should buyer or seller leave feedback first

[tritoncolin]

Who should leave feedback first,buyer or seller? As a buyer only, I am always prepared to leave feedback first, but I am finding an icreasing number of sellers just don't bother to leave any. I have now decided to leave feedback only to sellers who leave it first..I think feedback is important and Ebay should make it compulsary and deduct points from anyone who fails to leave it.

[m25jet]

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@tritoncolin wrote:

Who should leave feedback first,buyer or seller? As a buyer only, I am always prepared to leave feedback first, but I am finding an icreasing number of sellers just don't bother to leave any. I have now decided to leave feedback only to sellers who leave it first..I think feedback is important and Ebay should make it compulsary and deduct points from anyone who fails to leave it.

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You clearly don't understand the feedback system from the seller's point of view.  A buyer can leave a seller positive, neutral or negative feedback, whereas a seller can only leave a buyer positive feedback or none at all.  Therefore, if a seller has the misfortune to sell to a buyer who turns out to be a complete nightmare he/she cannot respond with truthful feedback that reflects how he/she felt the transaction went.  Therefore, if the seller isn't happy with how the sale went - for example, if he/she has just been scammed by a dodgy buyer - the only real course of action available to the seller is to keep quiet and report the buyer to eBay.  For that reason I believe that the entire feedback system should be scrapped in its entirety, particularly as it is so heavily biased in the buyer's favour and doesn't allow the seller the opportunity to leave truthful feedback for the buyer that is anything less than positive.

In addition to the point I have just raised, there isn't really any point in leaving feedback for buyers because it really amounts to nothing more than just thanking the buyer for doing what he/she was supposed to do in the first place - ie: pay for the item!  Therefore, given that a seller can't retract his/her feedback if the buyer leaves a negative feedback comment, its better for sellers who do give feedback to wait for the buyer to leave it first, mainly because that way the seller can see from the feedback whether or not the buyer was happy with the item.  If the buyer leaves positive feedback for the seller then I can see the point in returning the favour and leaving feedback for the buyer.  However, if the buyer doesn't leave feedback or leaves feedback that is less than positive, then it is not in the seller's interests to leave feedback for the buyer.

At the end of the day you're buying the item, not complimentary feedback comments, so stop getting so hung up about receiving feedback and focus on the item you bought.  What would you prefer - a nice feedback comment from the seller but an item you were less than happy with, or an item that meets or exceeds your expectations, but no feedback from the seller?  Personally I suspect that you'd say something along the lines of "I'd prefer it if the seller sent me an item I was happy with and left me positive feedback", but in reality that isn't always going to happen.  Neither the buyer nor the seller is contractually obliged to leave feedback, so accept the fact that feedback is voluntary and stop whinging.