Almost two weeks ago, one of my eBay auctions sold. I sent out an invoice almost immediately, as I always do when payment isn’t made automatically. I received no payment and got no response. Five days later, I sent the customer an email, asking if she had by chance mailed a check or money order, because I hadn’t received payment yet. I got no response. Finally, yesterday, 11 days after the auction ended, I sent another email, saying that if payment was not received by the end of the week, I would report it as an unpaid auction.
She paypal’d the money today. Should I mention this delay (and lack of communication) in payment when I leave her feedback?
If you’re lucky, she’ll leave feedback for you first, then you can ding her…
If not, you’re setting yourself up for retaliatory feedback, so I might damn her with faint praise, and give her positive feedback, with lousy comments.
I don’t leave feedback until the customer does. This isn’t one of those ridiculous “feedback extortion” things. In fact, it’s a suggestion I got from our very own Mangetout. I let the customer know that I don’t leave feedback until I get notification that they’ve received their item and it’s satisfactory, so that any dispute can be resolved prior to either of us leaving feedback.
Of course, that means that the customer can email me, saying they received the item and it’s fine, and then I’ll leave feedback first. But they usually leave feedback first (I’m 100% positive so far), then I’ll leave good feedback for them. My standard good feedback is “Prompt payment; a pleasure to deal with; thanks!” or something like that. In this case, I’ll at least have to tweak it.
I’ve given up leaving descriptive feedback for successful transactions. If everything works OK, I leave the highest complement I can think of: No Problems.
Yes, that’s what I do. My advice slip with the item says:
Personally, in your situation, I would leave a noncommital positive. The buyer might just have some rational excuse for late payment (on holiday, personal crisis, etc) - at least you did actually get paid, eventually. I’d probably leave fb saying just “thanks for your custom” - which says quite a bit on account of what it omits.
For situations like that I leave positive feedback that says something like “Thank you for your payment, hope you enjoy the item”
If you leave less than positive feedback, even after they’ve already left you a positive, there’s always the chance the buyer will retaliate - send harrassing emails, mess with your future auctions, etc. Sellers don’t read through their bidders’ positive feedback, and even if they did, many buyers snipe nowadays. IMO leaving an honest comment has great potential drawbacks and no real benefit.
A nonresponsive buyer who waits 11 days to make payment, and who only finally made it after you threatened to report them, does not deserve a positive, IMHO, though I may be kind of a stickler judging by some of the other responses here. Personally I would wait until they leave their feedback for you, then leave them a neutral. That’s what neutral is for: a transaction that finished satisfactorily but had a few bumps along the way.
First, let me state my own policy with regards to feedback: As a buyer I leave feedback once I’ve recieved my purchase and am satisfied that I got what I paid for. (Doesn’t necessarily mean that I’m happy with the item, nor the purchase, but there are times that legit mistakes happen, and sometimes I don’t read descriptions as closely as I should.) As a seller, I have a blurb on my packing slips that asks my customer to remember to leave feedback, if they’re satisfied with their purchase, and informing them that I will be glad to leave them positive feedback once I know that they’re satisfied with the purchase.
If I get questions about that, I explain that I can’t comment on the quality of the transaction until I know that we’re both satisfied with how things went.
As for the OP’s question: I make extensive use of the feedback comments line. I’ve left positive feedback - i.e. the transaction eventually was completely, but with comments that communcations were poor and payment slow. I can’t think whether I’ve used the neutral feedback rating, or not.
I used to consider the neutral rating to be for non-transaction feedback comments. But I think that eBay now has feedback tied to specific auctions, and that one can’t leave feedback without a visible transaction on eBay to go with it.
I think this is just crap. IMO if the buyer pays within 48 hours they have done their part of their bargain. All they are required to do is pay the amount promised in the way they promised to do so. This should garner immediate positive feedback from the seller. Anything else is, IMO, feedback hostage.
Queuing, what do you suggest the seller do about those buyers who take advantage of the fact that the seller has already sent their feedback in, to hold their own feedback hostage in exchange for some kind of perk or benny? Because feedback cannot be changed nor edited, I’d had one jerk get real pissy about shipping costs, AFTER he got the items I shipped. In the end, to protect my (then starting) feedback rating, I gave into his extortion, and refunded his shipping.
