4 vs 5 star rating

[dusty4s4]

I am constantly guided by sellers to leave them 5 stars... and they say that they are penalized if we do not leave 5 stars.

My thoughts are GOOD is good, (4 Stars)....... bet Excellent is MUCH BETTER than good (5 Stars)!

if I buy something on EBay I am expecting it to g through without a hitch... that is what the business proposition is...

I buy, I pay quickly, and the seller in turn ships quickly and the product is delivered, with no surprises... to me that is good.. 4 Big Stars

so what is excellent you might ask... I buy, something goes wrong... and the seller either crawls into the woodwork, or...

he steps up to the plate and hits a home run, by fixing it for US!

As the seller, you want me to come back and do business with you, if you do not fix the problem, then you are NOT GOOD.

However if you step up and fix the problem with a minimal amount of discomfort on my part,

you are an excellent seller, and deserve and excellent rating!

To me that is 5 BIG STARS.

My thinking is this leaves some incentive for the seller to fix the problem...

If there is no incentive...he will just fall off the face of the earth and then I have to deal with EBay or PayPal to negotiate a refund..... ZERO BIG FRIGGEN STARS!

I have has some sad experiences buying from China lately, maybe it is the language barrier, or the culture, but if something goes wrong my experience is they just disappear, and then I have to deal with PayPal or EBay to get the problem fixed.

But as a general rule, I do not leave negative feedback...

my mama taught me that if you can't say something nice about someone you do not say anything at all! LOL

But I do swear a lot under my breath! LOL

[pierrelebel]

" they say that they are penalized if we do not leave 5 stars."

That is correct.  eBay wants sellers to receive "5" from their happy buyers.  Anything less indicates less than complete satisfaction and sellers are penalized.

[mater721]

"But as a general rule, I do not leave negative feedback..."

Do you leave negative feedback if it is a bad transaction?

Other buyer rely on feedback scores as part of their decision to buy or not.

[afantiques]

You'd think a 5 point scale would have a midpoint for 'ordinary' with a 1 for horrible and a 5 for excellent.

Anywhere else in the universe except ebay.

Ebay has a five point scale where anything below 5 by and large harms the seller.

[femmefan1946]

If a seller's DSRs drop to 4.3, she may find her fees rise, her placement in search drops, the number and value of her listings is restricted and if she dips below 4.3, she may not be allowed to list at all.

So.

BTW, if swearing under your breath stops being effective, my Haitian friend Fleur taught me a little trick with a black rooster, a cigar and a bottle of rum.

[patken123]

"However if you step up and fix the problem with a minimal amount of discomfort on my part,

you are an excellent seller, and deserve and excellent rating!

To me that is 5 BIG STARS"

The seller who sent you the item quickly and as  described/answered all your questions also deserves a 5 star rating,why should they be put through a test to prove to the buyer that they are great when the make everything go smoothly in the first place?

I would give them both 5 stars but the one that "fixed the problem with a minimal amount of discomfort on my part,"gets acknowledged for "going the extra mile" ,in my fed back.

[jt-libra]

---

@dusty4s4 wrote:

if I buy something on EBay I am expecting it to g through without a hitch... that is what the business proposition is...

I buy, I pay quickly, and the seller in turn ships quickly and the product is delivered, with no surprises... to me that is good.. 4 Big Stars

I don't understand your way of thinking.  As far as I'm concerned, from the viewpoint of both seller and buyer, that situation warrants 5 Stars.  Are you only going to leave 4 stars in the event that something goes wrong in the future?  You have the item in your hands, there are no surprises, the seller has fulfilled their obligation to your satisfaction ... why only a 4?

so what is excellent you might ask... I buy, something goes wrong... and the seller either crawls into the woodwork, or...

he steps up to the plate and hits a home run, by fixing it for US!

Same scenario, except this time the item is in your hands but there are surprises (not as described; not working, etc.).  Then you don't leave any feedback until you contact the seller and see what the response/resolution is.  Depending on the response, you can leave as many or few stars as you feel is warranted.

My thinking is this leaves some incentive for the seller to fix the problem..

If you have left no feedback or ratings, awaiting the seller's response, that's incentive.  The seller knows very well that his/her DSR's will be trashed if the issue isn't resolved to your satisfaction.

Maybe I'm missing something here but I hope there aren't too many other buyers who think the way you do.

---