Feedback

nightswimmer · 14 February 2007 at 1:27AM

bigbill wrote:

If a buyer gets poor service or delivery the buyer is within their rights to leave negative or neutral feedback, why should they worry about any bad feedback in return if they have paid instantly and done nothing wrong.

The seller has a second chance to answer any feedback they dont agree with do they not?

It's not to do with the feedback they might/might not get, it is to do with dishonest buyers who try to pull a variety of scams. For example, if you sell clothes, one scam that is often pulled is a buyer buying a new item, wearing it and then sending it back and demanding their money back because the item wasn't new. If you sell mobile phone (or other electrical equipment), you sometimes get scammers who will substitute the phone you sent with a stollen or damaged version of the same model, and asking for their money back, etc.

On top of this, many sellers do not feel their part of the transaction is over until the buyer has received their goods and is completley satisfied (as indicated by the buyer leaving feedback). It is only then that they feel they can leave feedback.

I can understand what you are saying, and I as a seller always leave feedback first, but I am well aware of the pitfalls I am leaving myself open to by doing this (and have on occasion fallen into them) and only do so because the types of items I sell don't usually get affected by these types of scams, however, I can fully understand other sellers waiting to leave feedback until after the buyer.

As others have said, this is a much debated topic, and you might do well to do a quick search to find the discussions that have goine on before.

Snooze_Control · 14 February 2007 at 1:53AM

frivolous_fay wrote:

I'm staying out of this.

SC

hesjane · 14 February 2007 at 8:13AM

bigbill wrote:

I must be missing something here?

If you as a seller get paid instantly what else could you possibly do apart from giving positive feedback, so why would you feel the need to wait, on the rare occassions I have sold I leave feedback the minute I realise I have been paid.

If a buyer gets poor service or delivery the buyer is within their rights to leave negative or neutral feedback, why should they worry about any bad feedback in return if they have paid instantly and done nothing wrong.

The seller has a second chance to answer any feedback they dont agree with do they not?

To my mind a transaction is successfully completed from the buyers point of view when they have received the item they wanted in good time and in the condition described in the auction. Obviously things may go wrong with slow deliveries, damaged items in the post etc. There is then the opportunity to contact the seller and resolve the issues (or not). That is when they should take the opportunity to leave positive/neutral/negative feedback based on their experience of a particular transaction (and just because things may have gone wrong won't make it necessarily a negative because the after sales service received from the seller can be excellent and to my mind can be far more deserving of a positive than an item that just turns up in the post several days after winning an auction).

A transaction is successfully completed from the sellers point of view once he knows his buyer is satisfied with the whole service provided by the seller - not just when the buyer has paid. And to know that he usually tells by the feedback left for him/her on ebay.

The option for a buyer/seller to leave secondary feedback is slightly pointless (IMHO) if left after positive feedback in the first place - as, if the buyer becomes nasty, claiming falsely that goods were not as described etc. (and it does happen unfortunately although I admit by the minority and not the majority) then that buyer has already had a positive added to their score and no-one is going to take much notice of the secondary feedback....most look at the overall feedback number/percent and therefore this positive does not warn other ebayers of the real nature of this buyer.

Sorry for the long winded post - just my thoughts on this touchy subject.

Hintza · 14 February 2007 at 9:17AM

I think nightswimmer and hesjane have covered it well. As a seller I get enough feedback already from happy customers. I will not give feedback first nor will I ask for it.

I have had items switched and returned by unscrupulous buyers. As for OP asking this question in a fair world where everyone was truthful and honest the seller leaving feedback first would be fine.

Wait until you sell on Amazon where although sellers can leave feedback for buyers it is invisible whilst all sellers feedback is very prominent...scary!!

I received a neutral recently on Amazon when a buyer received faulty goods, I had no more in stock but bought it retail from Amazon sent it express mail with full apologies so the customer received it for Christmas....he still wasn't happy and it cost me a fortune to sort it out for him. What can you do?

colin79666 · 14 February 2007 at 11:04AM

pennylane99 wrote:

feedback is not compulsory...and if a seller messaged me asking for feedback, they certainly wouldnt get any.

Don't you realise the who Ebay system is based around feedback?
If people don't leave feedback then it becomes difficult to decide which sellers/buyers to trust or to avoid.

pennylane99 · 14 February 2007 at 11:11AM

30111987 wrote:

Don't you realise the who Ebay system is based around feedback?
If people don't leave feedback then it becomes difficult to decide which sellers/buyers to trust or to avoid.

I will leave feedback when I am ready to do so, you have 90 days anyway. But if a seller starts hassling, they can forget it.

Moglex · 14 February 2007 at 11:25AM

A: Buyers like sellers to leave feedback first so that they can neg a rogue seller without risking an undeserved retaliatroy.

B: Sellers like buyers to leave feedback first because there are some complete muppets on ebay who leave negs for stupid reasons (e.g. "I was out the first time the postman called so I got the item a day later", "my boyfriend said it made me look fat").

That's the whole story, really.

The "I leave feedback last because that way I know the transaction is complete" is really nothing more than spinning (B) above.

As a buyer I should really support (A) but since bad feedback has a much worse effect on sellers than buyers I tend to go with (B).

As I always leave feedback as soon as the item is delivered and checked there's no real chance that I'll get emailed asking for feedback but if I did I'd just reply saying that the transaction was completely satisfactory and I'll leave feedback as soon as it's been left for me. (Just to be annoying

).

Sooler · 14 February 2007 at 11:32AM

bigbill wrote:

I must be missing something here?

If you as a seller get paid instantly what else could you possibly do apart from giving positive feedback.

If you agree to buy something you have to pay for it, makes no difference if you pay instantly or within 10 days, if you don't pay you don't get it.

Most rotten buyers go bad and cause problems after they have paid, not before.

The transaction concludes when a buyer has accepted the item they have paid for.

Feedback is voluntary anyway so no good expecting it, eBay doesn't work like that.

aeuerby · 14 February 2007 at 11:40AM

Here we go again!

Does it really matter who leaves feedback first?

I leave feedback when I'm good and ready. If the buyer/seller doesn't leave feedback it doesn't matter.

Life is too short to worry about feedback, especially when there are some sellers on Ebay that can have negatives completly removed within a matter of hours thus not giving buyers the true picture of how bad they are!

Sooler · 14 February 2007 at 11:50AM

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