Brad Ideas - Another eBay feedback improver - Comments

Feedback held Hostage II

Anonymous — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 15:41:11 -0700

I agree with the above response. The buyer has the commitment to pay promptly to the seller in order for the product/s to then be delivered. If the buyer has paid promptly then feedback from the seller should not be a problem, and the quicker the payment the better the feedback should be. Then it is the buyers commitment to leave feedback after goods are received. But, by all means if there is something you are not happy about with product, go back and fully re-read the description before leaving negative feedback, and make sure you haven't overlooked something before placing a bid in the first place. Then once you're satisfied that you have not overlooked anything contact the seller before leaving feedback. If the seller is obliging to help you in a proper professional manner then there should be no need for a negative feedback. However, I do not believe that in a situation with me just recently, that a seller should have the power to blackmail the buyer into leaving them a positive feedback before they will refund your money, because I'm still waiting for my refund even though I kept within my agreement. Now, I'm beginning to wonder if the records were broken before being sent, as the photos in the description were only the record covers. And, it is very easy to blame the poor person in the middle (the postman) isn't it?

Is This Supposed To Be Funny????

Anonymous — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 15:24:50 -0700

God help us all if there are too many of these type of minds on the Ebay system. And, if at all you hold a day job, don't give it up, because you will never make it big as a comedian.

Buyers trusting sellers

Anonymous — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 16:12:19 -0700

I have just recently received two records from a seller called tradingp0st, however I was pretty disappointed to open the package to find both records broken in half, due to inadequate packaging. I contacted the seller, who informed me that they would give refund on one of two conditions. First was to send the records back for a refund or to leave a positive feedback providing them with my bank account details and they would pay the refund. However, being reasonably new to the system, I have left the positive feedback and provided my account details, I am still waiting for the refund, and now all of a sudden the seller has changed their name to sh0pcl0sed. They have supposedly closed. However, I still have the packaging with the return address. Does, anyone have any ideas of what to do?

e(enron)Bay's recent feedback debacle

Larry G. Hamm — Fri, 23 May 2008 08:46:26 -0700

I decided to express my anger with e(enron)Bay through their discussion board. They promptly suspended my rights, not only post, but to view the boards. I expressed my total disgust with them, i ask for and suggested other sites for sellers to try. I informed the board of different communications i had received and supported a boycott of e(enron)Bay. I never used foul language, cursing or anything like that. This place is so apparent with their obvious distain for the sellers. Their cowardice, in not allowing those who make them so rich, to express their views is indicative of their God like attitude. Think back a short while, to the tapes of the Enron executives laughing at the Grandma's having to pay such exhorbinate fuel oil prices because of their price fixing schemes. This is what we have here, only on a smaller scale. I will not be silenced and e(enron)Bay will regret this stupid decision.!!!!! ABOLUTE POWER, CORRUPTS, ABSOLUTELY.

So what

brad — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 11:26:12 -0800

Against this type of buyer, negative feedback is not relevant. They will just get neg feedback and get a new buying account. You don't get to pick your buyer based on feedback.

Neg feedback on a buyer only hurts them when they become a seller, and if I'm a dishonest buyer, or seller, I will buy with a different account than I sell.

FEEDBACK

Anonymous — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 10:21:48 -0800

What about when a buyer recieves an item says its not working and sends back the item missing parts then wants 100% payed back. You think this is fair NOT. This is why sellers hold back on there feedback. I just recieved a clock back that was missing parts on the inside and half the case screws were missing buyer said his jeweler took it apart and cant be fixed. Well now i have a clock oh buy the way it still runs and keeps time but is missing parts off the alarm part of it and case screws. I expect him to neg me even thow i paid him back the auction closing price but not the shipping.

Whiney Sellers? Whiney buyers!

Mike S. — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 18:06:25 -0800

The person above who commented:

"I get so tired of the whine sellers. I have just made my THIRD sale to a seller who requested that I, as a buyer, post feedback first. Just to test the above assertion that sellers want assurance that buyers are "HAPPY", I have sent them emails saying "THANK YOU! YES! GREAT DEAL! THANKS FOR LISTING!". For the third time now, I have received an email back from these unscrupulous sellers, thanking me for my note, but NONE have given me any feedback. This clearly demonstrates that most people who withhold feedback do so for RETALIATION purposes. They simply can't trust the community. I won't give them any more excuses."

has no clue.

