I’m an occasional buyer, and every so often it’s just a great big old pain in the ass to leave feedback, mostly when an item takes a long time to arrive. If it takes more than two weeks for something to arrive at my door, you’re not getting feedback.
Same here. If something is wrong, then they don’t get feedback. Better than bad feedback, eh?
A while ago I bought a nice high-end ergonomic keyboard off of eBay. As far as I could tell the seller was honest. However, the letter B fell off the keyboard almost immediately. (I keep it attached with scotch tape now.) I didn’t want to give the guy bad feedback because I don’t think he knew that the letter B was going to bail, but on the other hand, the letter B fell off. I couldn’t see giving him good feedback for a keyboard that has to have the letter B attached with scotch tape. So, no feedback.
That’s what feedback is for - so you can say that the goods arrived late, broke quickly, etc. There is neutral feedback too you know.
Well, the trouble is that I have no way of telling if something arrived safely or not. I just shipped a decanter full of bourbon to somebody in California, and I packed it very very carefully but I’m nervous about it.
It does bug me when people can’t be bothered to do something so basic and courteous.
It’s just laziness, no matter their excuse.
As a seller/buyer, I always leave feedback. I’m up to 350 myself (all positive) so it doesn’t bother me overly much when someone neglects to leave feedback. Still be nice, though.
if you change “every so often” to “always”
I shop on ebay maybe three times a year. I don’t go to the site pretty much ever. Once my item arrives, I generally have no reason to be on ebay anymore for quite a while.
But even if I do think “I should leave feedback,” it takes forever to get to the right feedback page only to leave “Got the item” (Can you leave blank feedback? No. Why not? Who knows) It’s an annoying interface for an infrequent shopper.
A decent seller would replace that item (if the key fell off recently) unless it’s one of those “AS IS” scenarios where the seller is claiming no knowledge of the items functionality, and you are essentially buying it blind.
astro, it’s been so long but I think it was an “as-is” item (I think the guy was getting rid of a keyboard he didn’t use much). I didn’t complain to him, because I had no intention of returning the thing (it works with the scotch tape and the price was definitely right) and I got the impression that he had no others to replace it with. I didn’t want to give him bad feedback because I didn’t think he deliberately sent me a B-less keyboard. I didn’t want to give him neutral because I didn’t think he deserved that either (“as-is” and all that). I simply didn’t want to go through any back-and-forth hassle about a B-key stuck on with scotch tape. I just wanted to have it all go away. And it did. 
I don’t buy or sell much on eBay, but I was really active on Half.com for a while – cleared out many hundreds of books.
On half.com the process was that the buyer left feedback after they got the book in promised condition, which makes sense. As a buyer, after I got feedback I’d respond with some sort of “Thanks, hope you enjoy it” message.
After the merger there was all of a sudden this big push for book sellers to leave feedback right away. For what? About what? For those who don’t know, Half.com works differently: there’s no auction, there’s no ‘second step’ of paying/exchanging info/etc. The buyer wants a book (or vid or whatever), finds a listing at a price/condition that suits him, and clicks on the ‘buy’ button. The end of his actions. The payment goes through at once, automatically, and is between the buyer and Half.com/eBay. If it turns out they pay their visa bill with a rubber check or anything, well, the seller won’t ever know about it: HIS payment comes from Half.com.
So what the hell is the feedback about that action supposed to be? “Yep, managed to push that “buy” button nice and firm.” “Good buyer, handles his mouse well”? “Showed wit and style by choosing my book over the other 24 copies listed”? C’mon.
The seller does have a lot of actions that can be done well or poorly, and thus graded: how fast? how well wrapped? was the book in proper condition? and so on.
Every single buyer performs the exact same action in the exact same manner: he clicks on one button, and then confirms, okay, that’s two. But the point remains, there is no way for a buyer to do his part of the transaction better or worse than any other buyer, and so there is absolutely ZERO useful info to be extracted from feedback to sellers.
I send honest feedback; if the price was reasonable, the product arrived quickly, and the condition was as advertised, I’ll say so in plain English. I honestly don’t understand the trend of exaggerated feedback like “B3ST SELLAR EVAR A++++++++++++++++plusplus!!!1!!!one!!1 OMG WTF BBQ!!!11!!!”.
Thank you, Shagnasty. That needed to be said.
How about this email that I received from a seller this morning?
I paid him in full within five minutes of the auction’s end. I’ve satisfactorily discharged my part of the bargain. I’m supposed to indulge his silly “I won’t show you mine until you show me yours” manipulativeness for the sake of receiving one of the three randomly generated automated feedback messages he leaves for all his buyers? Give me a break. :rolleyes:
You’re not the one who sent me the blue bud vase are you? In which I paid the very NANO second that I won the bid, and in which it was supposedly shipped on the 21st of Jan and I didn’t receive it til sometimes in February?
And where the second I received it I faithfully went in and left a positive feedback? And I STILL don’t have one from you? Whoever you are you rotten ebay seller!!!
Don’t worry, rude ebayers are on both sides of the fence.
As a buyer, I do not leave feedback if I didn’t receive it immediately upon my payment being received. I am not playing the "if you give me a nice comment, I will do the same"game. Defeats the feedback purpose. Also the feedback I leave is simply “No problems” I agree that I am not going to gush because the dvd I bought actually showed up.
The I don’t care about feedback is BS!
I want to know if the seller is a maggot or one to be trusted. You Chumps that do not leave feedback are not helping the system work as it should