Feedback for non paying buyer - opinions please.

silver84

Hi all - not a novice to ebay with 800+ trades, however would like to canvass opinion.

Sold an item, buyer never paid, went through dispute system and claimed my fees back. Now - they can't leave me feedback as i've gone through the resolution centre correctly - but I am allowed to leave them some.

However, due to eBays infintite wisdom, I can only leave positive feedback or none atall.

Would you in this instance - leave a postive rating but with a slamming comment in the hope that others read it (doesn't really achieve anything other than letting me rant!) or not leave any feedback atall as they don't deserve the positive rating in this place?

Seems mad that eBay have thought the process through enough to prevent a bad buyer from leaving feedback once they have lost such a dispute, but not allowing the seller any sensible recourse is rather silly!

Crowqueen

You can't leave any so I suggest you don't. The strike they have got will make sure they can't bid on people's items, negatives never warned anyone as far as buyers are concerned (until they bid or buy your items you can't see them unless you go down lists and lists of buyers every day looking for problem eBayers) so it's rather futile to do anything that would compromise your account. Negative feedback in general was never that effective for buyers, since the number of buyers on eBay vastly outnumbers the number of sellers and quite a lot of negs for buyers were given in retaliation for leaving legitimate bad feedback for sellers. I don't think it does eBay too much harm.

Letting NPBs get to you is a bad thing. It's going to happen more often than not since that is the way eBay chose to establish their selling format. Until they make it so that payment is taken automatically when a buyer wins an item they will never disappear. Just always do the disputes as you do, set your preferences to block bidders with more than two strikes in 12 months, and the problem will be diminished if not eliminated. It also sounds like the first one you have encountered since the feedback changeover occurred two years ago - that's not bad, given my rate for a while was a lot higher than that.

silver84

How would it compromise my account? I can leave feedback, only positive however.

cyberbob

silver84 wrote: »

How would it compromise my account? I can leave feedback, only positive however.

Because leaving a positive with a negative comment is against ebay rules. The buyer will be able to get it removed and you will get marked down on your seller compliance which can endanger your account.

silver84

Ah I get you - thanks for clarifying. If ebay would just allow sellers to leave reasonable feedback they wouldn't need such stupid rules! I could have done with it for the vile buyer who decided she didn't like an item and chose to ring me telling me she "knew where I lived and would get me"...!!

Crowqueen

silver84 wrote: »

Ah I get you - thanks for clarifying. If ebay would just allow sellers to leave reasonable feedback they wouldn't need such stupid rules! I could have done with it for the vile buyer who decided she didn't like an item and chose to ring me telling me she "knew where I lived and would get me"...!!

What did you say to her?

pinkshoes

silver84 wrote: »

If ebay would just allow sellers to leave reasonable feedback they wouldn't need such stupid rules! I could have done with it for the vile buyer who decided she didn't like an item and chose to ring me telling me she "knew where I lived and would get me"...!!

What would leaving negative feedback for a buyer achieve? Do you monitor every single bid that is made on every single item, then look at who has made the bid, their feedback etc...? I'm sure you have better things to do with your time.

A non paying strike is MUCH better than leaving a neg for them, as if they get another, it actually stops them bidding!

porto_bello

We are directed by eBay to leave 80 characters of honest, factual feedback, for every transaction. So it’s difficult to leave honest, factual feedback for a non-paying bidder whose actions/inactions have resulted in a non-payment strike, without, er, well, honestly, factually saying so. :think:

When this thankfully rare situation happens to me, I leave something like:
“No Payment Received - Incident Reported – eBay Issued Non-Payment Strike”

This is an entirely personal view, which I expect will clash with the letter or spirit of eBay’s policies, and will clash with other opinions, but as yet, eBay have never taken any action or threatened to take any action against me for doing this – maybe I’m just lucky? :dance:

Another reason for doing so is this: If I have issues with a non-paying bidder, I find it helpful to easily detect from their feedback if they have a history of non-payment. Funnily enough, I found this was the case with the last few NPBs, so the feedback comments have helped me get things to get to a swift resolution – either payment or transaction cancellation and payment strike awarded…

…as opposed to the usual, drawn out scenarios of cheques stuck in the post, domestic emergencies, family illnesses, natural disasters, sudden inability to receive emails relating to just this item, complete loss of all internet connection within a 100 mile radius, etc etc etc. :wall:

Crowqueen

This is an entirely personal view, which I expect will clash with the letter or spirit of eBay’s policies, and will clash with other opinions, but as yet, eBay have never taken any action or threatened to take any action against me for doing this – maybe I’m just lucky?

Why bother though? No-one will read it before it's already too late.

porto_bello

Crowqueen wrote: »

This is an entirely personal view, which I expect will clash with the letter or spirit of eBay’s policies, and will clash with other opinions, but as yet, eBay have never taken any action or threatened to take any action against me for doing this – maybe I’m just lucky?

Why bother though? No-one will read it before it's already too late.

That's true Crowqueen, but the reason being that if a NPB has previous convictions, they are at least visible to any future victims.

It's not perfect - Ideally, I would like NPBs to receive deserved negative feedback, but we can't do that, so leaving an accurate, honest, factual comment is the next best thing.

soolin

I do not see the point of rewarding a non payer with a positive.