Feedback

[shellmailitems]

Feedback is such a waste.  I've decided to stop sending feedback until I receive positive feedback. I'm not boosting anymore buyers accts when they don't have the common courtesy to do the same.  The reason is 5 out of 10 buyers who have 100% feedback and buy on a regular basis refuse to send feedback to the seller regardless of the level of communication, quality of item, super fast shipping or 5 star feedback you leave for them.  If you send them a friendly reminder after a few weeks they ignore it.  I've seen other sellers who post in their description that positive feedback will be offered in return for positive feedback. I won't post that in my listing but from today forward I will not send feedback unless it is received. What are your thoughts about that and how many of you sellers out there have this same issue and how do you handle it. I take it personally. I strive to make sure everything I send it as described and quality.  I also don't appreciate a buyer sending an offer that I cannot accept and they buy it anyway and send negative feedback yet wont return the item for a full refund, and e-Bay allows that to happen, or a buyer says 2 weeks after getting their item that it was missing a button when the button was clearly visible in all photos provided and they are allowed to leave negative feedback and affect my rating.  Tell me what you think??

[duggmills]

I leave feedback if the buyer does first.  If the buyer doesn't care about feedback, I don't either.

While positive feedback is an indication you likely will not have a claim against you, I really don't care whether a buyer leaves it or not. 

One of these days government is going to tax Internet transactions. I'm guessing the IRS will first go after sellers with thousands of transaction with less attention paid to seller with fewer transactions.

[duggmills]

Re: Star ratings assigned while completing feedback.

Several years ago I wrote to eBay suggesting they add a category in their 5 Stars  section of feedback to rate sellers on the quality of their packaging. 

Of course we haven't seen it incorporated.  I thought it was and still is a good idea.

I had a seller slap a label in a part and mail it with no packaging whatsoever. I didn't bother with feedback but emailed asking him if he flunked out of packaging school and then blocked him as a potential buyer,

[ggcozgirlone]

I am frustrated with feedback too.  I am only an occasional eBay seller and as anyone who has ever sold on eBay knows, buyers use feedback to gauge your honesty and integrity (and so does eBay).  I know when I am buying, I always look for sellers with a high level of positive feedback.  Also, your availability of funds in Paypal is slower when you don't have a lot of feedback.  I get it that the average buyer (who never sells anything) doesn't want to be bothered to take a minute to leave a few words, but I'm so frustrated with buyers that do a lot of selling on ebay who don't leave feedback.  If there was a way to retract what I've left for some of the buyers who didn't have the courtesy to do the same for me, I'd do it.

[*help_no_brakes*]

" (and so does eBay)"

No they don't.

[slippinjimmy]

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@*help_no_brakes* wrote:

" (and so does eBay)"

No they don't.

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And many if not most buyers never look at feedback either. Even if they did, what difference would it make to a buyer if you had 300 or 600 or 900 feedback ratings?

[southern*sweet*tea]

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@slippinjimmy wrote:

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And many if not most buyers never look at feedback either.

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As witnessed by the many threads posted on the forum stating...

"I bought a widget that was a pile of junk and the seller <won't refund><put me off><told me he's refund if I'd revise my feedback><yadda, yadda>"

"So, what did the seller's feedback look like?"

"Well, they had 97.8%, but I didn't see all the negs. I checked after I got my pile of junk widget."

[travel-toss]

I am so glad to see I am not the only one. being sort a new here, I have left feedback for all my buyers, One person left a neg when he bought a new item before realizing he never added batteries, and then admitted it to me after I gave a refund and let him keep it. Ebay would do nothing for me except lower my %! So now as a new seller I have a very low rate with a big ol negative to drive sales away. Since then, hardly any of my buyers have bothered to leave feedback so it looks like I havent sold a thing.  I am not leaving feedback any more either, except in return as a buyer. All I have for feedback is from my sellers, which I have left pos for them! I am either not selling because of feedback, or ebay is just keeping me hidden from others!  No wonder so many are turning to the competition to sell. Thanks for reading!

[k-bar-ksaddles]

Back in the day... LOL... feedback was something of a way to self-govern among buyers and sellers. If you rooked a buyer, they could nail your hide to the wall. If you bought something and got taken, you knew you could, at the very least, let others know to be wary.

Conversely, if you got stiffed by a buyer, you could do the same.  It went both ways.

I'm not new to ebay, I've been here for over 15 years, I used to sell random 'cool stuff' under my personal account, but had to quit doing so for a while due to kids growing up, building a house, losing my grand parents, my grandmother in law, my mother in law, a tornado... just a plethora of Because Life reasons.

