Sellers biggest ebay grumbles (Things they should fix)

RFW

missladyannie wrote: »

I dont like the fact that sellers can't leave buyers negative feedback anymore, I have been stung a lot lately buy non paying bidders/non paying BIN and its really unfair we cannot leave negatives to potray this :mad:

If it makes you feel better get your own little exercise book and put a red dot next to the Ebay user id. It will be just as useful. The only point I can see for sellers to leave negative feedback is to make them feel better when they've had a problem.

There's the 'checking bidders' argument but most sellers don't have time to analyse every bidder. If sellers file disputes and close them and have sufficient settings on their account non paying bidders with strikes won't be able to bid anyway.

RFW

Regarding non payers, no matter what happens there will always be non payers. There's loads of reasons, some of them genuine, why someone can't compete a sale.

For fixed price items there is an immediate payment option, so non payers won't then happen.

For auctions there isn't a way round it. When we ran real auctions there were always non payers and we used to take deposits. The deposits were kept, but they often didn't cover the loss.

Crowqueen

It would also reduce flexibility for those of us who do accept other types of payments, including those who (inadvisably in my opinion) use eBay to sell collection-only items, and make buyers less ready to commit money early.

Also there is the legal right to cancel some sales, a feature which is being extended over all business sales from next year due to an update in the system. The proportion of NPBs people get varies but in most cases it is within manageable proportions. I know people's opinion varies on this, but if a buyer asks me to cancel, before I can open a dispute, I will let them. I'm not interested in a joust between buyer and seller, I'm not scared of buyers either and I don't see that eBay should be an antagonistic 'us and them' relationship. The best results come when a buyer is not harrassed into paying, when the seller treats reasonable requests with respect and when a problem is dealt with in a professional manner. Everyone has their limits, but people who get the most out of selling act in a dignified manner whatever they think or do.

I agree with Soo when she says she doesn't want to hand over control of her money to a company that has such issues with glitches as eBay (just see yesterday and today's official forums - if they can't even get a category change right, what hope of getting automatic payments right?!). When I buy something on Amazon, I pay automatically, but I authorise that charge in person. The exception is when I pre-order something, but Amazon soften the blow by charging the lowest price that the item was on offer for (it does vary over time and I've pre-ordered something for £25 initially yet only paid £17 on the day!) when the time comes to checkout.

To deal effectively with NPBs, develop your own limits of patience, decide when to draw the line, and stick to it. Use immediate payment required when you can. Either that or leave eBay as, due to the format of auctions, it is not going to change.

oldone_2

O.k, I take the points made about making buyers pay instantly. If I buy anything on line, I am almost always asked for a card number when ordering.
I suppose e-bay is different, although it does seem to be moving towards an on-line store rather than an auction site.

Another thought on non-paying bidders. How about if a a NPB case is opened against a bidder, then they can never leave feedback, even if they pay before the case is closed.
Many sellers are reluctant to go the N.P.B route for fear of retaliatory feedback..

jimsmillions

Crowqueen wrote: »

@LIUK


@Charlie's Mum - unfortunately everyone else in retail lives and dies by buyer opinion - that is not much better than the real world. Damage is done when a company messes up - just look at Hoover and Ratners for major PR disasters which affected the companies' solvency. Nothing changed in what the companies were offering but buyer perception of the two companies plummetted, one on the quality of the items on sale (which until Ratner made his infamous speech they happily lapped up) and one on the failure to hold to their offer.

You can never completely insulate yourself from the opinions of your customers, nor I suspect is it healthy to try to do so. You're not working for eBay - you're working for the people who pay you. You would expect to be appraised by people who employ you, and for part of that appraisal to be subjective.

In ref to the original problem in the first post I dont have a problem with being appraised. However I handed an item to Royal mail they take 9 days to deliver and I get low stars. I get their appraisal So for me as a low volume seller thats one low star rating. Today Royal mail have returned a pacakge to me they have ripped the delivery note off of the front and returned it to sender from the return address on the rear. Ive contacted the buyer however if they choose to leave a 1 or 2* for dispatch time I'm stuck with it. Will have to wait and see. As Ive said as a low volume seller its a mine field as it is and I dont need Royal mails appraisals on my feedback.

