Ebay sellers or buyers not bothering to leave feedback! A recurring issue!

[martin658g]

I have been using Ebay for more than 20 years now  - often buying and sometimes selling on the platform  - usually things like records, CDs, DVDs, books, and very occasionally other household items (but rarely).
However, my main issue of discontent is one which concerns  simple plain courtesy and reciprocation from other users, whenever a transaction or purchase is made.  Whenever I purchase anything or sell anything - and respectively receive the item or dispatch it - I leave feedback to the other party. Just what is so difficult about other buyers or sellers leaving feedback - a simple thank you or comment to let us know item was received or item was satisfactory, ideal, broken, not suitable - whatever - would not go amiss. It's not the hardest thing in the world to do..... Just plain human courtesy and decency.

I have bought more than 600 items since 2004, and sold around 180.  Quite modest by anybody's standards. Yet my feedback rating to date stands at *just* 350 - a pathetic desultory tally, given than it should be at least double that by now.  The past couple of years, purchasing around 90 items, I have only received 24 reciprocal feedbacks.....this despite me even politely requesting the sellers/buyers do the same, these earnest pleas go unheeded and they simply do not bother. Is that rudeness or laziness or indifference? I really do hope that I am not alone in encountering this problem but it really shouldn't have to be like this.

The fact I am missing so much feedback is also of concern because it completely distorts the truth of my Ebay (feedback) profile and as a result, I am all too aware that Ebay will probably be wondering why I have such a large deficit as it could / might reflect badly on me as a seller or buyer - all of which is untrue as I have never had any negative feedbacks anyway. The current total / tally is completely unrepresentative of the true number of purchases or sales I have made in the last 20 years and it should be far higher.

What can be done to alert sellers and buyers to the fact that leaving feedback is as integral and important a part of buying and selling on the platform (or indeed any platform) and that it doesn't take more than a few seconds or a minute to simply post back a few short words describing the transaction, as a simple gesture of courtesy. Unless of course this is merely an indication of the wider world at large where people are more predisposed to eschewing these simple - valuable - gestures that make the customer experience a little better for all of us.

For the record I have now had seven consecutive purchases since November - six of which I have not received feedback in return for, despite me leaving them feedback first.

Apologies if this post is very lengthy but I do ask that  if people are to respond to this, they PLEASE do not resort to flaming or sarcastic replies as that merely confirms my fears about how courtesy among online communities is now an extremely rare commodity. Only constructive discussion and sharing of viewpoints here please. Thanks for reading this far.

[smashi26]

Spam me for feedback, I will leave you the feedback you deserve.

Feedback is only good for signalling the scum sellers on this platform to unwary customers.

[fotherbale]

Bit of an arrogant attitude?

The customer owes the seller the courtesy of acknowledging reciept and letting them know that the item recieved is satisfactory.  The way to discharge this common courtesy is by leaving positive feedback and it is at that point that the transaction is completed.  It certainly isn't finished at the point you pay, especially now that ebay don't actually allow the seller to have the money until two days after you have recieved your item.

I have no doubt that if the item turned out to be less than satisfactory or failed to be delivered you will expect to have the opportunity to leave the seller negative feedback, but why should you have that right if you can't be bothered to give praise where it is due. 

[fotherbale]

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@a45heaven wrote:

........In the early days Feedback was more meaningful, when a full range of positive and negatives could be left in both directions.

If it was viewed as a useful tool then ebay would have been only too keen on having feedback left on their actions - but they dont, they just use feedback as a weapon against sellers.

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They stopped allowing the full range of feedback options to be available to sellers because too many substandard sellers were using negative feedback as weapon against their customers. 

Back in the early days, ebay was a much nicer, friendlier and more honest place - the people who are bad sellers (or indeed, bad buyers) were less likely to found on the internet.

[bikermikefrommars]

I agree entirely. If we buy something from a shop in the street I expect the majority of us say 'thank you' to the assistant handing over your purchase. Why is it different on here? As a seller (before sending items 'tracked') feedback let me know that the item had been received....and a thank you. As a buyer the first thing I do is acknowledge that I have received the item and thank the seller! Its just politeness.......something missing from todays society. 

