Annoying low star feedback!!!!!

Norman_Castle

:mad: GRRRR. Just received feedback for an item I sold. Its positive but my 5/5 stars are now all 4.9/5. I know its tiny but it matters to me. The buyer has obviously given 4/5 for everything. As described is subjective on second hand items so I accept that, but 4/5 for communication?. The buyer asked a question then purchased less than an hour later without waiting for a reply . I was actually online checking my facts before replying. Despatch time?. Purchased at 7pm. Delivered to courier collection point by 11am and in their system 19 hours after purchase. No delays with courier. P+P charges?. I charged £8 for p+p. It cost me over £9 and took about an hour to carefully pack, including searching the loft for the best packaging.
Really annoying. No idea what the problem was but just clicking four stars instead of five without reason is just annoying. I'm sure this happens to all sellers at some point
Venting here because I don't want an argument with a buyer!. Rant over. I hope he drops it on his foot.

marleyboy

I would only give 5 stars on an exceptionally fantastic sale. 4 would be a good sale, 3 average, 2 poor and 1 for don't bother. For me to give you 5 stars, I would want it hand delivered on a silk cushion on the same day of purchase.

Norman_Castle

marleyboy wrote: »

I would only give 5 stars on an exceptionally fantastic sale. 4 would be a good sale, 3 average, 2 poor and 1 for don't bother. For me to give you 5 stars, I would want it hand delivered on a silk cushion on the same day of purchase.

Oh really?. So it was you then.

I tend to give five stars unless there's a reason not to. I suppose I expect the same from others. Hopefully he was happy.

usefulmale

marleyboy wrote: »

I would only give 5 stars on an exceptionally fantastic sale. 4 would be a good sale, 3 average, 2 poor and 1 for don't bother. For me to give you 5 stars, I would want it hand delivered on a silk cushion on the same day of purchase.

Average in ebayspeak means defect for seller.

soolin

marleyboy wrote: »

I would only give 5 stars on an exceptionally fantastic sale. 4 would be a good sale, 3 average, 2 poor and 1 for don't bother. For me to give you 5 stars, I would want it hand delivered on a silk cushion on the same day of purchase.

Oh dear, you may well have ended the ebay career of many a seller. Out of interest has any seller ever contacted you about your low stars? I now have a policy of emailing, as per ebay instructions to me via live chat, asking why the buyer left a defect star , I also report the buyer to ebay if I think it unfair. Too many defect stars can restrict your buyer protection as well- just have a read of the buying boards.

OP, ignore your headline scores, unless you sell virtually nothing, one user leaving a 4 is not likely to move you down a whole 0.1 of a star. That is either a very low star or a series of 4s. Go to your expanded dashboard check there if you have any defects and keep checking for a week ro so as the stars don't update immediately. You can also click on 'trending info' to see where the defects were.

Then if there is a defect, or one turns up from this sale later, you can see this by using the download report option on the expanded dashboard. That shows the item and date of the defect star left, and you can follow that to find the buyer. Firstly block them in case they are serial low star givers, if the feedback was totally positive also report them to ebay using 'report this buyer' option .

mrcol1000

I think Marleyboy has proved what everyone has know all along. The star system does not work as there is no consistency. Some people leave all 5s unless there is a problem. Some people only leave all 5s if the sale was amazing. Many sales you can make amazing but most of them when its a 99p item you are putting in an envelope, its not always that easy. Then as the OP shows, you can go out of your way and still get a 4.

As others have said, just move on with your life. It could have been worse and all 3s

soolin

mrcol1000 wrote: »

I think Marleyboy has proved what everyone has know all along. The star system does not work as there is no consistency. Some people leave all 5s unless there is a problem. Some people only leave all 5s if the sale was amazing. Many sales you can make amazing but most of them when its a 99p item you are putting in an envelope, its not always that easy. Then as the OP shows, you can go out of your way and still get a 4.

As others have said, just move on with your life. It could have been worse and all 3s

It is unlikely that a single buyer leaving 4* could have affected headline stars so badly, I am still concerned there may be a defect star in there. If so whilst eBay won't do anything about it, I still think it worth waiting to see if there is a defect and then reporting and blocking buyer.

Norman_Castle

soolin wrote: »

OP, ignore your headline scores, unless you sell virtually nothing, one user leaving a 4 is not likely to move you down a whole 0.1 of a star. That is either a very low star or a series of 4s. Go to your expanded dashboard check there if you have any defects and keep checking for a week ro so as the stars don't update immediately. You can also click on 'trending info' to see where the defects were.

I'm a private seller who lists stuff when when the ebay pile gets to big. I was really slow to post an item recently due to problems printing a courier label. The buyer was fine but may have left lower stars. Maybe that has combined with lower stars for the recent feedback. My defect score is 0.00%. My recent sales have been larger and more expensive items than previously. Is it possible buyers put more thought into feedback for larger expensive items?.

Half of my recent sales seem to be to buyers who never or rarely leave feedback which is disappointing as its nice to have visible positive feedback for higher value items.

I'm not worried about it but it is annoying when, as a seller, its not realistically possible to do any better.

TonyMMM

marleyboy wrote: »

I would only give 5 stars on an exceptionally fantastic sale. 4 would be a good sale, 3 average, 2 poor and 1 for don't bother. For me to give you 5 stars, I would want it hand delivered on a silk cushion on the same day of purchase.

I broadly use the same system when leaving feedback - to get a 5 something would have to be well above normal expectations.

Pointless having a 1-5 system, and then trying to say 5 represents normal service.

martindow

I can quite understand why buyers sometimes leave lower stars than sellers might want. If you are offered the choice of up to 5 stars some people are quite reasonably going to reserve 5 for something exceptional and 4 if things are as expected. Even 3 is only average.

With five choices it is not surprising that people don't always give top marks for uneventful but satisfactory outcomes.

The problem is that Ebay use the Ofsted grading system where only the top grading is good and everything else is bad. I don't think buyers should be blamed if they give stars on an intuitive basis.

barbiedoll

Even as a buyer, I can see that this is a ridiculous system. I'm the sort of person who would give 5* for everything unless there was a major problem, but my OH is the sort who thinks (quite reasonably) that 3 or 4* is fine for an everyday, bog-standard, 99p sent-in-an-envelope type of transaction. And why wouldn't he? He doesn't sell on ebay so has no idea that his 3* rating could well ruin someone's account.

I only know this because I read this board!