Thread: Weird trend on e-bay

Originally Posted by Wildtim

I guess I have never understood the whole buyer feedback thing. If you offer something for sale you are taking money. If you get your price paid you ship and it was positive from your point of view. This is how it is supposed to work. Why do we expect praise or why does anyone value the praise we have recieved for it? What difference does it make?

I think the idea is is a feable attempt at being able to tell if the person your dealing with is someone who might either take your money and run or win and auction and disappear without paying. Its better than nothing.

My other point to those that think they should get positive feedback as soon as the item is paid for ,I have to disagree. The transaction is not over until the item is received by the buyer. As a buyer it would appear to be an open and shut case that you paid timely and deserve positive feedback immediately however as a sometimes seller I can tell you from personal experience that there are alot of nutjobs and unreasonable people out there that will attempt to use the threat of negative feedback to try and extort a partial refund out of you. If you give them positive feedback immediately your at their mercy.

Even though this seldom happens it only takes one experience like this to adjust your attitude in this matter.

I've had a few instant feedbacks upon payment too lately, but as a seller I don't do that and here's why:
I do a blanket money back guarantee on everything I sell on ebay, so I don't consider the deal done until the buyer notifies me, usually via feedback, that they're happy with the transaction. Also, some buyers are lazy about posting feedback, and won't bother to do it if the seller posts it first on receipt of payment.

For whatever reasons the practice of buyers posting feedback first has become the norm and I'm OK with that as either a buyer or seller.

Its pretty sad that most sellers require that you give them feedback to increase their rating before they will give you feedback, it is almost cheating.

yep I have had a few of late ,about a dozen. it is always a nice surprise. it says to me that the seller is honest and has confidence in his or her product
Kind regards Peter

When I sell on eBay I always give feedback upon payment--that's when the buyer's commitment has been fulfilled.

As a purchaser I don't give feedback until the goods are in hand and I'm satisfied with the transaction.

What bugs me is when sellers leave negative feedback only because you've left them negative feedback first

Originally Posted by FiReSTaRT

Something weird happened with two items that I recently bought: Both sellers gave me a positive UPON PAYMENT I remember before you had to give them a positive first and then beg for your cookie until they finally had mercy on your poor soul and gave you that positive. Is this just a freak occurrence or the e-bay sellers suddenly went honest?

Ive noticed that that trend is stopping, most used to do that as soon as you paid but now its like you first then the seller does, shite if you ask me, the seller should be quick off the mark as you did pay quickly as I tend to do...i sold something for a friend and wrote what I needed to for the sale at the bottom of my ebay page and I asked to be contacted immediately after the auction was won, he didnt so I became a little aggitated and then he responded with abuse...i ate humble pie as i was getting 25% of the total sell. He never leaves feedback for anyone as his rating flew up then when I checked his feedback for others it blew me away, how can anyone be that rude and ungrateful, ok its your own money your spending but its nice to get a comment left saying it was good or smooth, nice doing bussiness etc.

Manners cost bugger all, people that dont leave feedback after a good sale piss me off.

im gonna go calm down now...simon...rant over...lol

Originally Posted by coully

Manners cost bugger all, people that dont leave feedback after a good sale piss me off.

My experience as a seller has been that about 50% of buyers won't bother to leave feedback if I go first and give them a positive upon payment.

One in particular was really frustrating - I'd sold a couple of RAM sticks that worked fine in the buyer's PC if used by themselves but problems occurred when he used them with his existing smaller RAM sticks. I ended up researching his MB tech specs for him and walking him through a BIOS update that fixed the problem. Once everything was updated and working I never heard from him again and never got any return feedback out of the deal.

I used to feel the same way about this as some others who have posted on this - that the buyer's responsibility is fulfilled upon prompt payment and shipping information, and resented sellers who wouldn't post feedback as soon as that was completed. After gaining some perspective from the seller's side of the issue I can understand why the practice of buyers posting feedback first has become the norm.

Since I generally buy, rather than sell, on ebay, I feel that once I've paid, my duties vis-a-vis the transaction are completed. However, I also always leave feedback.

I'm a bit miffed at one seller, who has had money from me for a month and has been very unresponsive about giving it back in light of the fact that the item they listed is now out of stock. They've gotten a few recent negatives for the same thing, but since the overall feeback rating was high, I took the risk. Unfortunately for them, they probably can't use their standard "rookie ebayer" response, since I have 84 feedback rating and have been a member since 1999.