I've started a used tack business now, and I'm using ebay as my 'store' while the brick and mortar shop is being built on a commercial lot we've owned for over ten years (time to make IT work for US rather than the other way around, eh?) and to be honest... the changes in ebay from how I remember it being are astounding and frankly, unsettling.  Feedback changes and how people just get their items and bugger off without bothering in the least to let others know how the transaction went is but one of them that concerns me.  I think the most alarming is that people are finding their listings arbitrarily changed by ebay to offer best offer - sure you can change it right back, but holy **bleep**... its not ebay's 'stuff' to sell.  I own every item I have listed until I accept payment of it from a buyer. Ebay has NO say so in how I price my merchandise... again... if something sells or gets purchased is a self-governing thing.  I don't need ebay to tell me how to price saddles and tack.

I've mentioned this in another post, but I genuinely feel as if once I get the actual shop up and running my time at ebay will be much more limited.   I've been reading almost every thread here since last night and I'm glad I have. Because... wow.  Talk about huge changes in the past ten years!  EGADS!

[akg55]

So I have read all the replies here.  What I do is leave fedback right after I print my shipping label.  I use to send reminders, but found it to much work for to little result.

Here is what I have in all my listings about feedback, it has been there for 10 or more years.  What are your opinions of it?  Should I leave it?  Alter it? completely take it out?

Thank you in advance for your help.

I hold an excellent POSITIVE customer feedback rating, so please buy from me with confidence. One way of my knowing you have received your shipment is for you to leave me feedback. It is important to both eBay Buyers and Sellers to leave feedback. Therefore, I hope you will leave me POSITIVE feedback please. In keeping with suggestions from eBay and common courtesy, if you find something wrong, please talk to me before leaving negative feedback or feedback with anything less then 5 DSR's. eBay considers 1, 2, 3 or 4 DSR's as bad scores and will take away discounts or privileges from Sellers. If you do not email me to let me know about your feelings and allow me to try to correct the problem, then I have no way to improve my service. I am sure we can work out a solution. Please feel free to email me if you have any problems, questions or suggestions.

[closemyaccountnow2021]

I love some of the stupid auto generated, Ebay feedback, it really kills the integrity of the whole system. From my feedback, these 4 items I JUST purchased recently, the top 2 of them this morning- I had NO communication at all with the one at the top despite the "great communication" claim! I just ordered that item not even an hour ago! Ditto for the one below it with the "quick responst fast payment" Of COURSE it's fast payment, once you click "buy now" Ebay takes you directly to the PAY for the items page LOL!! I really don't think these canned auto generated feedbacks are worth anything to anyone, seeing this makes me far less to believe anything people put in feedback any more.

[closemyaccountnow2021]

The feedback should be left at clicking "positive", without the nagging for comments, if there's a neutral or negative THEN the system should require the details be typed in, but for a positive- NO, positive means it went fine, leave it at that- we don't need to know how FAST someone paid (when the system automatically takes everyone right to the PAY NOW page anyway!!!)

[work_is_over]

I agree!! I am so tired of leaving positive feedback for sellers and they don't leave any for me, even after I message them and tell them I have left "positive" feedback for them and would appreciate they leave feedback for me. Never to hear from them. So, now I will not leave feedback until they leave for me.

[rustictrollop]

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@work_is_over wrote:
I agree!! I am so tired of leaving positive feedback for sellers and they don't leave any for me, even after I message them and tell them I have left "positive" feedback for them and would appreciate they leave feedback for me. Never to hear from them. So, now I will not leave feedback until they leave for me.

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I have had MANY buyers SAY they will leave me positive feedback and NEVER do.  Even though I've left many a positive FB for them.  However, I do get a number of private messages from buyers thanking me for everything and how pleased they are, who never leave me feedback.  Do I wish they would?  Of course!  Do I ask them to?  NEVER.  Their personal thank you is enough and my ego can handle that.  My FB rate is 30% and I'm fine with that.  Oh, and multiple FB's from one person only count as one.  Feedback has become redundant since the 'Wild West' days when I first started, and Sellers could leave truly honest FB for buyers who were a problem.  Even then, we exercised caution and chose our words carefully due to the 'relatiation' factor.  Just saying.

[the*dog*ate*my*tablecloth]

As a fully grown adult I behave the way I think is right regardless of whether I get anything for it or not. If you believe leaving feedback for a buyer is a good thing but stop because SOME OTHER BUYER didn't return it, then I think that is an odd way to behave.

Either leave feedback or don't, don't decide how to behave based on the behavior of others. 

Personally I see buyer feedback as free advertising which makes some buyers feel good and want to buy more stuff. I think that's what Ebay is all about, buyers wanting to buy more stuff.

[Anonymous]

I leave feedback right after I print the shipping label and postage.  I just thank them for their purchase.  To me that is no different than buying an item in a store - the clerk always says "Thank you".  I think feedback has become a thing of the past.