Are buyers leaving more negs of late

[teap0t42]

I've had more negs and neuts in the last couple of months than I've had in the entirety of the 2020s up to now.

They also seem to be for more trivial reasons. The most recent one was someone complaining I'd not communicated with them because their item was late. How am I supposed to know a 2nd class large letter is late unless you tell me?!?

Another one was someone saying I wouldn't help with their issue because I'd not replied to an email within half an hour on a weekend evening.

One neutral came because they'd not fitted it yet. I mean, do they realise that even a neutral bumps us down on visibility? If you haven't fitted it, wait until you have!

Am I alone in putting anyone who leaves a neg (unless for a good reason) straight on to my blocked list? After all, I reckon the hit on visibility they cause probably costs me anything from £20 in sales at quiet times to over £100 at busy times so why would I want to have a customer that costs me money?

[dch2112011]

I read on another post an opinion that buyers are using feedback as a method of communicating rather than messaging which is a fair comment.

None of your negs are awful and you have responded in a pleasant and professional way, I feel this will be a positive for customers reading the neg feedback but unfortunately does not reduce any ebay system impact.

All you can do with negs is step back and see if any improvement can be made from your end to avoid the same negs appearing again in the future 

[tressygirl]

Whether buyers do not know how and when to use the feedback option, I do feel ssome use it as a ' messaging board',   thinking this is the correct venue for their message.

Don't suppose you tried to send any a feedback revision to complete ?

As for putting anyone leaving a neg or neutral on your BBL ?  Absolutely 100% yes, I would.

[teap0t42]

I generally message the buyers before asking for feedback revision. Well, that's the intention anyway. I can only think of one time when the buyer has actually replied when I've messaged them and they were so abusive there was obviously no point in asking for feedback revision.

Do eBay still ask if the buyer has contacted the seller before allowing them to leave feedback? That said, from memory they just had to tick yes, no attempt was made to verify an actual message had been sent.

[plpmr]

No idea if the buyer contacted the seller before leaving a neg, but I've seen a few that the item description was simply dreadful.

Either the seller had problems or it was written by AI.

[teap0t42]

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@plpmr wrote:

Either the seller had problems or it was written by AI.

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There are actually two more options.

Firstly, and most commonly, the buyer doesn't bother to read the description and just assumes without checking. I've had a few of these, including one who thought he was getting a complete model train for £10 even though the title and description clearly says lighting kit only.

Second, and sort of linked, is that on some platforms eBay hides most of the description and a lot of buyers haven't yet cottoned on that you need to click something to see it all. As the seller has no control over this it's just  as much a problem for them as they've tried to give all the info a buyer needs to make an informed purchase but eBay have decided they don't really need to show it.

[yorkshire*flower]

said the same myself here

Incoming moan - Why are buyers so quick to hit the... - UK eBay Community

I just think now Ebay are prompting buyers with "tell us about your experience" which encourages a moan 2 weeks after the transaction.  I used to get 1 neg a year (if that) but recently the moaners are coming out in force.

[teap0t42]

Apparently in my most recent neg the buyer wasn't even aware they were leaving negative feedback. They'd been asked to comment on their tracking experience and were actually quite mortified they had left a neg as they hadn't meant to comment on me, just the delivery experience.

Quite aside from anything else I'm not sure why they were being asked for comments on tracking for an item that was send normal second class post.

[ducatimondo]

The whole caboodle is flawed nowadays as every buyer with even the smallest gripe will drop you a neg, but if you are lucky, maybe 1/10 will leave a positive.

So every neg counts 10x what it really should in reality.

You speak to eBay on any level and they just say it is buyer opinion.

We have seen a decent spike in this in the last few weeks.

So probs is some change eBay have dropped in, without any forethought or planning, that they are chasing asking buyers how it went in the hope they remember eBay is a thing and come back and buy something else.
That'd be my guess, that eBay are using it to draw buyers back to their platform and they really don't care at all what is happening to sellers.

A few we have had are in relation to the buyer not reading the description, not using vehicle compatibility or in one case, just not liking the product.

None of them have contacted us first, just straight to a neg.

I have previously asked why the BBL is limited to 5,000 in the weekly chat, as at the rate we are going, that is going to be filled up fairly quick.