What Percentage Of Your Ebay Sales Result In Feedback?

I agree that feedback is great, it is just the ebay feedback system is meaningless. But spending a minute to send a seller a message outlining your experience is great and an important part of building a good business relationship. This does not limit you to a cryptic 'tweet' nor corner you into picking from the ebay predefined star system. The seller gets meaningful feedback that they can act upon if desired.

Anyone who is placing value into the inane ebay Feedback system is kidding themsleves. Anyone, at any time, can go buy an existing ebay seller account with thousands of positive feedbacks and 100% rating. Or they can simply use multiple accounts to sell hundreds of low vlaue things to themselves to build the ranking up. And of course the large sellers simply ask ebay to remove bad reviews at will.
Don

Just curious: if you were considering bidding on or buying a relatively expensive item (stamp or otherwise) from an ebay seller, and you saw that the seller's Positive Feedback percentage was far less than 100%, and you clicked on his/her feedback score and saw dozens and dozens of recent negative feedbacks from other buyers, you're honestly saying that you would just ignore all of that feedback and bid on the item anyway?

Jim

Jim,
How would you know if those were vindictive feedbacks or not? People have a LOT of time to do this kind of stuff. There are cases of over a hundred vindictive feedbacks. I heard of one case where a buyer used several accounts/small purchases/negative feedbacks because he felt the seller had made an inappropriate comment at a stamp show.
Don

I had a buyer that didn't pay or contact me in 14 days so I filed an "Unpaid" case and after 4 days closed it and got my Final value fee back. Then after 3 weeks he contacts me with an irate message "What is wrong with you how dare you file an Unpaid case against me? I have 728 positive feedbacks with no negatives, didn't you even bother looking at me Feedback?"


I really wanted to make a pithy comment about how much value his 728 positive buyer feedbacks were worth, but I took the high road and moved on. When ebay made it impossible for a seller to leave negative feedback the system became useless.

I like Don's method and occasionally get a constructive comment and have made changes in my process based on these messages.

Don,

Well, no, no one can protect themselves from the crazies in this world, when it comes right down to it.

But personally, I tend to avoid restaurants with much less than an "A" rating, or that have horrendous Yelp ratings, and I also generally won't watch a movie with a real low Rotten Tomatoes rating, buy a car with a "not recommended" Consumer Reports score, or buy a toaster that didn't pass any Underwriter Laboratories tests.

Surely the ebay rating/feedback system is at least better than the alternative (for now at least), which is no feedback at all?

Jim

Hi Jim,
ebay Feedback system is no where near the level of a restaurant system which is monitored by a Health Department nor does it come close to a independent Consumer Reports. The ebay system is the wolf having oversight on the hen house.

But I agree that it is close to other online reviews since these are also rife with abuse in the form of fake reviews. Companies literally pay people to buy there online products and then write reviews (work from home!).

Make no mistake about it, ebay Feedback system is designed for one purpose; to increase buyer level of confidence in buying something sight unseen from a buyer you do not know on the other side of the world.

That's it, that is the purpose of the system. It is ebay marketing, some would say it is ebay brainwashing. If buyers do not have a high level of confidence in doing something that common sense tells us is nuts (buying something sight unseen from a person we have virtually no legal recourse with in Kathmandu) then the entire ebay business plan collapses. But I agree with you that many people look at the ratings, and there are certainly some who use it to make decisions. But for me, I decided to quit using it a few years ago. (On rare occasions I will do it as a favor for a seller.)

Lastly, I also think that the ebay Feedback system is used as a crutch by some sellers. But it is not a valid replacement for real seller marketing. Throwing a blanket statement in your listings that says 'Contact me before leaving a negative feedback' is not good customer service, it is simply trying to game the system. Customers should be encouraged to contact sellers at any time and for any reason; a quality seller cares about building a relationship with their customers. A buyer spending 15 seconds on a feedback is not a good substitute for a solid relationship.
Don

Jim,

Sorry I was unclear in my original post (since updated). Raw feedback quantity (which is what this thread is about) is meaningless. Feedback percentage, on the other hand can be important, assuming the seller hasn't had their negative feedback sanitized. High-volume ebay sellers can have negative feedback removed very easily since they have personal account reps, whereas normal folks like you and I cannot anywhere as easily.

Hey, let's not get into calling each other names now...



I don't entirely disagree with all of those that feel that the feedback system is not without its flaws, but

a) the system is a lot better now than it used to be, back in the wild, wild west days of 1999, when I first started using it*, and

b) it's also at least a little better than no feedback system at all (in my humble opinion).

Despite the occasional silly/stupid/cumbersome/etc. changes that ebay makes from time to time, I see that there is at least some attempt for continual improvement, and perhaps one day even the feedback system will be satisfactory to everyone.

Jim

* Remember when your ebay name was your email address? (shudder) Or you had to mail actual cash to foreign countries, because they didn't take U.S. checks? Or there were almost no thumbnail pictures next to each lot listing, and you had to open each item to see if there were, in fact, any photos? Or before anyone had a scanner, and all images were, in fact, just photos? Or...?

Jim,

The one major change they made that I cannot agree with is that negative/neutral feedback is only one way; only sellers can get negative feeback. It enables scammers and extorters to run wild. If only positive feedback can be left for buyers, and there's no way for true reciprocal feedback, then ebay needs to follow Amazon's model and eliminate buyer feedback completely. It's a holdover from a bygone era when buyer feedback meant something.

It means even less than seller feedback now.

There are always going to be different perceptions by buyers and sellers on a transaction that might generate negative feedback. I generally don't leave feedback much of the time anymore, but maybe I should. Frankly it would take something really egregious for me to want to leave negative feedback—-such as item not received, grossly misdescribed, or a bait and switch from the photo shown.

Hi Dan,

Like I wrote, I don't disagree.

The system is not without its flaws (sort of like me, I guess).

It can possibly change for the better in the future, is my point.

But, c'mon, tell me it isn't pretty cool that you can buy a stamp today and not have to pay for it until payday, knowing that the seller can't really do too much about having to wait for a bit?

Or is that just me?



Jim

Hi,

In any case though, a buyer should at least try to contact the seller, and try to work things out, before leaving negative feedback.

Last time I checked, we're all (mostly) human and some of us make mistakes, but we should all have an opportunity to correct our errors.

But, should such a comment from a buyer get ignored or responded to with outright discourtesy, then I'm all for firing both barrels and leaving scathing feedback.

Jim

Why I oughtta...