Check Feedback Left By Potential Buyer When They Ask Questions On Items You Have For Sale

[2nd-time-around-jewelry]

I have a potential buyer asking questions on one of the items I am selling. I always check the feedback left by the buyer to other sellers to see if there would be a problem or not dealing with the individual.  Glad I did this time as the buyer has left tons of negative feedback to other sellers. I have added him to my blocked list. Don't need buyers like that.

[momcqueen]

I try to do same but the iPhone app makes it impossible.

[musicyouneed]

I do the same thing.  If a buyer hands out a lot of negatives, even if they have purchased from me, I will block them for future sales.  

The fact that they hand out negatives without trying to work it out with the seller will work against them.

[ricarmic]

I normally never check feedback of buyers or folks asking questions.

However a couple times I have inadvertently seen buyers who've left inordinate amounts of negative feedback after they've paid and/or I've shipped the item. I also tend to sell "dangerous" stuff compared to the normal stamp sellers in terms of risk of disappointment to the buyers. So far I've been very surprised/lucky that in those situations they've given me good feedback.

I have noticed the negatives/neutrals I do get are often from folks that seem to make a habit of it.

If I happened across a buyer who appears to dish out a lot of bad feedback I would likely block them as well*, but I mention the above because it is possible they've just encountered a number of bad sellers too.....

*But not if they were a repeat buyer, in that case I would not do anything until I had a problem and then I would only block them if the problem resolution went poorly. Some folks have no idea how neutrals and negatives are looked at by sellers.

[esclyons]

if it is a lot of negative feedback for Asian / overseas sellers, that wouldn't surprise or bother me, if they were buying in North America, i would give me concern, to think twice.

[momcqueen]

Coming back to this idea of screening potential trading partners via Feedback Left For Others, someone who leaves a plague of red dots in their wake is only one part of a problem.

Look for the false positives in Feedback Left For Others from a buyer who says 50 per cent of transactions ended with the postal system lost his or her order.

And then use tracking on theirs. Or block, depending on your preference. 

I wouldn't immediately jump to conclusions that they're scam artists (because a true con is more subtle than that) but instead very unlucky and I don't like to temp fate. 

[heartovermind]

I had a person making an "Offer" recently who routinely leaves "GFY" in 

FB for sellers. Seriously.

It is the reason I keep the Blocked bidder list on my browser bar so I can

get to it in about 3 nanoseconds.

[snoopwiz]

I had a person making an "Offer" recently who routinely leaves "GFY" in 

FB for sellers. Seriously.

Was it positive, neutral or negative "GFY"?

Perhaps they are simply promoting safe sex?

[reallynicestamps]

if it is a lot of negative feedback for Asian / overseas sellers, that wouldn't surprise or bother me,

Welllll......

Some Asian sellers have a lot of negs, but also have lots and lots of positives.

I prefer to read the actual feedback for patterns, a particular item that is trash, non-delivery, slow delivery, refused refunds.

It is entirely possible to have hundreds of negs but also a 100% FB rating.

Which is the seller side of FB.

On a buyer side, I'd tend to think the buyer has unreasonable expectations for that $1.00 diamond necklace.

[momcqueen]

Early into my selling days on ebay, I noticed a strong correlation between inexpensive items and negative feedback. Like, what did people expect for a dollar (unrealistically not-trash) yet they were more than happy to trash someone's rating over it. It's an interesting facet of human behaviour: the folks who are attracted to 'screaming hot cheap deals so good you cannot believe it' are also itchy on the trigger finger for leaving more than their fair share of red dots. 

[reallynicestamps]

There was a dotCOM poster who called those buyers "armed bargain hunters".