Ebay Morality

I just received some stamps I purchased on ebay. This is not a complaint. Service was surprisingly speedy. Question: what is my obligation to the seller? Aside from paying, of course.

ebay is not terribly intuitive. Does seller rate a thanks. How about a rating?

Don, a beginner on ebay.

if you are happy you should leave feedback, I copy and paste general feedback but I do leave it. sending them any kind of email is not needed unless something is wrong with your order.

Don, based on your short description, I would rate the seller with a positive and give them 5 stars across the board. Under the comments, you can leave a quick thanks to the seller for great service. Negative or even neutral feedback is only warranted if there is a problem that you could not resolve with the seller. In most cases you will find your dealings with the stamp community on ebay to be a positive experience. All of my problems with ebay were in non-stamp related categories. Sellers are rated by their feedback and even fees they pay are calculated by feedback ratings so only use negatives or less than 5 stars if there is truly a problem.

Paul

Agreed, just leave a simple positive feedback, like "Speedy service, item as described", etc, or whatever you feel like saying. The act of leaving feedback is normally an indication that you've received the item, so there's no need to send an email just to confirm receipt.

If satisfied with my transactions, I always leave positive feedback.

I also have never left negative or neutral feedback, though any issue I had was resolved by civil discourse with the seller. In two cases where it was obvious they were trying to pawn off some crappy material I resolved amicably and left NO feedback.

As I noted in another thread some time ago, I am relatively new to ebay, although by now I've had over 120 different transactions, all in the stamp category. Fortunately my experience has been uniformly positive in that each item has been as described and delivery generally has been even speedier than I expected.

I have also had the good fortune to have almost every seller provide quick feedback for me as a buyer usually before I have even received the item. So I have made it a point to open each item as soon as received, inspect the item and then immediately leave appropriate rating and feedback for the seller. I try to personalize the comments as much as possible, noting some aspect of that transaction that was particularly pleasing - fast delivery, great service, good pricing and shipping, etc. However, it appears that ebay only allows a short message and after a while, I've run out of adjectives, so my feedback is beginning to look a bit repetitive.

I boycott the ebay rating system and instead drop a quick note on any transactions. Not only is this more personal, but it also does not force me to use only 7 words. I feel bad for folks who use the feedback system properly but it is simply too exploited and abused to be meaningful to me anymore.
Don

I would add that I occasionally receive a more personalized message from a seller, which I appreciate and reciprocate in kind in addition to leaving feedback in the ebay system. For a particularly satisfying transaction, I have also sometimes initiated a personal message to the seller, but usually I invoke the ebay feedback system.

When I first saw the title for this tread I figured we would be discussing serious buyer or seller misbehavior! Perhaps the title could have been " ebay customs" or " ebay conventions."

" ebay morality" strikes me as an oxymoron.

I was thrown off as well.

However I myself do leave feedback for each purchase I make.

Only on a single occasion so far had I felt the need to bestow negative feedback.

Regards,
Stampalotapus

I would leave feedback on every item I bought if I could just click the boxes, but having to write something about each transaction is just too tedious. Maybe I should just type a 'smiley face' :-)

Bking you dont have to write every time. I write " Very nice, Thanks" and as soon as I hit the v the rest comes up.

I understand Don's (51studebaker) point above, but I've been buying stamps on ebay since 1999 and it's hard to break old habits. I consider leaving positive feedback for a fault-free transaction to be common courtesy -- ebay's way of saying a public thank you. So I always do it and admit that I am bothered when the occasional seller fails to leave feedback for me (I've never received an email or message in lieu of feedback). It's more a matter of etiquette than morality.

Rusty,
I fully understand your post. I try to boycott the Feedback system because it is one of the few things I feel I can do to protest it being so exploited. But I should add that while I try to avoid using the Feedback rating system this is not a 'live or die' issue for me. When a seller/buyer replies to my message and asks for a Feedback rating, I certainly go ahead and do it for them.

Of course I don't 'treat' them to my opinion of the Feedback system, I reserve that 'treat' for you guys in this forum!
Don

Edit:
It occurred to me that I should list the reasons that I feel that the ebay Rating system is easily exploited. Keep in mind that for those who see ebay as an opportunity to rip other people off, spending some money developing high Feedback rating or a Top rated account is not a big deal since it is a 'business decision'.

- People are buying and selling Top Rated and high feedback accounts. First, read the ebay web page on what it is supposed to take to become a Top Rated seller (http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/top-rated.html ). Then do a Google search on 'buy Top Rated ebay' account and compare buying a Top rated account to ebay's page. If I wanted to screw over others, why would I jump through ebay's hoops when it is so easy to simply buy a Top Rated account?

- People will list large number of low cost listings, sometimes as a loss leader, just to build up the number of feedbacks. A few years ago I bid on a listing for a large lot of stamps. When I won it, the seller notified me that I really bid on a subset of what was listed and I could cancel if I desired. I cancelled and the seller contacted me again and asked if I would leave him a positive feedback. I felt obligated to since he proactively notified me and allowed me to cancel. But I recall thinking to myself that it seemed to be a way to simply build up the number of positive feedbacks.

- ebay allows a user to have multiple accounts; not simple two or three, but as many as they wish to have. What possible legitimate reason(s) would a person need to have 30-50 (or more) accounts? It is then easy to buy and sell between the accounts to build up Feedback.

- Feedback system can be easily manipulated for revengeful reasons. In other words, if I don't like you all I have to do is start buying stuff from you and then trash your rating. I can use multiple accounts so you cannot block me. I know of several cases where this has happened. Yes, with a lot of time and effort you can get ebay to back some of them out, but note it is a real struggle to make that happen.

- The ebay vetting system is virtually non-existent. Anyone, including those with criminal backgrounds, can get a ebay account and end up as a Top rating or have a 100% feedback. I am pretty sure that I could get my dog an account without much trouble. The level of confidence that I have is in direct proportion to their vetting process and is not based upon their marketing fluff that tries to give me confidence to spend more money.

- Note how many listings plead with buyers to contact them before leaving any negative feedback. In some ways this is good, but it serves to dilute the feedback value. For example, let's say you were unhappy with the delivery time of 25 days (listing stated delivery in 3-4 days). You contact the seller and he apologizes and offers you a 10% discount on you next order. You are satisfied with this offer and then leave him a positive feedback. While the seller is indeed trying to make amends, reality is that he messed up and did not perform as expected. This important performance information ends up not being captured.

Frankly, I tend to be more cautious when a see a seller highly touting their Feedback rating or Top Rated status. This is a shame since there are many very good sellers who have worked hard on customer service issues to keep their rating good. But at this point I know of no simple way to differentiate between those sellers with good or bad intentions using the exiting rating system. I truly wish ebay would harden the rating system so that it would not be so easily exploited.

If anyone truly believes the rating system actually works well I would challenge them to this test. First, think of the absolutely worst sellers you know (someone you would never buy from again ) and look them up on ebay. In more cases than not, you will find that they have good ratings. On this alone I have a hard time feeling that the rating system has value for me.

Don.....that is how the system is susposed to work.
If you dont like the system....dont use it.

Oh....you can always start your own site????

Kevin,
It doesn't appear that you read my post, I clearly stated that I don't use the system. Instead I send an email thanking them and providing feedback. Also please feel free to contact me privately if you have some issue with me.
Don