Ebay feedback system

[Stu]

It's my opinion that Ebay should change their feedback system.

The first person to complete their part of the Ebay trade is always the buyer, by making payment. Once payment has been made the buyer's part of the transaction is complete.

Sellers should leave feedback as soon as full payment is made, or leave feedback (obviously negative) if no payment is received.

It should be made impossible for the buyer to leave feedback first. Only negative feedback, in the form of an ebay report, could be left if the seller fails to deliver an item that has been paid for. This should only be possible once the mediation procedure has been used, and only then can the seller leave any feedback appropriate.

As an Ebay seller I believe that if I sell something that is shite (which I would never do) the buyer should not be put off leaving negative feedback for me by the veiled threat that I will leave negative feedback for them, as some sort of tit-for-tat reprisal.

Sellers often say they expect feedback first as some sort of signal that the item has arrived, but I actually expect that in most cases they are worried that their crappy stuff will result in negative feedback for them.

As a buyer I have not actually had any bad experience resulting from the above, I have however stopped bidding on items where the seller states they will not leave feedback untill the buyer does (in this case I suspect the item is dubious), and I have stopped giving feedback to sellers who have not left feedack for my promp payment.

All sellers should be honest enough to have confidence that their item will arrive safely and be exactly as listed, if not better.
They should therefore have the confidence to leave the buyer positive feedback promptly when payment has been made.

Anyone who understands the above must surely agree that it would be in Ebay's advantage as it would increase buyer’s confidence in their system, which is how they make their millions.

[bigred5765]

on the other hand, as a seller and buyer of ebay you wouldn't believe how petty some buyers/Sellers are, and expect even used/second hand stuff to be as new,i would never leave feedback till i get it, you may say tit for tat, but some people leave negative feedback just because they can, and love to ruin your good record, IE i sold Matty's xxxcr to a bloke in Italy,it had loads of pic,s and was described as used 8-10 months old but in OK order. he left neutral feedback because the box had been opened buy customs,hows that my fault,
so theres to sides to a coin stu

[bigred5765]

double

[bigred5765]

post

[Stu]

Originally Posted by bigred5765

.........., IE i sold Matty's xxxcr to a bloke in Italy,it had loads of pic,s and was described as used 8-10 months old but in OK order. he left neutral feedback because the box had been opened buy customs,hows that my fault, ........

I've got that covered to some extent in my original post, at least worded from a negative feeback point, not specifically neutral feedback.

I can see exactly where you are coming from as I have had the same. It has pissed me off big time on a couple of occasions.

I still believe however it should remain the right of the buyer to leave feedback as they see fit. That is exactly how buyers have confidence in the system, for the benefit of all.

[antnee]

As an Ebay seller I believe that if I sell something that is shite (which I would never do) the buyer should not be put off leaving negative feedback for me by the veiled threat that I will leave negative feedback for them, as some sort of tit-for-tat reprisal.

i agree to that in a certain degree, but ebay have changed the feedback a little with the star ratings, but i see a buyer leaving feedback as receiving the item. also i consider comms in my feedback, which goes on till the last feedback is submitted, so to give feedback before the transaction is complete wouldnt be right

[Stu]

Originally Posted by antnee

.............. but i see a buyer leaving feedback as receiving the item. ..............

That's not the purpose of feedback.

Originally Posted by antnee

............so to give feedback before the transaction is complete wouldnt be right

Leaving feedback is not part of the transaction. Feedback is a comment on the 'buying experience' only, not part of the actual purchase.

[losixxx]

totally agree stu, i never leave feedback first if im a buyer

[Mrs oOple]

I agree with you Stu, I have felt like this when making purchases on e-bay. Like you say, once payment has been made my side of the deal is complete, and I'd hope the seller would recognise that. I frequently get e-mails from sellers saying 'hope you like the item, please leave positive feedback and I'll do the same for you'. It's quite frustrating and I don't respond. I'll leave positive feedback once the seller has left feedback for me. Maybe that is petty.

[DCM]

I leave feedback once I have received an item, and the feedback that I leave reflects the 'experience' of the purchase, from down to the price, delivery time, correct description.

I have twice used negative feedback, once to lever a seller to agree they had not sent an item, and after some very frank discussions on the phone, got my shipping costs refunded. The second was the seller just didn't send the item, left negative feedback and involved paypal and reclaimed my money.

I have been threatened with negative on the only item I have sold through eBay, where my listing explicitley said for immediate payment, and the man paid his paypal with an eCheque which would take too long, I warned him that if it didn't clear in a couple of days, payment would be cancelled, which I did, he tried to back me into a corner and threaten negative feedback, which I said go ahead, he never bothered.

As far as eBay goes, the feedback system is only there to see if the seller/buyer has had a decent record, and thats it. A seller should leave feedback once you have paid for the item, as that is your part of the deal done, a buyer should leave the feedback once they have received an item and ascertained that it is as described.

