Is it acceptable to request feedback?

Azari

soolin wrote: »

Feedback is not terribly important for sellers anyway as long as you maintain good stars and have nothing bad on your expanded seller dashboard. I'd prefer no feedback rather than poor stars.

As a buyer(only) I have to say I disagree with this.

I never take any notice of the stars because I know that muppets who rate the overall experience (e.g. give 3 stars for the p&p costs because the item was heavy and cost a lot to post or only give 5 stars for despatch time for items that arrive in two days) can throw them out. For similar reasons I never take note of 'top rated seller'.

What I do look for if +ve feedback > 98.5% (it used to be > 99% before they stopped sellers giving -ve feedback).

Of course, it may well be that for some types of item people take more notice of the stars (particularly 'Item as described').

Crowqueen

The DSRs are averages, so if most people rate sellers highly, then a poor star is going to stick out. The fact that the averages are around 4.8 suggest that most people just leave 5*s for every transaction. What you say happens must happen relatively rarely for what you say to be genuinely the case.

I don't see how you can only be a buyer; you are rating people based on a seller's perspective rather than a typical buyer perspective. It shouldn't matter that sellers can only give negative feedback - it makes people more honest, for good reasons as well as bad. The seller has most of the responsibilities for a transaction, so allowing them to leave negs in the first place was pretty stupid, not the 2008 reversal of policy.

Azari

Crowqueen wrote: »

The DSRs are averages, so if most people rate sellers highly, then a poor star is going to stick out. The fact that the averages are around 4.8 suggest that most people just leave 5*s for every transaction. What you say happens must happen relatively rarely for what you say to be genuinely the case.

I'm sure it is rare given, as you say, that most people seem to have nearly five stars. But you always get the occasional muppet and they could really skew someone's ratings, as testified by some recent threads.

I don't see how you can only be a buyer;

What?

Are you suggesting that I'm a seller who is hiding the fact?

Why on earth would I do that?

you are rating people based on a seller's perspective rather than a typical buyer perspective.

Dur, because I read this forum from time to time. (Usually because I pop in to ask a question, find the answer with a search and hang around because there are some interesting threads.)

It shouldn't matter that sellers can only give negative feedback

Positive.

it makes people more honest, for good reasons as well as bad. The seller has most of the responsibilities for a transaction, so allowing them to leave negs in the first place was pretty stupid, not the 2008 reversal of policy.

I agree. I said just that in another thread.

If, as a buyer, you valued your own 100% feedback you could not afford to risk negging a seller. And it would be the rogue sellers who would benefit most because they would automatically issue a retaliatory neg whereas a decent seller would just take the hit if they knew they had made a mistake.

The only downside is that now, for those of us who only buy, our 100% feedback is all but meaningless.

Invalidation

I solved the problem
I dont give anyone feedback.
When you go to tesco's do you write a letter to them thanking them for selling you groceries?

Azari

Invalidation wrote: »

I solved the problem
I dont give anyone feedback.
When you go to tesco's do you write a letter to them thanking them for selling you groceries?

I do it the ebay way and write them a separate letter for every item purchased.

fiscalfreckles

I always include a note with my items sold saying
"thanks for the purchase, hope everything's ok, I've left you feedback & trust you will do the same for me - this also lets me know that you have received your item ok"
or something along those lines. Most people do leave feedback quite quickly, but I don't hassle those that don't.
Feedback is not that relevant any more IMHO.

Crowqueen

fiscalfreckles wrote: »

I always include a note with my items sold saying
"thanks for the purchase, hope everything's ok, I've left you feedback & trust you will do the same for me - this also lets me know that you have received your item ok"
or something along those lines. Most people do leave feedback quite quickly, but I don't hassle those that don't.
Feedback is not that relevant any more IMHO.

I'm not sure where you are getting that from as it is very relevant to how you are seen as a seller, by the buyers and by eBay.

Buyer feedback is the virtually irrelevant one, inasmuch as buyers can only get a positive, but still serves a purpose to encouraging people to leave FB for their sellers.

Seller feedback is vital to being able to sell - particularly if you are a low volume seller, if you get few people leaving 5* positives, then one poor score on your DSRs will have a disproportionate effect on your account.

You are right not to worry overly much about chasing it, but it's still not correct to say that it is irrelevant. In fact it matters more and more because buyers are more and more demanding and are definitely likely to leave it if things go wrong. In the past, where eBay was largely the preserve of collectors and internet geeks, eBay could trust sellers with the ability to leave negs. Once it started getting commercialised, though, perhaps around 2003-2004 in my opinion, feedback became very important and retaliatory negs more and more of a problem.

The best way to ensure good feedback is to treat your buyers right. That has never been more important than it is now.

terra_ferma

Invalidation wrote: »

I solved the problem
I dont give anyone feedback.
When you go to tesco's do you write a letter to them thanking them for selling you groceries?

unfortunately because of the way ebay works fb is very important to sellers. If you write a letter of complaint to T the can well wipe their derrière with if they feel like it. If you take something back because you were not happy, you get your refund and that's it.
On ebay complaints (neg fb, low stars) and refunds (through claims) can take a small(ish) seller out of business very quickly.

terra_ferma

As a buyer I find fb very important, and almost always read negs to get an idea of the sort of people I'm dealing with.
More than once I've not bought from someone because of the content of the fb, or of their replies to it.
If someone has less than 99.5% I don't shop from them.
Stars only matters to me if I'm in a hurry to get something, except that item as described must be at least 4.8. Very low stars would worry me though.

On my selling accounts, until I had good feedback I didn't get any multiple purchases, probably people testing the water and not taking risks...
However low cost items on auctions I used to launch my shop, went really well straight away.

brettcta

i see feedback as important as a seller and a buyer.

as a seller, i like to know that my customers were happy with the product and the service provided, especially when times are tight. as has already been mentioned, it helps to give a good impression to potential customers as they can see that you're providing consistently good products & service. i've learned the hard way about so much as even mentioning that feedback be left for me, i've had customers report me to ebay for saying 'feedback will be left this evening [or whenever]. return feedback is always appreciated '. i left out this message on correspondence and saw my feedback rates drop dramatically (people not leaving fb), so went back to leaving a message, but now i just stick with 'thank you, feedback will be left this evening' and it's seen my feedback rates increase, but without being reported to ebay for feedback extortion (or whatever they call it)