Feedback (or lack thereof)

[macbooksurfer]

I've been a seller (and buyer) on ebay for many many years...

... and one of the best features of eBay in general is the feedback facility, for both buyers and sellers.

I can't count how many times viewing a sellers feedback comments good and bad has greatly influenced the purchase.

I digress, I mostly sell high value gadgets on ebay, including Apple MacBooks  , iPhones etc.

However what I find really frustrating and most of the time nail biting waits,  is when the sold items are flagged as delivered and several days go by without any buyer feedback!

I can almost guarantee, that for every sale I make, am constantly refreshing my feedback stats to see if the buyer is happy with the item and has left positive feedback.

Granted, have had several a-hole buyers, who unreasonably destroy the mostly pleasant selling experience on eBay, which probably added to my feedback anxiety going forward!

I do have some lovely feedback, which is so encouraging, but again, my last 3,4 sales have resulted in complete silence on the feedback front. 😱

Is it just me? Or does anyone else feel the same way?  In that you get anxious when you hear nothing from the buyer when you have flogged something?

[messier44000]

Think its the end of the month where there will be automated positive FB after 

a certain time period where tracking shows as delivered within eBays Fantasy delivery dates.

Was in the announcements.

[barry.110]

There certainly seems to be less feedback left these days, both buyers and sellers. I wouldn't worry too much about not receiving feedback, especially if you have tracking and know it's been delivered, if the buyer wasn't happy I bet they would soon let you know.

After all no feedback is better than bad feedback.

[macbooksurfer]

Good points!  I think as I mentioned in the original post, that the "troublesome buyers"

(had one who claimed an iPhone kept on rebooting and it would cost hundreds of pounds to repair) only to find out when I received it back that there was bugger all wrong with it)

... left me with increased anxiety when selling high value items.  Especially when the funds from said sale are usually used to purchase another gadget / phone on ebay.  

When you have to refund a buyer, it can cause cash flow problems if you've already used the funds to purchase another item.

[department28]

There was a thread about feedback (or lack of) a short while ago:-

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

The conclusion seems to be that feedback-leaving is on the decline, which is a shame. I never buy anything without checking out the feedback first.

The introduction of automated feedback will probably result in even fewer bothering to do so, unfortunately.

[macbooksurfer]

Kind of a little off to the side of this discussion ,but it raises another concern or issue with new sellers on ebay.

Last week I was in the market for the latest Samsung phone and there was a large number of sellers listing the phone I was looking for who had zero feedback.

In my mind, that instantly shouts "scammer" and scroll on past, to sellers with at least a handful of feedback to provide at least a modicum of confidence / trust etc

Ironically, my teenage daughter wanted to sell her record player (as she got a new one for Christmas) on ebay, but as her account was just used for buying, she had zero feedback.  Needless to say that even after several re-listings there was no bids and no interest.  

She then asked me to sell it and it was sold within the listing period!  Frustraningly the dam thing almost burnt the buyers house down, so I had to refund him 😂

Back on topic though, again the feedback discussion rears it ugly head again, in that essentially new sellers on ebay, would have to build up their feedback scores by initially selling low priced stuff, until they had enough feedback to garner trust to start selling pricer stuff.

[barry.110]

Part of me is wary of this automatic positive feedback if none is left within seven days.  What I mean is say if a buyer receives an item and in the description you have said it has a slight scratch but when the buyer gets it they think it’s a bigger scratch than you said.  They might think that they don’t want to leave positive feedback but at the same time might not think it’s bad enough to leave a neutral or a negative, so they may decide not to leave any feedback.  However if they see that eBay has left positive feedback that might prompt them to leave the neutral or negative.

[auctionmike1]

There seem to be a large number of eBay newbies who do not understand tor value the feedback etiquette, even when requested to leave it. I suspect that as well as not knowing how to leave feedback, they also do not know how to read their messages.

Can we have the old days back please?

[lucy_farmer]

'There seem to be a large number of eBay newbies who do not understand tor value the feedback etiquette...'

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Well , younger people have been buying stuff online all their lives on sites without the feedback system. So it's no longer an important part of the process to them.....

