Could you imagine People chose stores to shop at like sellers on ebay

[brandeentertainment]

So I have heard alot of people say I will not buy off anyone will less then 99,5% positive feedback or in that range ...

1000 strange why people might leave you a neg makes it tougher too like I had 1 guy leave me a Neg 6 days after they bought item with a sad face on it ... No contact no reason ...

Anyways so 99.5 ok so if you had 1005 customer and 5 left negs so now someone will not buy off you because your at 99.5...

I worked in retail for Many Many Many years and I can tell you if any retail store only dissappointed 5 out of 1005 customers they would be AMAZING THE BEST OF THE BEST ....

Take walmart for example They have 1000's of disappointed customers everyday yet everyone still goes there ...

My brother is the Manager of the local futureshop  and when I asked him he laughed and said even with the most knowledgeable staff and the kindest people it is peoples lack of research and or knowledge that leads to there dissapointment most o the time and also in short form said if they please 1000 out of 1005 customers he might love his job a little more...

So now why do you think people on ebay have such high standards...

Is it more expectations, Lack of Knowledge, Lack of attention to detail, Lack of trust, what do you think...

[pierrelebel]

"I had 1 guy leave me a Neg 6 days after they bought item with a sad face on it ..:"

That was a year ago. That negative will go away in a few days.

It is impossible to compare shopping in stores when buyers see the actual merchandise and online where buyers do not.

When buying online from LL Bean or many other large retailers, you more or less know what to expect (both products and service) based on the reputation and experience of the seller.

However, when dealing with relatively small individual sellers on eBay - they are unknown to buyers - and buyers rely to a large degree on their reputation, as represented by their feedback rating and DSRs (stars).

That is the only system buyers have until someone comes up with a better idea.

For a seller to claim "he is the best" is meaningless to buyers.  When all buyers tell others "he is the best", then it has some value!

[nuvistors]

 worked in retail for Many Many Many years and I can tell you if any retail store only dissappointed 5 out of 1005 customers they would be AMAZING THE BEST OF THE BEST ....

Take walmart for example They have 1000's of disappointed customers everyday yet everyone still goes there ...

Retail in our area seem to be able to satisfy customers.    They have nowhere near 5 in 1005 unhappy customers.  Maybe 5 in 10005.     You must be in a very bad area where people are extremely difficult to satisfy.

[brandeentertainment]

I bet if you checked out the returns and refunds and was behind the counter all day you would see what i am talking about...Of Course Some places are better then others ..

When you got to an auto shop usually not happy probably paying some money more likely to not be happy ..

Go to a salon getting yer hair done and yer nails did probably couldn't be upset if you tried..

I live up in northern ontario and if you have been you will know some of the friendlist people in Canada up here ... 15 minutes conversations with total stranger while doing groceries LOL ...

When buying online from LL Bean or many other large retailers, you more or less know what to expect (both products and service) based on the reputation and experience of the seller.

Don't agree completely on that one Larger ONLINE companies tend to take awhile to fix anything with someone who you can barely understand on the phone trying to help you ... I think a large part of bummed out customers is setting Expectations before they even know what to expect other then they must be good because there a huge chain .. ..

Boston pizza is a good example Huge chain well known well respected I thought let's do it ... Food Was great Prices WOW I did not expecty that for a semi fast food joint the prices were crazy so I was not to happy about that at all .. I asked why are your prices so high compared to your competitors .. The answer from the well known well respected establishment ..THAT"S JUST THE WAY IT IS ... My expectations were a little to high so because of that I THE customer set myself up to be disaapointed

However, when dealing with relatively small individual sellers on eBay - they are unknown to buyers - and buyers rely to a large degree on their reputation, as represented by their feedback rating and DSRs (stars).

100% agree to that

[i*m-still-here]

IMO.................... 

I think that you grossly overestimate the value that FB has for buyers in general.

Perhaps you just take note the ones who say they are demanding and are not even aware of the rest because they are not vocal.

For example, if buyers rated FB that highly, most sellers from China would be out of business.

The fact it that they stick around and amass huge FB scores even though a lot of the FB is NFB.

In addition, I've watched and followed a handful of sellers....... 10 or more...... closely over the past ten years and their FB varies a lot from seller to seller.

All, regardless of % of PFB, are extremely successful sellers $ wise.

That's true in spite of the fact that some are known to be very difficult sellers with very poor service.

It's also very common to see a seller come on with very low or almost no FB offering very expensive items which get snapped up in no time at all.  In these cases it's the item that sells, and the seller and FB have nothing to do with it.

Yes, the extreme lows matter on the whole, but even in those cases if the item is right it will sell and FB takes a back seat to item desirability.

Perhaps for your category these things matter, but that is not true for all categories.

IMO that is.

[puckstopshere]

You should try being a supplier to McDonalds. 

For chicken, beef and fish products, they expect no more than one bone complaint per million units sold.  Even if you get one complaint two months in a row, you will be answering questions.

[puckstopshere]

As a buyer, feedback is important to me. 

I will even go so far as to check out the reason someone got a recent negative or neutral.

It can sometimes be an indicator.  Sometimes sellers lose interest and relax their standards. 

Sometimes sellers are too successful.  They end up not being able to service their orders properly.  They can get into a "rush state and make errors.

As a seller, I take feedback seriously.  It drives me crazy when I get a neutral or negative that I didn't deserve. 

Great feedback is also not always a good thing.  I once bought a large lot of cards from a guy.  Cost me almost $200.  The lot was described carefully, and in a way that lead me to believe I was getting a lot more than I actually got.  The description was not totally false, just very misleading.  (Buyer beware).  When I looked into his massive feedback, I found that he put together one of these lots about once every six months.  Because he had a large positive feedback, the occasional negative was no big deal.  Each negative I read was the exact same complaint that I had.  I got garbage for my money, and so did they.

[pierrelebel]

" I asked why are your prices so high compared to your competitors"

As a shareholder of Boston Pizza Royalties Income Fund, I can answer that:

the owners want to make more money! It is that simple. 🙂 

http://tmx.quotemedia.com/quote.php?qm_symbol=BPF.UN 

When dining out, you will find all types of establishments offering different budgets, often related to the quality of the food they serve and the service provided. Boston Pizza will be closer to the top than the bottom. 

Different strokes for different folks.

[salesgroupcanada]

Some customers just don't understand that unless your a huge eBay Seller. You got a daytime job. I got feedback from some person saying I'm hard to communicate with because she opened up a case saying she never received the item (after 10 days when she already had it or someone in her household took it).

She then I guess felt guilty when I refunded the money and tried to repay me the next day. I replied 2 hrs after I got off work saying that she has to go strictly through paypal but put in transaction # for the note.

"Hard to communicate with"

lol, u tried claiming that you never received the item when you already did

[almond_t]

That 99.5 ( or thereabouts!) threshold, while attractive to buyers, is actually pretty meaningless to use as the ultimate criteria to buy/NOT buy, unless you take each situation into consideration.    A couple of untimely, and possibly undeserved negatives, can threaten the seller's sales opportunities, but in my opinion ( which doesn't count for much;) ) should be overlooked, if overall your gut feeling is 'this seller deserved better'.  Or..if it's obvious the seller ran into an impossible-to-please customer or two...etc.  

The words in a seller's feedback speak louder than his percentage.  And so do his (calm and factual) responses.

I will still  buy from a seller if I feel confident that particular issues he has had don't/won't apply to a subsequent transaction or to me personally.  And my strategy hasn't let me down, so far.