Aussies more inclined to leave negative feedback?

[fmurphy2005]

I sell to a lot of buyers from the US, UK, Europe and Asia using different eBay accounts to target different regions on Earth and currency rates but one thing I've always noticed is that fellow Australians seem to be more inclined to leave negative comments,

The problem seems to stem from not reading item listing info and/or not understanding what it means.

The international buyers are always so thankful and also very communicative, even though they have to pay up to 3 times more postage for the same item!

Anyone else noticed this?

[harley_babes_hoard]

my latest red dot is a clear example of buyers not reading the listing, it couldn't be any more clear. what a goose!

[springyzone]

I am wondering if it is just because they are international buyers.

Maybe you are getting a certain subset of people, not the full gamet of ebay buyers, because a lot of buyers are more wary of buying from overseas.

Not from Chinese sellers as quite often they are listed as 'free postage' anyway and the items are usually small and cheap, so that isn't a big issue.

But from most overseas countries, the postage needs to be carefully looked at.

On the other hand, buying from the home country seems much easier, no money conversions and extra costs to worry about, so you are going to get a situation where everyone is willing to buy from their own country if the price is right, but only a certain percentage of those people will buy from places such as UK, USA, Europe.

Maybe you are getting the subset who do a double take, notice the item is overseas and has higher postage, and who then go in to read the description more carefully because there is more at stake to lose.

Just a theory.

I know I always take a lot more care with international purchases, to make sure the seller looks legit and the item is really what i want.

[character_parties_aus]

I think you're probably just unlucky or international buyers are more appreciative as they cannot source your product locally and are just glad to have got it. I find that makes a big difference as people are  then more inclined to read what they are getting.

The number of people who do not read what is put in front of them or interprit it how they want to is truely staggering. Still you only have to loon at they way society is going on social media judging people and events based on often one sided media coverage to see its hardly surprising. It's the herd mentality and it will only get worse most probably.

[cq_tech]

I agree that your neg is bloody unfair, particularly as you have the measurements in your listing, but some people have difficulty imagining sizes so to prevent a recurrence, I'd be inclined to include in your images an item which is instantly recognisable, such as a can of beer or coke, or maybe even a ruler. Having said that, I'd still be contacting CS and trying to get that neg removed on the basis that the size was clearly stated in your listing.

[i-love-my-sheep]

I have a tape measure firmly planted next to my computer. It's there for 2 reasons. First, to measure the items I am selling so I can give an accurate description, the other reason is if someone does have measurements in their listing for something I am interested in, I can pick it up and look at the measurement and get a better idea of the size. If something arrives and it is smaller than what I anticipated, then I have no-one to blame but myself for not checking the measurements.

I don't know how to ram it home to buyers that they need to read the description. Especially as a lot of sellers will use the macro setting for smaller items so you can see it better. No point taking an aerial shot with it sitting next to say a coin, because you can't really see what it is if it's only small. I want to be able to see it close up if I know it's something small, so I like when sellers use the macro setting. I would assume buyers want to see it close up too, which is why I choose to photograph in macro.

So any buyers out there, READ THE DESCRIPTIONS!!!! That's why they are there.

Rant over 😛

[harley_babes_hoard]

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@cq_tech wrote:
I agree that your neg is bloody unfair, particularly as you have the measurements in your listing, but some people have difficulty imagining sizes so to prevent a recurrence, I'd be inclined to include in your images an item which is instantly recognisable, such as a can of beer or coke, or maybe even a ruler. Having said that, I'd still be contacting CS and trying to get that neg removed on the basis that the size was clearly stated in your listing.

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CQ I sent H&C an email this morning but of course I got the usual we don't interfere with feedback ratings blah blah blah. However after reading this post I thought I would give them a call. Well tada just like magic it's now gone. they have also sent the buyer an email stating that the listing clearly had the measurements and have notified him the feedback has been removed.  My defect from this will be gone within 48 hours.

Thank you CQ

[ms_aussie]

Good news Harley. Onwards and upwards hey? 

[cq_tech]

That's great news HBH and I'm very happy for you, particularly as the defect will be removed as well. I'm so glad to see that somebody at H&C actually had the good sense to see that your neg was totally unjustified, and it gives me hope that there may even be others in eBay who can actually think for themselves. Anyway, well done. 🙂

[digital*ghost]

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@i-love-my-sheep wrote:

I don't know how to ram it home to buyers that they need to read the description.

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Years and years ago, I bought a CD at clearance because I liked the band name. I had to catch a bus home, so to kill the time I read through the insert. 

After I read through all the lyrics, I scanned over the boring stuff credits (sometimes they write amusing things, or you spot names that surprise you). Nothing unusual there except a long series of numbers (which isn't really all that unusual, lots of codes, serial numbers n' stuff on music releases). But me being me, I decided to see if it was a numeric code. 

Lo, it actually was, and the message was that if you say a certain phrase at one of their gigs, you get free stuff (not that it did me much good, the music turned out to be aiight for '90s prog rock, but they never toured Oz anyway). 

So, my point... (I did start out with one 😄 ) 

I reckon we should hide codes into descriptions, then eBay can advertise that if you crack the codes in a description and contact the seller with what the hidden message is, you get a smiley face stamp or something - collect 10 stamps and get 10% off your next purchase.

But here's the kicker - the coded message is a description summary.