Buyers on eBay are not leaving feedback for purchased items?

[wavesales]

Hi Everyone,

Earlier on I checked my sales and feedback and I cannot understand why buyers are not leaving feedback for my purchased items, I even have repeat buyers not leaving feedback as well, I have not had any buyers contacting me with any issues but still, buyers are not leaving feedback. What a strange phenomenon it is very bizarre indeed I've never seen this in 20 years. Even the products that I have sold for years are top quality items and still no feedback.

Is anyone else on here having the same or similar issues?

[pillarboxred]

I find it soul destroying and it causes anxiety. Sadly, if you sell a fragile, expensive item, prospective buyers wonder whether the sale and delivery were successful, as there is risk. They look for Feedback and, if there is none, they wonder whether they should bid on your items.

The Entitled are always with us and have a lot of money so we just have to lump it or cease using the platform. In a shop yesterday, I overheard a man say he used to sell a lot on eBay but can't be bothered now. I often say to stallholders they should sell their things on eBay but most of them shrug and say "I used to": it seems to be too much time and work for little return even though creating a listing is faster and easier than it was in 2000.

[pillarboxred]

I understand that eBay rates sellers behind the scenes and a closed sale with no Feedback left but no issues raised is counted as a good sale. That's how a high street retailer is assessed by investors. So eBay's rating of a seller is not exactly the same as the Feedback rating but the public Feedback rating  can draw in or discourage bidders even if, in the company's eyes, a seller is doing ok.

[pillarboxred]

 I think that a default feedback +ve rating should be given if a sale is successful and after 90 days no issues have been raised. It shouldn't masquerade as a personal comment but it is well-earned and people need to know how well a seller has served the community. 

[pillarboxred]

I'm not sure that such a system-generated feedback rating would be seen by the public. Isn't it hidden in the statistics covering a seller's sales, part of  the score?

[plpmr]

There's a newish feedback system where eBay leaves a seller positive feedback which says -

“This seller successfully completed an order.”

And on their profile there's a notice which shows how many the seller has got -

“eBay automated feedback: X”

eBay explain -

“We leave automated positive feedback when a seller successfully completes one of their first few orders and there’s no buyer feedback about it.”

However, seemingly the buyer can cancel that by leaving their own feedback.

[vintagechinashop]

Vinted do this if the buyer hasn't left feedback after a certain time you get an automated positive but it does show as automatic feedback so not sure what the value of this is other than to give a prospective buyer an indication of how many items you have sold without issue which might encourage some buyers.  I have sold over 700 items in a year yet I have less than 300 feedback 

I'm sure eBay wouldn't do this because it would affect metrics and eBay want to keep as many sellers on the naughty step as possible 

[therenewalworkshopltd]

I really don't think that it makes an awful lot of difference on how much feedback you have, whether it be automated or not.  Unless you are right at the begining and have virtually nothing.

That is the point when it skews badly.  An automated system like Vinted, would help in that regard.

But overall, I don't think it really matters, as at the end of the day, it's only function really, is to show buyers how you have handled problems.

Who cares if you have 1000 good feedback, it's only the 1 negative that they will look at.  🙂

[nigel_paul_wright7557]

Leaving feedback isnt compulsory on ebay.

I had a seller complain to me three times I hadnt left him feedback.

So I left a neg for "feedback harassment"

[plpmr]

Feedback has always been voluntary, that is until eBay brought in their new system whereby eBay will leave positive feedback for new sellers if the buyer does not leave feedback.

That means feedback is no longer voluntary but compulsory.

[cane4123]

Yes same problem it’s so mad cause it’s easy to leave a review good or bad.

it also gives you the problem if items were ever delivered to the person

iI think people are just lazy and can’t be bothered to leave reviews

[moldosgifts]

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@cane4123 wrote:

Yes same problem it’s so mad cause it’s easy to leave a review good or bad.

it also gives you the problem if items were ever delivered to the person

iI think people are just lazy and can’t be bothered to leave reviews

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Reviews are for the things you sell, feed back is for the service you give.

it worked well heated up top a good temp : is a review

Item didn't arrive but seller gave a refund quickly : is feedback

[therenewalworkshopltd]

And if the "private" sellers don't even know the difference, what hope is there that the buyers will.....  🙂

[theelench]

They probably won't but whose fault is that??

FB was meant to be the buyers report on how their transaction was handled by the seller , i.e. Well or Badly.  It was ebay that changed it into stars for defined aspects of the transaction that the buyer may not have been interested in commenting on.   

Specifically, "Did this item arrive on time (according to ebays's Fantasy Delivery Date)".  Deeply flawed, leading the buyer down a path that EBAY wanted but without the prompt, the buyer may never have thought to comment on.

