eBay

tomstone607 · ‎11-29-2004

My system is as follows: Send an invoice, wait for payment. Once the payment has arrived, I ship the item, and leave feedback. I do it at this point because now I'm done with the transaction. As a BUYER, they have done everything correctly that they should have done to complete the deal. Now that I've sent it, I can leave feedback and forget about the transaction because it's as good as done.

HOWEVER... now I'm starting to think twice about this. What if they leave me a negative feedback? I have yet to receive one, but I know someone who just wants to cause problems will come around sooner or later. And if I continue leaving feedback in this manner, then I will have no chance of getting the feedbacks mutually removed.

How do you leave your feedback? Do you wait until feedback is received?

Just want to hear what other people are doing.

rd1000 · ‎11-29-2004

I do the same as you. I leave feedback when I ship the order. I don't play the game where "I will leave feedback when you leave feedback". If everyone did that, nobody would have feedback.

I guess I am trusting of people. I haven't had any bad experiences yet.

Rob

shoplineca · ‎11-29-2004

I have seen too many sellers get a PayPal chargeback and negative FB from fraudulent buyers. The seller is out the cash, the merchandise and get a neg after they left the Buyer positive FB, insult on top of injury.

How about shipping an item and the Buyer claims it is not as advertised yet you know what you shipped was exactly as you advertised? You have the left the guy positive FB and yet he is emailing you calling you rip off artist etc.

As far as I am concerned, you are both lucky that you havent been hit yet with the Buyer from hell. But I have read of many sellers with 100% positive FB and a rating of over $3,000 get their first neg and then they get a 2nd and a 3rd.

All I can say is it is going to happen to each of you. It just does, the odds are completely in favour of it happening. You might only get one, or you might get 5 or 6 in a row.

Everyone has their own opinion on how and when to leave FB. I have tried it many different ways and am now 100% happy with leaving FB after the buyer has left me FB.

I feel that a deal is completed, by the Buyer when he confirms that he received my product and was happy with his purchase, the delivery and my service.

Why should I leave positive FB simply because he paid me? What special effort did he make in sending me a PayPal payment after he won the auction?

According to eBay, his winning the bid makes it a contractual obligation. He is contractually obligated to pay me, but I am not contractually obligated to sell to him!

At least with eBay's change in policy, if you leave a retailiatory neg, you can go for mutual removal. Leave your buyer positive FB and he gives you a neg and you will have to wear your neg until it drops off your ratings.

PS there is no right and no wrong method although I believe that eBay's change in policy allowing mutual withdrawls of negs may be a hint that the seller should wait for the Buyer to leave FB first.

Malcolm

momosworld · ‎11-29-2004

When we went to eBay live, we spoke to many of the employees of eBay about this, I would say all of them said, you should leave feedback after the bidder has left you feedback. This is what we state for feedback in our "me" page and in our auctions:

Feedback described by eBay should be given when the "whole" transaction has been completed and not just because the bidder has made a fast payment. We leave positive feedback for every bidder that receives his/her package and is completely satisfied.. Once we receive the positive feedback from the bidder, we will also leave a positive feedback in return to complete the transaction. If there is a problem with the order, we encourage you to email us with the problem and let us take care of it. We appreciate your business very much.

Moez.

bh542 · ‎11-29-2004

I agree with Malcolm and Moez. I always leave feedback after the buyer leaves for me since the buyer pays for the item doesn't mean the transaction is finished. But as a buyer, I leave feedback first.

discountlabelsupplies · ‎11-30-2004

Tomstone, why don't you ask the real question you are digging around. "Is the feedback system to let the community know if a buyer has paid for an order or not".

There are many opionions but I for one take it at face value. Feedback is to either recommend a buyer to other sellers (meaning you would love to do business with them again) or to warn the community of potential problems.

I notice that the last 2 neutrals you received stated you sell crappy cards that are not worth the money. Do you agree? Since I assume you left positive feedback for these buyers you totally agree with them as you have recommended them to the entire Ebay community. Since you have left them positive feedback I can assume that those were wonderful transactions for you and you would gladly deal with them agaid albeit they didn't read the auction description prior to bidding.
But hey...At least they paid quick.

