A neutral... great...

StaffsSW

"Despatched quickly and no problems with seller!"
And a lovely grey blob.

So I've just phoned the buyer, and spoke to his missus.

"There was nothing wrong with the clock, everything was fine"
"So why a neutral?"
"Well that's Ok isn't it, the sale was uneventful and we had no problems"
"It's a non-positive in the eyes of eBay"
"What does that mean?"
"It indicates to ebay that you are a dissatisfied customer, and could potentially penalise me"
"Oh I'm sorry, but the batteries were quite weak when it arrived"
"I must have missed your email about that, I can send replacements"
"No it's OK, we didn't email, we've bought some more"
"Would you like me to reimburse you the cost for the batteries?"
"No it's fine, we've given the clock as a present to our son, but he's broken it already, besides he said it was not loud enough"
"Would you consider withdrawing the feedback if you were satisfied I had done everything I could?"
"What do you mean, feedback can't be removed?"
"No, the comment stays, but the grey blob will be removed"
"I'll just leave it as it is thanks, but I'll check with my Husband to see what he says"

Is this the type of buyer that "improving the buying experience" attracts?

I haven't left them feedback, but an "educational neg" may well be in order.

kevinyork

NEG EM!!!!! While you still can. A classic tale of how joyous dealing with eBay buyers can be.

DGJsaver

You PHONED a customer to talk about a neutral feedback ?

Havent you got anything better to do ?

Millionaire

DGJsaver wrote: »

You PHONED a customer to talk about a neutral feedback ?

I was thinking the same thing.

However I would be annoyed if someone gave me a neutral if the transaction went smoothly.

Jo_F

I got my first neutural the other week, had sold a cd, buyer paid the next day with an e-cheque. So I mailed him and said that in line with paypal guidance I would be sending the cd once the cheque cleared.

Got a notification on the Tuesday afternoon that the e-chq had cleared (yep half day at the post office), next morning got an email off the buyer wanting to know where his cd was, so explained that the e-chq had only cleared the afternoon before and the cd had gone in the post that morning.

Then after he got it, left a neut, seems the cd case was broken (if he had told me then I would have arranged to send him a new case) and he complained about the time taken for delivery.

I left him a neg, explaining that the hold up was waiting for his payment to clear and he had unrealistic expectations on delivery.

For a 99p CD!

alfiesmum

I suppose if the buyer leaves neutral as the norm you could point this out in your response. Say that despite it going very well and the buyer being happy, they left neutral as they're unaware of eBay feedback. Something like that maybe? Then potential buyers that may be that bothered by you having a neutral could look up what feedback this person leaves.

Or you could give them a negative, and when they're bothered by that, offer to do a mutual withdrawal then? I think that cancels out feedback for both parties (?)

I'm dreading my first one - don't know why, but I'm going to take it so personally I just know I am!

alfiesmum
x

Lizalu

So you'd leave a clearly inexperienced buyer a negative simply beacuse they gave you a neutral. Isn't that quite petty?
Sorry, i don't want to cause an argument, but I really wouldn't be bothered whether someone left me a neutral or a positive

alfiesmum

Lizalu wrote: »

So you'd leave a clearly inexperienced buyer a negative simply beacuse they gave you a neutral. Isn't that quite petty?
Sorry, i don't want to cause an argument, but I really wouldn't be bothered whether someone left me a neutral or a positive

Neutral and positive can sound the same to some, but eBay sees neutral the same as a negative. And any seller performance counts all neutrals as negatives, so going against the seller. And if the seller hasn't done anything wrong, it's not really on.

furrybloke

I just got a neutral for a motorbike. They turned up found a scratch, told my son that they wanted £30 off & like a fool he said OK & gave me a Neutral for more damage than described.

seashore321

I didn't get a neutral but a newbie marked me down on star ratings for item as described because it was better than described!
Go figure.

StaffsSW

Lizalu wrote: »

So you'd leave a clearly inexperienced buyer a negative simply beacuse they gave you a neutral. Isn't that quite petty?
Sorry, i don't want to cause an argument, but I really wouldn't be bothered whether someone left me a neutral or a positive

To answer two points - I did ring them, not because "I have nothing better to do", but rather, unlike many sellers I take my customer service quite seriously, and given that the content of the comment suggest all was positive, I wanted to know more about why a neutral was left.

A neutral is seen as a "non-positive" transaction by eBay, and there is no difference between that and a neg. From the middle of May, a neutral will also pull down the feedback percentage, where currently it doesn't. Although I have the volume of sales to keep me well over the 5% dissatisfaction rate, 1 neutral feedback will be enough to get some sellers suspended if their sales volume is low. By making a call to the buyer to discuss the issue, I have now made them aware of how a neutral can be damaging, even if they do not see it themselves. I could have left them to it and negged them without any further discussion, making them more likely to leave neutrals or negs with impunity in future. If you were one of these low volume sellers and that same neutral comment suspended you for 30 days, I'm pretty sure you would be seething.

The buyer has a feedback of 60, dating back to 2003, so they are from inexperienced, although maybe not a regular user. I've followed up the neutral on my own feedback page, and as yet I have not left feedback for the buyer, however it can hardly be described as a "positive" transactional experience for me, so why should I not leave "non-positive" feedback for the buyer?

We'll see what the husband says, if anything, about the situation, but my feedback will be a truthful reflection of my opinion on how the transaction went.

Isn't that what feedback is for?