I recall when Ebay implemented the Rate details about this purchase stars system. I tried to be honest and gave a seller 4 stars for shipping, and 4 for item description. He did charge a bit much for shipping and the item was a bit more scuffed up then his listing implied. The score I gave is a high B on any school test. I wasn’t trying to hurt him. Few things in life are perfect and I felt he received a fair score.
Later I hear that anything less than 5 stars is bad news for the seller. If enough people do it the seller can get into trouble with Ebay.
Is that really true? It doesn’t make sense to provide a 5 star grading system and expect either perfect scores or there’s a problem with the transaction.
Now I just click 5 stars unless I strongly feel the transaction went badly. Seems like a massive waste of time.
Some sellers don’t charge shipping and there’s only one item to rate with stars. Everything else is greyed out.
I just went through 20 of my listings giving feedback. I do it in batches. It’s quicker and easier.
Quite a few had communication greyed out because we hadn’t exchanged messages.
Ebay is still fun sometimes. I recently bought some sheet music from a seller that had lived in my city. She messaged me and mentioned still having relatives here. A Nice exchange. I’ll buy from her again for sure.
I miss the real collectors that bought and sold on Ebay. People that were really passionate about whatever they collected and were selling off “extras” or “spares”. Great way to connect with people with similar interests. But today, most sellers are just retailers. They sell vintage whatever because there is a market for it. They aren’t necessarily collectors themselves.
True. The rating system is presented to the buyer as having an acceptable midpoint, i.e. Bad/Poor/Average/OK/Good - but in terms of the penalties and restrictions that are applied for anything less than 5 stars, in reality the weighting is therefore toward the top end - i.e. Terrible/Shitty/Bad/Poor/Acceptable.
This is how I take it, 5 stars means that it was at least an acceptable transaction, as that is what I’m there for, and if the seller met that level he did all that he was suppose to do. (also works the same when the seller is a she )
Having acceptable in the middle IMHO is not all that helpful as the scale becomes much more inconsistent. What you really want to know is what is the chance your transaction will go bad.
Why prop up a seller that does not provide five-star service? I wouldn’t interpret this to mean perfection any more than I’d expect a five-star movie or restaurant to be perfect, but incenting sellers to be great is not unfair, while giving unearned high ratings is unfair to future customers.
Ebay is doing everyone a disservice by not making it clear that 5 stars doesn’t mean exceptional. That’s a standard interpretation for rating most services. 4 stars means good/acceptable. 5 stars exceptional. The seller went over and above what was expected. Maybe they added more bubble wrap than normal or mailed your vintage glassware insured without charging extra.
I wonder how many sellers got 4 stars until word spread that wasn’t considered a routine/nothing special score.
Shipping is my biggest concern. My worst horror story is the idiot seller that put my computer graphics card in a bubble mailer bag. It went through the Post Office’s machinery. Rollers had smashed the chips. :smack: Computer components require boxed shipping, every time.
I quit giving sellers ratings several years ago, unless something goes bad, then a negative rating. IMHO, it’s a waste of time. I’ve had sellers try to hold their rating of me as a buyer hostage in less I give them a rating. :rolleyes: I don’t really care.
I detest the silly rating system that makes it difficult for you to give a ‘real’ answer. I wish I could look at a seller’s ratings and have it mean something. Like everyone who shops on ebay, I’ve been scammed into some real stinker purchases, items that were nominally what they said they were, but light years away from what I was led to expect. I once gave poor ratings to a seller who had advertised a 2-oz item when what I received was a .2-oz item. I immediately received a email from the seller who blasted me for not understanding that it was a typo and that she would have been happy to refund my money if I wasn’t happy. She more or less demanded that I contact ebay and let them know that my ratings were an error. I was shocked. I refuse to be bullied into anything, so I forwarded a copy of the email to ebay.
Yes, I could have returned the item and waited for a refund. But I was a few days away from a trip out of the country and I didn’t have time to go through the process at that moment. It shouldn’t be on my shoulders, in any case, to ensure that the seller has a successful sale.
On the other side of the coin, I’ve had sellers go far and beyond what was expected in terms of packaging, extras, speedy shipping, etc., and I’d love to be able to give them an ‘extra special’ rating to reflect that.
I wish they’d do away with the whole thing. It has no value at all in evaluating potential sellers, or buyers either, when it comes down to it.
If they go heavily enough towards pushing for 5 and anything less is just “not 5”. they will be back to the original “Positive/Negative” feedback model they began with.
(just the idea of computer-controlled “cars” being “driven” in extremely close spacing will re-invent the urban streetcar.
The difference between 25 “cars” with 2 people each and a streetcar seating 50 is exactly what, when they all are routed automatically over the same route at the same time?)
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