Ebay Feedback
mtcards
Posts: 3,340 ✭✭✭
Has everyone else noticed that the majority of sellers refuse to leave feedback until AFTER the buyer leaves one for them? I think I have purchased about 10 items in the past month or so and have received feedback for only two of these, but have received a feedback reminder from 7 of the 8 that I have not received feedback for.
I know it may be just nitpicking, but I feel if I pay for the item first, the seller should leave the feedback regardless of how I feel about the transaction. If his item is misrepresented or bad or he doesnt send it, he should be negged. I shouldnt have the threat of a retaliatory neg hanging over me.
If ebay would be more personally involved in its feedback and the scamming and retaliatory negs going on then people wouldnt be so afraid to leave the feedback I guess. But thats ebay for you.
I know it may be just nitpicking, but I feel if I pay for the item first, the seller should leave the feedback regardless of how I feel about the transaction. If his item is misrepresented or bad or he doesnt send it, he should be negged. I shouldnt have the threat of a retaliatory neg hanging over me.
If ebay would be more personally involved in its feedback and the scamming and retaliatory negs going on then people wouldnt be so afraid to leave the feedback I guess. But thats ebay for you.
IT IS ALWAYS CHEAPER TO NOT SELL ON EBAY
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Comments
Yup, I have noticed this trend. As a seller, I always leave positive feedback right after payment clears. As a buyer, the seller doesn't get feedback from me until I receive feedback first. I believe that if more people did this, then the sellers would stop holding their feedback hostage!
Robert (ajetfan)
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Low pop 1980 Topps PSA 9s and 10s on ebay
As for negs, in my opinion they are a joke. I have 4 negs from 3 buyers, otherwise my feedback rating would be 100%. In all cases, I feel the negs were undeserved. Here is exactly what happened:
1 - shipment sent out of the US was lost. Buyer left neg after a week had passed assuming I had ripped him off. I refunded his entire payment including shipping. The buyer subsequently bought several more items from me, and even left the comment on one "previous negative was in error" but eBay would not remove the neg.
2 - sold a guy 4 1976 Topps in NM (non-graded), they were like fresh out of the pack condition in separate lots. Guy doesn't pay (this is a $6.00 total sale mind you), then negs me for not sending him the cards. After about two months I finally get payment and send him the cards. Then he negs me again saying the cards were in poor condition. I checked his other purchases and contacted those sellers. He pulled the same thing on at least three other sellers. I contacted eBay and provided the infomation given to me by the other sellers but all I could get was the standard "we're not responsible for feedback" response which was the company policy back then.
3 - another shipment lost in the mail. I refund the purchase, guy still give me a neg. Two days later he emails an apologizes, he found the package in his garage. Apparently he had some kind of basket to catch his mail from the mail slot and the package had missed the mark and landed where he didn't look. Again eBay refused to remove the neg even thought the person who left it told them he wanted to recind it.
4 - this was the worst one of all. Buyer meant to leave neg for another seller, leaves it for me by mistake. This was even after eBay amended their policies so that buyer and seller could mutually agree to remove feedback. Buyer admitted that he made a mistake, but never responded to the eBay request for confirmation, so the neg sticks.
So, at least 99.9% isn't bad. I simply won't get into the feedback trading/neg feedback game...I leave positive feedback for all transaction, and if I don't get it in return I don't worry about it. Of course with 4000+ positives it isn't too big of a deal, but if you are trying to build up your rating I can see where it can be somewhat annoying not to get the mark when everything goes smoothly.
I a;ways leave positive feedback as soon as payment is rec'd or cleared - I don't always get it back, but that's not my issue. The customer always gets the thank you - the buyer's thank you is at his discretion. Some like to nurture comraderie, some don't. All I'm responsible for is my side of the street.
just my 2 sense
"All evil needs to triumph is for good men to do nothing."
If you are happy then go ahead and leave feedback. I have noticed that if I leave feedback 100 times, I will probably only get 90 feedback back. That's another reason I don't leave feedback first when I am the seller. I have enough feedback on Ebay now, that I don't really care that much if someone leaves me another positive feedback. Of course I don't want negatives.
<< <i>as a seller I don't leave feedback until I get feedback. When I buy things, I leave feedback as soon as I get the cards and everything is OK. Sellers are afraid of getting negative feedback or having to deal with feedback Nazi's. >>
if you are only a buyer on ebay whats the big deal if you don't get feedback. sellers cannot control who the buyer is and 99.9% of buyers on ebay are great! as a seller all i want is a buyer who reads the discription and looks at the item and knows what he is buying.
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Yes, we all get annoyed when some butthead leaves negative feedback for no reason..........
I will always leave feedback when the item is payed for...........