RFW

jimsmillions wrote: »

In ref to the original problem in the first post I dont have a problem with being appraised. However I handed an item to Royal mail they take 9 days to deliver and I get low stars. I get their appraisal So for me as a low volume seller thats one low star rating. Today Royal mail have returned a pacakge to me they have ripped the delivery note off of the front and returned it to sender from the return address on the rear. Ive contacted the buyer however if they choose to leave a 1 or 2* for dispatch time I'm stuck with it. Will have to wait and see. As Ive said as a low volume seller its a mine field as it is and I dont need Royal mails appraisals on my feedback.

I get the point of this and see how it is unfair but there is still a need for sellers to be rated on post times. On Ebay the small sellers are competing with bigger volume sellers who can often use better services than Royal Mail offer. The problem is that smaller sellers only have one option for post, it doesn't mean other sellers can't offer a better deal.

If Ebay changed the title from "Dispatch time" to "Delivery time" you'd still have the same result but less of a gripe.

If we had more of a choice with posting under 1kg parcels there could be an improvement in the service.

Crowqueen

oldone wrote: »

O.k, I take the points made about making buyers pay instantly. If I buy anything on line, I am almost always asked for a card number when ordering.
I suppose e-bay is different, although it does seem to be moving towards an on-line store rather than an auction site.

Another thought on non-paying bidders. How about if a a NPB case is opened against a bidder, then they can never leave feedback, even if they pay before the case is closed.
Many sellers are reluctant to go the N.P.B route for fear of retaliatory feedback..

No, because if someone pays they have to be treated as if the sale went through normally, including prompt dispatch and courteous treatment. I never contact bidders more than once before opening a dispute (I send an invoice without any additional message on day 3, which so far since the dispute timetable was reduced in 2009 has produced an amicable result without me having to open a dispute - though I have sold in very reduced volume since then). I've normally found that either someone pays and the sale goes through normally or the bidder never materialises.

The times that NPB disputes precipitate poor feedback, from reading forums, are the times where the seller has been giving the buyer grief, or the buyer has already indicated their wish to cancel the sale, and the buyer pays up in order to be able to comment on the seller's behaviour.

Personally I would always cancel on request (only had to do so once and then the situation was a bit more complicated than simple withdrawal from the transaction before payment), I know other people don't agree with this tactic as is their right, but eBay is not about antagonising customers, it's about selling items. Provided you are diplomatic and reasonable, an NPB dispute should either produce a struck bidder or an ordinary sale. If you inflame the situation, don't be surprised if a buyer strikes back.

It's not about being scared of bidders, it's about treating them reasonably if you want them to reciprocate.

jimsmillions

RFW wrote: »

I get the point of this and see how it is unfair but there is still a need for sellers to be rated on post times. On Ebay the small sellers are competing with bigger volume sellers who can often use better services than Royal Mail offer. The problem is that smaller sellers only have one option for post, it doesn't mean other sellers can't offer a better deal.

If Ebay changed the title from "Dispatch time" to "Delivery time" you'd still have the same result but less of a gripe.

If we had more of a choice with posting under 1kg parcels there could be an improvement in the service.

Sorry I just wouldent have a rating for dispatch or delivery at all. Maybe if the seller uses its own delivery service then yes its fair but how many do that? Very low % if any I imagine. The problem we both identify is buyery rate dispatch time as delivery time so most ratings are incorrect. If Ebay had us rated on delivery time that would be unfair as we dont do the delivery. The system does not work and needs to be changed. Small sellers have access to the full range of delivery services to though so I dont get the point there? Royal mail next day, before 9am, parcel force 24, 48 etc etc. Ive used about 5 companys in total but mainly Royal mail.

Heres an idea. How about Ebay asked the sellers how many days the item took to arrive from when ordered. This is then shown on a graph or table with an average for the seller included. It wouldent kick in until a seller has 5-10 sales. That way buyers could pick up on a seller thats obviously slow dispatching and fast dispatchers wont suffer due to two or three slow deliverys by the chosen carrier. Sure that idea can be better refined.

RFW

I don't think I've ever had any retaliatory feedback after opening an NPB and I do it a fair amount. I invoice again after 3 days, depending on the order I may message the buyer too, then NPB after 4 or 5 days. I'd much rather get my fees back than worry about possible actions that could be sorted.

techspec

Re dispatch times - Ebay should just ask the buyer if the item arrived between the dates specified - as shown in the checkout and the order details.

If it arrived in the time stated in the auction - then to me it deserves full stars.