Posted By:
petecldJay, don't take my ranting personally, you aren't the REASON for this ranting, just the inspiration. That being said -
I know of many others who feel that way about feeling guilty about leaving negative feedback and I don't understand it. The feedback system was design to give a sign to others what kind of person they are dealing with. is it perfect, no, but it's all you have so USE it. Ebay is a system completely based on faith. Think that's crazy? Ask the US Treasury what the value of the dollar is based on? If you don't use the system for what it's intended - DON'T COMPLAIN ABOUT BEING A VICTIM OF THE SYSTEM. Forgive me if this sounds harsh but, you are part of the problem, not the solution!
I leave negative feedback for 2 reasons - If I don't get what I paid for or if the bidder never pays. You are d**n sure I will leave negative feedback. Do I get a retaliatory negative feedback in response - Yes - every time. WHO CARES! Give people a little credit. A little common sense tells you when someone has a legitimate complaint. If someone has 1000 positives and 2 negatives - you know the problems were incidental and not a character flaw of the seller/buyer. I have learned you can't make everyone happy. Some people have said I package items really well, others have ripped me for not using enough packing material. The sun STILL came up the next day.
My feedback rating will not be etched into my tombstone. I don't care if ever get a "power seller" icon next to my name. I've never had a date ask me for my "feedback rating". If someone doesn't want to bid in my auctions because I made a few people unhappy by exposing the truth, that's fine, I can't do anything about it so I don't loose sleep over it. Honestly, it really hasn't hurt me at all.
I also use, and recommend others use it, the "banned" feature for ALL bidders who don't pay for bids. This way they can't mess with your auctions in the future.
If I get what I paid for - it's a positive. If I don't, it's a negative. Since I know I'm not always dealing with professional, full time sellers in all cases I realize service, attitude, and product descriptions will be good for some and not so good from others. Since I won't bid unless I see a scan, it's not a problem for me and I do understand that people have lives and can't always run to the post office the next day.
Honestly, once you get over a certain number, I don't think people even look at whart others have said. They just see the high number and assume they'll be fine.