Ebay has been trying to back private sellers into a corner and force them to offer Tracked delivery for years (for the fee revenue it generates).  They've tried persuasion, useless when so many private sellers cast-offs don't warrant the expense of tracking.

They've tried threats, in answer to the Late Delivery Metric any private seller with a brain just lengthened their Dispatch Window.

So now ebay just makes Tracked compulsory  --  Take it if you want to buy or sell on ebay.  Another income boost for a site that actually manages to sell less every year.  Especially in the categories that actually draw buyers to the site.  Too many businesses based here are saddled with so many fees that they are guaranteed to be uncompetitive compared with the local supermarket. 

Ebay will never be amazon, it will never even be V'ed.  It was unique and a better site than both.  What it needs to do is take that back, not try to be something it isn't and was never designed to be.

[nigel_paul_wright7557]

The problem with ebay now is the number of sellers.

Some are quite big companies selling massive amounts of gear.

They have the benefit of scale buying.

This makes it difficult to compete.

I used to sell an item for £30 and did well out of it.

Then along came someone else selling similar item for £4 !

Totally blew me out of the water despite mine being a better item.

[insidethe93]

I wish eBay would introduce a one-click feature for "repeat your rating & comments" for feedback on multiple items from the same seller. Yesterday I left feedback for 13 items (from one seller) and yes I Copy & Pasted my comments but I had to manually click the other questions - repetetive, time-consuming, tedious.

I bet you can add "repetetive, time-consuming, tedious" to the list of reasons why many buyers don't leave feedback.

However, I'll always leave feedback because:

(a) to me it feels right to do so

(b) it lets the seller know it's arrived where there's no tracking and often (very often) tracking's not caught up; I try to do it promptly and since SD I add the date received.

(c) feedback accrues and can inform potential buyers who read it.

(d) items on my orders page awaiting feedback = orders I've not yet received = easy admin for me; this was a useful tip given ages ago on the discussion board but unfortunately I didn't note who made it.

(Sorry if you've read this before as I've made the comment elsewhere in the discussion boards.)

[insidethe93]

I use "add a message to seller" at check-out to say thanks for the discount. I don't mention discounts in seller feedback as neither discounts for purchase quantities or occasional vouchers don't seem to me to be relevant to future potential buyers.

I vaguely remember seeing a thread that sometimes sellers don't know they've offered a voucher discount as it's generated by eBay. If that's so, "thanks" at check-out might be the only way they find out? in which case is it good to make a sale but at the same time bad as it's on discount?

[the-nutwood-collection]

Your effort in responding to all 13 items is laudable, but probably didn't increase the seller's feedback score. eBay's treatment of multiple item feedback is:

You should leave feedback for each sale. As for your own feedback score, keep in mind that we calculate this differently depending on whether the sales occurred in the same week. For feedback purposes, we define a week as Monday through Sunday, Pacific Time.

If the sales occurred in different weeks, each rating can affect a feedback score by 1 point. A positive rating raises a feedback score by 1 point. A negative rating lowers a seller’s feedback score by 1 point.

If the sales occurred in the same week we raise your feedback score by a total of 1 point, regardless of the number of positive ratings you received from the seller within the week.

Also, if multiple items were packed together, one feedback tells the seller that everything's arrived.

[clickcarparts]

Hopefully the automated feedback update that Ebay said they have implemented has gone up.

Where you just need to upload the tracking into the order and shows delivered with in 7 days and on time.

Then the customer leaves an automatic positive unless there has been an issue, so customer don't need to remember to do it and we get our positive.

[insidethe93]

Thanks, I already knew that, but it's easier if I do - no trying to work anything out for my poor braincell, and also it removes them from my Orders page so that it only shows items I'm awaiting which helps my admin. Also, if I'm recommending the seller in my feedback, no harm in it being conspicuous, though I'm pretty sure potential buyers can tell it's from the same order.

From time to time I do a manual save of all my purchases as I don't want to rely on eBay's Purchase History after reading problems a few posters have had, either accessing it and/or loss of info from some time past. (I save to an easily searchable text file.) Quite often I need to check I haven't already bought an item (yet still have somehow managed to buy a duplicate, oops), and my text file means I can search seller too, and my system works well for me. Indeed, to anyone who uses Purchase History a lot I'd recommend occasionally collecting your info in some way, so that you've got total possession of it forever.

[insidethe93]

Sorry, forgot to include the fact that I save my purchase history by going to my feedback page and selecting "feedback left for others" and maximising the entries shown per page. That of course means that I'd need to leave feedback on every single item regardless of any other benefits.

Usually leaving feedback is fine but with 13 items (plus multiples for other sellers in the same session), I just wilted rather, and there is a really easy solution if only eBay would implement it i.e. one-click "repeat rating & comments". I believe it'd encourage more buyers to leave feedback.