eBay Feedback - From a Seller's Point of View

[2blkflys]

Buyers need to be aware of what feedback can do to a seller:

First, feedback is a way to rate the SELLER not the product. If you don't like the product contact the seller, most will be happy to refund or exchange. Seller's must not be rated based on a buyer's dislike of a product or if the product wasn't up to the buyer's expectation. Communicate with the seller before leaving negative, neutral or positive with 1's-2's feedback.

Second, eBay is very strict with seller ratings. A harmful feedback can be devastating for a seller. For example: I have over 1,000 positive feedbacks and one negative feedback (because the seller did not like the product) brought me from 100% to 99.9%. The very worst type of feedback to receive is a positive with ratings of a 1 or a 2. These feedbacks cannot be revised if you work the problem out with the seller and it affects the sellers’ ratings in a huge way. Many sellers loose their "Top Seller" rating over these types of feedbacks. Buyers have no idea how hard sellers work for this rating and once you loose it, it takes several months of hard work to get it back. Why is the rating so important?

Third, "Top Seller" rating allows the seller to LOWER their prices because eBay gives top sellers a discount on the fees it charges. The rating also helps the seller's listings be higher in searches, meaning more sales and lower prices. A lot of buyers will only buy from Top Seller's, again, meaning more sales and lower prices. So you can see how your feedback can actually HELP YOU.

Fourth, communicate, contact, message the seller BEFORE leaving: negative, neutral and positive with a 1 or a 2. Give sellers a chance to make things right..you can always leave the low feedback if the seller is not responsive, is rude, etc. You may be surprised how many sellers will work with you to make things right for you. Most of the sellers out there are just people like me, trying to supplement our income by selling honestly. There are those sellers who give us a bad name by being rude or cheating people, but you won't know the difference unless you communicate before leaving harmful feedback. Please give us a chance, I promise you will be pleasantly surprised!

2blkflys

www.Deals-On-The-Fly.com

[LookAtMe]

It's time for eBay to allow sellers to NEG comments on bad buyers. As soon as they changed this policy it was open season on buyers to do whatever they like without fear of damage to their feedback rating.

If eBay won't go for that then the very least is to post when buyers fail to complete transactions or even post the # of days it takes them to pay for an item. 90% of my buyers pay within 24hrs. However I have a percentage that either drags it out a week or more OR never bothers to pay nor respond to friendly e-mails. And yes, I have requested contact info only to reach voicemail or out of service messages.

It's the few bad buyers that ruin an otherwise excellent transaction. For me an excellent transaction is bought, paid for, shipped, postive feedback, happy customer!

Such is life....

[Collectors]

It's a two way street.

Virtually all ebay sellers are buyers, to varying degrees, but not all buyers are sellers. As such, sellers can appreciate ebay transactions from both perspectives, while buyers only understand buying.

I am strongly in favor of ebays current regime of sellers not being able to leave negative feedback for buyers. It took 'em a decade to realize it. but incentivizing good practices in seller performance was a very 'big deal'.

There are very few credible reasons why a seller might need to leave negative feedback to a buyer.

99 times in 100, it's retaliation for a buyer leaving negative feedback. Allowing that to continue was a problem... A very big problem. It threw up a huge barrier to buyers being honest in their feedback, meaning bad or low-performing sellers got away with murder, since the buyers don't want retaliation feedback. One seller in particular- http://myworld.ebay.com/vcandc - prowled ebay for YEARS selling fake after fake after fake. I shudder to think of how much money he made selling fake stuff. He was an absolute legend (in a bad way) in the world of Civil War Collectibles, yet you could go on collector forums and read messages from all the people who got scammed by him but didn't leave him negative feedback, because they didn't want their impeccible feedback record tarnished with retaliation feedback. This caused him to get away with it for years, until eBay finally woke the **bleep** up and shut down his screen name. 

Yes, I've dealt with nightmare buyers.

Yes, I've dealt with complete bu#$@#it paypal claims for items I sold that wound up going to someone who didn't read the description, had buyers remorse, etc...

Still, the health of the marketplace should always be on the back of ensuring good selling practices first, everything else after that.

[vintage-jewelry]

Feedback is a combination of the rating of the seller and the item, unless the seller cannot be rated as such like free shipping.  I do not see leaving a negative or neutral on a seller due to communication or shipping since the buyer agreed the buy the item and knew the shipping.  This is where the star system comes into play great.  However the stars can be detremintal to the seller if the buyer does only leave 1s and 2s for unture reasons.  I have received a 1 on shipping cost when I charged the person the calculated rate of 1 ounce first class package with no extra fees and included delivery confirmation for free.  There is nothing that can be done and no real reason to leave a 1 unless they expect free shipping with every item purchased.  All of my shipping is calculated or free and it is still not a 5.  I do not charge a shipping and handling fee, delivery confirmation or extra addatages so I would think agreeing to buy the item and pay the exact shipping cost should warrent a 5.  

Another problem I have is the fact that the buyer can leave a negative or neutral without contacting the seller.  I do all in reasonable power to rectify any problems that my buyers have but if I am not contacted a fixable situation turns into a negative.  I sell primarily vintage jewelry that varries on condition but I ALWAYS state the condition or flaw of the item.  I have received a negative on a $0.99 cent item because the person disagreed with the condition stated of enamel loss yet I recieved the negative for enamel loss.  If this buyer were to have contacted me I would have gladly refunded them the shipping and item cost due to the fact it's not worth it over a $0.99 cent item.  

That rasies another problem with feedback is that the seller is at time jumping through hoops to avoid negatives and neutrals with difficult buyers.  Some people do not sell on Ebay and only use it as an auction page and not a source of income.  Those that do not sell do not always understand the importance of feedback and the fact that no matter what they cannot receive a negative anymore.  I have had one incident where I sold an item to an international buyer who wanted to return the item even though I state clearly my terms of returns on International shipping items.  Since they did not want to pay for the delivery confirmation nor wait until I received the item back to give them a refund I received a negative.  I posted positive feedback of what they had did and then learned this person had done this on several occousions and many of the buyers did not ever receive their item back.

Communication is key to any sell and I do find that simple and respectful communication with buyers whom have an issue can make your day and theirs.  

[GretaCarbo]

Spoiler

Very well put!  This is an eloquent statement of the seller's position and thinking.  Thank you very much!