Needs eBay to change the feedback system
Summary: rocketscollectibles expresses frustration over receiving a low rate of feedback on eBay despite making numerous sales, believing the feedback system is outdated and unfair to newer sellers. msau4301 suggests that feedback rates are influenced more by the type of items sold and the buyer's preferences than by the seller's experience. ericsells75 advises against a more aggressive feedback system, warning it could annoy buyers, while reallynicestamps proposes an automatic scoring system based on transaction success. A participant and brettjet38 discuss the irrelevance of feedback systems, noting that eBay’s privacy changes and the absence of item-specific details have rendered feedback less meaningful. Another participant shares that automatic positive feedback by another platform was unpopular among users. Overall, participants share diverse perspectives on the effectiveness and potential improvements to the eBay feedback system.
We're reading once in a while sellers complaining about how they receive a low rate of feedbacks. I counted and i received 6 feedbacks past 70 sales, since march 20th. No cases or anything, all positive transactions. I could count and go more far. I used to have around 20% of my sales with feedbacks, it was already low. Now it's literally under 10%.
I've been selling actively for close to 2 years now over 2 accounts. I have probably over 1000 sales together now, and i did not reach a score of 200 on any of the accounts yet. At this rate i will need 10 000 sales to have a score of 1000. I'm highly experienced and my accounts still gives me an image like i'm a novice.
People who started accounts in the older era are highly advantaged as they built higher scores by doing less sales. No pretention but, i'm in the 100s and very often i notice i have more knowledge than some sellers with 1000 and over. Some buyers will pick the higher score if they have the choice of 2 items at the same price from 2 different sellers. I'm also pretty sure higher scores may helps in the algortyhm. As newer sellers will never be able to build feedbacks at half the pace as before, it's a non-sense disavantage.
This system is dying. It's totally outdated. eBay really needs to do something about it. Improve or remove it.
ricarmic
·3 years agoAs a fun note, on another site I list on, after 45 days the site automagically leaves a positive feedback on behalf of the buyer (saying something like automatic feedback after 45 days).
When that was implemented, it was very much not liked by both sellers (diminishes the value of real feedback) and buyers (leaves positive feedback in situations where the delivery time takes longer than 45 days when it might not eventually arrive). It hasn't been changed since.....
reallynicestamps
·3 years agobuying online isn't as sketchy as it once was so people are less inclined to leave feedback.
I think this is the main reason that FB has dropped off.
I had trades in for my current kitchen renovation (and stay away from Lowes!) and all of them asked for reviews of their work.
It gets annoying.
I would like to see a system that allows Product Reviews, which are useful, but "scores" buyers and sellers automatically by the number of successful transaction.
So if I have 100 transaction with no complaints or UIDs, I would have a score of 100.
If I didn't pay and the seller had to file to get paid, I would have a score of 99.
If I filed a complaint, win or lose, I would have a score of 99--- because a constant complainer is just as much as potential problem as a non-payer, win or lose.
And that would go for both buying and selling.
If I had 10 buyers complain about NAD, and I settled immediately after I sent the return shipping and I received the purchase , I would still have a score of 99.
If I complained that my purchase did not arrive by eBay's last estimated delivery date, I would also have score of 99.
lotzofuniquegoodies
·3 years ago@reallynicestamps
Another reason it may not be as relevant or useful was the dropping of the connected item number in question. The feedback can be directly tied to the type of item and same goes in reverse. Both are just as critical. As discovered that info is NOT available in all variations of the feedback page.
-Lotz
brettjet38
·3 years agoOutside of eBay I never leave reviews, feedback, or comments about any products or services I use, why?
Why would I want to leave a trail of my activities across the internet?
And, on eBay...
Feedback is outdated and so last century, retire it, very few people actually use it, the Buyers less so.
lotzofuniquegoodies
·3 years ago@brettjet38
Feedback on the whole just isn't utilized from both a buyer and a sellers perspective like in the past. Due to eBay's neverending changes towards total privacy, it has become basically meaningless. Relevant information gets hidden in a few months. Without the connecting data it's just not as useful as it once was. And if it were to get "scrapped" dead stop, does everyone start from square one? How fair would that be?
-Lotz
brettjet38
·3 years agoRatings based on the number of "completed" transactions...
ericsells75
·3 years agoBe careful what you wish for.... Setting up a system that is more in your face are going to annoy buyers and turn a no feedback or neutral to a negative in some cases, not based on you but the feedback system. buying online isn't as sketchy as it once was so people are less inclined to leave feedback. Plus buying online is the norm now people don't want to leave feedback on dozens of purchases they make online these days. Just politley ask for feedback with a thank you card when you ship and move on. Feedback doesn't hold the same 'prestige' it once did.
msau4301
·3 years agoI don't think it's necessarily how long people have been selling here that is a factor, I think it is more what they are selling. We all sell such a hugely diverse range of items! You sell trading cards, I sell vintage Barbies, people sell car parts, CD's, there's stamps, clothing, the diversity is massive.
I just looked at my order summary and of my last 92 sales, 53 left feedback. That's more than half and 13 are new sales that people haven't received yet and I know at least a few of them will leave feedback also. I think it's the type of buyers and what they are buying that makes the difference.
Feedback may become obsolete some day but I know I love to know people are happy. I even have a few customers who send me pictures of their new items set up, re-styled, etc. Myself I like, a few feel like friends.
From a buying standpoint (I'm a collector too!) feedback number isn't a disadvantage. I'd just as soon buy from someone with feedback of 10 as 10,000 if I wanted the item. Things that would scare me away would be date they started (like they just opened account the day before) or repeated negative comments received or given depending on the reason.
Since we are all so different, in age, in experience and in what we sell it's impossible to compare anyone and I really don't think that is what the feedback is for. Myself, I still like the feature. I don't see how eBay could improve it, once the sale is made it's up to the buyer to decide if they want to bother, eBay does send feedback reminders, but there's the people that will and the people that won't.