I have many customers in my regular business that paid quickly for an order yet I would never do business with again in a million years nor would I recommend to my mother. Why on earth would I do it on ebay?

discountlabelsupplies · ‎11-30-2004

When I am asked for feedback after payment I do not respond any more. (other questions I respond very quickly and in detail). When I'm asked a second time or the tone is demanding I send the following:

"Thank you so much for your order! We appreciate your business. Once you have received your parcel , if you are happy with our products and services positive feedback is always appreciated and reciprocated". I have been lucky that I have not received a 3rd email after sending that.

shoplineca · ‎11-30-2004

I think that at all times it is important to let reality creap back into your business (not eBay reality but common sense reality) and remember why you are selling here. It is to make money!

Some, I am very certain of are here to get as much positive FB as possible (I have seen this primarily on the US Power Seller board) and that desire often exceeds their desire for income.

We should do what is expected of any retailer and attempt to make a sales transaction go as smoothly as possible however as with anything else, there is a point at which one must call a halt to customer service and ki$$ing a$$.

That is shortly before the time when a customer is unreasonable beyond reason and the cost of completing the transaction costs you money.

Just remember that you cant please everyone. Some people are determined to find fault in everything. Some people are just plain miserable people and can never be happy and some are just downright vicious.

So you will get your negs from the Buyers who set their own rules and their own agendas no matter how hard you try to appease them but if you hold off iving them FB until they leave you theirs, you may have a chance at mutual withdrawl.

At the very least you will have told the eBay communicty exactly what type of Buyer they were.

I would suggest to those who immediately leave positive FB after receiving payment, should you still want to follow that practise, that you may want to exercise some discretion when you think you may have "one of those" buyers and hold off until they have left you FB.

Malcolm

discountlabelsupplies · ‎11-30-2004

I know very few sellers who started off leaving reciprocal feedback only. When this subject comes up generally those sellers who feel it is best to leave reciprocal feedback have been burned by one of the buyers that Malcolm pointed out and now will not leave positive feedback in case the buyer turns out to be a nightmare and expects the seller to bend forward instead of backward to keep them happy.

tomstone607 · ‎11-30-2004

I realize that one day I will get burned doing this the current way that I go about doing it... which is why I asked, to see what the other PowerSellers are doing, this way I'm not the odd one out. If every seller waited for feedback before giving it, I don't think we'd have any problems. If that's the case, then eBay should ghost out the LEAVE FEEDBACK option for sellers until feedback is received, or until the seller reports that the item wasn't paid for. Just an idea.

discountlabelsupplies, The fact that the neutral's I received were quite harsh sounding is fine by me! I have 100+ other recent feedbacks around those 3 neutrals proving that my product is as described. The reason this person said my "cards were crap" could be totally valid. That's because I sell re-packaged cards, in the same quantities that would be sold in stores and whatnot, except these are created by me. Who's to say you're not going to buy a crappy pack of cards in stores? It's all the luck factor, which is always stressed in my auctions. For every amazing pack I give out, someone has to receive a crappy pack, or else I would be losing money... and not making any!

Overall, I believe I'll be switching to the opposite feedback method... I'll wait until the transaction is complete before I leave any feedback.

niko*_* · ‎11-30-2004

http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/pages/feedbacksurvey1105

Check this out for interesting results of a survey held by the e-zine auctionbytes on rating the ebay feedback system.

2hormy · ‎11-30-2004

My opinion is sellers are more vulnerable than buyers. for that reason I ALWAYS leave feedback right after the buyer leave the feedback for me.
That way I avoid feedback extortion from fraudulent buyers.
Good luck to every one!
Daniel

rd1000 · ‎12-01-2004

Well I guess I am totally outnumbered on this one. I feel like a Bush supporter. Oh wait, I am. X-)

You all have made good points. The only negative I have received was unjustified, but I just followed up with my response and it was quickly buried by positive feedback. I guess it is just not a big concern for me. It is too much trouble to keep track of who has left feedback for me, before I leave feedback.

