I Was Told Stamp On Consignment Was Lost Or Sold

cjpalermo,

Very good point, which I overlooked. Thank you.

And mum's the word on this option. Cuz if ebay ever realized that it's an option, they'd start counting no feedback as a defect. . . . Just sayin'

I recently bought a little electronic item from a seller with 29000 Feedback and I got 2 feedback reminders. I just don't get it, I never check to see if a buyer leaves feedback I don't have the time to worry about it, and after the 1st 1000 to show I'm experieced I don't think it makes any difference with the buyers decision to buy from me or not.

"Damning with faint praise?" It could be perceived that way, or it could just be a true account of what occurred.

Yes, neutral feedback does impact a seller by counting as a "Seller Defect". Note that it takes a seller defect rate of more than 2% to loose Top Rated Seller status. It takes a rate of over 5% before other penalties may occur. Schmidt happens and some buyers are unreasonable. The 2% buffer and other policies are in place to prevent negative repercussions when a seller has a higher number of unreasonable buyers and is performing to standard. Like all policies, it isn't perfect.

The purpose of Top Rated Seller benefits are to entice sellers to a higher standard. Listing items that can't be delivered is a perfectly valid reason why one could loose Top Rated Seller status. If you want the benefits, then do what is required.

What feedback rating is appropriate for each situation is subjective to many factors. Acorn54 can add our input to his decision.

Any seller that blocks me based on a neutral feedback is exactly the type of person who I don't want to do business with. KRelyea, do you block a buyer that left you neutral feedback if they had valid reason to do so?

Leaving no feedback is another option that also allows the opportunity to reconsider the options at a later date. Good point.

Have any of the ebay sellers here lost their Top Rated Seller status or had other repercussions from neutral feedback?

P.S. I apologize to any forum members with the name of Schmidt.

All valid points, DNA. You are undoubtedly right that there's a buffer there to keep a few defects from taking away Top Rated status. I write solely as a buyer here--I don't sell on ebay. My point is that my perception as a buyer is that sellers are so scared of getting defected on that they go out of their way to keep from receiving negative or neutral (which in my experience has been seen by them as equal to negative) feedback. And they do so primarily by forcefully asking buyers to give them a chance to "work things out."

Now this may indeed be a decent and honorable way to do business. I have no complaint with sellers wanting good relations with buyers and vice versa.

But I do think that the (unintended) consequence is that the feedback system is largely meaningless. Neutral = negative and because of that, 100% positive has become the default, so there's no nuanced rating of sellers, so the whole point of feedback, it seems to me, has been destroyed. We still go through the motions, of course, but in order to find out whether a seller is trustworthy, we have to use other means. StampSmarter is one aid to that. Experience is another. My "favorite sellers" list is clogged with dozens of names to whom I no longer return. And a handful of other sellers get my repeated business. But almost all of the sellers in both categories have 100% feedback. And the one I probably trust the most has 99.9 instead of 100% and has some lapses reported on StampSmarter--both of which I ignore because I know about Schmidt.

Hieronymus, I agree that ebay's feedback system is heavily flawed, but it does work in a crude fashion. Some buyers do equate neutral to negative feedback. Some buyers leave positive feedback because they don't yet realize that they bought something falsely represented. Some sellers use coercion to try to reverse a situation that they created. Many sellers are afraid of any non-positive feedback because of a perceived loss of future business, despite if it was valid or not.

I agree that there isn't an appropriate scaling of seller's ratings. There are many factors that have led to 100% positive becoming the default. One is that many people can't comprehend that we're all human and that one mistake, nor one bad action, defines if a seller is worth buying from or not. I believe that sellers are overly afraid and that most buyers will not discredit a seller over a few non-positives amongst the bunch. Seller's fears have also contributed to the status quo.

I don't know how to fix the feedback system, but as a buyer I do appreciate reading non-positive reviews. They along with every aspect of a listing help me make a decision to buy, not buy, or even adjust the amount that I bid. If I see that a seller responds to a non-positive in a humble way, then I'll be even more willing to do business with them.

Despite ebay's flawed feedback system, non-positives do actually help a buyer make decisions. So why not give a neutral feedback when it's appropriate?

DNA; I've lost items in the past, and it's a terrible feeling. I apologize profusely, promise to let them know if the item turns up and promptly refund their payment. If I noticed after this that the buyer left a neutral I would consider blocking them. First I would check to see if they were regular customer, if they were I'd chalk it up to a bad day and forget about it. The second thing I would check is their "Feedback Left for Other". A review of the Feedback buyers have left in the past can often tell me if this is the type of person I want as a customer. I use the blocked bidder option judiciously and have blocked less than 40 Buyers in 15 years selling on ebay, or less than 3/year.

Now a question for you, you said;




How does a seller respond humbly?

KRelyea, Considering blocking because of a neutral feedback even when you had wasted the buyer's time (albeit due to an honest mistake) seems harsh to me, but it is your prerogative. I can understand it if the buyer has a habit of being unreasonable. At a rate of 3 per year, assuming that you have many transactions, it seems that you are blocking buyers in a reasonable manner.

