I’ve been buying and sellling on Ebay for about 2 years now, I have 100% positive feedback and I always leave feedback for the people I do business with.
So, last week I won an auction. I paid right away, withing minutes of finding out I won, by the seller’s prefered method. Three days later I get an email from her saying that the item was shipped and she will leave me feedback only after I leave her positive feedback.
What the Fuck !?!?
I did my part. This bitch is trying to hold my feedback hostage.
I’ve had the same thing happen to me. It always give me a “what the fuck” pause. I usually leave positive feedback for the seller about a week after I get the item.
I only buy and I get that all the time dragongirl.
I refuse to leave any feedback for those people. (Unless they do something really bad and deserve negative) Since I only buy I don’t really need any more feedback anyway.
I once had a guy send me emails for a month asking for his feedback and promising to leave positive for me if I left it for him first. I ignored him. I did my part a week before he even shipped the item. Why should I leave feedback first?
Sellers do that all the time to me, too…usually without emailing me to tell me, though. Feedback from them suddenly appears after I’ve left it for them.
Most of my eBay activity is selling. I leave feedback for buyers as soon as I have the payment in my hand. Most of the time, when a Paypal payment comes in, I not only leave feedback immediately, but mail the item to the buyer the same day.
I don’t use ebay very much. I recently won my third auction, paid with Paypal immediately. I left positive faction for the seller the day the package arrived in the mail.
I’m a buyer-only on Ebay also. It seems the rule has become that the seller leaves feedback AFTER the buyer does. But I don’t think I’ve had anyone be quite so blatant as to say they’d only leave positive feedback if I left positive feedback. That’s just lame.
I sell and buy on ebay. I see that happening all the time too.
I wish e-bay would have some sort of rule that once a sale is complete, you can not participate in another auctin (selling or buying) until you complete feedback.
I hope this doesn’t happen to me…I bought for the first time just yesterday…a laptop. Doesn’t Ebay know this is going on? If they do, then what’s the point of having a feedback program? If they don’t…well, they’re just…I don’t know…but they oughtta do something.
<crosses fingers> Oh please, don’t let this happen to me!
Official eBay policy is that feedback is optional, so they don’t care and won’t do anything about it.
This isn’t feasible. Some people run hundreds of auctions at the same time, and every week or two they’ll do all outstanding feeback at once. But under this rule, say they sell one item. Then the lazy-ass buyer takes a week to mail payment, and it takes another several days to reach the seller. That’s nearly two weeks where the seller can’t run any more auctions. There are many people for whom selling on eBay is a full-time job.
I’ve been buying and very occassionally selling on eBay for over 4 years now and usually don’t have a problem. I did have one seller that emailed me two times after the auction requesting to leave feedback for them. I was annoyed at the first one since I already left feedback, positive at that. After the second email I decided not to buy from the seller again, not that the feedback emails were that big of a deal, I just couldn’t imagine what it’d be to deal with them if there was a problem on a future auction.
I sell (in my Ebay store and through auctions and buy some) and holding feedback hostage pisses me off.
As a seller my end of the deal is money so when I get my money I leave feedback immediately.
As a buyer (I only buy low buck items out of fear of getting burned) I leave feedback as soon as I inspect the item.
I feel like this is the only fair way to deal with people.
But like many other sellers I feel kind of burnt when I do not get feedback, my thinking is “oh well” but other sellers seem to take this very seriously.
I generally will not deal with “feedback hostage takers” again, it’s just a little too needy for my taste.
I’d write back and say that unless he retracts his hostage demand you will leave neutral feedback that says, “I paid immediately. Seller then sent me an e-mail saying he’d leave positive feedback only after I gave him positive feedback. I do not like his business tactics.”
I buy and sell on Ebay. As a buyer, I leave feedback when I get the item. When I sell, I wait until the buyer leaves feedback. I don’t e-mail them about it though as some buyers don’t leave feedback at all or rarely do or give feedback in bulk.