[shinytopman]

Originally Posted by bigred5765

on the other hand, as a seller and buyer of ebay you wouldn't believe how petty some buyers/Sellers are, and expect even used/second hand stuff to be as new,i would never leave feedback till i get it, you may say tit for tat, but some people leave negative feedback just because they can, and love to ruin your good record, IE i sold Matty's xxxcr to a bloke in Italy,it had loads of pic,s and was described as used 8-10 months old but in OK order. he left neutral feedback because the box had been opened buy customs,hows that my fault,
so theres to sides to a coin stu

You can reply to neg feedback if you feel it is unjust!.......

I agree with stu why should a buyer be held to ransome of neg feedback when he has done the right thing and upheld and paid his side of the auction !

[bigred5765]

not saying anyone should be held to ransom, im just making the point that there are loads of t+++++rs on there, that have nothing better to do than leave bad feedback just because they can, and have no idea how feedback should work, or be used,
and i do reply to bad feedback if its unjust
still doesnt stop idiots doing it,

[Stu]

Originally Posted by bigred5765

........... im just making the point that there are loads of t+++++rs on there....................

You are sopt on there Carl.

I once sold a Renault Clio, clearly described as spares or repair - the big ends were bummed - it went for £120.

The buyer picked it up with no insurance, tax or MOT and then tried to drive it home to Hull from Burnley, ON THE M62. He seemed a little upset that it went on fire & seized just before Halifax, up on the moors. The West Yorkshire Fuzz were not too pleased I imagine.

His threat of negative feedback was met with a 'yeah - whatever' resopnse. It never arrived, I think he was too dumb to be able to work out how to do it.

[bigred5765]

he he just my point,
it does need looking at some how buy ebay, but just what the hell they could do, i have no idea,but i still wont leave feedback till i get it even as a seller or buyer,
rant over

[Col]

Originally Posted by bigred5765

,but i still wont leave feedback till i get it even as a seller or buyer

That makes you part of the problem...

The only solution I can see is as Stu mentioned: sellers must leave feedback before the buyer can leave feedback.

[DCM]

I just had an issue with the eBay feedback system. I bought a memory card for the old mans phone, was looking close to christmas so bought one listed as UK and not China/HK etc, was cheap, clicked on 'buy it now' and paid right away, so my part of the deal is done fast and no delay.

The seller negated to tell me that they were supposedly out of stock in the UK, and that it would have to come from HK. If I had a message telling me this right away, no problems really. I had to wait a week, nothing, so messaged the seller, to get a reply from the HK eBay site appologising and saying it was on it's way, nothing saying where from. When it finaly came, in a normal envelope, post marked HK, I thought, right, you pissed me about and left negative feedback.

This lead to the seller trying to give me £2 back as a 'compensation' to get me to remove the negtive feedback, which I refused to do, I didn't want the £2 but wanted the feedback left.

As a last resort, the seller then left negative feedback on my account, quoting I was a bad eBayer and poor communication. I contacted eBay who initialy wasn't interested in it, saying it is not there place to get involved unless the feedback met certain criteria, like defamotory feedbak etc.... I emailed them back telling them what a pointless system the feedbak was, if as a buyer, I pay for the item right away, but because of a misleading listing, I end up being left waiting far longer for the item, so the seller deservedly earned the negtive feedback, showing poor service.

Then I said that to then retaliate with negtive on my account was defamotory as I had done everything that I needed to do right away on winning the auction. They re-looked at it and have agreed that the negative feedback on my account was unfair AND defamotory and have agreed to remove it.

I guess you just got to know what buttons to press at eBay central.

[sosidge]

Your assertion that the transaction is complete when the buyer has made a payment is wrong.

The transaction is only complete when the buyer has ACCEPTED the goods. That is, once they have received them and are happy with them.

Once the buyer has accepted the goods, generally indicated by a positive feedback, then I as a seller will also leave feedback.

If they do not wish to accept the goods then that is something which should resolve between ourselves outside of the feedback system.

Personally speaking I have never had a problem with the feedback system, I have 100% positive myself but have left many negatives, and never suffered from "retaliatory" feedback after doing so.

[losixxx]

disagree there, as a buyer your part of the transaction is to buy and pay for the goods. the sellers should then leave feedback to say this....once goods received then buyer leave's his feedback...i never leave feedback first when i purchase

[jim76]

Sorry, i disagree with that sosidge.
For ebay purposes of feedback, the only thing that should be assessed is how promptly the buyer pays for his winning auction and any communication as part of the purchase.
If the seller has misrepresented the item and buyer wants to return it and leave negative to that effect, they should be able to without fear of the seller giving them negative for a perfectly smooth purchase.

The only reason a buyer should get negative is if the delay payment or send a bouncing cheque etc. NOT for complaining about the level of service from the seller.

[jim76]

Originally Posted by sosidge

Once the buyer has accepted the goods, generally indicated by a positive feedback, then I as a seller will also leave feedback.

I have 100% positive myself but have left many negatives, and never suffered from "retaliatory" feedback after doing so.

obviously you never get retaliatory negatives if you only leave feedback after the buyer!!!

I hate sellers that do this. It is a veiled threat that the buyer MUST leave good feedback even if they are not happy with the purchase, or risk a retaliation.