Whereas when we old farts started buying stuff online 20-25 years ago, ebay was one of the very first and feedback was very important in *not* getting ripped off .

Now rules and regulations have more or less caught up with online sales, feedback is no longer the first line of defence against the 'wild west'!

[department28]

Yes, the automated feedback may well prompt someone to leave theirs before eBay does it for them, although apparently a buyer can still overwrite the automated feedback, if they want to. 

I can understand why business sellers would be happy to get automated feedback rather than none, but personally I'd rather eBay stopped 'interfering'.

It will be a shame if old style feedback dwindles... some of it is priceless. Had to laugh at the one I spotted yesterday... Shoe seller got a neutral from a buyer asking for a refund 'because one of the slipper/mules squeaked'.... 😆

[thetimetower]

Yup and I agree with automated feedback as it really is such an unfair system in general (not just on ebay, on apps like Uber etc) where u can have 100 good sales with 5 good feedback. People tend to only leave reviews when they're angry i find or a completionist. If they got the item and havent said anything, id assume theyre happy and moved on

[crn303]

Sorry to say but feedback on eBay carries very little clout these days.

eBay feels the same way as we don’t see any promotion of it any longer.

eBay have certainly changed in the past 12 / 18 months and for the worse.

More occupied in money grabbing across their platform which affects our business and will theirs in the near future.

[jma2815]

I think feedback is a redundant waste of time in the modern age. As Lucy said, it had value back in the old days when we had no comeback if we encountered a bad seller (or buyer - payment by cheque? Yes I’m that old). Wild West indeed. 

Thanks to the MBG there’s near 100% financial protection so no real place for it other than to get on sellers nerves. If you have a bad transaction as a buyer (and that can happen even if the seller has hundreds of green dots) you just press a few buttons and you’re sorted. 

Even good feedback can be a pain in the backside. I recently got a green dot about 20 minutes after the parcel was delivered and the buyer had written an essay about how very sensitive she was and the terrible migraine she’d got from the ‘highly perfumed’ top I’d sent her and how she’d have to wash it several times and hope it didn’t continue to make her ill….. The only perfume there could have been on it was from the careful washing and ironing I’d just done before packing it in new clean tissue paper and postal bag and posting it same day…Grrr. 

I had to spend almost an hour on chat to get CS to remove it.  As a seller I’d much rather do without feedback of any sort and have people assume that I’m going to do my job. If I don’t there are usually ways to sort it out amicably. As as a buyer I don’t usually bother, its a waste of time. 

I was in a trial run of automated feedback last year. It consisted of the rather lacklustre ‘This seller successfully completed a sale’. I wish the eBay machine would just stop interfering and let us get on with running our own sales and dealing with our customers as the reasonable human beings most of us still are. 

[department28]

'I think feedback is a redundant waste of time in the modern age...'

Despite living in a modern age, I still find feedback really useful. Without it, there would be no way of knowing what sort of seller you are dealing with.

I have often changed my mind about a purchase based on the feedback, either about the item, or the attitude of the seller.

I would much rather know about any issues beforehand, like slow dispatch, poor quality goods, poor packaging etc, instead of buying in ignorance, and then having all the hassle of returns & refunds. Who doesn't find sending stuff back a complete pain?!

[jma2815]

The most appalling items and service I’ve had has been from sellers with hundreds of absolutely glowing feedbacks.  I’ve ordered from sellers with a few negs and its been fine. I accept that your experience might well be different. 

My experience with feedback over the last five years is that as both buyer and seller its meaningless at best. I don’t mind sending stuff back if the seller turns out to be a dud, it happens rarely and its hardly difficult. 

[jokers_toybox]

Feedback is a bit of a bugbear for me, it's nice to know something arrives and people are happy, just that little piece of mind that you can move on. 

BUT with 15k items sold and only a 3rd of people leaving feedback I got fed up of leaving it myself and set it to automated upon receipt, I'm looking forward to knowing something arrived safely within a week without having to check tracking.

But ultimately, this is just another "keeping up with vinted" process as that's how it happens there, like buyer facing fees