Who Leaves FEEDBACK First: Buyer or Seller?

[momcqueen]

As part of our discussion on Handling Fees yesterday (which I claimed in my opening statement was the most divisive topic among ebay members) it was mentioned that Feedback -- specifically -- Who Should Leave Feedback First: Buyer or Seller? was, in fact, more hotly debated. (Here you go, recped!)

I have to agree. And a timely query.

My rate of Feedback Received stands at five of 20 within the past 90 days. That's one in four, or only 25 per cent of buyers leaving feedback for me. (Yes, this summer was unusually sloooooow for business.) In contrast, I leave feedback for buyers 100 per cent of time on shipment. I don't have it set up to leave feedback automatically on payment because I like to add personal touches myself such as saying 'thank you' in the buyer's natural language if they are overseas. Or 'welcome to eBay' if they are new. Or 'It was great to meet you' if they are a Local Pickup buyer. 

That being said, I have noticed what seems to me to be a correlation between Feedback Received and new sales which makes me think that having someone come to my profile to leave feedback boosts my Best Match relevancy for the next person coming along to browse. I have two feedbacks left for me this month which, I think, makes me look like a wallflower at the ball. 

As a concept, feedback is a hot topic. Buyers tend to think they deserve positive feedback for submitting payment when virtually any seller will agree that a transaction doesn't end until they know that the buyer won't contest it for some reason or another. Therefore, a seller may feel the buyer doesn't 'deserve' positive feedback until Day 59 Minute 59 after purchase. Oddly, there is no automatic setting which lets us leave those feedbacks en masse at that moment. What would it read? 'Great buyer, no troubles', I guess.

There are sellers who still argue they deserve the right to leave Negative feedback for buyers. 

There are buyers who don't think Negative feedback for a seller goes far enough and would be happy if ebay let them sue for poor product or service and then burn down their house for good measure. 

Personally, I think feedback for a buyer should not be rated the same as Feedback for a seller. I'd propose that Buyers get a blue dot and leave the greens, greys and reds for sellers. By all means, continue the recognition for buyers but it's silly to think that paying for something is an accomplishment equal to successfully pleasing the person who bought it. 

Asking for a Feedback revision is as pleasant as dental surgery without anaesthesia. (At least in my experience.)

Some members argue that feedback should be altogether abolished.

There is really no end to the discussion on feedback, is there?

For the record, here are some of the links from ebay on it (in no particular order of importance):

http://pages.ebay.ca/help/policies/feedback-removal.html

http://pages.ebay.ca/services/forum/feedback.html?ssPageName=comm:f:f:CA

http://pages.ebay.ca/help/feedback/detailed-seller-ratings.html

http://pages.ebay.ca/help/tutorial/feedbacktutorial/intro.html

http://pages.ebay.ca/help/feedback/revise-feedback.html

http://pages.ebay.ca/services/forum/new.html

Please fell free to add others. I'm certain I missed a few.

What do you think about feedback? 

What policy do you follow for leaving feedback for buyers? What do you like or dislike? How would you improve the feedback system? In a perfect world, what if anything would you change? Have you had good or bad experiences with requests for revising defects and/or feedback removal by calling ebay Customer Service? Do you agree or disagree with the changes made to the Fall Seller Update in 2015 that eliminated Neutrals and Negatives as a source of seller defects?

The floor is yours.

[purpleziggy434]

Good morning

I leave feedback as soon as payment is received.

I enclose a thank you card with a note for every purchase.Many years ago when I was just a buyer I received a few of these and thought what a kind gesture !

99 percent of my buyers leave feedback.

If they choose not to leave feedback I am okay with that.

Thanks and have a great day.

[fashionoutletdeal]

Hello i leave a feedback after when i tracked the package and see that is delivered.We also sent a greeting card with the purchased item.Unfortunately one of four buyers leave us a feedback.We cant force the customer to leave a feedback.So we are happy with what we have.We had  only once bad experience but then eBay step for us because we didnt do anything wrong but the buyer left us a bad feedback.We do not have written to ask the buyers to leave us a feedback because this is their right.Will be very helpful and appreciated but we need to accept things the way they are.

