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Ebay needs to revise their negative feedback policy.

I'm a longtime eBay seller with a feedback over 3000 - I have two negs in my 20 some years. Both in the last year. Both from buyers who never contacted me. In one case the buyer said the item was bad quality (my feedback refutes the notion of bad quality on my products, but if he did get a bad item I would have been happy to replace it and the buyer had a history of giving questionable feedback). The other the buyer negged me because the item never arrived. Again, never a message or item not received claim.  I do not think it is unreasonable to implement a requirement for a buyer wishing to leave a negative feedback to contact the seller first to give them the opportunity to resolve the situation. Negative feedback should not be allowed as a 'first resort' to express a problem. 

Message 1 of 22
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21 REPLIES 21

Ebay needs to revise their negative feedback policy.

Do away with it all together, now basically used to extort, pointless meaning for any buyer.

Message 2 of 22
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Ebay needs to revise their negative feedback policy.

Many buyers think even if you offer a refund the transaction was still not a happy experience. Items considered poor quality and items that do not arrive are both things buyers do not like. If you have 3000 positives do not worry too much as you can never please everyone.

Message 3 of 22
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Ebay needs to revise their negative feedback policy.


@indycals wrote:

  I do not think it is unreasonable to implement a requirement for a buyer wishing to leave a negative feedback to contact the seller first to give them the opportunity to resolve the situation. Negative feedback should not be allowed as a 'first resort' to express a problem. 


These buyers' first instinct was to leave a negative and move on.

 

IMHO forcing this sort of buyer to contact the seller would not give the seller an opportunity to resolve the situation. It would just tick them off further. 

 

In other words, it would simply mean that a SNAD case and a refund would preceed the negative. 

 

I also feel that buyers of low priced items just want a seamless transaction. Unlike the seller, they have no incentive to invest time and energy and emotion into a $10 purchase. 

 

If leaving feedback requires the person leaving the feedback to jump through hoops, it stops being feedback and does not give a true representation of the buying experience. 

 

 

Message 4 of 22
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Ebay needs to revise their negative feedback policy.

Your follow ups turn me off as a buyer. Saying “I would have fixed” makes me think that now the buyer left feedback, up you will not fix it. 

your follow ups exist to make future buyers comfortable that you are a caring seller. Worded correctly a follow up can become a huge positive and encourage future sales.

 

If you can fix the problem then you can request a feedback revision.

Message 5 of 22
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Ebay needs to revise their negative feedback policy.

Feedback is a participation trophy, nothing else. Buyers can not get negative and large sellers have their negatives scrubbed. The who feedback well has been poisoned and can't be relied on when making decisions.

Message 6 of 22
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Ebay needs to revise their negative feedback policy.

Last June, Ebay removed 30K negatives from Reebok, I am sure they can do indycals at least one solid if he asks nicely.
Message 7 of 22
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Ebay needs to revise their negative feedback policy.

You didn't read the full comment. Buyer did not reply to me - thus I COULD NOT FIX, thus my comment 'would have fixed' had he replied to me. Which brings me to my other beef - 80 characters isn't enough to reply with. 

Message 8 of 22
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Ebay needs to revise their negative feedback policy.

Amen. Judging from many discussions I've seen, both sellers and buyers too often have trigger fingers. I'm currently in a spirited discussion thread about whether sellers cancelling a sale because of a buyer's invalid address have any obligation to first contact the buyer or eBay to try to resolve the issue. I say at least give the buyer a chance to help diagnose address discrepancies before slamming the door shut on a sale. Others feel differently. Sure there's too many scam artists on eBay but sometimes actions that appear to be a scam turn out to be an innocent mistake or misunderstanding. JMHO 

Message 9 of 22
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Ebay needs to revise their negative feedback policy.