1955 Bowman Raw complete with 90% Ex-NR or better
Now seeking 1949 Eureka Sportstamps...NM condition
Working on '78 Autographed set now 99.9% complete -
Working on '89 Topps autoed set now complete
Stingray
"All evil needs to triumph is for good men to do nothing."
I hate having a zero and feeling like my bids will get canceled if I don't ask for permission to bid. Most auctions don't say that, but some do. Some don't even want bidders with less than 10 or 20 feedbacks. OK, but getting those first 10 or 20 ain't easy!
Even though I don't mention anything about zero feedback bidders in my auctions, I just had an ebayer with zero feedback send me an email and ask me if it would be OK for him to bid an some of my items. He told me about his 1980 Topps set, seemed like a nice guy, and seemed very interested in a few of my cards for his set. I told him that as long as he plans on paying if he wins, that it was fine. Cardaholic this wasn't you, was it?
Robert (ajetfan)
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Low pop 1980 Topps PSA 9s and 10s on ebay
My feedback is nearly 600 positives with no negs, so from a standpoint fo buying or selling, I don't NEED the feedback. And those sellers who refuse to give feedback first, even though they were paid FIRST, thats just their choice. (A bad one in my opinion). My point is the ones I am referring to are not those who dont give any feedback, it is the ones who have the nads to ASK you to leave it first.
The ebay feedback system needs people to leave feedback on EVERY transaction in order for it to work properly. It should not be a "do for me and I'll do for you" type deal. If the payer pays on time then leave them a positive. If he pays late, leave him a neg.
People who are feedback Nazis are products of this type of feedback withholding. Although, like I said previously, if ebay would be a little more hands on, then feedback retaliation wouldnt happen.
1957 Topps PSA
1961 Fleer SGC
As a seller,for a long time I would leave feedback as soon as I recieved payment.I had more and more buyers not leaving any back.I don't know if they were dissatisfied,(I will refund if not satisfied)or just too lazy to leave it.
So nowadays I'm not with the crowd and I give feedback after it is recieved.
Unless it is a repeat buyer in which case I'll leave it beforehand.
We all complain about feedback, and shipping and bad scans and this and that all the time. The topic of this tread is right up that alley, and exposes a common attitude that is generally observed in many areas of society - we all recognize the problem at hand, we complain about it, but I'll be damned if I'M going to be the one who tries to fix it, especially if it might cause me some troubles.
Some of the reasons that sellers give for waiting - because they feel it's the only way lazy buyers will leave them feedback, to keep the leverage against a potential negative from a buyer, etc etc - are themselves using feedback in a completely inappropriate way, and are only contributing to the problem that we're now subsequently complaining about.
I understand a lot of sellers feel they have to protect themselves, and there are a lot of scummy buyers out there who just like to mess with seller's feedback. But those issues can be addressed in other ways. Misusing the feedback system under the guise of protecting yourself against the other guy who might misuse the feedback system is rather hypocritical. Personally, I think ebay should have an automatic feedback policy for Paypal payments. When a payment is made, positive feedback is left for the buyer.
Anyways, I leave positive feedback immediately for every payment received, and am always glad to find other sellers who do the same. The buyer has completed his end of the transaction and deserves the positive feedback. That should be the end of it. In my opinion, the only way to disagree with this policy is to somehow justify inappropriate manipulation of the system. Someone has to leave feedback first. Logically and fairly, it should be the seller. Realistically and safely, that can be problematic. But if we want the system to straighten out, someone's got to start doing the right thing.
That being said--if a seller doesn't leave me feedback, then they not only get no feedback either, but never see another dime from me. I know some sellers don't care a hill of beans about repeat business, but the smart ones do.
I think all the sellers who are afraid to leave feedback first--just to prevent a few losers from negging them--fail to realize that there are others like me whose repeat business they lose. Would you rather risk a few deadbeat ebayers who might leave a neg (in which case you can use the "respond to comment" box below the feedback to say your peace) or risk getting good buyers giving you repeat business. If you are a strong and good seller who stands by your product, then being afraid of a few undeserved negs is sad. I buy from plenty of sellers who have some negs--it is usually very easy to tell many are undeserved--especially when looking at the sellers response below the feedback.
All in all, it is buyers market. Except for the rarest of items, everything is being sold by multiple sellers throughout the year and at the same time. Some get the repeat business based on their professionalism and knowing they have a great product. They know feedback is a way of saying that they appreciate my business, not something to "hold hostage" until they get theirs first. I'm not advocating that the "customer is always right", but I do think a paying customer always deserves thanks in the form of feedback. Those that know this get to ride the "gravy train" flowing out of my Paypal account.