Thank you for the nice topic and have a great day

[momcqueen]

Greeting cards are a nice idea. I add a personal message to a packing slip as well as my business card and a free gift. The free gift is relatively modest and depends on what exactly I can fit into the shipping container without increasing its weight into the next bracket. The business cards are a new addition, I didn't have any printed for the first 3.5 years for some reason. But cards are even nicer. Great idea. 

My packing slips always read something to the effect of:

Thank you for choosing McQueen and Mo Mater! Your __________ shipped SAME-DAY within ___ hours of payment (at cost with NO handling fees added) via CANADA POST EXPEDITED PARCEL SERVICE which has a delivery estimate of _______ business days, not including the day it is received by the post office for processing, weekends or holidays. When your order arrives, please let us know if there is anything that we may do to increase your satisfaction with this transaction. McQueen and Mo Mater aims to provide each buyer with five-star service so if you feel that we have missed this mark, please let us know before you leave feedback and we will make it so. Thank you and have a great day! - Maureen

p.s. We added a little something extra to your parcel which could ship at no additional cost to you as a thank-you gift with purchase. Your purchase is very much appreciated. McQueen and Mo Mater hopes to hear from you again.

I really don't know if anyone takes the time to read them. 

[rose-dee]

Oh NO!!! Not this topic again!!  

I think there was a discussion (well, OK, raging fight) going on here several years ago that may have been the longest string yet.  Do you really want to go there?  (LOL) 

Or is this one for the Guinness Book of Records?

[fashionoutletdeal]

Thats great.I just remembered something that was bugging me for a little while.When the buyers choose the stars for shipping cost if they are not happy why they buy then? i find this very unfair.

[fashionoutletdeal]

Some of us werent here few years ago 🙂

[momcqueen]

Low DSRs for Shipping Cost used to be considered punishable for sellers. Many sellers were upset about this for the exact reason you state. Adding insult to injury, you couldn't tell which buyer left them for you and they might come back again and again. It's good that this seller punishment was abolished. Now a buyer can leave one star and while it makes the DSRs look poorly in that category, the punishment goes no further than that. 

[mcrlmn]

I like to say thank-you asap to show appreciation.

When I'm a buyer, I'm irritated by sellers that don't appreciate my business enough to say thank-you, or feel so entitled that they don't reciprocate until after the buyer.

Whatever their perspective, it's bad manners and poor PR.

[rose-dee]

Actually, to be somewhat more serious, I still regard FB comments from my buyers as a reflection of my good service.  However, as there is less and less of it these days, even the positive FB can become stale, minimal, and accordingly less meaningful.  

I'd be just as happy now if eBay got rid of FB completely.  Buyers have mostly lost interest in it, so from that point of view it would be a good time for eBay to retire it and show the seller's total transaction number instead.  

Incidentally, I can say that on another site on which I sell which has a customer review system, reviews have dropped off very significantly in the past year or two as well.  So I've had to conclude that the reason lies not with the particular site or system, but with buyers.  Is it generational ADD?  Is it lack of basic courtesy?  Is it that people have just too much coming at them every day from every corner of the internet, i.e. online overload?  Too many post-purchase "surveys"?  I know I hit the "X" to close those pop-ups whenever they are irritatingly thrust into my screen view.  

EBay had a great new concept originally with their FB system, which then turned really ugly (look back at longtime users' FB from prior to about 10 years ago to see how ugly), which then got taken up and improved upon by other online sites, and tinkered with by eBay itself, until eBay is now left with a largely unworkable, unwieldy, white elephant that nobody cares much about anymore.  

[rose-dee]

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@fashionoutletdeal wrote:

Thats great.I just remembered something that was bugging me for a little while.When the buyers choose the stars for shipping cost if they are not happy why they buy then? i find this very unfair.

---

Oh, that topic too, I recall, engendered a raging backlash on the discussion boards against eBay when shipping cost DSRs  were first linked to defects!  You're right -- it made no common sense at all. 

At least that DSR is no longer the cause of defects.  Although now we have something worse, but that's for another thread. (LOL)

[momcqueen]

That's interesting. 

