eBay

meme6253 · ‎12-29-2024

The feedback system should be abolished, It is an unfair one-sided system that does not accurately portray the customer side, We have 2 choices, we either have to send a positive feedback for every customer no matter the circumstance, or leave no feedback at all, I just got a neutral from a fellow seller, that i all way's ask customers to contact me prior to leaving any feedback if there is any problem, & i think that is a courtesy that should all way's take place, You don't contact then you cannot leave feedback, I state in my store that all my items come from a smoke & pet free home & that is the truth!, Period!, so this wonderful seller/buyer blames me for odor that i had nothing to do with, without ever contacting me, Sellers know how important feedback can be & how hard it can be to maintain, If they have an issue they should extend the courtesy of contacting you., I know it's just a neutral but this type of thing infuriates me!

kensgiftshop · ‎12-30-2024

@promoparfum wrote:
I agree. that Ebay Feedback is designed against Seller . There Must be a feature- that Buyer cant leave Negative FB until they contacted Seller for bringing up the issue ,
Most of the clients write negative - and assume its the way they must communicate for a resolution.
Ebay must protect and help sellers before we all run away to other platforms !

Have you seen how many post there are about buyers complaining about a seller not responding to messages?

Do you really think most of those sellers will respond to an unhappy buyer?

Have a great day.

pickapaper · ‎12-30-2024

With regard to odors and such, some people are more attuned to odors than others. We go to a lot of estate sales and sometimes we will walk in the front door and my husband will comment that the place smells like smoke and I don't always smell anything. Yet other houses, the first thing I notice is that the place stinks, maybe just an old, musty smell or maybe an old person's home that kind of smells of urine, and he doesn't always notice those. One of nature's little quirks, how we are affected by different odors.

I know that as far as a single item, sometimes a person thinks it smells like something and it really doesn't; sometimes it is from whatever the item is made of. But if that person is highly attuned to odors, he is going to find the smell really offensive no matter what it is. I once sold a personal scarf and the buyer claimed it smelled like perfume. I didn't wear perfume so didn't know what she thought she was smelling. She returned it and I still didn't smell anything on it. I figured it was just an excuse to return it, which is fine, because I resold it and the next person was thrilled with it.

meme6253 · ‎12-30-2024

Yes odors are an odd thing to different people, I still do not think a seller should be responsible for odors, Unless they knowingly had something with an odor & went ahead & shipped it out, Otherwise odors can be picked up from anytime while in transit & should not be the seller who gets blamed.

adamcartwright · ‎12-30-2024

@meme6253

I drove in a friend's car once to run errands and went to return an item of clothing.

The clerk opened the bag, smelled the garment, and asked if I smoke pot. I told her NO and then realized it must have picked up the scent from the five minute car ride. I couldn't smell it, myself, but the clerk's nose was more attuned to that scent.

jg.mason · ‎12-30-2024

I think there needs to be some sort of seller rating, feedback works but eBay could replace it with something else and I would be fine with that.

I want to have some idea of who I'm dealing with. You can say but MBG and that's fine. The problem with just relying on MBG is the time I waste. If I order something that takes a week plus to get to me, only to find out it's junk and return it, then order it again from another seller I'll end up over two weeks to get the item I wanted plus the hassle of returning it. It would be even longer with an INR.

sin-n-dex · ‎12-30-2024

@fashunu4eeuh wrote:
If it bothers you this much, don’t get mad. Instead, express your concern that the buyer is dissatisfied with an element of the transaction. Turn this around with an eye towards resolving the issue (and perhaps getting a feedback revision?)

Buyers, of course, do not have to contact a seller before leaving feedback. Yes, it seems entirely counter-productive for a buyer to do so if they are unhappy.

But i am against stating in the listing that the buyer should reach out before leaving poor feedback. Just the psychology of it suggests the seller is anticipating a problem with the transaction. Putting such a blurb in the listing is a fear-based action—the seller is not confident that he has this all under control.

If my bad feedback didn't come from a scammer... it was something that was completely unnecessary when they could have contacted me to resolve. (I would do my best to resolve it the best way for the buyer if it was a legitimate issue).

I've never put anything in my listing about being contacted before leaving bad feedback, but some of my competition that sells stamp collections in albums has this in their listing (most of these sellers are in the UK).

If I get bad feedback when I feel a customer should have contacted me first (because I'm completely taken by surprise at the feedback, not expecting it), I say something like "I would have appreciated it if you contacted me first before posting something on my public profile." What I find usually to be the case is they just figured I'll do nothing about it because they feel it's a remorse return (like the guy who said metal coins were too heavy for whatever he was going to do with them), and I'll not do anything, so leaving bad feedback is how they express their displeasure with the transaction instead of complaining about it to me.