"Appropriate" usage of feedback would mean that slow shippers would be identified, buyers would leave "appropriate" feedback after paying $4 for shipping and getting the card in an envelope with a 37 cent stamp, NM cards received as EM would be called out, etc. This doesn't happen. The feedback forum is a mutual pat-on-the-back society that identifies only the most blatant rip-off artists. The art of avoiding negative feedback is not always in good customer service.
"All evil needs to triumph is for good men to do nothing."
When selling I leave feedback right away as long as they pay within 7 days. Those who pay after 7 days without any communication I don't leave feedback.
When buying I leave feedback once I receive the product in a timely fashion. In addition, I review the packaging to ensure they put some effort behind it before shipping. I have received cards in plain envelopes and have felt like responding neutral but it's not worth the trouble.
I have sold numerous items and have left feedback for the buyer without their feedback in return. Yes it bothers me because I'm trying to increase my feedback rating but I figure patience, good customer service and an honest pain free transaction will eventually win out. Good luck to everyone
My Auctions
After reading through the thread, I have found the excuse of "I dont leave feedback first because one time (at band camp?) I had one left for me that I didnt feel was deserved"
So let me get this straight, you sellers who are not leaving feedback first, are doing it so that if you get one that you dont feel is deserved, you can do what? Oh that's the reason...RETALIATE with a negative back at 'em!?!!???! Either that or keep the threat of leaving them a neg so that they cant neg you, even if in THEIR opinion it was deserved.
I once bought an auction from someone who stated IN THEIR AUCTION, that feedback will be left..IN KIND! Sure enough, positives were left with positives, neutrals with neutrals, and negs with negs. All the comments were the same on the negs "Bad experience....AVOID"!!! So basically, this seller did not take into account how fast a buyer paid or anything, just based his feedback on the ones he got. This seller should have been banned in my opinion for abuse of the feedback system, but since ebay makes money off him "Powerseller LOL", they let him stick that in his auction title. Needless to say, that was the LAST time I bought from him
I'm glad we have now found a way to rationalize retaliatory feedback. Fantastic. Instead of getting the scum off ebay who use this as a ploy to help them along with their scams, we have joined the crowd. Congratulations
"All evil needs to triumph is for good men to do nothing."
I hate feedback.
As a seller, I don't leave FB.
As a buyer, I don't leave FB.
As a seller, you got your stuff; I got your money. Thanks.
As a buyer, you got my money, I got the stuff. Thanks.
Edited to add:
You wrote:I'm glad we have now found a way to rationalize retaliatory feedback. Fantastic. Instead of getting the scum off ebay who use this as a ploy to help them along with their scams, we have joined the crowd. Congratulations
To clarify my comment: The use or misuse of feedback, in my opinion, does not mean we've joined the scum.
"All evil needs to triumph is for good men to do nothing."
The new number would indicate how many people actually hate you and have blocked your a$$.
That's the number you would want to keep at 0. Vicadin anyone?
1. Put delivery confirmation on every single item you mail out. If you don't the buyer can claim he never got and get a refund from paypal.
2. Since the 1st point had nothing to do with feedback; a lot of buyers are lazy, which has been mentioned above. I did a check of my feedback and found this
first 18 months( I would leave feedback first)
left for others=600
my feedback=501
That's 99 feedback I am out.
Since I starting leaving feedback after a buyer leaves it for me
left for others= 55
my feedback=52
That's a lot better I think. Some people did buy one than one item from me, so it's not completely scientific, but it's close.
The game of chicken can be applied to feedback on Ebay.
It might be even more like "game theory", but that's another story.
I say that buyer should leave feedback first, then its' a perfect world.
I always leave positive feedback as soon as I receive payment from a buyer. I received my one and only negative feedback from a newbie buyer who didn't receive her card by the eighth day! Screw her! LOL!
I have an additional estimated 3,500 transactions that I didn't receive any feedback, even though I left posted feedback first.
Could I have received positive feedback from those other 3,500 transactions if I "held back" giving feedback first? Maybe on some?
But I feel if someone pays me (I really don't care if its 7 days or 2 weeks!). I'll leave positive feedback. And the same for a seller: If I receive an item to my satisfaction! Again, I don't care if I receive an item from a seller in 7 days or 3 weeks, as long as I like the item, I'll leave positive feedback. If I get some positive feedback back from a buyer or seller, that's great! If not, screw it!
But I'm not holding back my giving of feedback by waiting for the other party to "pull the trigger first". All I can do, is offer good service as a seller and make a prompt payment as a buyer!
Yea, it was fun to have 100% feedback rating for 5 years! But I'll live with 99.9% (5,436 to 1!) LOL!
rbd
P.S. I have steady customers that always seem take 2 to 3 weeks to pay me. And the same goes for some sellers that I buy from. Some take up to 3-4 weeks before I receive my item(s). I'll live with it! As long as get paid or receive items to my satisfaction, they will get their "pos feedback!"
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