Do you send a message to your buyers after a sale?

[musicyouneed]

I just purchased something on ebay and was leaving feedback and noticed that the only thing that I could leave stars for was for "Item as described".    In regards to communication, the ability to leave stars for, was not available stating that there had been no communication so I couldn't rate it.  

So in summary I purchased the item, received notice from ebay regarding shipping see below and then on my order it showed when it was delivered.  

Now I know that buyers have appreciated me sending them an email regarding their purchase and several have mentioned that they liked it as it doesn't happen very often.  On the other hand, every so often I get rated as a "4" on communication.  Now the only reason they could rate me is because I sent them an email.  If I hadn't they wouldn't be able to rate me.  

Now I know that detailed seller ratings do not make a difference however they are visible to the buyer.  Now mine shows as all "5's" but it has been down to 4.9 because a couple of buyers rated my communication as a 4 or even a 3.  

So do you send a buyer an email after the purchase?

[thestuffofchris]

I used to, and would also notice the occasional DSR ding, I'm assuming from buyers who would rather just not be bothered.

For some reason, even though I don't send messages anymore, it seems some buyers can still rate the Communication DSR because I've still gotten a few dings, likely from buyers who expect the messages.

If you send them, there will be buyers who don't want them. If you don't, there will be buyers who expect them. You can't win.

[recped]

I send an item shipped notice to every buyer. It includes a delivery estimate, tracking info if available and confirmation of the address it was shipped to.

Of course this message is sent directly to the buyers email address so eBay would not have any clue if it's sent or not.

While my Communication dsr is 5.0 (the only dsr that is 5.0) I really could care less as it's essentially meaningless to anything or anyone.

The only dsr that I care about AT ALL is "as described".

[femmefan1946]

Feedback and DSRs no longer mean anything to a seller's account.

Which is good because only about 40% of transactions (and dropping) were getting any feedback at all.

It is mildly helpful to new buyers who actually might look at it, especially with low cost items from overseas*.

Those sellers have naive buyers who don't know how to claim refunds for terrible products, bad communication, and items that were never shipped.

So they leave feedback instead, for the next round of naive newbies.

*To be as PC as possible.

[pjcdn2005]

Yes, I always send a message after an item is shipped and have a 5 for the communication dsr. I rarely look any my dsr so don't know if I have ever had a lower than a 5 in that category.

You have to do more than 'not communicate' to receive an automatic 5. 

http://pages.ebay.ca/help/policies/selling-practices.html#5startime

To give you credit for transactions where a buyer doesn't need to contact you, you'll automatically receive a 5-star communication detailed seller rating if:
You specify either same business day or 1 business day handling and upload tracking information within 1 business day.
There are no buyer- or seller-initiated communications in eBay Messages
There are no requests for contact information between you and the buyer.
There are no refund requests or PayPal Purchase Protection cases open for the transaction, and the buyer hasn't reported that the item wasn't received.

[zee-chan-jpn-books]

I do send a shipped message, which includes a blurb about potential delays due to customs, their item were shipped from Canada (in case they didn't realize they bought internationally) etc, so I rarely get "where's my item" message until the one month mark.

[esclyons]

i never message , unless it is extremely important,  like i can't ship until your echeck clears. otherwise, they buy something, pay, i mail it, update info on ebay, leave feedback..and that is it..

[cumos55]

I respond to the email  received from Paypal  giving me notice that payment has been received.... The buyer's email address is present when I state reply to sender....

For Canadian purchases  I say thanks for the purchase  and give notice when the parcel will be mailed.

For US purchases  I says thanks for the purchase  and give notice when the parcel will be mailed.  I also state that delivery should take 10 to 14 days, unless the parcel get caught up in customs or in the postal system.

Many times I get a thanks for sending this email.... letting them know when the parcel will be mailed...

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In preparation for holidays  I will give a reason for a delayed mailing of the parcel.

If the item  was bought this last Thursday  I will also state that Good Friday and Easter Monday are Canada Post holidays.

Major holidays... July 1 versus July 4 will also be noted.... and then everything that happens over Christmas-New Year's day.... and other possible delays due to holidays, and more.....

[recped]

It never fails (ok that's an exaggeration). If I don't send a message to the buyer that their package has shipped then a few days after they pay I get a message from them asking "when are you shipping" (in spite of it being marked as shipped on eBay).

There are plenty of buyers who visit eBay once every few months, never look at My Messages and ignore most emails from eBay because more often than not they are just marketing "spam" (presuming they even use an email address on eBay that they check).

Personally I think giving buyers an accurate delivery estimate IS extremely important especially as eBay's estimates seem to either be far too short or insanely long. It might also (falsely) give the buyer the impression I actually care about them!

