Ebay Feedback Question

Recently I am seeing more and more sellers waiting for you to recieve item and give them feedback, before they provide you feedback. I have had to converstaions with sellers in which they refuse to provide any feedback to the buyer until he provides feedback to him.

1 other seller says he waits for feedback from buyer to ensure the buyer recieved item.

What happened to the days when you buy, pay and get positive feedback and not be at the mercy or being held hostage by seller to ensure they get positive feedback.

Am I missing something here? Of course the 2 buyers I seem to like to purchase from are of course 2 who wait for you to give them feedback.

Thanks for your thoughts on this. Maybe it is just me

Respectfully,
Richard

Well, I don't worry about when or if they give me feedback. They are not allowed to give negative feedback, so I don't really see that it matters.

colonelrklink.....feedback is overrated.
The bigger the # does not mean the better the transaction.
I have a big #....still get the regular that leaves neutrals with -----.
Oh well....I do my best.

I have a larger size ebay store.....and one of the options
is that when a buyer makes a payment....the ebay system automatically
issued a stored comment from my list....as a positive comment.
It is GREAT....1 less thing a seller has to do.

I concur with Kevin, feedback is now nearly meaningless. Sellers can no longer reply to a feedback, so only one side of the story is presented. Not to mention a feedback that limits you to a handful of words is pretty lame too. It is far too easy to simply buy a few cheaper items from a seller and leave negative feedback just as 'pay back'.

On the flip side of the coin, some sellers pump up feedback with phony sales. Others buy and sell existing ebay accounts like we do stamps, you can even buy an existing ebay account with Top Rated seller designations.

ebay is simply doing a horrid job in vetting ebay accounts. And it doesn't help that many people (both buyers and sellers) are so willing to exploit every loophole they can find. In short, buying on ebay is a crap shoot unless you know exactly who you are dealing with. Best advice; stick to sellers who you know, and/or are members of APS or ASDA.
Don

Thank you for your wisdom and allowing me to see a little more clearly now. What you all say makes sense. As you said I should just stick with buyers I have had good success with and just be happy with that and forget the feedback aspect

I'm a seller who gives feedback as soon as payment is made, but I understand the sellers who wait. It's not holding anyone "hostage" IMO. Feedback should be on the entire "transaction." There can be extensions, returns, chargebacks, other issues that arise after the item is shipped or received, etc. How the buyer acts following the initial payment can definitely impact the transaction.

Even though I don't do it, I can see the logic in waiting until both sides agree that the transaction is complete before leaving feedback.

In my opinion it does not make sense for a seller to leave feedback before the transaction is complete to everyone's satisfaction. Just as it would not make sense for a buyer to leave feedback before an item is received.

I laugh when buyers send messages immediately after payment, demanding that I leave feedback right away - as if merely paying for the item should earn them some kind of medal. They are SUPPOSED to pay for the stuff!

I leave feedback after the transaction is complete, and I leave it based upon how the transaction went, and my evaluation of how my trading partner conducted his/herself during the transaction.

My feedback policy is explained in all my item descriptions. As far as I'm concerned it is one of the terms of the transaction. If someone finds the policy unacceptable they should shop elsewhere.

With regard to sellers not being able to leave "negative" feedback, I will add that there are many creative ways of leaving "positive" feedback on a buyer with a narrative that will be constructively negative, and a red flag for other sellers. Some examples: 'Bought item - never paid' or 'Left unfavorable feedback with no prior conversation' or 'Took issue with my terms of the sale' or 'Tried to change the terms of the sale' and so on.

Finally, I think the best way of finding out the "character" of a potential trading partner is to look at their "Feedback left for others". It tells the whole story. When I see a (stamp) buyer who seems to have "issues" with a large percentage of his/her transactions - that member gets an all expenses paid trip onto my blocked list. My favorite jerk was an eBayer who left neutral feedback complaining that the shipping charge exceeded the actual postage cost. Unreal. Of course that situation begs the question, "If you thought the shipping was too high...why did you buy the item?" And then to leave neutral feedback...really. What an a**h**e. Most buyers - in my opinion - are a pleasure to deal with. But there are still a few morons left out there. That's why ebay invented the blocked list.

Maybe ebay should run scans looking for user names that appear on a lot of blocked lists. Then they could establish a cutoff number so that if someone is on more than "x" number of blocked lists they are banned for life. The logic would be that all of those "blockers' can't be wrong - this is a troubled individual.

I always leave feedback on the day of shipment which is usually around the same or next business day after payment is received. I don't leave it at the moment of payment as I'm busy packing orders and it's easier to leave feedback through My ebay in bulk on day of shipment. It's best to make things simple for everyone. I also make a note in the notes of the invoice as to when I leave feedback and in the email to confirm shipment. Buyers are notified about feedback multiple times.

There has been a recent change in the feedback system on ebay I do not like at all. The date feedback is left is no longer present and this goes for all feedback ever left. Instead of a Month, Day and Year date it's been dumbed down to "Past 1 month" for recent feedback. Older feedback is not Past 12 Months for over a year or over 10 years. I like having that date record there on ebay and it's a mistake on ebay's part to remove it.

As for leaving "negative" positive feedback for buyers who don't pay, it's better to file an unpaid item claim and get your fees back. A non-paying buyer will get an unpaid item strike and if sellers are smart they will have their settings set to block those with unpaid item strikes.

As a buyer I use paypal alot or credit card in some cases. all items are paid upon winning the bid. What more else does a seller want from a buyer than payment? I do see it as a form of hostage in that if a seller refuses to leave feedback until the buyer leaves feedback, call it what you like. I did my part in paying immediately upon winning. the seller shipped and I recieved. it is a simple process. but for the seller to say I only give feedback to those who give feedback to me first, I find amusing and such and just move on the someone else. Guess it is my opinion.

I do understand somewhat of what they say above in that feedback is becoming not as important as in past, thus I just have given up on giving feedback to those who want theirs first.

I guess I will not understand it from the sellers perspective unless I choose to sell alot.

As far as I am concerned, feedback is almost useless. All it tells me is how experienced the seller might be, and even then the ID may have been purchased! Overall the stamp buyers and sellers are the easiest customers and dealers. My wife ran a small ebay store for a year selling a variety of household items. I was shocked to see some of the emails she received. She closed down and is now running a "brick and mortar" store with her sister with less hassle and higher profit margins.

Feedback, schmeedback... buyer's don't need feedback...
it no longer serves any practical purpose, those days
are long gone... and you can be most certain no seller
is going to read it anyway or care what's been written...
the name of the game is the buyer buys, and the seller
ships... end of story... your just reward is hopefully
getting nice material from the seller...