In an eBay transaction, is it bad manners to ask the other party to leave feedback?
Hinting is fine. Emailing the person after you’ve given feedback and saying, “I left you some good feedback, if you have been satisfied with our transaction, I hope you will do the same” is fine. Anything low-key and polite is (as far as I am concerned) fine. Just don’t over-do it and email a person more than once or twice about feedback. If you mention it before payment is sent, and then mention it after the transaction is over and you’ve given your feedback, that would be fine (IMO).
What isn’t OK is to keep on emailing and emailing and emailing someone for months afterwards. I had a guy do this to me once. He started off on the wrong foot with me for being kind of weird and anal-retentive about something trivial, which set off my “freak” meter and made me want nothing to do with him. He proved himself by periodically “reminding” me that I hadn’t left him feedback yet, and he seemed to be quite obsessed about getting it from me. I finally did—I left him some ambivalent feedback just because he was starting to freak me out.
I would consider such behavior to be really bad manners. In my opinion, feedback is important, but if someone doesn’t want to give it, just move on. Also bear in mind that some people do “mass feedback” sessions, where they catch up with all the feedback from the last few weeks (or even months!) all in one pop. Every now and then I discover a new feedback point from an ancient auction.
I don’t think so, not unless you are asking for it and don’t intend to give any in return. I’ve had a few sellers send a “follow up” e-mail to ask how I liked the item, and ask for feedback, which is fine by me. IMO it’d only be rude if you were persistent, and sent many e-mails making the same request.
I’ve been stiffed plenty of times, even after the other party has said they were going to send good feedback. I’d just let it go. Even gentle reminders could possibly backfire and there will be plenty of other opportunities.
I agree 100% with yosemitebabe. Been there, done that, got the T-shirt for half off. 
Depends on how you ask.
I hate sellers who receive my payment and then say “I will leave positive feedback if you do.” I completed my part of the transaction in a positive way and should recieve positive feedback.
Since I only buy and don’t really care about feedback anyway I ignore all sellers who try to blackmail good feedback from me.
Now, if you inform me that you left positive feedback and request that I do the same if I am happy with the transaction then I will leave glowing feedback.
I would say asking for feedback is always acceptable after you yourself have posted positive feedback for the transaction. But as In Conceivable says, i also see “I will leave positive feedback if you do.” as unethical behaviour. Also bare in mind the relative feedback scores of yourself and your customer. Feedback is far more important to someone with few transactions to their name, so you should always give feedback to such people even if they havn’t given you feedback.
Cheers, Bippy
When I receive the item, and it is satisfactory, I post positive feedback for the seller. I then e-mail the seller telling them about the receipt, that I left positive feedbase and ‘would appreciate the same’.
In one case they had already left the feedback, in one case, there was no feedback, but most of the time it worked well.
Bob
I always leave feedback as soon as their part of the transaction is complete, and I expect others to do the same. When I buy, I leave feedback when the item arrives. When I sell, I leave feedback when the payment clears. (I also include a note saying “I have left positive feedback. If you are satisfied please do the same.”)
Feedback is one of those things that used to take more time, but these days all you have to do is use Myebay then it searches for all transactions you need to give feedback. It’s too easy so I don’t ask people to give feedback.
When I send money via PayPal, I enclose a note saying, “Please let me know you have received my payment by leaving positive feedback. I will do the same when I receive your item.” Then I do it. Usually people will leave it, and if not, oh well. As long as they don’t leave negative feedback, I’m OK with it, and no one has.
I have done the same, and usually get positive feedback. But I use the “Ask Seller a question” feature.
I used to post feedback as soon as I got a payment. But now I wait a little bit in case they take the payment back, aka chargeback. Hasn’t happened yet but you never know.