Thread: EBAY--When exactly is negative feedback called for?

I'm not sure so I thought I would ask you.
You all (mostly) seem to be pretty level headed and after the last guy had a blow up over neutral,I thought I might think this through a little.

Let's say you got an item.
There was a poor description stating that the seller didn't know who made it due to a lack of labels.
You ask a question and get " I see these all the time and that's how I know what it is."
You get the item, and it is clearly labeled.
Now, I'm not saying it's a bad item, but the seller said they didn't know who the maker was even though it was clearly stamped in 1/4 inch tall letters and writing covered most of the surface.
BUT if the seller had disclosed the maker you wouldn't have bought it.

So you aren't empty handed, but you have something that you wouldn't have purchased had you known what it was, and are having a real hard time believing that the seller could miss something so obvious.

The label is so clear that a person would have to be blind to miss it, but they claimed it unmarked (actually they specified BOX LID MISSING and did not address marking on the item itself) and you are suspicious that they intentionally omitted information in their description.

never mind which item, this is a discussion of principles

When do you leave negative feedback?

With Paypal you should be able to get your $ back. If you want to punish the seller for being misleading and putting you through the hassle that is a judgement call on whether they deserve the negative and whether you want to warn the next guy.

Agreed. The item was not as described, so get your money back. Then leave negative feedback. I have no patience for liars. They bank on the fact that most people won't bother.

there are separate principles here.

the first is the concept that people who lie to customers should be financially punished for misleading them.

the other is how to warn others that this is a seller who's word is not to be trusted.

The eBay feedback system is broken and I don't know how to fix it. Their "fix" seems to have made less useful than before.

The seller's answer sounds a lot like one I got regarding an unmarked hone.

I followed the auction, but resolved not to bid.

If hes willing to resolve the situation give him the benifit of the doubt. If hes not willing to resolve without a dispute blast him. I have had to resolve situations before(things happen) and if they can be amicably resolved, I still leave positive feedback. I think the negative feedback is best for those who leave no doubt about their malicious behavior.

Originally Posted by nun2sharp

If hes willing to resolve the situation give him the benifit of the doubt. If hes not willing to resolve without a dispute blast him. I have had to resolve situations before(things happen) and if they can be amicably resolved, I still leave positive feedback. I think the negative feedback is best for those who leave no doubt about their malicious behavior.

I think this is the right idea ^ if he/she is understanding and accepts the return/you can work something out then I feel they deserve the good feedback because it would suck to go through the work of satisfying a person (even if the mistake was their own fault) and then still get back review...aka make their friendly coorporation worth their while.

tough call.
others deserve a warning of such BS.
on the other hand, he should be more than happy to have it returned with full refund.
i ordered somethingadvertised as mint condition, in unopened factory box, the package came dented, and kinda open, it being for a collector didnt suit my purposes, i contacted seller and he sent me another, better wrapped, and refunded return shipping too.

to me this sounds like he flat out BS'd. id try to get a refund and leave neutral feedback, say the truth, he didnt know the manufacturer even though it was clearly labeled.
certainly would have ****ed me off though

there is no guilt involved in feedback, if someone screws up a transaction, thats what feedback is for, thats why everyone is sporting 100 percent feedback on ebay now, because everyone takes it personal and are to Soft.
ill leave negative feedback on a bad transaction so fast your eyes will spin.

if you can get your money back, neutral, if not, negative For Sure. like with capital letters and exclamation marks.
at the point of not shipping what u bought, its definitly a bad transaction, his feedback should reflect it. hell survive.

if you dont atleast mark it as neutral and leave honest feedback, theres no way of knowing whether or not ppl are deliberately playing dumb.

Originally Posted by The0ctopus

there is no guilt involved in feedback

True, but there are serious implications for sellers. If someone has less than 5 stars in all feedback areas, then any items they list get pushed to the bottom of the search results.

So even if you give them positive feedback, you can really mess up their sales if you give honest info. Oh, and I just realised - "Sellers will not be able to see the detailed seller ratings you leave."

I don't think it's a fair system, and users don't understand it enough. I once gave someone 4/5 for delivery time because the item took a few days longer than it could have done. It wasn't a problem, I was just giving technically accurate information. But I might have messed up their future sales. I felt pretty bad when I found out.

Nowadays I always give 5/5 star feedback when I'm 100% happy how it went. It may not be accurate feedback, but it achieves the desired result.

Originally Posted by Rajagra

I don't think it's a fair system, and users don't understand it enough. I once gave someone 4/5 for delivery time because the item took a few days longer than it could have done. It wasn't a problem, I was just giving technically accurate information. But I might have messed up their future sales. I felt pretty bad when I found out.

I think the system is more fair now. I don't see anything wrong with leaving HONEST feedback. If you don't leave honest feedback, then the better sellers cannot rise to the top and the poorer sellers get no incentive to do better.

Regarding the hone, it's a Carborundum 103. That is a very good barber hone. You have $27.50 into it now, put it up for sale in the Classifieds for $30 and you can walk away free and clear. Then you can leave any feedback you see fit.

Originally Posted by Rajagra

. But I might have messed up their future sales. I felt pretty bad when I found out.


Nowadays I always give 5/5 star feedback when I'm 100% happy how it went. It may not be accurate feedback, but it achieves the desired result.

those stars dont hardly have ANY effect, especially not after a few ratings.

dont be ridiculous. thats what the feedback system is in place for. after 90 days or so its gone anyways
also the seller can visibly respond to your feedback, and itll have a big note right by your feedback if seller chooses to do so. such as " had oppurtunity to return, chose not to"
not a big deal.
ofcourse you give 5/5 when your 100 percent happy, who wouldnt, but if a package from the next city over takes 6 weeks to arrive, and is postmarked for 2 days ago, there feed back should reflect it.

this seller deserves atleast neutral. period. it wasnt a 5 star transaction. that means everything goes as planned, everyones happy, everything is as it should be.

god. this is why horrible nonsense sellers on ebay have 100 percent and 5 stars.sellers berate people who leave honest feedback, " oh you ruined my business, you SOB,you took me from 99.98 percent to 99.97 percent! blablablabal" its nonsense.
They ruin there business by not being professional, you dont ruin it by leaving honest feedback.
he can give you feedback as a seller too. i had 1 negative on my account that said " hastily left negative feedback, didnt even try to resolve the problem" it disappeared after a while without me even doing anything, im now back to 35+ all positives.(it was a completely non functional. poorly packaged, last minute christmas present, no way to reslove)

as you said, there shouldnt be problems for me to fix and then pretend it all went OK. hence feedback.

and the whole pushing the ads to the bottom thing is silly. you can sort them by whatever method you choose. who uses default searches.