If someone has a problem after the sale, I try to fix it. If they decide to leave a negative, I don't care. I will block them and move on. Hopefully there will always be enough positive to far outweigh the negatives. If I feel it starts to impact sales, then I guess I will have to change policy.

Rob

ospreylinks · ‎12-02-2004

I'm one of the guys that leaves feedback after payment. To date I have been fortunate and I know one day I will run into a nut who I would not be able to satisfy if I walked on water.....

But that is how I choose to do business....

Jeff

weedsellit4u · ‎12-04-2004

Since I'm not happy until the customer is happy I do a bulk feedback after I have received feedback.

Gehres

mereco · ‎12-10-2004

I always used to leave feedback immediately I received payment and shipped the purchase. I found that several times Negatives and Neutrals were left because a buyer had second thoughts about how much they bid (without coercion or pressure from seller) once they received the accurately described and pictured item. I have even had buyers ask for refund or partial refund "or else they will leave a negative" eBay does not have a process to deal with buyers trying to extort.
I have taken to with holding leaving Feedback until after a buyer has responded with feedback or some other way that item is received and transaction completed. In some cases with repeat buyers or items that I know are good value and good sellers I might deviate slightly. I have found that by delaying leaving feedback until I am sure a transaction has been completed I have received several transaction which have received no feedback from the buyer. Remember that both buyers and sellers can be accused leaving tit for tat feedback. I have seen a marked decrease in those spiteful negatives and those annoying neutrals that say and mean nothing.
I will not only continue to delay leaving feedback but will establish a procedure and time frame for doing so. I advise all sellers to do the same until such time as eBay revises its policy on feedback to prevent abuses by questionable buyers. It will not do so because that will reduce potential income for eBay through Square Trade.

scouttech-outfitters · ‎12-13-2004

Nico - Interesting Survey

I used to always leave feedback right after receiving payment. After receiving a negative from a silly customer that expected surround sound from a plastic 600w bookshelf speaker system I decided to start leaving feedback after I have received word from the buyer the item was received and they were happy with their purchase or a while after I know they received the product. This worked well for me until recently when silly people in places in the middle of nowhere (Guam, small town Alaska, etc) left me neutral feedback because they automatically expected priority shipping though they only paid for expedited or very quick delivery despite the fact I warned them shipping anything other than Xpress could take as long as 15 days. Now I only leave feedback after it has been received except for the odd time I feel a really good vibe about a customer.

If a customer sends a polite reminder for feedback after receiving the item I leave feedback willingly, if they demand it in any harsh tone or any way that makes me suspicious I usually tend to avoid leaving them the feedback or ask them to first let me know they were satisfied with the purchase.

The only customer that left me a negative was the only one that I left feedback for on demand and he taught me about the errors of my ways in a rather unkind fashion 😞

The neutrals I have also demanded feedback, I fear had I been the first to leave it for them I would have become victim to their viscious negative leaving nature.

And sometimes you just run into people that dont know what in the world they are doing (such as the silly customer thay left a neutral comment "how do I pay by credit card" whereas I replied in the same neutral manner "by contacting me".

I feel there is no way to completely avoid the negative feedback despite the great customer service we all offer, but this is true of my other businesses as well. There is always the person that will always be dissatisfied even if he were to receive the product for free...lol...at least the option to leave feedback after receiving a positive allows us to keep the eBay scoundrels at bay!

javax.swing · ‎12-13-2004

I'm firmly in the "buyer leaves feedback first" camp.

When I buy, I leave feedback first. When I sell, I don't leave feedback until feedback is left for me.

The latter means I'm less likely to get screwed over, and allows me to leave a negative for buyers who negged me without reason, and then apply for mutual removal (done this once so far...buyer made a mistake leaving negative).

The latter also encourages buyers to leave feedback in the first place. Their rating doesn't go up until mine does.