There are different opinions on this, and I know some books on eBay do recommend waiting for the buyer to leave FB first. I've always used this approach, and have usually had about 90% or better FB on transactions. But then I sell in a completely different sort of category from someone like Pierre -- the potential for dissatisfaction or personal, subjective views about an item are much higher when you sell clothing and vintage articles.
However, over the past year, and especially the last 5 or 6 months, my FB to transaction ratio has declined. It's been about 40% - 50% since January. Something is going on, and I'm not certain what. I've changed nothing substantial otherwise in my store or selling practices, in fact I've lowered most shipping costs and have regular sales.
My guess is that more and more people (especially younger people) are using mobile phones to search and purchase on eBay, and are just not bothering to go back and post FB.
I'm considering as an experiment to try leaving immediate FB upon payment over a period of 2 or 3 months and see if the pattern changes. If it doesn't, I'll definitely go back to my "full completion of transaction" approach. Leaving immediate FB does close some doors that you may otherwise want to leave open.
You will have to decide what works best for the type of items you sell. If you're in a category where subjective satisfaction could be an issue, you might want to take the author's advice, at least for a while. Incidentally, I put a little thank-you slip in with every item shipped, that I'd appreciate FB if they are pleased with the transaction, and that I'll reciprocate.
I know eBay has making some effort to remind buyers to leave FB. Ultimately though, my view is that you never, ever want to cajole buyers into leaving FB -- the ones who do so of their own accord are the ones you want. Besides, for a seller it's the DSRs that are critical. I'm just pleased with the FB I do receive, and don't try to worry too much about the missing responses.