[mawels_87]

,"'''The customer owes the seller the courtesy of acknowledging reciept and letting them know that the item recieved is satisfactory.  The way to discharge this common courtesy is by leaving positive feedback and it is at that point that the transaction is completed.  It certainly isn't finished at the point you pay, especially now that ebay don't actually allow the seller to have the money until two days after you have recieved your item."""

All eBay has to do is add a received button for once an item has been delivered to the buyer. The feedback is something different altogether.

[fotherbale]

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@mawels_87 wrote:

All eBay has to do is add a received button for once an item has been delivered to the buyer. The feedback is something different altogether.

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No, not really.    Added to which, if the reciever can't be bothered to leave feedback, do you really think they will bother to click a recieved button?

Experience of Vinted tells me straight away that they won't.   It is a long running source of complaints among sellers on Vinted that a large proportion of buyers don't click the 'Everything is satisfactory' button and therefore they have to wait longer for Vinted to release the payment to them.  It would be no different on ebay.

[a45heaven]

They stopped allowing the full range of feedback options to be available to sellers because too many substandard sellers were using negative feedback as weapon against their customers. 

Im not fully disagreeing , but i find it hard to see that Feedback can be a weapon against a buyer.

Unless ebay sanction them for their comments, then they will buy from a seller before a seller can view that buyers Feedback. So it would be too late to impact , no?

Carefully considered Feedback from Sellers could be very useful , although i have doubts on the integrity of the total of Sellers.

I do however like the concept of applying Feedback for ebays actions in Feedback.

[zoomingmouse]

I don't think feedback is, or should become redundant.

Personally I find it mostly useful.

Without it how will users know if they are dealing with someone with a good history selling on Ebay.

I regularly check FB & I especially like, when looking at an item, that you can scroll down to the FB section that shows FB received for the same item you’re looking at.

I've recently bought quite a lot from a clothing business seller that I often buy from & the FB I checked tells me that the items I've <now> purchased are true to size & of good quality/% cotton material. <So, not Asian sizing, nor horrible nylon chemical smelling rags of which I’ve previously bought many.>

I am surprised that there are so many comments generally on the site to remove FB altogether.

Out of everywhere I think FB is the most useful on Ebay as you’re dealing with so many different sellers…

[department28]

'I regularly check FB & I especially like, when looking at an item, that you can scroll down to the FB section that shows FB received for the same item you’re looking at.'

Yes, that is very useful - although I prefer to view on the Classic page rather than on that horrible 'new' layout, which does not display the prices.

[zoomingmouse]

Yes, I'm glad the classic view is still an option, but for how long I wouldn't like to guess...

[department28]

Yes, I keep expecting the 'switch back to Classic view' link to quietly disappear... it's been around 6 months since the new layout was introduced, & I still don't like it!  Maybe it looks/works better on a smartphone, but on a pc it looks odd, squashed up in the middle of the page, & the smaller, fainter type is harder to read.

Also, there is still no link/tab/filter to see 'feedback left for others', so if you want to read that, you have to go back to the Classic page - it makes me wonder if they are going to do away with that option when the 'new' layout takes over.

The whole system has just been fiddled around with too much.

[zoomingmouse]

Totally agree.

Maybe AI is designing unchecked? It does not appear that anyone is overseeing the quality of the changes, or even if they work properly…

It’s like they need to start from scratch, or my preference would be to hit the revert button… preferably pre Cassini.

[furbil]

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@a45heaven wrote:

...... i find it hard to see that Feedback can be a weapon against a buyer.

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Perhaps you weren't on ebay in the days when sellers could leave actual negative feedback for buyers (and in the days before they started the Money-back-Guarantee/buyer protection system).  

There were lots of cases where unscrupulous sellers who, when confronted with a complaint from a buyer (item not recieved, or SNAD), or a request for a return (this was back before the distance selling regs came in to force business sellers to accept returns) would threaten these buyers with negative feedback if they didn't drop the complaint.  It was called 'feedback extortion', it was explicitly forbidden in the ebay rules, but that didn't stop appreciable numbers of bad sellers doing it, so ebay removed the ability for sellers to leave negative feedback for buyers to prevent it happening.

[forestfeline62]

Some times i send the buyer a polite message asking if they would kindly leave me feed back ,some times they are happy to oblige but some still don't .I have had multiple buyers not leave me feed back .So now I send all items 24 or 48 tracked and then Ebay can see that the item has been delivered .Standard delivery has been hit and miss, items don't always get scanned on delivery but 24 /48 is peace of mind .

[department28]

eBay holding funds until the item is delivered, or feedback received, will mean more sellers will be asking for feedback.

A lot of buyers don't like being prompted for feedback, & sellers don't really like having to ask.

eBay must know this was a silly idea.

[insidethe93]

Trustpilot ratings should be looked at knowing that it doesn't allow ratings of 0 stars.

[derpybay]

We sell quite a lot on the River too, a rate of over 50% feedback would be considered insane. We haven't recieved any since 2023.

It's just where the trend is going, reviews over feedback, hence why ebay briefly tried that terrible change to buyer feedback a while back where you had to review the item too, and probably also why we can now leave whole screeds with pictures. 

Partly site culture evolving with the wider world, partly it being manipulated to be where ebay wants it to be (interchangable items being sold by faceless sellers). 

It's not as important as it used to be because the site is so locked down that you don't have to take that much of a risk.

A nice comment can still really brighten my day, and help me know that the things I focus on are actually important to the buyers too, but things move on. 

[zoomingmouse]

I've always found it very difficult to leave FB on the River, although I barely use that site as I've never really been able to get on with it.
I think I gave up last time I used them, which is probably the idea...

[poldice]

Feedback's relevance has waned over time. There's not much more for a buyer to expect than an item sent correctly packaged and to arrive and be as described. There's not much more for a seller than to expect payment without delay and for a buyer to behave reasonably in the event of any dissatisfaction. 

These days buyers seem to write a Novella about their item as if the whole concept is akin to TripAdvisor. Some seem to review the item they've bought as if the seller made it!

Besides, the additional ratings aren't really very helpful or meaningful or logical:-

- Item Description. Would anyone really leave a poor rating of an item described as "broken" actually turned out to be "excellent"? It is, after all, a poor description, but people don't rate that - they rate how pleased they are. Additionally, now that so many use the AI description whose description is being rated? The users description or the AI word salad? [For me, if it was the AI description it would be rated poorly because nothing I ever bought would "align with cultural heritage to a degree redolent of that befitting of a Sultan"].

- Postage Costs. This is stated and not hidden so buyers buy in full knowledge of this. I bet no-one has ever left a poor rating because someone massively undercharged the postage cost in error? 

-Dispatch Time. This time is often given but does it stop someone rating this poorly because they wanted it dispatched same day whereas seller says "within 5 days". 

-Seller communication. This sometimes just encourages over-communication from sellers who now think that a buyer must be kept up to date with every step. "Thanks for bid" "Thanks for payment" "Item packed" "Going to post office now" "At post office" "In post office queue" "Item Posted" "Here's the tracking number" "Back home now so will mark as dispatched" "Marked as dispatched" "When item arrives please leave me positive feedback". By buying I merely expect the seller to post within the given time frame.

- Did this item arrive on time? Erm, that is down to the postal service/courier surely? 

I only leave basic feedback and don't do the additional features for reasons as described above. And then, if I don't think the seller deserves feedback I'll just leave it unfilled.

[department28]

'... if it was the AI description it would be rated poorly because nothing I ever bought would "align with cultural heritage to a degree redolent of that befitting of a Sultan"...'

Oh that is priceless! 😄   

I agree the additional ratings could be improved, although I still find myself checking the yellow stars for any that have a big chunk out of them. I don't like the 'black lines' version of the detailed seller ratings, that appear under the item description. I fear the yellow stars will be due to disappear, along with the Classic feedback page.

'...Seller communication. This sometimes just encourages over-communication from sellers who now think that a buyer must be kept up to date with every step. "Thanks for bid" "Thanks for payment" "Item packed" "Going to post office now" "At post office" "In post office queue" "Item Posted" "Here's the tracking number" "Back home now so will mark as dispatched" "Marked as dispatched" "When item arrives please leave me positive feedback". By buying I merely expect the seller to post within the given time frame....'

😂  

Yes, there are those sellers who really go for it with the communication...  I like to send one composite 'thanks for buying, tracking will be added, any problem let me know', & leave it at that.