Buyer Not Rating Seller?

[ausgeoff1946]

I recently sold an item to a buyer, which was confirmed

as delivered—with the tracking note—two weeks ago.

A week ago, I contacted the buyer to ensure they were

happy with the item, and politely suggested they leave

me a 5-star positive rating.  I have yet to get any response

from this buyer, and no seller rating.

I'm a new seller with only half a dozen successful sales so

far—all with positive ratings—so it's important for me to

be increasing my favourable seller status as soon as possible.

So... do I send another request to the buyer for a rating?  Or

do I just write this off as a failed seller/buyer relationship?

BTW, does eBay send any sort of prompt to buyers who fail

to rate sellers for successful transactions?     Is there any

exigency  for buyers and sellers to rate each other?      Is

it just etiquette, or are there generally accepted "rules" about

this?

—Thanks in advance.       👍

[twyngwyn]

feedback is voluntary.....a lot of buyers don't bother nowadays, a lot forget where they purchased items from....some leave f/b late, once ebay remind them....

Leaving Feedback for sellers | eBay

[sandypebbles]

No 

Feedback is 100% voluntary

and if you keep harassing the buyer to do so, they may end up giving you a neg

You will find very few buyers bother to leave feedback

So I'd be racking it up as 'quite normal'

[padi*0409]

No, do not pressure the buyer for feedback or you may well end up with feedback you don't want - like a neg or a neutral.

Feedback is voluntary..................

Edit. Snap again Sandy and Twyn.............

[countessalmirena]

Feedback is entirely voluntary.

It used to be stated specifically in the Help pages about feedback; those pages have since been reworded and it’s not as clear, but it remains purely voluntary.

If you contact buyers asking them to leave feedback (and moreover to make it 5-star feedback), anecdotally it annoys buyers and may even cause some to give a negative or neutral.

[countessalmirena]

Snappity snap.

[sugar249]

On my real account I think I average that 30% of buyers leave feedback.   Some only give it after I have left feedback.  Others just don't.

If you harrassed me to give you feedback,  it would guarantee either no feedback or downgraded feedback

If like you are asking you asked a second time,  neutral or nagative.

[*sons_n_daughters* · Accepted solution]

I agree with what everyone else has said. If a buyer leaves me feedback, I'll return the favour. Otherwise, I don't bother. I don't care if I get feedback as a seller or a buyer. I am here to sell items, not get some pretty green tick on a screen. It's not like you can take the green ticks out to dinner and a movie.

Besides, these days, I'd take a guess and say MINIMUM 75% of buyers don't look at a seller's feedback. That is evident by the amount of buyers coming here thinking they have been scammed, where, if they'd looked at the feedback, they'd have never bought there in the first place. Yet, they do.

If I had a seller badgering me for feedback and 5 star rating, they'd be getting an instant negative and 1 star for everything. It would be worded something like "here's the feedback you wanted so desperately" (yes, I've done it). That feedback does not qualify for removal under the ebay policy. I have had sellers put a card in my parcel basically demanding 5 star ratings. They get a 1 star, if I can be bothered. I figure a 1 star is going to hurt them more than not leaving a rating at all.

Be careful what you wish for............

Let it go. If your items are good, people will buy without you having a high seller feedback rating.

[siddieswans]

What everyone else has said. EXCEPT I can’t blame a new seller for thinking it is OK to contact a buyer requesting a rating when every retailer, business, service provider I deal with seems to ask me to do just that. I have 2 requests drop into my In Box in the last hour, one from a motor dealer, the other from a ride share.

[ausgeoff1946]

Thanks for your response.       😊

When you're a new seller—like me with only 6 ratings—every positive rating

is needed in order to establish an attractive seller history.  If a seller has

hundreds of +ve ratings, say five hundred or a 1,000 it's ultimately neither

here nor there whether a buyer rates them or not.  In my case it's different.

So, it's not just "a pretty green tick" to me.  And as a long-term buyer, I always

check a seller's feedback rating—after all that's exactly why it's there, and why

it can be decisive in dealing with them.  If I'm buying an item at the same price

and checking several sellers, who am I going to buy from?  The person with an

89% rating, or the person with the 99% rating?  Obviously the latter.

You say  "If I had a seller badgering me for feedback and

5 star rating, they'd be getting an instant negative and 1 star...".

Well, I certainly have not "badgered" the seller.  I asked them only the one time

as a politely-worded request for a positive rating.  I didn't even ask specifically,

or "demand" a five-star rating.  If you (apparently regularly?) fail to give your

buyers any rating, and then give them a one-star rating for asking is really beyond

the good faith and civil nature of the buyer-seller relationship here on eBay.

Incidentally, as soon as I received the item from the seller in good order and as

advertised, I immediately gave them a five-star positive rating.  Should I not, at

the least, expect a return favourable rating?  After all, eBay suggests this sort of

buyer-seller etiquette is what makes the site so successful.

When all is said and done, it takes all of 20 seconds to leave a feedback rating,

and is hardly any reason you should be "bothered" doing this.  Is your time really

that valuable?  It would seem you're happy to spend that 20 seconds leaving a

one-star rating, but not a five-star rating?   Strange indeed.

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