Thread: eBay feedback - Sellers post first

A buyer can give a negative feedback, they also can screw up your ebay discount by giving you a low rating on shipping and other catagories. The Seller can no longer give negative feedback. Ebay is for the buyer and not the seller who is making the money for ebay. Sort of strange relationship. Everyday ebay looks for more ways to keep the seller from getting all of the discounts, the latest is that you must ship in 1 day( I always do) and you must give 14 day -no question- returns. Getting the numbers is no longer important to me as my fb is 4000+ but I do like to know that it arrived and was in good shape. I do not want for someone to bitch because you charge 10cents more than the actual postage. Many buyers do not know that ebay collects a percentage of the shipping and Pay Pal also collects a percentage and thus a $6.30 cent priority mail charge by the seller nets zero to the seller.

I leave feedback as soon as I receive the item.
That way I am being as fair as I can be about the whole experience.
It also gives us both a chance to rectify any issues with the transaction, if there is any.
Just my $0.02 as a buyer

Originally Posted by sharptonn

If I buy, I wait until the item arrives and am satisfied to leave feedback. If I sell, I wait until the item is recieved and seller has no problems. If a bad situation is encountered, it is best to resolve it and leave no feedback at all. Some buyers delight in getting their money back and still bashing feedback. In a nutshell, it (feedback)seems to not be as important as everyone being satisfied.

As a seller I don't leave feedback until I've received it. I've got 1500 positive individual feedbacks as a buyer and a seller. Early on I left feedback first but having over 100 who never reciprocated changed my mind. I also believe the transaction isn't complete until the buyer expresses their satisfaction with positive feedback.

Originally Posted by Havachat45

I leave feedback as soon as I receive the item.
That way I am being as fair as I can be about the whole experience.
It also gives us both a chance to rectify any issues with the transaction, if there is any.
Just my $0.02 as a buyer

So. If there is a problem, you leave bad feedback before you attempt to get the seller to cheerfully refund your money? How would you feel as the seller?
If you send back and get full refund(shipping included), how would that be a bad experience? Buyers bear some moral responsibility as well. No sale, no feedback, no harm, no foul! IMHO.

Originally Posted by sharptonn

So. If there is a problem, you leave bad feedback before you attempt to get the seller to cheerfully refund your money? How would you feel as the seller?

Yep, I see no problem with that, given the right situation.
If I feel an item has been willfully made out to be what it is not, or if there are grave issues with it that wasn't disclosed, then yessir, I will leave a negative feedback.
How the seller feels about that is no concern of mine.
Returning the product will only allow the seller to pull the same stunt all over again.
So, as long as I feel the amount in question isn't all that high, I'm willing to take that loss.
How else are those kind of sellers ever gonna learn?

Yesterday,I revieved a lot of 7 razors. The description of the razors was accurate but the photo wasnt so great. (basicially listed makers)
I was suprised when I recieved them to see the seller had used sandpaper on a couple of the razors (maybe 240 grit) to take some of the rust off, and ruining the etch on one of them.
I wont be sending them back, but I sure am not entirely happy (one of them was a good score anyways)... what sort of feedback would you guys leave for this item?
I am thinking "item as described", im pretty sure this is a case of me being a neglegent buyer.

I've been in this sort of gray area before, too, and take them on a case by case basis. If the condition was described as used and anything short of mint, excellent, great, whatever, I'd take my lumps and post positive feedback. If you fealt you were mislead and could qualify it, I'd post nuetral and describe the situation in the comment.

Originally Posted by Birnando

Yep, I see no problem with that, given the right situation.
If I feel an item has been willfully made out to be what it is not, or if there are grave issues with it that wasn't disclosed, then yessir, I will leave a negative feedback.
How the seller feels about that is no concern of mine.
Returning the product will only allow the seller to pull the same stunt all over again.
So, as long as I feel the amount in question isn't all that high, I'm willing to take that loss.
How else are those kind of sellers ever gonna learn?

I have bought tons of stuff on ebay. I cannot recall but a few times when some seller has tried to "pull a stunt" on me. Sellers know they must stay true to the facts as they know them, or feedback and sales will suffer. Learning to ask questions and look and read several times has helped me eliminate misrepresented items. Not all sellers know anything of what they are selling and some admit it on the listings and some become obvious as they describe it. In those cases, I feel I cannot tust their descriptions, but their photos, if good, will make my decision. If photos are bad, I pass. If it looks shady, I also pass. If it looks shady AND sounds shady, it probably is! That in it'self tends to eliminate the need to leave bad feedback, for me, anyway! Out!

Getting back to my original point, the problem I have with the seller waiting until the transaction is complete, including the buyer leaving feedback, is that the buyer's satisfaction and their willingness to work with the seller on any remedy they might sugest is not basis for the feedback.

For example: a month or two ago I bought a pair of razors from a mom and pop antique shop on eBay. I sniped them at auction end and immediately paid using PayPal. The seller listed three days handling time. She didn't mark the item shipped, she didn't send any sort of message to me, and the package arrived (from Ohio to Pennsylvania) a week later. In the mean time I had sent a message making sure all was well. This was not a negative transaction to me, but there were plenty of things that could have been improved. I left positive feedback, I didn't ding the sellers shipping or communication stars out of sympathy for the effect that would have on their discounts and selling frequency, and I said something about better communication and shipping times on her positive feedback, which I left first. She left nuetral feedback for me and wrote that I took a long time to pay. I wrote her a long message to explain what was wrong with the transaction and that she outright lied in my feedback. She replied that "a long time" is relative, and since I ad been unreasonable in my shipping time expectations, she was unreasonable about her paying time expectations.

See the problem? Whether she or I was in the wrong, I paid within 30 seconds of auction close. I should have received positive feedback. My expectation of her communication or shipping time or my comment about it have nothing at all to do with the execution of my part of the transaction.

Originally Posted by DFriedl

See the problem? Whether she or I was in the wrong, I paid within 30 seconds of auction close. I should have received positive feedback. My expectation of her communication or shipping time or my comment about it have nothing at all to do with the execution of my part of the transaction.

I would report her to ebay with all of the correspondence included. I don't know if that would get your neutral removed , or cause her any consequences, but I would give it a try. People like her are why ebay doesn't allow sellers to leave negative feedback at all anymore.