Yet still they buy

[clubesquire]

A couple of weeks back I posted about an unsavoury experience I had with one Chinese seller wherein I stepped out of my comfort zone with Chinese sellers because I couldn’t get what I wanted elsewhere. A big mistake. I left very explicit feedback (my first ever red - I’m very tolerant being a seller myself) and follow up, but still they buy. They buy and buy!

And, this is despite some damning feedback, post and prior to my own. Out of interest I went back for a lookee see - 60 reds in 12mths, 29 in 6, and 4 this month. Interestingly too, the sellers response in many cases is a sentence embodying the word ‘liar’ when speaking of the buyer.

Thus I’m satisfied that unscrupulous Chinese sellers will always prevail. It’s impossible to warn off buyers. They’ll take their chances and then wonder why, when things go West, and probably come here complaining  about it, just like I did. But, you won’t see a second complaint from me.

Some buyers you just can’t help.

Melina.

[springyzone]

That's true & there are some who will buy no matter what the feedback is like-maybe they don't even check.

I always have a look. I'll buy if there are a few negs & neutrals as I think some buyers can be unreasonable but too many makes me wary.

Back in the day (about 14 years ago), I think people paid way more attention to feedback because there was no paypal around and it was the only way to check out if the seller seemed usually reliable.

But I think a lot of buyers these days might be lulled into a false sense of security to some extent. Ebay is always promoting  money back guarantees, easy returns and the like.

I can remember, way back maybe 4 years ago. My sister was looking at thermomixes and there was one on ebay, brand new in box, zero feedback seller in SA, only about $600 & that included postage. Now, she had checked completed ads and noticed there had been identical ads, word for word, over the last few weeks, but always by a 'different' ebay ID, zero feedback, different location.

Scam, scam, scam, stay away, I said. No one sells a brand new one unused for that when they are $2000.

What harm could it do just in case it is for real, she asked-if i don't get it I just get my money back from ebay anyway.

I persuaded her not to (she eventually bought at full price from the company) but her attitude could be typical of some people-maybe some don't check, maybe some just think if the seller puts them out one iota they'll just go for their money back anyway.

me-I never assume it is that easy, certainly not with overseas sellers, I'm like you & warier.

Ebay is getting cluttered with chinese stuff in the searches. It's a turn off to some extent, to be honest. I think if ebay doesn't somehow address the issue & make the home country site items show first, they may lose a lot of customers eventually.

[performance_parts_clearance_centre]

So far as buying goes, people will almost always go for the cheaper item, regardless of where it's coming from. Not very different to the supermarket shelf, where the imported item will out-sell the Australian-produced one because it's twenty or thirty cents cheaper.

Personaly, I focus entirely on the item itself (but the vast majority of items I buy are vintage, and usually one-of-a-kind - most often the only one on eBay). I only look at the feedback if I notice that the seller's percentage is under 97% or so - and if the item is one I'm after, I pretty much don't even look at the feedback rating, let alone individual comments.

[digital*ghost]

eBay is pretty unique when it comes to feeback percentages. Some of the best businesses I deal with have only one or two star (out of five) ratings if you look them up on independent review sites. In that context, and the grand scheme of things, many people will look 99% feedback and figure that means there's only 1% chance of something going wrong.

[clubesquire]

I wonder if they’d still buy in a supermarket if there was a sign beside the product that said, ‘Beware, the maker of this product has a history of dishonesty and deception.’

I’m starting to think if it was 5c cheaper some would.

Melina.

[digital*ghost]

If there were 99 other signs saying "my experience was just fine", I'm sure they would still buy.

ETA: People still buy Nestle products, and they've engaged in some despicable, well-known practices. 

[brerrabbit585]

The problem is not knowing how many other people had a bad experience and couldn't be bothered leaving feedback (or a good experience).

To contradict springy, when I joined back in about 2003, a lot of people didn't read feedback then either. I remember buying a piece of china to match a dinnerset and I knew I was taking a chance because of the seller's feedback, and as soon as I bought it I knew I'd never see it. I caught the seller out when he listed it on another ID and left him a negative, and of course he played games and left me a retaliatory neg, then offered to change his feedback if I changed mine. He refunded my money straight away and claimed it was a mistake and that he gave some stock to his daughter to start selling. Yeah, right! I don't respond to blackmail so I let my negative stand. He was in England and he sold a lot of items but had a lot of negs, so obviously a lot of people didn't read it. Nothing has changed since that time. Sometimes people take a deliberate gamble but most of the problems are from never reading feedback.

[brerrabbit585]

When it comes to food, most people prefer to bury their head in the sand and not know what goes on. If they did care they wouldn't eat a LOT of food, especially (mainly) processed foods.

[digital*ghost]

---

@brerrabbit585 wrote:
When it comes to food, most people prefer to bury their head in the sand and not know what goes on. If they did care they wouldn't eat a LOT of food, especially (mainly) processed foods.

---

Very true, I watched a fascinating video while back that highlights this sort of thing (it's on YouTube so I'll put in the spoiler below - goes for less than 10 mins and well worth watching to the end).

With eBay, the main issue is that for one buyer, a negative experience with a seller may account for 100% of their dealings with that seller, but to everyone else, it doesn't have anywhere near that kind of weight or importance. Even 100 negs in a vast sea of postives isn't going to carry that kind of weight from the casual observer's perspective, unless / until they become one of the 1% (or however much the percentage is) - it'll put some people off, for sure, but TBH, I don't think it's really all that surprising to see sellers continue to sell a lot of items in the face of negs.

Spoiler

[brerrabbit585]

If they've got ANY negs I read them to get an idea of whether they're the buyer's own fault, and how the seller reacts. If they aren't a really high volume seller I'll read some of the positives to get a feel for how the rest of the buyers feel about the seller. So yes, it's about perspective.

Just read another thread where someone bought off a high volume Chinese seller with 95.6% feedback. Ouch! I wouldn't get any further once I saw those figures but would hit the back button really fast. They had 800+ negs out of almost 20,000 feedback in the last year, if my memory serves me correctly. I thought ebay restricted your selling if you went below 98% but maybe that only applies to the rest of us, not the Chinese.