I've bought 5000 items over eBay and sold 50,000. The buyer holds most of the power:

a. feedback (over-emphasized)
and
b. chargeback

Any seller who does not perform gets charged back. Yes, it is right for the seller to leave feedback after the buyer leaves feedback. I always leave feedback first as a buyer because it is the buyer that closes the transaction by saying "it worked, I won't charge back."

The seller has some powers:
a. refund
b. feedback
c. Block

But other than those three, he is powerless after being paid.

Mike

I have another post on it, but really, what was the value?

brad — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 08:45:58 -0800

What was the point of feedback to buyers? You usually don't get to do anything with buyer feedback. A buyer with poor feedback can win your auction in the last second. Sellers could get hardlined about voiding wins by low feedback buyers, but then buyers would just discard and recreate accounts regularly if this became a problem.

No, the only real value in giving neg feedback to a buyer was to punish them when they want to _sell_, and largely in particular it was to have the threat of revenge feedback to keep the buyer from doing a negative. And that was not a productive system at all. So I'm glad it's gone.

Anybody else notice the

Mike — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 23:37:35 -0800

Anybody else notice the trend of BUYERS NOT READING THE DESCRIPTION for the item they are buying? I'm a powerseller and have noticed a huge increase over the last year or so. They seem to be reading the titles, clicking buy, and then complain when they get the item that it's not what they expected... when, if they would have read the first sentence in the description they would know right away exactly what they are getting.

Morons.

Then there's the buyers who CAN'T EVEN READ OR SPEAK ENGLISH who are buying and then complaining because they didn't understand the terms of the sale.

Or the Buyers who Buy a whole bunch of items from you.... then don't pay, and when you file a NPB against them they have some story about how someone got on their account and bought stuff and blah blah blah.....

A FOOL AND HIS MONEY WILL SOON BE PARTED, READ THE DESCRIPTION, DON'T BE RETARDED

And now ebay is making it so buyers can ONLY RECEIVE POSITIVE FEEDBACK!!!!

WTF is that!?!?!

So when Joe Buyer comes and takes his sweet time paying for an item, then once he gets it and leaves me a negative because he didn't read the description and thinks he should have gotten more than what he paid for, and used EXTREME vulgarity in his emails towards me... he can leave me a neg and I can't do anything to show sellers what an ass he is?!?

But hey, atleast ebay is lowering their fees by a nickle and giving us free gallery... right?

negative feedback

Anonymous — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 04:03:32 -0800

I fully agree i just got two negatives from idiots that failed to pay after i gave them 58 days to do so, they both promised to pay me several different ways on several different occasions yet when after almost two moths of waiting i posted non paying bidder reports to ebay i got negative feedback off them both in which one accuses me of banking his postal order and the other suddenly decided that my description was false. in the first case i never got any payment to bank and in the second he never got the item so how does he know the listing is false he didn't pay so i didn't post it so he has nothing to go on, the problem is even though i've been slandered in feedback by both buyers ebay refuses to remove their comments without a court order!!!, both buyers are now threatening me in e mails with court action for not sending the items out yet both buyers have failed to pay, now ebay sends me a stroppy email saying that my sellerrating is too low because i got two negative together, my 500+ positives count for nothing.
ebays non paying bidder process is a joke i think its best described as a toothless gaurd dog makes a lot of noise but has no effect on the non paying bidder at all. my rant anyway

Pay? Ebay should make enough

Anonymous — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 11:11:37 -0700

Pay? Ebay should make enough from fees to offer it free!

