Negative Feedback: Managing Buyer Expectations for $1 items (probably including free shipping)

[momcqueen]

I don't even know what I was looking for when I stumbled across this.

My intention is not to draw attention (or poke fun at) the unfortunate seller in question but to question itself what buyers might expect from the absolutely cheapest items on the market.

When you spend $1 on a pair of underwear (probably free postage included) is it reasonable to expect it to be the best gitch you ever bought?

Or does that (value for price) not come into play? 

Which brings me to another point: it looks to me like buyers are happier to leave flaming awful feedback for cheap items than for expensive ones when/if things go pear-shaped with a transaction.

Why is this? I don't understand. 

[pjcdn2005]

---

@mjwl2006 wrote:

I understand that from an academic level but not so much from a personal one.

If the iPhone charger I bought at the Dollar Store shreds in two months, I'm not going back to the Dollar Store to wave my arms in the air and holler that my $1.25 phone cord was crummy.

If the iPhone charger I bought at the Apple Store for $40 shreds in two months, I will go back to the Apple Store and wave my arms in the air and holler because my $40-cord was crummy.

Maybe they're both the same cord but in a case like that I do pin my expectations on the price point. Do all these people really not comprehend that you get what you pay for?

---

What if the charger you bought at the dollar store doesn't work at all....you wouldn't complain about it?  If it was me, I probably wouldn't bother going back for a refund of a couple of dollars  but i might complain about it to someone else. I think that in many of these cases the item does not work when received or was not as described.  I do think that some people probably expect the same quality at a lower price just because they buying directly from Asia and they are usually going to be disappointed because it doesn't work like that.  But I suspect that a lot of the complaints are legitimate from buyers who just expected to get a working version of what they paid for. 

My guess is that they leave the feedback because it is the fastest easiest thing to do. If they file a snad most Asian sellers will ignore their request for a return label and eBay isn't clear about what to go in that situation so many of them probably give up.  Even if they do get a refund, they are still entitled to leave a neg feedback because there buying experience was not a positive one.

[pjcdn2005]

I don't  disagree that in some cases it is the buyers who spend the least who expect the most and complain when they don't get that.  But we can't assume that this always the case.....especially when that opinion is being based on one line of feedback without any other information.

[femmefan1946]

Oh now you're just being fairminded and sensible.

Boooooo!

[momcqueen]

---

@mr.elmwood wrote:

Fairly meaningless as eBay attaches no importance to feedback. Seller at the top is running 98% selling **bleep**. That is fairly impressive. I like the neg from the guy complaining about the 99¢ panties were no good. Big spender.

---

That's what I thought too. I hope he got a swift kick in the rear end for spending a whole 99 cents on sexy underthings for the special lady in his life. And I hope she repays him in kind by buying him a too small male thong. You know, the special ones, called slings or half-thongs with only one strap and no back. That's karma. 

[momcqueen]

(Er, don't do a search for half-thongs unless the kids have left the room.)

[momcqueen]

No seller deserves a free ride here. If it's never received or arrives destroyed due to sloppy or careless packing, or if the seller cancels their order due to it being out-of-stock, that is all fair game for a negative rating to my mind. (So is a complaint that something reeks and has been pre-contaminated with another person's pubic hair. Although for certain buyers that might be considered an added bonus.) But if a buyer pays 99 cents for something, is it reasonable for him to expect something that is actually valuable? Most of this stuff getting negative feedback sold for 99 cents including postage from China. Like....? The seller's profit margin on that might be, what three cents each times thousands of transactions but still. It doesn't seem worth the grief to me.

[zee-chan-jpn-books]

... 

[i.am.vivian]

If a buyer pays 99 cents for something I don't think they are really anticipating something valuable but I do think they expect to receive what is described and pictured in the listing. All the negs in the first posted example are complaints about the item not being what was described. As the other poster said people won't bother filing a NAD case since there is not really any point. To say that buyers should know they are not going to get what is depicted in the listing is using the same approach for "blame the victim" when women are told if they wear a skimpy outfit they have no business complaining when they get raped. I say the responsibility here is on the seller to be honest in listings and not sell items that are no good or a fraction of the size they pretend they are. Buyers soon learn that these sellers and their listings are little more than scams but to say that everyone should keep silent because the items cost so little is wrong, IMO.

[lucitabby]

Eewwwww

by buying him a too small male thong. You know, the special ones, called slings or half-thongs with only one strap and no back. That's karma. 

[silverpinups]

I just had to comment on the 5th Negative from the top... I can't stop laughing!!!  

[momcqueen]

I know. As tragic as negative feedback can seem for a seller, I've been doubled-over in laughter more than once reading the comments associated with it. The funniest are often the most fleeting, and are removed quickly due to profanities.

Oh, schadenfreude.

[rose-dee]

---

@mr.elmwood wrote:

---

@block36 wrote:

And how do you know?  

---

How do I know what?

---

I think the reference was to your Post #13.  Now we're really off on a tangent...

[momcqueen]

But it's the tangents that provide the greatest of amusements!

[rose-dee]

---

@mjwl2006 wrote:

I know. As tragic as negative feedback can seem for a seller, I've been doubled-over in laughter more than once reading the comments associated with it. 

Oh, schadenfreude.

---

I honestly don't think there's much Schaden to be freulich over, at least not in this particular instance, as I think sellers like the one whose FB you posted are laughing all the way to the bank.  

EBay has now completely let them off the hook in terms of FB/DSRs, so what do they care, as long as they keep their volume high enough to roll the negative FB down the screen every week or two?  All they have to do is sell something, anything, and get it to the buyer in time (with a little help from subsidized China Post shipping). 

What I find really interesting is why these sellers list items for $0.99 at all.  Why not $1.99, or $3.99?  Probably because they know some people can't resist the idea of getting something for (next to) nothing, and that there is a never-ending supply of those buyers. 

You wouldn't think anybody could make a profit like this, but who knows where these sellers source their items? Judging by some of the comments, maybe they're getting the "merchandise" free or close to it in Chinese currency, and exchanging for US currency worth a lot more per item -- a convenient way to launder money.  

I know what you're thinking next, but I won't say it...