Why do eBay make you feel guilty about neutral feedback

[jean2579]

I have just received a bridal veil which is completely unsaleable. There are about 3 small holes in the design, threads are hanging off the sewing and there is no way that I can sell it to any buyer.

It is not worth the return postage to China to get a refund, and yet eBay constantly ask if I am sure if I want to leave neutral feedback.

I thought that the idea of feedback was to alert other buyers to a possible problem.

[buyer1017]

I'd just give the seller an opportunity to resolve it first, mistakes do happen, items could be folded, boxed, etc and a defect may have been missed. Most of the replies I see from sellers to negative feedback left are usually "contact us first before feedback: 

I had an item not arrive from an overseas seller, I could have very well opened a dispute and left a neg, I chose to contact the seller and he requested me to give a few more days and finally issued me a refund (without a dispute)

The item did arrive eventually and I paid him back for it. There are too many elements at play, mistakes do happen but as long as the seller is willing to make it right I am ok with it. 

I am rating his product as well as his service after all.

Have a good weekend 🙂

[foxette-in-sox]

Having just scrolled through your feedback left for others, I'm astonished that you have left positives with negative comments and neutrals with negative comments-why didn't you simply leave negatives ?

[davewil1964]

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@cq_electrical wrote:
I see you left them a neutral, Jean. Why didn't you neg them? A neutral does them no real harm at all and doesn't even count against their feedback percentage. A neutral would only have been applicable had they refunded you without return, so did they?

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A neutral does, however, contribute the same to a seller's defect count as a negative, and thus contributes to eBay's quest to weed out 'bad' sellers.

You need to keep up.

[cherry*135]

Because she is a polite lady, and would rather let the seller know things weren't quite right in a positive FB than slam them with a neg.

Wouldn't sellers prefer that type of buyer?

How many times did she do that? I only spotted 2, in a quick look.

[cq_tech]

Actually Dave, I only realised yesterday when checking my seller's dashboard that a neutral is the same as a negative as far as defects are concerned so I've changed my entire feedback philosophy as a result.

[davewil1964]

There you go.

It's only been 4 months since they brought it in.

[lyndal1838]

Yes, I have done the same CQ.

I bought some handmade items in July and paid on 23/7.  They were in stock and the seller had a 2 day handling time.  From Victoria to Sydney should have been no more than 4-5 days so I expected them to arrive by the end of July.  When they had not arrived by 1/8 I messaged the seller as they were also not marked as posted.

I finally got a message back that she had been away for work and would post them on 3/8 (obviously just in a red postbox as it was a Sunday).  She finally told me they were posted on 7/8....and arrived 11/8. 

I was so annoyed about it I was determined to leave a neutral and ding her stars but the items were so good that I felt rather mean.   I decided to leave no feedback.  I was stewing about it right up till the last day for feedback and finally left positive but mentioned slow postage and poor communication and only marked the postage and communication stars down slightly.

This new Defect system is sure to have an effect on how most clued up buyers think about feedback.....I know I will be more careful, especially if there is any doubt at all about whether the seller is at fault or AP for slow delivery.  Most of the time the postmarks are readable but just occasionally it is a guess as to when they are posted.

[cq_tech]

I'm currently negotiating with a Chinese seller via an as yet unescalated Paypal dispute with regards an item which was purchased on August 1 and has not as yet arrived, and I discovered only yesterday that it left China on August 29, arrived in Australia on September 3, and should be delivered before I need to escalate to a claim on September 25.

Now, the seller has been extremely polite and helpful, has kept me apprised of events including tracking information when it became available, and I'm assuming that I'll receive the item during this coming week. However, had I not just discovered that a neutral is now worth a defect, I'd have had a problem

Prior to the introduction of defects, I would have probably left a neutral with low postage DSRs, but I don't want to crucify the poor fellow simply because he posted it a bit late. Now although a seller can only receive a maximum of 1 defect per transaction, under the circumstances I don't think he deserves a defect so to prevent that from happening I'll have to leave a positive, and a DSR score of 2 for postage because a score of 1 will give him a defect.

I fear I may have already caused my seller a defect simply by opening an "Item Not Received" dispute in Paypal, even though it's not yet been escalated to a full claim (although I'm hoping that the defect may not apply unless the case has been escalated, but I can't find any information anywhere which lets me know one way or the other).

I can see how difficult it's going to be for a seller to avoid defects though, as buyers simply don't understand that a neutral, a postage DSR of 1, or a description DSR of 3 or less will all constitute a defect (and it's particularly unfair that eBay tell buyers that a description DSR of 1 or 2 will cause a defect, but they conveniently neglect to mention that a 3 will do the very same thing). I think if it was possible for sellers to score more than 1 defect per transaction, there'd be none left on eBay within a month! 😞