If a seller has a habit of misplacing items and disappointing buyers, then how will that ever be known to other buyers? One gray in a sea of green isn't going to attract much attention. Leaving a positive, even with a note that the seller misplaced the item will likely be lost in a sea of green.

An example of a seller leaving a response to feedback in a humble manner could be something like: "Sorry for the trouble. Let me know if you still want it if I find it." Or "Sorry for the trouble. I've fixed the mistake and look forward to your business in the future." Responses like these help the seller save a bit of face and can help others to know if the seller is reasonable.

DNA

I would block them because I think if a person is that hardnose they probably would think nothing of giving a "3" on DSR Item as Described for example and that is also a defect. I sell about 2000 items a year so I guess 3/year isn't too crabby, but I'm getting crabbier all the time.

If you mean leave a contrite response to their feedback I think that's a good idea. I've never responded to feedback but in the future I will remember that.

Ken,

Not respondimg to negative feedback is a mistake, in my opinion. It gives you the opportinity to tell "your side" of the story. And it also serves the purpose as HDNAC pointed out, to allow readers to judge how reasonable your counter-post sounds, which can help you with any readers who may not know you as well as say, I do, which is that you are 100% honest and a straight-shooter!

But I also agree with those who have pointed out that the feedback system is now broken beyond repair thanks to ebay fiddling with it so much.........

Bill,

I agree it's a good idea, luckily I haven't received a negative yet, but when I do I will probably have a meltdown. Speaking of feedback I thought what happened to you was appalling and even worse was ebay's failure to recognize blatant feedback abuse.

Interesting theories about being humble in responding to neutral or negative feedback. I suppose I do that already, though I do admit to always posting something with a dual meaning (or possible dual meaning) if it kind of strikes me as a petty neutral (I don't have any negatives so far). For example, I recently got a neutral for misplacing a very low dollar item. I did an immediate full refund and apologized as soon as I realized the error. Feedback said something to the effect of "seller lost item but refunded for it," and gave a neutral. I responded with "Thank you for your understanding!" or something to the effect. And yes, I did block this buyer. Regardless of whether the neutral was technically called for, or not (it WAS in this case, of course). The reason? Because I have plenty of buyers who don't roll back every rock to look for problems, or point them out, or think their ability to give neutral or negative feedback without fear of getting same in return (or of communicating at all) gives them some kind of god complex or something. Those buyers I can do without, quite frankly. They can pester someone else. John

"Blatent Feedback Abuse". Thank you Ken. In my cases, we had overwhelming evidence - fake mailing addresses, returned merchandise "no such address" or "undeliverable as addressed", fake telephone numbers, and more, yet ebay did absolutely nothing to remove the negatives, so now, when someone looks at my feedback for my weissstampexpertizing, they see a horrendously low feedback, which implies that my service stinks. It's only if the reader decides to look at the details that they see my reply trying to explain the malicious comments - in fact, in each case, the comments were outright lies. And before these negs, our expert service had never received a neg. feedback!

And there is actually more to the situation than I want to take the time to relate, but ebay also decided to eliminate the catagory for Stamp Authentican Services - without ever notifying me of it - then suddenly transferred my listings to whatever catagory they chose, then when someone complained a listing was in the wrong catagory - where THEY put it - they supported that complaint, removed the listing and I could not ever retreive the original listing again, so had to reconstruct it from scratch.

Throughout all this, not one single person at ebay would even respond to me about the malicious negatives - let alone actually DO something about them! So my absolute conclusion is that despite ebay's public persona of wanting to have a site where every member can attain a "plesant shopping experience", in fact, the only real motive they have is profit. There is no longer any intrest in anti-fraud work at all, which is why the ethically-challenged types that we talk about here on the SCF will thrive and conquer. Because ebay doesn't give a rat's ass.

None of this changes the fact that it can still be a great source of material. The only questoion is how much emotional support should good people give to a company that doesn't really care about their personal needs? I guess that's up to each person to decide for themselves.

Blocking a buyer for neutral feedback???? Horsehocky! So buyers have no recourse to blow the whistle on shoddy practices? That is an abuse of the feedback system every bit as egregious as anything ebay has done to pervert it. I realize that the system isn't working well and is too easily abused, but this kind of thing isn't helping.

When you deserve it, and sometimes you do, you should man up and take it. Or maybe this kind of retaliation is a subliminal move to scuttle the whole system?!

Hearing this attitude makes me sick. I'm with Bill - let your response be verbal in the feedback forum. But to that I add, save the blocking thing for cases of fraud.

I assume you are referring to me. I doubt very much that Bill was referring to me in his posting...
As a seller, I can block whomever I bloody well please - thank you. In fact, I did apologize for the error when refunding the buyer's money immediately upon discovering the problem. Your man up comment is ridiculous - I served 20+ years in the United States Army, and I really cannot think of one instance when I was told to man up before... You seem like exactly the kind of person I would have no desire dealing with on ebay...
John

You could be right about that John. I am a person who thinks and I have a moral conscience. Having a legal right to do something is light years away from having a moral right to do it. Judging from your discourse here, which is all I have to go on, you sound like a person who does not like to be bothered with such things. But if you had something I was interested in, my money is as good as the next guy's. Try not to take it all so personally.