Automatic Positive Feedback generated after 90 days

[gearbangindude]

Who's with me on this one.

Here selling over 12 years and it seems it's gotten harder and harder to get buyers to leave Positive feedback when they're satisfied.  They ALWAYS figure out how to leave Negative (I just got one before the item even shipped!).  If I do the math of items sold vs. feedback it seems that 7-10% of buyers even bother, at least for parts to fix their cars.  Granted, maybe they're not so happy about buying them anyway, so probably the reason the rate is lower than some other categories.  The point is the % positive is Not an accurate reflection of what is actually happening.   Example is for 1 negative in 50 ratings you have a 98% positive, but you really had 500 sales and only 50 bothered to leave feedback.  If all the ones who didn't bother were automatically counted as positive after 90 days that would change the score significantly to 99.8% which is significantly more profound to sellers who don't sell thousands of things a month/year...........

It's safe to say that in general, if a buyer doesn't leave any feedback in the 90 days allotted, is at least Positive that nothing was bad............

I Propose that for every transaction that goes past 90 days without feedback left, that eBay Automatically assign it a Positive rating !!!

[dryophelia]

@gearbangindude 

What would 4207 feedback get you that you can’t accomplish with 4206?

[maxine*j]

There are currently two other long, much-replied to, threads on this topic, posted in the past two days.  May I suggest you read them, and consider all the comments and opinions already posted on this subject, pro and con:

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/Auto-Feedback-for-Sellers-after-30-days/m-p/33468714#M2142396

and

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/The-endless-but-never-addressed-successfully-subject-Feedback/...

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[gearbangindude]

Top Seller rating again.  98% is the threshold.   97.9% the rating is Gone. 

..... and to think it's because somebody doesn't know how to answer a question from the message system and responds via a feedback link ??      Hoes does THAT happen?

[gearbangindude]

My bad.  I'm not a regular to these posts.  I should have known it was addressed a million times.   Sometimes if enough attention is brought to a certain issue, it might get addressed.   

Doesn't look like that's going to happen here..............

[pburn]

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@gearbangindude wrote:

Top Seller rating again.  98% is the threshold.   97.9% the rating is Gone. 

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A seller's feedback percentage has nothing whatsoever to do with the Top Rated Seller designation.

[wastingtime101]

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@gearbangindude wrote:

I Propose that for every transaction that goes past 90 days without feedback left, that eBay Automatically assign it a Positive rating !!!

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I have a very different point of view @gearbangindude. When I choose to not leave feedback as a buyer, it's because the transaction was less than satisfactory, but the issue wasn't a big enough problem to make an issue out of it - I decided to live with what I got.

Feedback is a buyer's opinion and eBay should not be forcing positive comments into a buyer's mouth when that buyer may not be happy with the transaction. If eBay decided to force positive feedback, sellers would probably see an uptick in neutral and negative comments and buyers would be wasting CS resources calling to complain that pos FB was left on their behalf.

Feedback is voluntary.

Let sleeping dogs lie; you might get bit if you wake them.

Having said all of that, I get how negs affect the overall percent and more positives would offset the impact. What's really important is how you respond to negs and neutrals, so potential buyers reviewing your FB can see how you handle issues that arise. Your response to the neutral could have been less reactive and more professional. Something like: Buyer asked about plug and play options prior to purchase and after we showed them plug and play options, buyer made the decision to not purchase a plug and play part. If not satisfied with purchase, we offer a 14 day return policy.

Think carefully before you respond to the neg on how you want to present yourself to potential future buyers. What exactly was the issue with that one? It sounds like (and this is 100% guessing based on what the buyer wrote) the buyer made a purchase, looked at pics after and thought they saw a breakage in the glass and contacted you, then didn't like the tone of your response telling them the glass wasn't broken, hence the neg. Is that what happened?

[fern*wood]

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@gearbangindude wrote:

Top Seller rating again.  98% is the threshold.   97.9% the rating is Gone. 

..... and to think it's because somebody doesn't know how to answer a question from the message system and responds via a feedback link ??      Hoes does THAT happen?

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Did you try telling the buyer you could send a feedback revision for him to fix his mistake on that negative?  It sounds like he would be willing to do that.   Always work with the tools ebay offers.

[blingfling123]

If I am not happy with my purchase but it is not a deal breaker, I will often not leave feedback over leaving a neg or a neutral. 

If eBay implemented a policy such as you have suggested, you can bet I will be leaving a bunch of negatives vs just not leaving feedback at all. 

Is that a result you would want? 

FB is not required.

[gearbangindude]

I'll have to look into that.....  I just remember 98% + being a requirement for something ??

[gearbangindude]

@wastingtime101 , @blingfling123 , @fern*wood  --  All good points.  Learn something new everyday + sending a feedback revision.  Forgot about that, and now I see there's the reply about the 'mistake' so hopefully all works out.

THANKS ALL FOR SHEDDING A DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE ON IT

[nobody*s_perfect]

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@gearbangindude wrote:

I'll have to look into that.....  I just remember 98% + being a requirement for something ??

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The TRS requirements have changed over the years, and so has the time limit for leaving feedback.  The deadline for leaving feedback was reduced to 60 days about 12 years ago, shortly after eBay eliminated "paper payments" and tightened up all the timelines (unpaid item claims, etc.).

https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/seller-levels-performance-standards/seller-levels-performance-stan...

[chapeau-noir]

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@gearbangindude wrote:

I'll have to look into that.....  I just remember 98% + being a requirement for something ??

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@gearbangindude  That was for the old Powerseller level, which has been gone for a while (I think).  I think that finally eBay Admin realised that feedback could be too subjective to base much of anything on and they dumped emphasis on that and the DSRs. 

I get your point about people tending to leave complaints rather than compliments and this can really skew things, but I don't think it's a huge problem, at least so far.