I think this is a great Idea

Anonymous — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 11:03:39 -0700

I think this is a great Idea and would work for everyone. If buyers left neg. with no reason Ebay should investigate and have it removed. Also sellers should only be able to comment on feedback left for them...

feedbacks on ebay

Anonymous — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 22:40:38 -0700

I THINK EACH TRANSACTION OF A SELLER AND BUYER ARE DIFFRENT. AS A SELLER I HAVE TO GET A FEEL OF EACH INDIVIUAL BUYER. IF I FEEL THAT IT IS GREATFUL APPRECIATIVE BUYER THEN I'LL LEAVE THE FEEDBACK FIRST. I HAVE HAD SOME NEGATIVE ATTITUDE BUYERS AS SOON AS THEY PAID WITH COCKY ATTITUDES OR WHEN ITEMS WHERE RECEIVE. FOR EXAMPLE: I LISTED IN DETAILS HOW THE SHIPMENT WOULD GO OUT AND THIS NEW BUYER WHO JUST STARTED WANTED ME TO CHANGE MY POLICY WHEN THIS POLICY HAVE BEEN WORKING GREAT FOR ALL THE OTHER NON-COMPLAINING BUYERS. I DID'NT CHANGE MY RULES BUT HAD TO WONDER WHAT KIND OF FEEDBACK SHE WOULD LEAVE SINCE SHE DID'NT GET HER WAY OF CHANGING MY RULES. SOME BUYER THEIR ONCE THEY REALIZE THE BID WAS TO MUCH FOR THEM TO PAY THEY TRY TO BE SLICK BY TRYING TO PRETEND SOMETHING WAS WRONG WITH A BRAND NEW PRODUCT AND WILL REQUEST A PARTIAL REFUND OR SOME SORT OF DISCOUNT EVEN THOUGH I HAVE STATED A 7 DAY MONEY BACK GUARANTEE IF NOT HAPPY. I TRY TO GET THE FEEL OF EACH INDIVIDUAL BUYER BY COMMUNICATING THROUGH MY MESSAGES RIGHT AFTER THEY WERE THE WINNING BIDDER THEN AGAIN, AFTER I THINK THE BUYER HAVE RECEIVED THE ITEM. I AM AS HONEST AS HONEST CAN GET IN MY LISTINGS, SO IF IT IS AN UNHAPPY BUYER THAT I COMMUNICATED WITH AFTER BEING HONEST AND OFFERING A MONEY BACK GUARANTEE (THEN NO FEEDBACKS WILL GET LEFT FIRST)
IF IT IS A HAPPY SATISFIED CUSTOMER THAT UNDERSTOOD MY EBAY POLICY (THEN YES I WOULD LEAVE A POSITIVE FEEDBACK) BECAUSE AS A SELLER ,WE BOTH ARE HAPPY AND I'M NOT GOING TO TAKE THE RISK OF MY HARD EARN HONEST AND ALL MY 100% MONEY BACK GUARANTEES AND LEAVE A POSITIVE FEEDBACK FIRST FOR A PERSON WHICH NOTHING MAKE THEM HAPPY. ONLY TO WATCH THEM GET A KICK OUT OF LEAVING A NEGATIVE FEEDBACK ON PURPOSE. SO IT IS DEALING WITH A BUYER TO CUSTOMER TRANSACTION 1 ON 1 AND EACH TRANSACTION AND CUSTOMER IS DIFFRENT. EVERY FEEDBACK HAS TO BE TREATED DIFFRENTLY DEPENDING ON EACH PERSON MEANING (BUYER OR SELLER)

We are Ebay PowerSellers and

Anonymous — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 10:33:48 -0700

We are Ebay PowerSellers and this is what we've posted in our store regarding feedback:

Ebay's feedback system is a great tool to let bidders and sellers know about the integrity of those with whom they deal. It helps expose dishonest operators and extremely unreasonable buyers.

Unfortunately, some ebayers use negative feedback to express disappointment over the condition of an item instead of contacting the seller for a refund or replacement. We don't believe that this constitutes proper use of the feedback system. In this case, we will reply with the same on the basis that the customer is misusing feedback for what is a simple customer service issue.

If you buy a vacuum cleaner from Sears and it doesn't work right, you wouldn't take out an ad trashing Sears' reputation, or call the Better Business Bureau, right? No, you would contact their customer service department to make things right.

We will be glad to help you if you are unhappy with any item you buy from us and there are several ways to remedy any situation. These include full refund, partial refund, replacement, or credit.