While the delay may only be for me a few hours after payment (as I stated earlier, I leave feedback on same-day shipment so I can personalize it) I once had a buyer form the UK who emailed me almost immediately after payment to say, 'How dare you not leave me feedback!? Feedback is important to me' to which I was very confused since only about 20 minutes had lapsed and I replied politely asking if perhaps he had confused me with someone else or that if I had offended him in some way, I apologize in advance and that I leave feedback on shipment which would take place shortly. 

And then I looked more closely at the buyer who was also a seller and his feedback was fine in both respects. Except that it was apparently very important to him to receive feedback. So I packed the order for shipment and left feedback as always, and it was almost immediately reciprocated which was again, at least to me, a little strange since clearly he did not have the item yet.

But nothing further came of it. The order was received in good condition or so I assume since I never heard from him again.

I have also had very chatty and friendly buyers leave terrible DSRs for actual shipping cost which I would have ben happy to explain had they asked first. 

I also had buyers leave terrible DSRs for Communication simply because they could after I sent them a cordial 'your item is now shipped' message. 

You live and learn.

[fashionoutletdeal]

Whats the tread ? lol

[fashionoutletdeal]

I got a feedback stating that everything was great he just wish to have communication in English.We never exchange messages .I guess this is because im located in Quebec.LOl

[momcqueen]

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@fashionoutletdeal wrote:

Whats the tread ? lol

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Maybe this one? http://community.ebay.ca/t5/Canadian-PowerSellers-Discussion/SELLERS-SIGN-THIS-PETITION-IF-YOU-WANT-...

Ot this one? http://community.ebay.ca/t5/Seller-Central/Can-I-go-higher-than-an-Appeal-supervisor-on-a-Buyer-Scam...

I search for the title of this thread and then filters the results via Most Replies. 

[mcrlmn]

Ya never know...
I always check the buyer's language of feedback they've left for others, before doing so.
I've got a couple of French 'Thank-yous, etc' I copy and paste:

A+++ Merci beaucoup! Très apprécié! Excellente acheteur!

Merci beaucoup! Très apprécié!

[i.am.vivian]

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@rose-dee wrote:

I'd be just as happy now if eBay got rid of FB completely.  Buyers have mostly lost interest in it, so from that point of view it would be a good time for eBay to retire it and show the seller's total transaction number instead.  

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A seller's total transaction number IS visible.  Its the FB Left For Others, if the seller leaves FB first.  If the seller wants people to see the total number of transactions than the seller needs to leave FB first.  The problem with that is it is totally meaningless and no indication at all about what the seller is like.  

Buyers don't care how many items a seller has mailed out, they just want to know that THEIR item will be what is pictured and that it will be mailed.  I say we need FB for better or worse because it can tell the viewer what the person is like.  Sellers look at FB LFO to judge the kind of buyer and if that buyer only ever complains even in positive they can cancel, remove, block, whatever.

FB is still a very useful tool but if some people don't think so then they don't need to pay any attention to it.  That's no reason to take it away from everyone else entirely.   Or so says MHO.   🙂 

[ypdc_dennis]

I'm a small seller.

I leave feedback when the transaction is complete -- when the buyer is satisfied. And I try to customize the feedback based on what I remember about the sale.

On the other hand, if I was a volume seller I'd leave feedback when I shipped, since the odds of remembering a particular sale drop when dealing with a large number of sales or large numbers of similar type items. Boutique versus mass market selling.

-..-

As a buyer, I always leave feedback when I get the purchase and am satisfied (or mostly satisfied). In other words -- when it's a done deal.

-..-

[reallynicestamps]

My practice is to leave feedback when I ship, giving the date of shipping and Canada Post Air Mail as the service, since I rarely use tracking.

My purpose is to reassure the buyer that the item is on its way.

Seems to work for me.

YMMV.

And there are some products that should always be tracked, even if the seller is using 'Free' shipping.

With my occasional trackable item, I add the number to the Feedback.

A little egoboo for the customer, some possibly useful information and reassurance. A reasonable use for a now useless option?

[lucitabby]

I leave feedback when I ship the item - I also send either a postcard or thank you card (I get them at thrift stores for next to nothing) with a short note.

When I first started out I waited until the buyer had rec'd the item and left me feedback but about 10 years ago I changed mainly because I would forget

If they leave feedback for me, that's nice but if they don't that's OK too.