Feedback Rant

[Darth Sensei]

Ebay's feedback system sux in general, but it really sux when sellers won't leave feedback. I inquired about feedback from this seller and he responds:


I am glad they arrived safely. Our policy is to wait for feedback as in the past we have had difficulty with some customers not leaving any feedback after we left positive feedback for them.

Am I not entitled to positive feedback considering I paid the same freaking day the auction ended? Some may call it nitpicking that the seller wants to wait until I leave him positive feedback, but it really is annoying to me.

D

[sisko]

I run into the same problem as botha buyer and seller.

My policy on buying is to leave feedback ASAP, and request positive feedback in an email.

My policy on selling is to confirm that the buyer received everything, leave feedback, and then request the same.

Granted it doesn't always work out the way I want it to, but it works most of the time.

[mr_nihilism]

Whenever I win an auction I pay immediately or within 24 hours with PayPal but don't expect a feedback until I've basically confirmed it arrived by leaving feedback of my own. Somehow that just seems logical to me.

[briskbc]

Im my humble opinion, a transaction is not complete just becuase a buyer pays. There are occassions where you have to deal with problems after the buyer receives an item. I leave feedback after the buyer receives an item and lets me know everything is OK.

I don't agree with what the seller in your case is doing. They don't leave feedback just becuase they have had instances where their consideration hasn't been returned? Pretty lame.

[PackratMarty]

As a seller, I used to leave feedback immediately. But after more then a few annoying people threatening to leave me bad feedback for stupid things I have stopped leaving feedback first. I am debating only doing this with buyers who have low feedback and dont know how ebay works. I had a kid threaten to leave me bad feedback because he couldnt get through a certain level of a game. I guess you cant really protect yourself from negs, but i understand why sellers do it.

[Achika]

Generally I leave feedback for the person if they pay right away and don't make any demands or have some "nasty" tone to their email. If they start acting flakey, I wait to leave feedback. Generally no funny business comes of those transactions though.

[Darth Sensei]

Im my humble opinion, a transaction is not complete just becuase a buyer pays. There are occassions where you have to deal with problems after the buyer receives an item. I leave feedback after the buyer receives an item and lets me know everything is OK.

I don't agree with what the seller in your case is doing. They don't leave feedback just becuase they have had instances where their consideration hasn't been returned? Pretty lame.

I disagree. If I pay right away, I've fufilled my end of the bargain and deserve positive feedback.

D

[Stewie]

I can see both sides of the argument... I havent sold in a while, but I always left good feedback if they paid on time....

I've got over 300 positive feedback, so I could care less if sellers leave it for me when paid, its just a number once you get over 100

[SoulBlazer]

As a buyer, I leave feedback once I have the item in my hands. I don't care if the seller leaves feedback or not.

As a seller, I leave feedback AFTER the buyer leaves feedback, and not a day beforehand.

[briskbc]

Im my humble opinion, a transaction is not complete just becuase a buyer pays. There are occassions where you have to deal with problems after the buyer receives an item. I leave feedback after the buyer receives an item and lets me know everything is OK.

I don't agree with what the seller in your case is doing. They don't leave feedback just becuase they have had instances where their consideration hasn't been returned? Pretty lame.

I disagree. If I pay right away, I've fufilled my end of the bargain and deserve positive feedback.

D

I can respect that. And you are right. You do deserve positive feedback. I have had to deal with morons who have misread descriptions and bitched about what they got. I really don't care how fast he paid. If he is going screw up the transaction becuse he can't read or is suffering from buyers remorse than I would want to have some say through the feedback system.

[Cmosfm]

Im my humble opinion, a transaction is not complete just becuase a buyer pays. There are occassions where you have to deal with problems after the buyer receives an item. I leave feedback after the buyer receives an item and lets me know everything is OK.

I don't agree with what the seller in your case is doing. They don't leave feedback just becuase they have had instances where their consideration hasn't been returned? Pretty lame.

I disagree. If I pay right away, I've fufilled my end of the bargain and deserve positive feedback.

D

I can respect that. And you are right. You do deserve positive feedback. I have had to deal with morons who have misread descriptions and bitched about what they got. I really don't care how fast he paid. If he is going screw up the transaction becuse he can't read or is suffering from buyers remorse than I would want to have some say through the feedback system.

He's got a point.

I know theres been times when I've sold items and the idiot gets it and didn't read the auction and I'm stuck with him saying "well, You either give me my money back or you get negative feedback". What the hell am I supposed to do then?

Yeah, you're a good buyer Cue, but for every good buyer there a bad one that ruins it for you. So don't get mad that sellers don't leave positive as soon as you pay, get mad at the buyer 20 transactions back because he left a negative since he didn't read the game was for Gamecube and not Playstation 2.

[farfel]

I give feedback once a onth. Saves times to do 100 feedbacks all at once.

[charitycasegreg]

It really sucks if the seller waits for the buyer to leave feedback but the buyer wants to leave negative because something is wrong because if he leaves the buyer negative. the buyer will probably just leave a negative back.

[Dr. Morbis]

I used to hate it when I didn't get feedback from the seller right away. But I have come to realize that buyer feedback is pointless. When do you reference an eBayer's feedback record? I do it ONLY when I'm considering if I should bid on a seller's item(s). Have any of you (as sellers) ever referenced your bidder's feedback mid-auction and then cancelled their bid and blocked them if necessary? Doing this sort of thing is anything but routine. I'm glad eBay made tabs to see only feedback as a seller because that's all that matters, and that's the only feedback I ever look at now. I don't care if I never get another feedback response from a seller. Feedback from satisfied buyers is all that matters to me.

