Feedback laziness....

[843de]

Maybe it's just in the Model Railroading crowd, or it's an endemic deal caused by generational differences, but is there a general trend for Sellers to just stop giving Feedback?

I've been on here for 13+ years, mostly buying, but also running a now closed Store with my wife for three exasperating years, slow pays, no pays, unwarranted returns, etc.

And it seems to me, that even when my Feedback is left immediately upon receiving an item, the Sellers only give return Feedback 70% of the time, tops.

I've never left Neutral or Negative Feedback ever, even at times where it could have been justified due to problems.

Is the community of Sellers becoming lazy, or what?

I'll hop off my soapbox now.

[rixstuff · Accepted solution]

I make it a point to leave feedback for every buyer...except the bad ones.  I cant leave some buyers the neg they so richly deserve so I leave then nothing.  They are very few and far between though.

[lex-talon]

You do know that feedback is voluntary? As a seller, I wait until the buyer receives their items and they leave feedback for me first. 

[rixstuff]

I also leave all my feedback about once a week in a bunch rather than one at a time.

[bonjourami]

And many sellers feel buyer feedback is absolutely useless as they can only leave positives anyway..who cares how much positive fbs a buyer receives? Nobody looks at it anyway..sellers only check the fb that buyer leaves..that tells the story.

[bonjourami]

with eight hundred buyer fb's how many do you need?

[843de]

I know that Feedback is voluntary, but it's also a courtesy, a way of saying "hey, thanks for spending your money with me, and I appreciate it".

I've been on both sides of the coin, as a Buyer and a Seller, and I've always considered it as a courtesy.

But times change, e-bay has changed, and not always for the better.  But I'm not a quitter, nor do I have a thin skin.

[843de]

Not a "Feedback Collector", not by any means, as I stated in an earlier reply....I consider it to be an act of courtesy.

The number of Feedbacks and the color of my "Star" doesn't matter a bit to me, it's the attitude of "so he dropped a bunch of cash with me instead of another Seller, well "Whoop-De-Doo!".

Sorry if I offended you.

[bonjourami]

oh I am not offended at all..actually I always find the buyer obsession with their feedback numbers very interesting.

[bonjourami]

Personally, I dont need that 'Attaboy'! when I buy something on Ebay, but I understand many people here do.

[murphy71605]

Is the community of Sellers becoming lazy, or what?

I wouldn't call them lazy, frustrated, maybe. Keep in mind a seller has to work like crazy to make any REAL money anymore. If I counted all my miles traveled looking for items to sell, researching items and listing stuff I would probably fare better working at the local McDonald's. Combine that with a feedback system that's heavily tilted in the buyers favor. A buyer can be a slow payer, scammer to some degree, and an all around trouble maker and still have a 100% rating. A good small time seller can come across one of these and suddenly look bad.  it's a bit surprising to me why we  even have a feedback system anymore.

Also, my buyer return feedback is somewhere around 30-40% even though I leave feedback first most of the time. I have tried it both ways and it's low either way you leave it.

[victorias_gifts_n_treasures]

Feedback for a seller is important, but feedback for a buyer is useless. When Ebay changed it where sellers can only leave a positive for a buyer, they should have just eliminated feedback for buyers completely. As a buyer, I don't care if I get feedback or not. It's useless. But as a seller, it's more important to get it. But if a buyer doesn't leave it, I'm fine with that. I don't sell on Ebay for the feedback, I sell on Ebay to make money and I also love it.

[password9019]

800 plus fb is not very much, considering the search results to the top of page one are generally for items offered by buyers with significantly higher fb.

[keystonetradingpost]

I see people saying feed back don't matter. I disagree with that. I have been an eBay seller and buyer for 17 years. I am not a high volume seller at all. However, a savvy buyer or seller looks at a seller's feed back to get a good idea about whether a seller or buyer is reputable or not.
Reading the comments and interaction between a buyer and seller can very very telling if the buyer or seller is a jerk. There are buyers out there who are scammers trying to get something for nothing and looking at their buyer feed back used to be a red flag warning about a problem buyer until eBay changed the ability to leave detailed feed back on a buyer's account. That is not fair to sellers at all. As SOP with me I don't leave feed back until I receive feed back.

[sthdbike]

But what about the buyers who leave feedback and then sellers never leave feedback?  No telling how many times lately I have left positive feedback and then never receive feedback from seller, even when I pay as soon as the auction is over.  As a seller, I've always gave and still do,prompt feedback when a buyer pays.  They have done their job and obligation of paying, now it's our turn to do a good job of selling and delivering.  Seems the old days of ebay, when feedback meant something, is gone.  A new generation of selfishness is here.  Sad.