negative and nuetral feedback

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Posted By: jay behrens 

Since we have a thread going on when to leave feedback I thought would be interesting to see if people actually make use of the system as it was intended.

My point being, do you leave negative and/or nuetral feedback? I think most people are SO AFRAID to get a negative or nuetral that they will not leave one themselves.

Think about it. How many times have you bought something and had an experience with the seller that was less than pleasing? Almost everyone, instead of leaving negative or nuetral feedback will not leave any feedback at all because they fear 'retaliation' feedback.

What's the point of having this system if 99.9% of the people refuse to use the system properly? Think about it, the rarest feedback is nuetral. There should be far more nuetral feedbacks then negatives, but most people when they have an experience that doesn't warrant postive or a negative feedback leave none instead of leaving nuetral feedback.

Nuetral feedback tells me a lot more about a person/business than the positives or negatives do. A couple of negatives can be chalked up to the few people that you can never make happy. Positives, big deal, they are doing what they are supposed to be doing. Now, if someone has a bunch of nuetral feedback, that tells me that they may not being doing anything wrong, per se, but that they are doing little if nothing to actually please thier customers.

Real world example; Target and K-Mart. Similar stores with similar items and prices. I will not shop at K-Mart because they are almost always a mess and finding someone to help you is almost impossible. Target on the other hand is always clean and I can usually find someone help.

Using the eBay feedback system, Target gets postive feedback and K-Mart gets nuetral becuase even though I may have found I wanted, it certainly wasn't a pleasurable experience, but they didn't try to rip me off either.

Thanks for reading my rant

Jay

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Posted By: petecld

Jay, 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.

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Posted By: brian

Hey Jay
You must be a mindreader, I was getting ready to start a similiar thread. I have to admit that I don't leave as many nuetrals and negatives as I should, but I give everyone the benifit of the doubt. I have no problem leaving negative feedback to crooks or scam artist, but have a tough time with deadbeat bidders.
I guess I'm afraid of getting to many negatives so I just ignore them unless they become a major problem.
I agree that most deadbeats bid on 5-10 dollar items and leave the high dollar things alone, therefore there impact is minimal.
A few questions:
When do you leave a neutral?
If a seller leaves you positive feedback and takes a month to send your package do you also leave a positive?
Look forward to alot of imput. later brian

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Posted By: Marc S.

As a buyer -- I will only leave a negative if the seller makes no effort to correct a situation. Because of retalitory negative feedbacks -- I often leave negatives (if at all) close to the 90 day expiration -- thereby limiting the opportunities that a retalitory negative will be left against me.

As a seller -- again, I only will leave negatives close to the 90 day feedback expiration. I, however, ALWAYS will fill out the non-paying bidder form. If an Ebay bidder gets three of those, they are suspended and subsequently booted from Ebay if it happens again. What saddens me is that I have seen quite a few sellers leave negative feedback for a non-paying buyer -- but they don't fill out the Final Value Credit Request. I am happy to say that my Final Value Fee Request has gotten more than one Ebay'er booted from Ebay. I sometimes wish I was more aggressive in leaving negatives -- but as a seller, the retalitory feedback is indeed a threat. Nonetheless -- as a seller, I do my best to get non-paying bidders removed from Ebay permanently (or at least until they can set up a new Ebay account...)

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Posted By: Julie Vognar

I was told that those options were for extreme cases, like, you don't get anything even resembling what you paid for.

I once got something only resembling what I paid for, from a deaf guy. Computer reproduction instead of photo. You could see the stripes in it. I was not expecting an original photo of Connie Mack and his team (oh yes, Dummy Hoy was in it), but I WAS expecting a photo. I left some positive platitudes, and chewed the guy out in email. he got very upset, told me how much he paid for 10 of them, etc. If you don't think the seller is a menace, why embarass him, as long as you let him know his offering doesn't cut it.

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Posted By: M.E>

Definitely negative feedback on the table before the pancakes.
Trivia time kiddies! Should be an easy one.
Que Cine'?

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Posted By: petecld

Julie,

If he offered the items as an original photos, or even just said "photos" and you received a bad computer print out he is ripping you off. He bought 10. That more then likely means 10 people will be ripped off.

Wouldn't it have been nice if the FIRST person to be ripped off gave him negative feedback that was a warning to others that they aren't buying photos, but computer print outs?

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Posted By: warshawlaw

The problem with the feedback system is that you buy a retaliatory strike every time you ding someone. Now, if there could be a method of sorting out feedbacks to prevent retaliation, I would use it more.

Reneggers are a different problem. I usually don't apply for a credit unless the item was expensive to list. Frankly, it is not worth my time to spend 5 minutes seeking to recoup $0.30 (especially since the government will take 1/3 or more of any amount that drops to my bottom line anyway). If the item is expensive to list, I will pursue a refund. I am generally pretty crappy on negative or neutral feedback for reneggers. I don't need the conflict in my hobby that I have in my business, so if someone wants to reneg on a $9.99 deal I will usually ignore it. I also don't want to buy the negative retaliatory strike.

One issue that isn't addressed but that I will throw out there are those dealers who are threatening and negative in their communications before and after an auction, or who demand an extortionate shipping price that is not posted in the listing. I understand it is irritating to get burned. However, they need to understand that stating onerous terms in angry language ain't the way to win friends. I am one of those well-heeled buyers who simply won't do business with obnoxious, rude dealers. I also can't stand the guy who sells a card for $2 and demands $5 to mail it out. I have reneged on a couple of deals where the seller was an A$$**** after the auction ended, and taken the negative feedback ding for it.

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Posted By: Julie Vognar

and my personal assessment was that if i chewed him out privately, it would be enough. During the following month, he didn't attempt to sell any more of the "photos." (advertised as photos--not original. Only cost $10. Still...)

HEY, I did leave sort of negative feedback ("3 out of 5") to a bookseller loosely affiliated with Amazon. I could NOT contact him through the two email addresses he left, and while he took the money off my credit card immediately, it was 6 weeks before the book came. That's not the way Amazon does things, but they've opened up a "marketplace" and "z-shops" which send you the books directly, instead of through Amazon. Amazon will refund your money if you don't get the book in 30 days (I cut him some slack--book was fine when it arrived).

All of which reminds me, I haven't gotten my "Havana Heat" from Half-com yet! It was so cheap, I can't tell if they took my money or not yet. I REALLY want it.