[momcqueen]

I stopped sending messages directly to buyers through ebay Messages because I didn't like getting dinged with 3s and 4s for trying too hard when, if I had ignored the buyer completely, I'd get an automatic five-star rating on that line. 

Instead, I use the Message To Buyer on Paypal Shipping postage purchase (shipment) since they get stuck receiving that message anyway. That's the message I use to say all my important things: how fast it shipped and exactly how many days it should take to arrive.

Problem solved.  

[momcqueen]

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@thestuffofchris wrote:
I used to, and would also notice the occasional DSR ding, I'm assuming from buyers who would rather just not be bothered.

For some reason, even though I don't send messages anymore, it seems some buyers can still rate the Communication DSR because I've still gotten a few dings, likely from buyers who expect the messages.

If you send them, there will be buyers who don't want them. If you don't, there will be buyers who expect them. You can't win.

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Those would be the buyers who decided to message you for whatever reason. Once they send a note to you, it opens the ability for them to leave feedback on that line. Making it important for sellers to always play nice no matter the provocation. I doubt you have trouble on that front, however, as you are always polite here so I would expect the same as a buyer of yours. 

[momcqueen]

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@femmefan1946 wrote:

Feedback and DSRs no longer mean anything to a seller's account.

Which is good because only about 40% of transactions (and dropping) were getting any feedback at all..... 

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Forty! I wish. Mine were at 20 per cent Received as a Seller to 100 per cent Left For Others the last time I counted the quarterly results. I have a 12- month perspective on my desk, I'll have to see if it's any better. 

[thestuffofchris]

That would make sense, but I checked my messages and I have received just 1 message so far in 2017 from a buyer and I don't suspect it was them. Then again, I'm sure we've all had that buyer that leaves glowing feedback but the DSR scores are lower, probably because they have a different idea of what 3* vs 4* vs 5* ratings mean compared to the seller.

[momcqueen]

The way the DSR page presents itself to a buyer, you'd think three stars is a totally okay for a transaction where nothing went wrong. Only sellers know the repercussions of that which thankfully are negligible now.

[thestuffofchris]

I don't know if it's because of the categories I mainly sell in, or my low sales volume, but my feedback ratio seems fairly high. I haven't actually kept track of how many transactions I've gone without receiving feedback through my years on eBay, but when I look back at my archived transactions from January through March (all 6 of them), I received feedback on all of them. If I had to guess, I'd say my ratio is maybe around 75% or so (at least based on what I can remember).

It might be a case of the more you sell, the more likely you will have transactions without feedback received.

[momcqueen]

I'm puzzled by the Feedback Received drop to be honest. It was much much higher for me (maybe 75 or even 80 per cent?) when I first started. I sometimes wonder if so little is left as reciprocated because I leave feedback on shipment always. Do sellers who only leave feedback for buyers when it's received get a higher rate of return? Maybe it's that. Given freely to buyers, they have little to no motivation to leave it. If a buyer knows they have to leave it first to get it, maybe they have reason to leave it.

[thestuffofchris]

Possibly. I've encountered a few of those sellers myself. I've never liked the idea of withholding feedback from a buyer until they give it to you, though. It seems petty.

(By the way, sorry for de-railing the conversation from the main topic.)

[momcqueen]

I'm with you there. Plus, it makes buyers angry sometimes. At which point they leave low DSRs for Communication or a neutral rating as a result of being offended. Part of the reason that I always leave a semi-personalized remark on shipment. All the same, I wonder if by doing that I've eliminated the motivation for a buyer to leave feedback for me. Oh well. 

(We're not totally off-topic, see my comment above about No Feedback and Low DSRs for Communication because of that.)

[triber]

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@recped wrote:

I send an item shipped notice to every buyer. It includes a delivery estimate, tracking info if available and confirmation of the address it was shipped to.

Of course this message is sent directly to the buyers email address so eBay would not have any clue if it's sent or not.

 The only dsr that I care about AT ALL is "as described".

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This is exactly what I do. I often get nice replies to my messages, I only have one late DSR, although several items have been late, but buyers usually write to me and ask about it, and I reply to every email.

My DSR's are all 4.9 except for shipping cost, that has been at 4.9 for almost 5 years! It never improves and never gets worse.

I grew up in England with a mother born just after Queen Victoria's reign, when manners were of supreme importance, and any letter was replied to immediately, thankfully, it's much easier with email.

[thestuffofchris]

I can only recall ever getting one reply to any of the post-purchase messages I ever sent, and it was just a simple "thanks". When you don't even know if the messages are being read, it's hard to justify spending the time to send them and I think it's one of the reasons why I stopped.