positive and 5 stars

[amalan11]

     I just wanted to say something about this.On a thread recently a seller said they could not understand why a buyer would leave a positive without 5 stars in every line.At the time I had to go to work and now I cannot find thread to reply but thought it was interesting.

I have only ever left one Neg in all my transactions but have marked down stars due to one thing being wrong like post;

      For example, I brought some plant bulbs off a seller and on asking for post was told they would need a 5kg express post bag at $25 ..OK I agreed I assumed they must be big

When they arrived They were actually 1.3 kg ,she had used a 5kg express post bag  stuffed with newspaper so I got what I paid for but To this day it is a mystery to me why she needed a 5kg express post bag for 1.3kg of bulbs that last fine in post.The bulbs were great big healthy ones and she had given me 20 extra so I would not consider a neg but gave pos and 5 stars for description,communication and post time but 2 stars for post cost .as everything else was great

   I think that this was fair as it would not be in anyway fair to neg her over it when that was all that was wrong and the stars are a way to reflect where there is only a small problem in one area .

[thecatspjs]

I don't read the OP that way. 

I actually don't consider that leaving low DSRs for a seller is a crime or kicking them in the guts if a buyer has given consideration to their rating, and I think the OP did carefully consider her ratings based on her post.

I think it is a crying shame that eBay has developed the DSR system in the way it has, but I won't blame buyers for eBays folly.

[i-love-my-sheep]

I don't think that matters in her or cats eyes. What matters is, she agreed to a price, then whinged about it (on the SELLERS forum), despite getting lots of freebies thrown in. For all we know, the extra bulbs may have been worth the $25 that she was quoted for postage, so in actual fact, she didn't pay for postage at all. Yet, she still felt the need to defect her generous seller for her efforts. I bet that seller isn't so generous any more.

I want to know excactly how much newspaper was stuffed in the satchel to protect the bulbs from being damaged?

[robinsonmarineparts]

Ok, i do think it is a back door swipe at the seller (kick in guts) i don't know the buyer or the seller, but as a seller if i make a deal with a buyer then i would expect things to be open and up front no leaving low ratings after the deal has gone thru.

It's hard enought dealing with the scammers the liars and the plain dishonest without having to worry about the honest buyer doing the dirty.

[digital*ghost]

Everyone's free to jump on me if they want (in a figurative, set target sight way, that is  ), but at this point it seems a little like we're veering away fro the intention of the OP and in to rather different territory. 

For what it's worth, I don't think the OP's intention was remotely to whinge about postage costs, they were simply trying to highlight something in response to many sellers saying that they don't understand why low ratings are given in conjunction with positive feedback, and provided one example of a situation in which all but one thing was very positive.  We've all said our piece about the example, but the real topic at hand is more to do with low ratings without indicating what the issue is/was (well before the defect system, low rating leavers with all pos FB were often referred to as 'silent assassins', due in part to their anonymity and in part to their potential effect). 

Which means the crucial point here, IMO, is that while the exasperated, stated, cry of sellers is commonly "why give positive if you're not happy", which is what I see the OP as responding to, the real cause of the exasperation is in the first word - why.

Even outside of eBay and all of the effects of bad ratings / feedback, it is human nature to want to know why someone thought something we did was sub-par, but on eBay, where the feedback, and particularly the DSRs, are largely indefensible (by which I mean, a seller has no way to defend against a low rating once it has been given, unless by some miracle they can prove the rating was erroneous, which is very rare indeed, particularly when no context is provided for said low rating), the effect is heightened because eBay have decided to use those ratings to endanger a seller's standing (and they used them that way before the defect system was introduced, by the by, hence the aforementioned nickname). 

I personally think the entire DSR and defect system is a major rooster-up by eBay that results in unnecessary resentment between buyers and sellers, providing what is, in actual effect, a great deal of power to the (often unknowing) hands of buyers without any responsibility. Should that mean buyers have any kind of obligation to tell sellers if/when they have a problem bad enough to rate a seller low on something? (I mean that as a point of discussion). Most sellers would like them to, of course, purely because of what it can do, and the majority of half-decent sellers out there recognise the value in genuine, constructive feedback, regardless of whether the problem is actually fixable for the individual buyer. DSRs, for sellers, are by and large the opposite of constructive because all too often the seller doesn't know why they were given. 

To put that in perspective, I get a 3-star for description on eBay without explanation and all I'm able to do is fear for my proverbial life (i.e. I'm not allowed to respond to or contact the buyer about their rating), so I go on the defensive and typically block the buyer. I get a 3-star review (which doesn't say anything about why they were disappointed, by the way) on a product elsewhere, which affects my overall rating but doesn't mean the site's gettin' their wiggling finger ready to shake at me in warning, and I didn't even get upset... I actually just took it as an opportunity to exercise and improve my customer service skills, because I had something I could respond to - I'm sure that says something about me, but it also says something about the kind of environment eBay are creating. 

That's enough late night, disjointed rambling for now.