[Griking]

Im my humble opinion, a transaction is not complete just becuase a buyer pays. There are occassions where you have to deal with problems after the buyer receives an item. I leave feedback after the buyer receives an item and lets me know everything is OK.

I don't agree with what the seller in your case is doing. They don't leave feedback just becuase they have had instances where their consideration hasn't been returned? Pretty lame.

I disagree. If I pay right away, I've fufilled my end of the bargain and deserve positive feedback.

D


I agree but I have to admit that i'm somewhat guilty as well. You see, I tend to leave feedback in batches. Its not that I'm holding out for my feedback first or anything. I just usually forget to do it and then end up doing like two or three weeks of feedback at a time.

As a buyer AND as a seller I tend to feel that a winning bidder deserves his positive feedback as soon as he pays. After all, if everyone held out for the other guy to leave feedback first then nobody would leave feedback. The only reason I can see for a seller to hold back feedback until the buyer to leave it first is for retaliation purposes which is complete bullshit IMHO.

[briskbc]

The only reason I can see for a seller to hold back feedback until the buyer to leave it first is for retaliation purposes which is complete bullshit IMHO.

100% bullshit. I just want to be clear that I don't need to receive feedback 1st. I just want to hear from the the buyer to know everthing is cool. After that, I post feedback.

Even after posting, I only receive feedback about half of the time.

[Cmosfm]

Have any of you (as sellers) ever referenced your bidder's feedback mid-auction and then cancelled their bid and blocked them if necessary?

Actually, yes, I do this all the time. I watch my auctions and when I notice a seller with negative, zero, or abnormal neg to pos ratio I e-mail the bidder to make sure he will pay. If I dont get a response within a day he is cancelled and blocked. When you get a rash on NPBs you begin noticing these things ahead of time and trying to stop them.

[roxybaby]

I usually pay as soon as an auction is done (assuming I won, of course). I get lots of funny emails from sellers saying thank you SO much for paying, etc. I can understand the frustrations of sellers with NPB and such. The feedback system is evil. Bad people get lucky and good people get screwed. :o

[Griking]

The only reason I can see for a seller to hold back feedback until the buyer to leave it first is for retaliation purposes which is complete bullshit IMHO.

100% bullshit. I just want to be clear that I don't need to receive feedback 1st. I just want to hear from the the buyer to know everthing is cool. After that, I post feedback.

Even after posting, I only receive feedback about half of the time.

What difference would it make if the buyer received the item and everything was cool or not? Again, once he pays you and does so without being difficult his obligation is fullfilled and deserves his feedback. Even if the item arrived smashed into a million pieces it wouldn't change the fact that he owed up to his end of the deal. What I'm hearing from you is that you want to have some leverage in case for some reason the buyer isnt happy and considers leaving you a negative.

[16-bit]

Since ebay does not offer any feedback threshold options for sellers (i.e. no bidders with feedback less than 5 or less than 95%...), buyer feedback is practically worthless. As some have mentioned earlier, you can cancel a bid from a user who has less than great feedback, but you can not stop them from sniping the auction!

Since feedback has no value, I do not care about it outside of it being a nice thank you. Rather, I would like ebay to provide me with the following information:

--number of npb warnings issued within the last 6 months
--number of paypal chargebacks within the last 6 months

ebay currently provides this information with bid cancelations.

[briskbc]

What I'm hearing from you is that you want to have some leverage in case for some reason the buyer isnt happy and considers leaving you a negative.

You are wrong. I do not use it as leverage. I don't make threats regarding feedback nor do I demand to receive it. I have no problem leaving feedback first even after a problem has been sorted out. Losing any leverage you claim I'm angling for. If I don't hear back from a buyer than I still post feedback (usually after a month but I can also be guilty of batch posting).

As I said earlier, doing this gives me a voice when I come across the guy looking to get something for nothing. I've met these guys on about a 20 occassions in the past. This gives me the opportunity to warn others of my experience. Other sellers can benefit from these warnings.

Thankfully these cases are rare. Like I said, about 20 times in 2000 transactions. I don't expect to change your mind on this but I still don't think a transaction is over just becuase payment is sent. Any liar with $30 can do that.

[Griking]

Since ebay does not offer any feedback threshold options for sellers (i.e. no bidders with feedback less than 5 or less than 95%...), buyer feedback is practically worthless.

I dont undersand why you consider buyer feedback worthless. There was someone on this message board about a week ago complaining that he bid on a NES w/ carts advertised as being in great condition. When he received it it was missing carts, the controllers and it didnt work. Wouldn't his negative feedback influence your decision to bid on any of that seller's auctions? What if the seller never shipped the item, wouldn't the buyer's feedback stating that be helpful?

[16-bit]

Since ebay does not offer any feedback threshold options for sellers (i.e. no bidders with feedback less than 5 or less than 95%...), buyer feedback is practically worthless.

I dont undersand why you consider buyer feedback worthless. There was someone on this message board about a week ago complaining that he bid on a NES w/ carts advertised as being in great condition. When he received it it was missing carts, the controllers and it didnt work. Wouldn't his negative feedback influence your decision to bid on any of that seller's auctions? What if the seller never shipped the item, wouldn't the buyer's feedback stating that be helpful?

Sorry, I meant buyer's feedback (feedback left for the buyer).