I don't think it's useless. I have a competitor who is known to produce items of a substandard quality. While his feedback is still very high he has a lot of negatives and a lot of neutrals -  if you read his feedback you see a pattern - his product is junk. The few blemishes I have are either ridiculous (blaming me for an item lost in the mail) or lacking in detail. And when I read through prospective buyer's feedback I can discern legitimate negative feedback vs unreasonable customers/customers who don't read listings. 

Message 10 of 22
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Ebay needs to revise their negative feedback policy.

Sometimes the invalid address is just bad formatting. I print my labels through PayPal and sometimes it's just too many characters on a single line. I've learned that I can reformat the address (without changing the information) to get it to produce a label. 

Message 11 of 22
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Ebay needs to revise their negative feedback policy.

"Sometimes the invalid address is just bad formatting. I print my labels through PayPal and sometimes it's just too many characters on a single line. I've learned that I can reformat the address (without changing the information) to get it to produce a label. "

 

Yes, I believe at least one poster suggested that as a possibility. But judging from all the virtual high-fives those advocating for lightning speed cancellations are receiving from their fellow posters, shoot first and ask questions later is the way to go.😁

Message 12 of 22
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Ebay needs to revise their negative feedback policy.

You just said it yourself, ridiculous the few you have, nothing to do with the transaction, once an item is in transit it's out of control of any seller, but how many you seen relate exactly to this ? Ordered large fits like a Medium, ridiculous, if you order Large and receive Large then the order is correct, again someone thinking it fits like a smaller size is an opinion and should not be allowed as Negative, as for reading through everyone's Negatives before doing anything to time consuming for many.

Then you get the blatant liars who leave it out of spite because they failed to rip you off, smart ones know exactly how to word it so it will not be removed, that then becomes a case of he said she said, are you going to contact both parties to work out who you think is telling the truth before a purchase ?

The feedback system has been flawed for years, so one sided, then the volume Chinese sellers having it removed on almost a daily basis, then the good decent honest sellers who get nothing removed.

Forget anyone with multiple Negatives, if the price is right they will sell, simple as that, how many times you read received a load of garbage, guaranteed Chinese, multiple negatives, but guess what - the price was right.

 

As for your competitor as you say he still has very high feedback but with neutral and negative, you say he sells junk and his feedback shows a pattern, so if his feedback is still very high then obviously his buyers are not reading it or simply do not care.

I rest my case.

Message 13 of 22
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Ebay needs to revise their negative feedback policy.

I have had 2 negs that were unwarranted and one neutral. I just replied kindly. The first two, I offered to refund and or replace item, the one messaged me quote "No worries, will keep as extra" since they wanted to cancel after the $5 item with free shipping they purchased could not be cancelled since it was shipped two days earlier. I even offered a refund and they could send back. Then after the NO worries message, negged me. So I simply replied offered refund and return, buyer refused. The neutral one which still shows said slow shipping. I replied I am sorry for your experience, and also contacted the buyer and said in future I would give a 15% discount on future purchase and also reminded them that in my listing I have a 3 business day handling time. That I switched recently from one day to 3 or 5 days since I know I can't get things out very next day because of some recent things going on with family and I can't ship everyday. It is not always 3 or 5 days and try to ship every day if I can. I didn't ask for a revision. The buyer just seemed quite happy I even followed up with them after the purchase. It is what it is, can't make everyone happy. Maybe they didn't read listing completely and ordered from app, who knows.
But you are absolutely right, the reply or follow up can be the most positive thing you can do and professional and encourage future sales. Very well said. 🙂
Message 14 of 22
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Ebay needs to revise their negative feedback policy.

Also, feedback is voluntary, if that buyer felt that way about transaction it is what it is. Learn from it and move on. Out of 3000 positives, who cares. Most people don't pay attention to that. Now if you got like 5-10+ in last month then thats something to worry about. I don't worry about feedback to much. I just try to be as professional as possible and make the buyer happy. I want repeat business not turn people off from buying from me by leaving a vindictive or snotty reply.
Message 15 of 22
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