Buyer Rating System

[beach_feelz]

They need to develop some sort of buyer ID (Trust) program. They should be graded just like we are. The returns are ramping up along with neg feedback. I do not have an issue with deserved neg feedback. But, I am seeing and hearing from a few that the negfeed seems to come before the refund. I got a neg hit for an item that they were in process of shipping back on my dime. And, I gave refund after all that.

Does anyone have or heard of really good practices to use for this situation? Something like a guide you have tried that works great? I try to vet buyer names when they make offers but not easy to always spot mischief.

[bonanza125]

Ebay does have a system in place if a buyer violates policy or has many "non payment" of bids. Those systems are not public though. As a seller when a buyer makes a purchase Ebay makes you sell to them. Personally I haven't had many problems with buyers other than some want to cancel out on an order or an offer they made which they were fully aware of the terms prior to making that offer.

[tobaccocardyahoo]

Some categories draw more high maintenance customers than others. You sell in many categories, and should probably consider whether to prune your offerings to those categories which you find your business practices and mistakes are better tolerated in.

There are many categories on Ebay that I sold in earlier years that I do not sell in today, and that decision was made based on how many of the buyers I do not wish to deal shop there.

No rules or metrics are going to keep you safe. You control what you sell, and you should know the nature of the buyers you are drawing.

Contrary to many Youtube videos, you need to know something to successfully sell online.

[glorybells]

That one that mentions a partial refund is probably removable as they mentioned something that is against ebay policy; its against policy for a buyer to request a partial refund.

[animal-house-8]

The scammers use so many IDs on ebay, my issue is just getting back not what I sold.

Ebay makes sellers send some items to be authenticated before being shipped to buyer, all returns should be authenticated to make sure all sellers are getting back what they sold, that would stop that. Even if ebay put in that random returns will be inspected and false returns prosecuted as mail fraud would maybe slow it down but they opt to do nothing about returns. 

[babyers88]

It may be helpful to throw a little note in each package right on top that states

Thank you for your business, if you are unsatisfied with your purchase for any reason then please reach out to me directly at xxx-xxx-xxxx and I will be happy to make every attempt to make it right. 

If you are happy with your purchase 5 star's is greatly appreciated!

you might be surprised, regardless of what others may say....

I personally have received more thank you's than anything else by doing this.
And yes this also prevented problems that might have been taken to ebay instead.
the note does not need to be hand written, you can type it out and print several on a single sheet of paper and then cut them out.

the reality is most are just going to just get tossed out with the garbage which is fine, it's just there for the rare moments when it needs to be

[christworks]

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@glorybells wrote:

That one that mentions a partial refund is probably removable as they mentioned something that is against ebay policy; its against policy for a buyer to request a partial refund.

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Indeed, it is, but it is helpful if you first report the buyer before asking that the feedback be removed. When AI sees that buyer's account was dinged for violating demanding something that goes against eBay policy, in theory it will remove the feedback. 

I just reported a buyer this afternoon for demanding a $25 refund because they thought it was "fair" on an item they said had some scratches, which were actually disclosed in the listing. I'll still take the return if they open it - so no problem there. 

@beach_feelz  - Only you know the truth here, but both your negatives seem to be related to poor packaging and items arriving damaged. That may be something you need to work on since both are complaining about that. 

[bashort]

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@beach_feelz wrote:

They need to develop some sort of buyer ID (Trust) program. They should be graded just like we are. The returns are ramping up along with neg feedback. I do not have an issue with deserved neg feedback. But, I am seeing and hearing from a few that the negfeed seems to come before the refund. I got a neg hit for an item that they were in process of shipping back on my dime. And, I gave refund after all that.

Does anyone have or heard of really good practices to use for this situation? Something like a guide you have tried that works great? I try to vet buyer names when they make offers but not easy to always spot mischief.

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it would be worse than worthless, real scammers just get a new account every couple days or buy as a guest.

Then on top of being worthless to stop scammers there are sellers who absolutely will give a buyer a bad rating because the buyer left honest feedback, then the buyer will never be back, this is why bad fb for buyers was eliminated in the first place.

[stainlessenginecovers]

The site already had that.

It was called 'feedback'. 

The site decided that it is better to not badmouth our/their customer base so they did away with feedback (that meant anything...for buyers).

So, like it was said in some old movie:

"It's over Johnny"

[inhawaii]

Buyers are only required to do one thing ... pay.

[mam98031]

I understand the desire to have a buyer rating system, but it is very unlikely to happen.  In Retail that just isn't going to happen.  

While I respect the desire to have buyers on level ground with sellers, that simply isn't how it goes in business.  While a seller may not consider their transactions business transactions, they are.  As there are no personal transaction on Ebay.

With all that said, Ebay does have some ways in which to help sellers with buyers that are repeat offenders.  It is important that all sellers report any buyer that has misbehaved so Ebay can track this information and take action if necessary.

https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/resolving-buyer-issues/reporting-issue-buyer?id=4084

Also when a buyer doesn't pay after waiting 96 hours from the purchase.  Do a cancellation for the reason the buyer did not pay.  This too will help as many sellers have their Buyer Requirements set to block buyers with 2 non payment strikes in the past 12 months or should as that is the strictest we are allowed to set it.