I don't think that many people leave bad feedback without contacting the seller. I think in quite a few cases I've been contacted about a problem first, and avoided the bad feedback by resolving it (like something getting damaged in the mail). And then I sort out if the complaint is for real by asking questions. One buyer couldn't answer my questions about the damage (claiming empty package but not able to provide any details), and then she responded "never mind everything's OK". That tells me the envelope was not empty and it was likely a scam attempt, so I blocked them from buying again. (Probably telling her the info she gives me will go to USPS and they will talk to her mailman changed the tune...)

C.

fbusoni · ‎12-31-2024

@meme6253 wrote:
I keep trying to reply & it keeps giving best answer instead, My reply is avoiding repurposing boxes & packing materials would cost me significantly more money, I am also a strong believer in repurposing & recycling.

@meme6253

So perhaps you are getting the feedback you deserve: your comment above sounds to me like you are justifying the use of recycled boxes and packing materials that smell like smoke, as you imply, quite strongly I might add, that you will KNOWINGLY use such materials, but since you are telling the truth -- that there are no smokers in the house -- then its somehow ok.

Yet one would think that you'd be deterred from using such materials, in order to avoid constant references to smoke in your feedback.

Never mind the possibility of a negative, rather than a mere neutral.

I use recycled materials as well and they don't smell at all like smoke and I do not pay anything for them.

Believe me, it can be done.

eBay seller since 1999. This is a posting ID.

fbusoni · ‎12-31-2024

@promoparfum wrote:
I agree. that Ebay Feedback is designed against Seller . There Must be a feature- that Buyer cant leave Negative FB until they contacted Seller for bringing up the issue ,
Most of the clients write negative - and assume its the way they must communicate for a resolution.
Ebay must protect and help sellers before we all run away to other platforms !

@promoparfum

At first I was curious why, with your 30 day paid return policy, you have received so many neutrals and negatives.

Then I started reading the comments.

If you leave eBay and go elsewhere, I suspect you will encounter the same negatives and neutrals that you have experienced here. Sure, some eBay buyers are nuts. But judging by the comments you have received, not those who buy from you.

Now, eBay can quite easily add some computer code that would require a buyer to contact a seller first, before being able to leave feedback.

But I can see the logic behind not doing so: eBay wants sellers to ship precisely what they advertise.

At least two or three times each year, I will ship one of my orders, and then let the buyer know that I am processing them a complete refund, because when I was packaging their item, I found a defect that I had not noticed when I originally listed the item for sale.

Typical example is underlining in a book that I might have missed. Or a small chip on a piece of china.

I know that one day I will receive a negative or a neutral that I do not deserve; it happens to all of us.

But in the meantime I have found that acting preemptively saves a lot of headaches. As does shipping on time, not cancelling orders, responding to buyer queries, and perhaps most importantly of all, comporting myself professionally in such message exchanges.

eBay seller since 1999. This is a posting ID.

kann_110321 · ‎12-31-2024

From your home they come from a pet free and smoke free home, however what about the items home before that? Cigarette smell is one tough odor to rid of for good especially if they smoke in their home or automobile.

Their are some methods to rid the smell or lessen the smell, but sometimes it never leaves. Your home could very well be pet free and smoke free home, but maybe not the home before yours. Sometimes it's not until I put my noise on it that I've noticed the smell, but my sense of smell is not so great after being sick last year. Like you said you sourced this from an estate sale, you never know where it was before that, and before that and again, before that. Smoke odor is one though odor to rid of and it can be undetected by some, but most non smokers can smell that order, especially if the smoker was a heavy smoker.

I can't tell you what to do, but maybe a different approach when responding to the feedback, future customers read the feedback, therefore your approach could scare potential customers away and side with the buyer. You did apologize, but not without putting blame on the postal worker. Which is highly unlikely because for a customer to pick up the smell on the tissue, most likely means the item had previously smelled of smoke.

Your tissue and box could have been brand new, but if the item was from a home of a smoker, then anything that the item touches will smell like the item. Anways, sometimes your response people may read more into then the customers complaint. Me personally I take customer feedback into consideration, however I know not all feedback is from a genuine place. I read more into how it was handled if negative or netural rather then someone's personal experience that wasn't my own. Hope that helps. Have a good day!!

meme6253 · ‎12-31-2024

I only stated that i use repurposed boxes & materials, not that they smell like smoke, You read incorrectly, Had i noticed ANY odor i would not have used those materials, WHY do people not read properly or read into things.

zoda99 · ‎12-31-2024

Try to calm down @meme6253 . They're no need for you to get so worked up and shout at your fellow sellers.

golfingaddict · ‎12-31-2024

I agree that feedback should be abolished.

However, you have provided information and reasons why it should not be abolished.

If buyers take the time to read the actual feedback they can learn a lot about a seller. For example, if there are numerous complaints about a similar issue that is important to me, I can avoid buying from that seller.

I'm not sure how closely buyers review feedback. That would be a reason to abolish it.

Feedback was from a long bygone era. Back when we sent cash, checks and money orders to an unknown seller, it had a lot of value. Now that we have eBay money back guarantee, not so much.