So, no, I’m not going to ever let myself be held over a barrel like that again. Feedback is far, far more important for a seller than a buyer, IMNSHO, and it’s not unreasonable for the seller to wait til the transaction is complete before giving his or her own feedback.
Ignore them. Not every person is going to even bother with giving feedback. Feedback, to me, is not something that has to be mutually agreed upon. It is a recognition that party A did what was expected of them. To complain about shipping fees after paying them is just stupid. If party A is the buyer, and paid promptly and in the agreed way/amount they have done their job.
There is a way to withdraw feedback I believe, and a dispute mechanism. If the buyer extorts their feedback it is equally wrong.
This is basically an inherent problem with the way the eBay feedback system operates IMO.
I would agree with you if I were refusing to leave the first feedback. But I’m not. I’m only waiting to hear that they are satisfied with the transaction. Some of my customers prefer to email me saying they received the item in good shape, and everything’s fine, and would I please leave feedback. I’m always happy to do that. I explain that right up front. I don’t do feedback extortion, ever.
Feedback on Ebay drive me nuts. I have bought and sold on Ebay. I feel if I pay right away which I almost always do then I feel I should get good feedback. I did my part. I won the auction and paid promptly. I think I have only waited one or two times to pay and even that was only a day or two and in those cases I was waiting for my paycheck to get deposited. I would never bid on an auction that required a time period shorter than I would be able to pay.
I left negative feedback once because I bought a DVD and I paid right away through paypal. I got an email stating my item had been shipped and got a tracking number. I tried to look it up several times over a week and each time it continued to say that the person had electronically created a tracking number for shipment but it never showed any updates.
I contacted the seller three times and never got any response. Over a month later I finally got my DVD. I left negative because of lack of communication. They contacted me though Ebay to resolve the negative dispute and since I refused to back off and retract they left a negative for me.
I think that is pure BS. I did my part and I got whacked. After looking through their feedback I see they leave negative feedback for ever single one of their buyers that left them negative feedback. I responded to the negative left for me with a comment that to not contact me again to retract negative feedback. You were wrong and leaving me a negative is wrong.
I understand why sellers are resistant to leave feedback before they get feedback for their sale but some sellers are just down right vindictive about it.
If is was me I would just leave a Positive and Thanks for Payment or just wait until the person leaves you feedback. If they don’t then just let it drop.
The same thing happened to me. I paid promptly, the item never arrived, multiple attempts at contact, no answers, eventually I did get my money back but I had to dispute it with PayPal first. They gave me negative feedback, even though I paid with in 12 hours of the auction ending.
Another time someone wouldn’t leave me feedback until I left them feedback. I asked why saying I paid promptly and how they wanted me to. They wouldn’t leave feedback until I did. I reported them as holding feedback hostage and gave them a neutral feedback.
I agree, but don’t know how they would fix it, and since I’m playing on their field, I have to play by their rules.
I will say that I have 100% positive feedback, and have never even had to contemplate leaving negative feedback before. By and large, I’ve had smooth, happy transactions. The couple of times I’ve had unhappy buyers, I’ve resolved the problem before there was any feedback left, and everyone went away happy.
What if a person pays right away…and you do not provide feedback. The buyer has issues with your purchase. You work to resolve them. However, the buyer is less than satisfied.
He leaves you less than positive feedback…do you then leave less than positive feedback?
Let me rephrase…
Is there ANY REASONABLE condition in which the seller would leave negative feedback for you and you would leave positive for them?
I know you believe what you wrote…I’m not saying you are telling lies. I just am unsure if what you believe is really reality. You could be doing feedback hostage but not realize it.
Well, consider the situation that SomeUserName described. As a seller, I’d be a bit annoyed that he chose to use negative feedback to deal with what I suspect was a Post Oriface screw up. (Don’t get me started about some of the corner cases I’ve had with the Post Oriface.) But it seems to me that would be a legitimate complaint. Not a case of complete asshattery.
But I’ve also given S&H refunds when the Post Oriface screws me over. It’s a hazard of the business IMNSHO, and I’ve never had anyone insist on negative feedback once I’ve done that.
If he took the S&H refund, and still gave negative feedback, I’d probably leave negative feedback. If he left the negative feedback before I had a chance to offer, he’d still probably get the positive feedback.
He’s got a legit gripe. And “my” poor communications would make it even harder for me to stay on a high horse.
The problem I have is the assumption that all people on eBay are reasonable. Not all are. Most, the vast majority are. But not all.