The very nature of buying and selling records and other collectibles online means that sometimes (hopefully rarely) mistakes are made in grading or items don't sound like they look. Please contact us first before leaving negative feedback to see what we can do to make you happy.

We are full-time sellers on ebay and have many years experience. It is not logical to assume we won't take care of you or that we'll rip you off for $8. Like all serious sellers, we need to protect our feedback rating. We do this by operating honestly with the best intentions and expect our customers to be reasonable too. Please get to know our policies by reading the pages on shipping, grading, and returns.

Regarding positive feedback in a typical transaction, we use ebay's automated system for sellers in the Selling Manager Pro software. As high volume sellers, it saves us a great deal of time, while ensuring that everyone who leaves us positive feedback gets the same. We understand that some people like to get their feedback first after paying, but it is simply a lot more work for us to do things that way. Plus, our experience with a buyer doesn't end with receiving payment. A transaction isn't over until you've received the item and are satisfied.

Thanks for your business!

What do you think of current

Anonymous — Wed, 23 May 2007 14:56:49 -0700

What do you think of current DSR rating introduced by eBay. Do you think they are more credible than recent feedback ratings?
Do you think by hiding recent feedback rating and highlighting can resolve the issues?
I think good sellers would be separated from bogus sellers based on DSRs

Another eBay feedback improver

brad — Wed, 16 Feb 2005 10:35:38 -0800

Earlier, I wrote some proposals for improving ebay style feedback, including not having feedback revealed until both have left it. That has some flaws, but the main reason eBay is unlikely to do this is that eBay likes feedback to be positive, they want to convince buyers it is safe to shop there.

So here’s an alternate idea to prevent revenge feedback. Revenge feedback is only vaguely in eBay’s interests, in that the fear of it keeps feedback positive, but the existence of it adds to the negatives.

To solve this, attempt to detect revenge feedback and print statistics on it. What would be detected is negative feedback left by a seller on a buyer after the buyer has left negative feedback, but not if the buyer left this feedback immediately.

In theory the buyer has just one duty — to pay promptly. Indeed, since eBay owns PayPal they could also just report about buyers whether they paid promptly with PP and that should be all you need to know. Sellers might want to tag a “troublesome buyer” who has a lot of complaints after getting the item but I think that’s in an entirely different class of feedback anyway.

So really, a seller should leave feedback once the buyer has paid, and negative feedback only if the buyer pays slowly, pays falsely or doesn’t contact the seller.

Under my system above, if the seller waits to give feedback, in particular waits until after the buyer gives feedback, she’s taking a risk that her own negative feedback will get counted in the revenge count. And a high revenge count will scare away deals, deservedly.

More simply, the system could also just count how often the feedback came in the expected order (Seller’s first, then Buyer’s) and how often the other way around. This would strongly encourage sellers to feedback first. You would see when bidding that a seller always or rarely feedbacks on payment, and again, stay away from those who don’t.

Now admittedly, with the fear of revenge feedback gone, buyers would be more honest, and reputations would drop a bit. eBay might still want to avoid this, but with luck it would not be a big change.

Updated thoughts: It may be time for a 3rd party company to begin offering more detailed reputation information. Since eBay has stopped robots it doesn’t like, this would have to be on-client software which extracts results of transactions from eBay to another database that a browser add-on (like ShortShip) can display. All the useful information could be stored — feedback order, possible revenges, feedback based on dollar volume etc. Counting no-feedback transactions is harder and probably requires a blockable spidering operation or some complex shared network. To this one could add more feedback done outside of ebay, including revenge claims and full text stories that eBay doesn’t allow in feedback comments.

Useful hint: eBay doesn’t allow URLs in feedback, but if you invent a random string you can put ‘Search for randomstring’ in the feedback comment, and make a web page with that string in it that Google and the rest will find. Then people wanting to know more than 80 characters can learn it. Of course, the other party can also make a web page with that string so searchers see both sides, which is fine. A good non-random string might be something like eBay followed by the item number, as in ‘eBay130064299000’ — in fact, if such a method became common you could search for it without even needing it in the feedback.