AuctionCut

I have had problems with 3-4 sellers that I paid instantly with paypal same day as ordered. Most of my orders are small amounts of manufacter coupons which are time sensitive When I havent received my orders in a reasonable amount time 10 days to 2 weeks or the seller has been reluctant to respond or confirm order was mailed or offer to replace or refund I have had to file complaints with paypal to get my money back , when this happens the seller always leaves me neg feedback. To me the seller has the upper hand, over the buyer. I dont see how ebay can see that its fair or honest for any buyer to send money thru pp and get bad feedback from a seller who withholds shipping orders. I mean its common sense to check postmarks, if you ever get the order.

Please enlighten me

It is a subject i am only too familiar with, and I even though I speak mainly as a seller, i do think it is glaring flaw in the eBay policy book.


I have had a similar problem in the past that only extreme perserverance rectified. I could not outline the exact reasons why ebay removed the feedback, but I did have plenty of high-ranking eBay corporate email addresses to complain to!!

More reading on it here...

Hard one. I think the feeback system is balanced. There are bumb sellers and bumb buyers. It's an open marketplace where "caveat emptor" prevails on both sides.

I look at feebacks when buying or selling. It dosen't take much time to get the gist of who you are dealining with.

Negative feedback is usually the result of negative feedback. To be sure, sellers hate it more than buyers and will usually do whatever they can do to accomodate a buyer and avoid it.

But once a buyer leaves negative feedback, instead of trying to work out a mutually benecifical solution, things tend to go to hell in a handbasket and a tit-for-tat game is played. . . . and nobody wins in that game!

There is no one rule; keep your anger in check and calmy work towards a solution. When that fails, maybe negative feedback is called for and so leave it. Most ofetn it is a "draw" and so no feedback at all.

Tit-for-tat only works if both are non-negative.

If you come to an agreement later you can always do a mutual feedback withdrawl. I sell on eBay and its really frustrating when a buyer leaves a neg or neut comment without even trying to contact you to resolve the issue. For me its always 100% workable and yet some people seem to prefer being nasty over communicating. When this happens, I leave a neg mark and an honest comment such as "buyer did not communicate disappointment and failed to read and understand auction details". After I leave the comment I will send them a personal email explaining that I would have been more than happy to resolve the problem had they communicated and if they still wish to work with me to fix it, I would be happy to do a mutual feedback withdrawl. This doesn't remove the comment, but it does remove the rating.

I have never liked the seller or buyer rating system that most places such as ebay have, that is because as you said they are not fair no matter what you do you can receive bad input.

There are sellers who know how to manipulate the feedback system by bullying buyers into mutually withdrawing NFB. After dealing with one shyster seller I found later he had 93 mutually withdrawn NFBs. I complained and Ebay did nothing. He is still scamming people. People are so terrified of getting a NFB themselves they withdraw rightfully negative comments in order to clear their precious feedback record.

You have to stand up to them and let your NFB stand if it is warranted in my opinion. So the next guy won't have the same bad experience.

A buyer should pay the correct amount as quickly as possible after the auction ends.

A seller should send the correct merchandise as quickly as possible after receiving payment.

The buyer's part of the deal is performed before the seller's part. So the seller should leave feedback first, as soon as the buyer has performed.

But what usually happens is that the seller doesn't leave feedback based on performance. A seller waits to see what feedback the buyer leaves, and then leaves feedback as a reward or punishment for that. So buyers' feedback ratings aren't reliable.

Buyers learn about that feedback-extortion system and are afraid to leave bad feedback when performance is bad. So the feedback ratings for sellers aren't reliable either.

The eBay system is based on the idea that most transactions go well, and the small number of buyers who are gypped aren't in communication with each other. So people buy until they're gypped, and after that, there are plenty of new eBay buyers to take the place of anyone who goes away dissatisfied.

Personally, I've decided that if a seller doesn't leave feedback first it means he's not using the feedback system, or not using it properly. So I don't use it either. If all buyers did the same, sellers might stop the feedback extortion racket, and we might see accurate feedback ratings.

As a seller I've found the eBay feedback system to be one of my best selling tools. I think it's important to realize as a seller you're 'on stage' throughout the entire transaction.

Really, even before the transaction begins. What I mean is communication throughout the process is the absolute key. Most buyers, just like most people are very reasonable and just want to be informed. If you're a seller one of the most important things you can do is set up a selling system in which buyers receive timely email messages as you pull them through your process. They love that, and by the end of the transaction it's like they're your buddy because you've sent them several emails.

Kind of a general rule I've found that works pretty well for making the whole feedback thing a non issue is depending on what you sale and the length of your transactions a buyer should never go more than 48 hours without hearing from you once they're in your system. It's a matter of managing any problems you might have with feedback away through communication.

Anyway, just some thoughts on the whole feedback thing.

9% feess.... im ooooout!!!! i finding other for the time being. no way i am going to list on ebay. i have found ubid but thats in the US but found this one: 2made.co.uk http://www.2made.co.uk, i listed 2 books, no fees at all and no fvf fees!. i dont understand how but its true.[/url]

emma2333 wrote:9% feess.... im ooooout!!!! i finding other for the time being. no way i am going to list on ebay. i have found ubid but thats in the US but found this one: 2made.co.uk http://www.2made.co.uk, i listed 2 books, no fees at all and no fvf fees!. i dont understand how but its true.[/url]

Don't mean to offend, but this sounds like some bullsh*t to me, but I'm gonna check it out and see. I'm not gonna get flooded with pop ups am I? No trojans or spyware or anything like that huh..?