@digital*ghostwrote:
@jfmgraywrote:sometimes we can miss out on repeat buyers by treating all buyers like bad buyers.
How is not leaving feedback upon payment treating someone like a bad buyer, though?
Digi - I never said that ALL sellers who hold back on feedback do it for this reason but clearly some do. Some of the comments in this thread include:
"Totally understand why many choose not too, given there being so many scammers falsely saying an item never arrived,or was damaged"
"but there are also a lot of people making false claims so they can get freebies"
"This is due to post-sales shenanigans from buyers who have left negative feedback after we have left positive feedback for them."
"The payment is only the start. Buyers can (and some do) abuse the ebay & paypal conditions. They will wear clothes then demand a refund or they'll claim things didn't arrive when they really did or they... well, there are a dozen dodgy things they can do to claw back some or all of their money."
And I have no problem if sellers who experience these situations choose to withold feedback until they receive confirmation from the buyer that all is good with the transaction.
To me that's making a few too many presumptions about the motivations behind someone else's decisions, and still plays into the suggestion that buyers are owed positive feedback
My view is that buyers are not OWED positive feedback but I feel it is good for my business for me to provide postive feedback once a buyer has paid. Others should do what they think is good for their business.
... and it's also a bit like thinking when I go into a store and see a big sign up saying something like "Shoplifters will be prosecuted", automatically assuming they think all customers are thieves...
I normally like your analogies ...
The point I was trying to make (not very well) is that (for me) I do not let the occasional bad experience determine my practice towards all buyers and (for me) giving positive feedback is appropriate and is good practice once a buyer pays. Many buyers seem to like it - not many if any dislike it.
okay, I understand that many members would not have the time to look further into the example I gave so I will provide some screengrabs to show what I was on about.
For this example:
- an overseas buyer bought two expensive cutlery sets totalling over $2000. Upon arrival the buyer put in claims for Item Not As Described and won one case but not the other. The seller was out of pocket by somewhere near $1400
Here is the f/b the seller left for the buyer. The removed comments were made after case was closed and subsequently removed by eBay.
and here here is the f/b the buyer left
Now tell me, should the seller have left that f/b once the buyer paid?
And then there is this example:
- a situation where a buyer supplied a wrong address and the item was returned to the seller. Buyer got nasty and insisted on the item being re-sent then demanded refund as well.
Here is the f/b the seller left the buyer:
and here is the f/b the buyer left:
Now tell me, should the seller have left that f/b once the buyer paid?
(I have covered member IDs in the screengrabs, but those IDs are the IDs of the members that started those threads)
@jfmgraywrote:
The point I was trying to make (not very well) is that (for me) I do not let the occasional bad experience determine my practice towards all buyers and (for me) giving positive feedback is appropriate and is good practice once a buyer pays. Many buyers seem to like it - not many if any dislike it.
Apologies - I misinterpreted where you were coming from by virtue of neglecting the context. 
But for what it's worth I actually agree with you, at least it's how I approach it, though I worded it in a much more jaded fashion (I really need a holiday 
) I definitely have had some buyers who - if my practices were different - never would have received a green dot from me, but in the grand scheme of things the absence of one would have been irrelevant IMHO, so the presence of one is not much less so. Plus, if the situation calls for it, carefully worded follow-ups stand out quite a bit, and those are easier to leave if the initial comment is already there.
I'll always argue the "each to their own" side when the debate comes up, though, as likewise I completely understand and respect the reasoning behind both approaches.
@shoppingbag*wrote:Yes, the seller should have left feedback when the buyer paid. If I went into a store and paid for an item and the Seller snatched my money out of my hand, without a simple "thank you", then I would consider them very rude and never deal with them again.
Personally, when it comes to feedback, I don't think there's any "should" about it (and neither does eBay, just as a matter of interest), and I don't think comparing an online transaction to a cashier snatching money out of someone's hand and not thanking them is remotely similar to no FB being left - there's no snatching of money at all in an online transaction, the seller isn't even directly involved in that process (as in, they're not facilitaing the transfer personally. It's a bit like saying balling up a piece of paper and tossing it in a wastebasket means the wastebasket "snatched" the paper - no, it was there, it offered a receptacle for the paper, and passively accepted it without doing anything at all, because it can't do anything but accept it....if your aim is true, anyhow ).
There are a lot of ways a seller can thank a buyer for their purchase, the funny thing is, when I used to send a personalised message thanking people for buying, and advising of a postage date, they still wanted their green dot.