I don’t leave feedback first as a seller because a buyer could easily leave a negative if I gave anything first. It’s what’s advised on the Ebay boards. Heh.
I buy and sell on Ebay, and I always leave feedback for my buyers the same day I receive their payment. The argument that other sellers give (on the Ebay boards) for withholding feedback goes something like this: “Feedback is meant to reflect the entire transaction. Until the buyer receives his merchandise and leaves me feedback, the transaction is not complete.” To which I say, “Bullshit”. There are two parts to every transaction after a winning bid is placed:
Paying for the merchadise.
Sending the merchandise.
If I win your auction, the buying part is up to me. When I’ve won the auction and paid within minutes, I’ve done my part and done it well. I think I should be given feedback then, and the content of said feedback should not be dependant on what I have to say about whether or not you did your part properly. For example, I bought a ring. I paid within minutes. Shipping was $6. When I got the ring, it was shipped in a manilla envelope for 60 cents. To me, a 1000% markup on shipping is a little steep, and when I emailed her to ask about it she told me that shipping is more than just a stamp and that there were Ebay and Paypal fees involved, too. I didn’t think I should have to pay her fees, so I left her a neutral. She then left me a negative, even though I had done my part with no problems. How is this fair? I forwarded her email to Ebay and reported her for fee avoidance. I felt it was my duty, as she had confessed to the fee avoidance in her email.
"She then left me a negative, even though I had done my part with no problems. How is this fair? "
When you complained about s/h, she didn’t see it as “doing your part without problems.” Most sellers don’t consider the transaction over until the buyer recieves the item. I don’t blame them. She should have never tried to justify her shipping/handling though. She’s right in that shipping/handling is more than just postage, but she should never have tried to break it down as it tends to make things worse.
I wish eBay would make it so buyer’s can’t leave feedback until the seller does. Most of the time, the seller needs it more than the buyer does anyway.
Yeah, and the same can be said in reverse. You’d never get feedback from me, because I got burned once when I complained to an asshat seller for some bad product and he left me negative feedback for doing so. He also called me names in my communications with him, even though I was always polite and professional in my dealings with him.
And the fear of negative feedback has made the feedback system nearly worthless. People will give a positive feedback rating and still complain in their message, just because they don’t want retaliatory feedback from the seller.
A correction to my post above. The asshat seller gave me a negative feedback because I gave him one. I gave him one because he didn’t send me the product I ordered, and he called me names and was generally rude when I tried to get it corrected through email. I finally had to threaten to dispute the charge before he gave me my money back.
I do see your point, but I was offended as a seller that she would charge $6 for 60 cents worth of shipping and a manilla envelope (which in her breakdown she told me cost 25 cents). I have never charged more than the actual costs for postage and materials. I charge what I want for my actual item, I don’t try to hide extra charges in my shipping amount. In addition to charging me for her fees, she was very rude in her response, which is part of the reason I left the neutral. I have to admit, had I taken more time to think about it, I would probably have not left her any feedback, then I would have made sure not to bid on any more of her items. Shipping is always a tricky issue, and it was partly my fault for not asking beforehand, but I still don’t feel like I deserved a negative. My having a problem with her charging me for her Ebay fees shouldn’t equal a negative for me, but unfortunately that is her perogative under Ebay’s guidelines. I just don’t agree with it.
My experiences are that these type of sellers are the least likely to leave you feedback, period. I guess they are too busy with all of their auctions.
As a seller, I leave feedback the moment I get payment. I figure that at that point, the buyer has completed his end of the transaction. As a buyer, if a seller won’t leave feedback for me first, then I do not leave feedback for them.
abba21, I don’t think you entirely desrved a negative either.
I do think, however, that it was not ‘partly’ your fault in regards to not questioning beforehand what the S&H would be. If she didn’t list the price for S&H, then you should have asked. If she did list it, you bid anyway.
