Sellers feedback.

xxtadaz

Just wondering as I'm still pretty new to eBay, as a seller am I meant to leave feedback once the buyers do or once they've paid?

soolin

That question causes so many arguments!

Feedback though is not compulsory, leave it when you want, or not at all. Feedback makes no difference at all to a buyer really, but can mean a lot to a seller.

If you need feedback then leaving it for your buyer first sometimes encourages them to leave it back for you.

kev225

As soon as the buyer has paid they have completed their part of the transaction, since you can only give a buyer positive feedback there's no point in withholding feedback until later.

IMO withholding feedback causes the catch 22 situation:
'I'm not leaving feedback until he/she's left feedback'

It would likely at worst trigger a subconscious stubborn thing from your buyers, but it's a tiny extra bit of CS that might just annoy someone who got up on the wrong side of bed and has an axe to grind over the smallest of perceived principals.

oldone_2

I look at it this way.
If I go into a shop and buy something, when I hand the seller money they almost always say thank you.
When I sell on e-bay, as soon as the buyer has paid, I say thank you via their feedback.

WantToBeSE

I leave feedback once they have paid, unless dealing with international postage, then i wait until they leave me feedback, so i know they received it.

mummybearx

As a seller, I leave feedback once a buyer has paid. As a buyer, I leave feedback once an item is received.

I'm one of these ebayers that always always leaves feedback :-) x

chemical.galaxy

I leave feedback as soon as I have posted the item along the lines of 'great buyer - your item was posted today'

Crowqueen

Same here. I don't really think buyer feedback should exist at all, but since it does, and people like having it, then I go with the 'extra little bit of customer service' idea above.

Mindless_Clone

Crowqueen wrote: »

Same here. I don't really think buyer feedback should exist at all, but since it does, and people like having it, then I go with the 'extra little bit of customer service' idea above.

I have to say, as a buyer, it irks me no end when sellers don't leave feedback. But you're right, as a buyer, the feedback isn't worth diddly squat, so don't know why it bugs me, really.
Sellers can only not leave it or leave positive so any dodgy buyers aren't highlighted through the system. While I understand why buyers can't be left negatives (retaliatory feedback) I do think there's a big black hole for sellers in choosing who to deal with. The sheer number of threads on here about buyers who engage in dodgy INR claims, leaving negs all over the shop without real reason/understanding of how it works and other suspect practices like declaring stuff broken/swapping items etc... about time sellers have a bit more opportunity on how to make an informed choice on who to deal with.

Crowqueen

The thing is, though, sellers anywhere can't choose their buyers. No other outlet screens their buyers before entry, unless they are trade customers, and if they did they would find that they suddenly lacked them. You don't normally carry round references to shop normally.

If you list something online for sale, the risks are there. The problems are not legion in practice - the forum magnifies any issues and I have not to my knowledge had anyone claim false non-receipt or anything like that. And what would it serve? If someone wins on a BIN and pays the seller doesn't have a chance to see who they are before they buy. More than once I've seen an item being bid on, then gone away and come back at the end of an auction to find a different person has bid, won and paid for it. So --- it is not in my power to then turn that person away, even if they have issues highlighted in their feedback.

On Amazon there is no such thing as buyer feedback, I have to ship ASAP when the item is shown as paid for. Likewise when selling at a car boot sale and someone approaches your stall you don't know whether they are going to buy something, going to look and try to haggle, going to wander away without picking anything up or going to whip something off the table and run with it. The latter issue can be dealt with only after the fact, and so I take the risk by letting everyone approach my stall without requiring a life history, a CRB check and a credit check.

It's simply absurd if you leave the eBay bubble for five minutes and think about it properly.

I don't know whether you have seen the ING adverts on TV but they dispense essential advice for sellers. The latest one has some sound advice for people who want customer reference systems - making life difficult for customers just ends up with them going elsewhere. Which I'm not sure I want as there are few enough people buying from me on eBay anyway this year.