Neutral Feedback - as damaging as a negative.

StaffsSW

Official confirmation from eBay on this policy..

***An update on improving the Buyer experience***

13 August, 2007 | 04:00PM BST

We wanted to let you know about additional steps that we are taking this year to ensure that eBay remains a safe place to buy and sell.
Having listened to Buyers, we have heard that some Sellers are failing to deliver consistently good service. Those Sellers receive considerable negative or neutral Feedback or cause Buyers to file an Item Not Received complaint, because they are not meeting Buyer expectations. Key areas that Sellers need to deliver against are: listing accuracy, professional communication, and fair prices for timely postage.
eBay has decided that Sellers with low positive Feedback levels – more than 5% combined negative and neutral Feedback or multiple Item Not Received complaints in the last 90 days – need to demonstrate improvement in Feedback to continue trading at current levels. This is an extension of the work that eBay has always done in addressing Seller Non Performance.
For further information please read the Seller Non Performance policy.
Regards,
The eBay.co.uk and eBay.ie Teams

Source

So when I get a stupid neutral like - "thanks" or "where's my item?" then the negging finger will be instantly flexed & primed!

Seeing this has reminded me that I have still not heard back from the above seller...:mad:

daz100

My account was restricted yesterday for too many neutral comments! All the commments are from newbies and say stuff like thanks or quick delivery, well packed etc... The advice I got was to do a mutual feedback withdrawal seems like eBay has gone crazy. I am so p*****d off I could not believe it!

ormus

ebay is just plain nuts. why not let the market decide?
surely the whole point of FB is so that punters can see a sellers reputation. far better than any high st trader. id love to see ie. dixons FB stuck in its shop window!
as long as a traders FB doesnt get below say 95/98% (pick a figure), then i dont see the problem.
any one who gets below say 95% then ban them permanently.


ps, yes the neg FB prob is already here. a chap i know has been hit twice with it.

daz100

Oh I forgot to mention they were pushing SquareTrade I told em to push off. I am not paying $30 a time to get some neutral feedback removed!

soolin

daz, too be hit with so many neutrals is unusual. Whilst a neutral should be just that it might be worth considering why your buyers don't feel happy enough to leave a positive, maybe there is something small you are doing that has become a minor irritation? We do all get neutrals at some point, but to get a high enough percentage to get a temporary ban is worth looking into the reasons why.

Ormus, as for letting th emarket decide I totally agree with you. However I think we are in the minority as you only have to read some of the other threads to see that most buyers want ebay to 'do something' about poor sellers and to ban anyone who doesn't perform completely 100%. There are a number of threads bith here and on other groups, even on ebay itself where buyers are happy to ignore the poor feedback of seller and when it all goes wrong insist that ebay are at fault even though ebay themselves advise that all buyers hsould check sellers feedback.

daz100

That is my point all my neutrals are from newbies with under 30 ratings usually and are always positive in nature nothing neutral about them at all if you get me.

soolin

daz100 wrote: »

That is my point all my neutrals are from newbies with under 30 ratings usually and are always positive in nature nothing neutral about them at all if you get me.

It's still very rare especially as newbies get a huge warning sign now if they try and leave a non positive..they have to confirm they understand that they are leaving feedback that reflects they have had a problem, it even tells them to contact the seller before leaving a non positive. A neutral is rarely left accidentally, it is usually left after consideration.

I have a lot of newbies bid on my auctions, a very quick look shows about a third of my last 50 or so sales went to people with 8 or less feedback, they all managed to leave a positive.

There still might be something tiny, something overlooked that makes you attract neutrals.

FloFlo

Does this mean that a neutral takes a point away from your total like a neg does?

soolin

FloFlo wrote: »

Does this mean that a neutral takes a point away from your total like a neg does?

It still does not affect your feedback score at all. However ebay now look at overall buyer satisfaction and treat a neutral as a non positive buyer experience, they also look at the number of complaints made about a seller. Too many neutrals and too many buyer complaints will result in a seller being suspended even if their overall feedback is good.

didi_nodebt

I just recently received a neutral feedback from a newbie seller for not leaving a feedback, and now I have received a neg feedback from a buyer who did a last minute swipe on a dress. Buyer gets the dress and starts with oh this and oh that, to which I point out was all in the description which she could have read before bidding, buyer now wants partial refund or would leave neg feedback, so I said to go ahead and leave neg feedback.

Now I would have thought that 1 neg feedback would have brought my 100% score down to 99.9% or 99% but my score has now gone down to 98.9% so I feel that the neutral feedback must have been taken into account, which is not fair.

I am sick and tired of buyers and newbies sellers on ebay and once I am done with my last lot I am done with ebay, its been totally ruined. :mad: