Buyers not leaving feedback

[tranceenthusiast]

Hi guys, 

I'm pretty new to eBay. I've sold a few items now. I've made sure buyers get the item safely packaged, quickly ( usually dispatched same day if possible ) and fully tracked..

The first couple of sale,  I got great Feedback. But my next few sales, despite providing the same fast service, going to great lengths to get everything right. And despite me leaving them positive feedback. 

The buyers are not giving feedback? I understand they aren't obliged to give feedback. But as a new seller this is vital really. 

Should I jog their memories and ask for feedback or just leave it? Kind of frustrating when you've gone to great lengths to go " above and beyond " and then get no feedback. 

Cheers 

[tressygirl · Accepted solution]

It can be disappointing but truly,  after a while it will become the norm,  as fewer and fewer buyers leave feedback.

As you correcty say,  feedback is entirely voluntary for both parties.

As a tip,   I recommend Never asking for feedback as you may receive some you didn't wish for. 

You may just remind a buyer who received for example ,  an ' OK' transaction,  but now you're asking how it went,  they could leav e you a neutral / negative.

Your feedback score will increase,  sell nice , well described items reasonably priced,  and you'll see that feedback score rise,  albeit most probably slowly.

[tranceenthusiast]

Thanks Tess,

Yes its definitely disappointing when they don't leave FB. What you say about not contacting is kind of what I was thinking myself. The item I sold was brand new so it would be difficult to see why there would be an issue but I see your point.

I guess I'll have to keep going and hope people give positive FB. 

Cheers 

[tressygirl]

Believe me,   the longer you sell the less and less important it is to receive that feedback.

Yes,  there are buyers who look at feedback first before buying but here, it's not the number of feedbacks you have but what they actually say, if I only ever read that first feedback you received it would make my decision easy,  to a positive one , to buy from you straight away.

@tranceenthusiast 

[tranceenthusiast]

Ah ok, so you are saying quality over quantity. 

I guess this is good to know. As out of the two for selling I have one is the buyer saying it was his best experience on here. 🙂

[tressygirl]

Yep,   that's the one I read,   and if buyers do come to read your feedback ,  not everyone does by the way before buying,  then if they were in any doubt to buy from you,  that would as I said,   have swayed me  and I'm sure any buyer,  to buy from you with confidence.

@tranceenthusiast 

[aemdoubleu]

Hi,

I've been on eBay 20+ years apprently, during that time FB has changed; whereas it used to be the norm to leave FB after almost every transaction - buying & selling - nowadays it's a lower percentage. 

Please DON'T "chase" feedback, I never respond to sellers who do this, sorry.

Also bear in mind, some buyers take a while to leave FB - I just had (positive) FB this week from an item which was delivered before Xmas.

Keep doing what you're doing, FB will build up!

Best of luck.

[tranceenthusiast]

Cheers to both of you for responding, yeah I'm not gonna chase. 

It seems one or two very positives may be enough and that is good news to me. I do wish people would take the time to leave it though. 

Take care all. 

[*devils.advocate*]

And the best type of feedback to get is a repeat buyer - and their money!

[tranceenthusiast]

Replying to myself here.

While I do agree with all of you and thank you for input. I need to make this point to get it off my chest.. Apologies in advance 😂

Ive purchased a few items on eBay since posting this. The app actually prompts buyers to leave feedback after each purchase is delivered. So there is really no excuse to not leave it. I'm a new user I need positive feedback to build up really. I have 2 seller feedback after selling a number of items. All shipped same day, packaged like Fort Knox's and items as described, have gone above and beyond for each buyer to make sure they get the item as described and quickly. 

I've purchased a number of items over the past few months myself.  I have always left the seller feedback. ( I assumed it was just standard practice / common courtesy ).. 

Not leaving feedback is just pure and utter laziness. There's a pattern it seems, the users who left me feedback took the time to  enquire about the item prior to purchasing. With my last sale I received a notification when buying the postage label, stating that the address may need changing. I messaged the buyer to ask for confirmation of his addresses details and he couldn't even be bothered to answer me...  ( Item arrived at its destination a few days ago ) Perhaps this is just the way on eBay? It's pure and utter laziness if you ask me. 

Rant over have a great weekend all. 😉

[Anonymous]

I agree totally, buyers have become lazy and too busy with "social media" and other things, i agree to not ask for feedback though! I did try in a nice way to a buyer who bought 5 items separately from me, I asked did the y all arrive safely  but got no reply, so gave up and yes I think that they might leave negative because they may not have been (totally) happy etc etc. Nice people leave feedback and I think lazy rude people don't 

[theanonymousgrouch]

At the risk of sounding 'blunt', imma be real here...

Technically, no one is "entitled" to feedback.

Provided the buyer pays what they owe you - preferably in a timely fashion(!) - then, technically speaking, they have already done all they are contractually obligated to do; anything else after that is just a courtesy.

Speaking personally, I rarely bother with feedback nowadays, simply cos of how badly ebay have butchered the whole system in the last few years... basically, so long as you get your money, better just to view postive feedbacks as a type of 'fringe benefit', rather than something to be expected - least, that's my two cents.

edit - I'm an idiot; I somehow wrote "seller" instead of buyer... *smh*

[tresoweshillbilly]

theres some weird chages to fb once long ago it was simple and yes people bothered with just a thanks arrived.NOW who has time to give star ratings and write a essay before your actually allowed to leave fb .iv totally given up / iv tried to leave fb several times different items but because i havnt written enough the leave fb button wont work !

[roger_roger_over_and_nowt]

You don't need to write an essay but you can write a lot more than you were once able to.

As far as the review bit all it's done to me is change the timescale.

If it's an item with no moving parts i leave feedback straight away and rate it as 5 stars.If it's something that is supposed to function i test the item fully before leaving feedback at the last possible moment but whereas i used to leave feedback straight away and then hide the order so i knew what items i was still waiting for i now hide the order regardless as i can still see what i need to leave feedback for from my feedback page.

However,i have seen posts from sellers who are having their items rated poorly as buyers are leaving low ratings because they are unhappy about having to rate an item before they can leave feedback.

I get that.

Sooooo,overall i think the rating thing is not a good idea and i hope to paste back soon and say instead that i thought the rating thing wasn't  a good idea.

[sml192]

You must be doing something wrong as you literally only have to type one letter for the 'Leave Feedback' button to turn blue.  The only other mandatory parts are the positive/neutral/negative rating and the new 'rate the item' (which thankfully hasn't appeared for me yet). 

[tranceenthusiast]

Any reason why I'm being notified about this? It's a thousand years old. 😜

[*vyolla*]

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[tresoweshillbilly]

ha i was threading back leaving fb on old items obviously some went thru ok/as i guess i bought stuff before fb changed !  i hadnt noticed new compulsory rate deal  box ! before could leave fb  .so that solves that cheers

[ogel21gij]

I have to admit that if I find an item has to be rated before I can do the rest of the feedback, then I don't do so.  How can you rate an item when you have yet to use it?  I do feedback the day I receive an item so to me, rating an item is pointless.

All other items that don't have the rate the item get a feedback from me.  

Not sure what eBay's thinking was in requesting you to rate an item.  The sooner they drop that requirement the better.  I have messaged the seller directly when I see the rate the item bit, so they know I have received the item they sent to me.

[katieshwe]

Are you leaving feedback for your buyers as soon as they pay or are you waiting to see what the buyer does?