback for sure...but hey, heaps don't leave it ever. If I'd had feeback for everything I had ever sold my feedback score would be double what it is now.

Without buyers we have no biz. No point ruffling feathers....otherwise, no return biz...

Having this policy in place, I rarely have problems with buyers, ever. My feedback has almost always been 100% during my whole time in ebay.

Personally, I don't like being badgered to leave feedback, how annoying. But have been asked before and just thought "whoops I forgot"...silly to get hot under the collar about it though. If you had your own website would you bug folks about same? Customers are precious commodities.

By the way Robert.....your "Rember" title in red, in your listing?....you missed out some letters there....its "Remember". Thanks for posting I enjoyed reading the conflicting thoughts here ....

signing off...grammar policelady

Jilly 😄

Pretty much what I do anyway, makes things simple. Good PR, I even go one step further, if I stuff up. eg ship late, send wrong item, have to refund due to fault etc. I leave follow up fb with apology BEFORE buyer leaves fb. Takes the sting out of what is a potential neg, and can often turn to a glowing positive for honesty. Never witheld feedback and its done my fb no harm.

But that said, thats my policy, dont expect others to be the same, and understand their concerns for not doing so. At the end of the day its just marketing. You take some risks to reduce others. As long as you put your hand up to risk your stuff ups, and you will make them.

Nothing worse than a seller who thinks they do nothing wrong. Everyone makes mistakes, use fb to demonstrate how you fix things not to deny you ever make mistakes, that just looks childish

[the3coopers]

We all come at things from different angles, which is what makes things so much fun here on eBay. I gave up checking my own feedback about 10 years ago. I wouldn't have a clue who's left it for me and who hasn't - it's never crossed my mind to even check!

Therefore, when ever these discussions take place and I see people getting so passionate about feedback, I kind of wonder why they bother with such a trivail thing. Perhaps they have a form of eBay OCD and check feedback continuously like some other people wash their hands 20 or 30 times per day?

I'd be interested in knowing how they keep track - do they enter every transaction into a spreadsheet or database, then cross-reference it with the feedback as it comes in? Seems like quite a bit of effort, which makes it more confusing since there is no particular benefit from reconciling it.

I certainly don't deny that there are people out there who really do "care" in which order feedback gets left, but it's certainly not something that I'd think about myself. So I find it's pretty hard not to be cynical, and wonder if these people are just a minority, however vocal.

[lane-ends]

To do it as a seller you can scroll through archives in selling manager and you can see who has and hasnt left it. Not that I'd really bother.

I do check whats been received each day, partly out of politeness because someone bothered to leave it. Partly for my daily dose of appreciation, which I otherwise dont get domestically. Sometimes there is also constructive criticism

[robert_053]

Well folks this has gone on long enough. Out of 989 people who had a look at this inciting post only 41 voted & around 30 replied.

A disappointing result really. So ‘end of’, particularly as some are beginning to sus out the reason for this in the first place.

Considering the way I wrote it I expected many more. I would like to take the optimistic view of the 96% that didn’t respond are the type of people that smile at the person having a “rant & vent” then ruffle their hair and say “Yes, Yes, Dear ... never mind dear ... it’ll be alright”

OK. First off

Poll Results: Sellers extorting feedback by intimation?

1 - YES in fact they should lose more stars.                                                            4            (9.8%)

                         Are you serious? I wish I knew who you are because I would put you on my BBL. At least there is only 4 of you.

2 - YES it is more than fair.                                                                                    5            (12.2%)

                        OK As a buyer I understand where you are coming from but I disagree.

3 - Undecided                                                                                                            3            (7.3%)

                        Why did you bother voting? If you chose that because you didn’t agree with any other choices You should have written a reply saying so. I will take these votes as disagreeing with all other choices.            

4 - NO seller needs to counter bad feedback                                                            17            (41.5%)

                        OK As a seller I understand where you are coming from but I disagree with that also.

5 - NO - BUYER SHOULD GIVE FEEDBACK WHEN BUYING.            12            (29.3%)

                         ! ! ! You’re as bad as the 4 that voted for losing more stars!!!

Total:                                                                                                                        41

Based on this rather poor showing we can hopefully predict that 60% of the People using Ebay either Buyers or Sellers are reasonably decent people to deal with.

My personal opinion really is ... the feedback system is something we could do without.

I really do not understand why a seller should be judged on how slow or how incompetent the relevant postal authority is.

Perhaps something along the lines of ‘Sales V’s Refunds’ for sellers and ‘Purchases V’s Refund requests’ for buyers would give a much more realistic view. But that can be someone else’s post to debate that. :))

Currently I usually give feedback to buyers straight away on payment & Max stars and pos for sellers.

On occasion I HAVE actually given the feedback to sellers BEFORE receiving the goods because I know them and the quality of their goods. In the event of a problem developing due to the shipping of the product I know they will replace if necessary. I also, the moment I receive the goods, make a point of notifying the seller I have and the item’s condition. A simple little courtesy that makes a big difference to sellers.

Oh! and thanks to all those who pointed out my stuff-ups on my listing (I can not believe I did a copy & paste of those ‘Payment’ conditions even changed the Postage and didn’t notice the other stuff) and then ... (Thanks Jilly) not even noticing my short version of remember. **slaps forehead** DOH! Thanks for your excellent reply Jilly, & the spelling lesson ^_^ and may I compliment you on an intriguing & exquisite web site.

Thanks to all who participated. A lot of the comments gave me a giggle especially the one on a postage problem. Unfortunately that would not be a viable solution due to two reasons, I wouldn’t be going with the package & the postal service would not be able to see the stamp. LOL

p.s. I ran the spell check on this. ... ^_^

            I think I’ll start a post ... Please check the stuff-up’s on my listings.  Recon it would be a hit!

Oh and 'lane-ends' ... love your sig.

Robb. 

[izabsmiling]

?:| Glad you got it all sorted OP

[leader-of-the-band]

Thanks to all who participated. A lot of the comments gave me a giggle especially the one on a postage problem. Unfortunately that would not be a viable solution due to two reasons, I wouldn’t be going with the package & the postal service would not be able to see the stamp. LOL

😉

[digital*ghost]

page views doesn't equal number of members that had a look.

It doesn't even equal how many times a person has clicked on a thread - most forum view totals tally both the number of onsite member clicks plus bots and spider crawls by google etc.

[digital*ghost]

BTW, I bet a bunch of people didn't vote because there wasn't a suitable response. Take me for example, I'm very much decided on when and how I leave feedback as a buyer and seller, but none of the options were applicable for me. 😉