A bit OT: e-bay feedback, trust and so on

[Paul T.]

My eBay tutor, who has a couple of thousand feedbacks, and only two negs, advised me to only leave feedback after receiving, through bitter experience; he left feedback, then the buyer left negs without even contacting him about the fault they felt the item had. That is the seller's dilemma, and sooner or later it will happen.

In addition, as pointed out before, your feedback as a seller is much more crucial than your feedback as a buyer - as far I am aware, there is little you can do to bar deadbeat sellers, beyond barring those with two NPB strikes, or negative feedback. I ask zero feedback buyers to email before the auction; they NEVER do; it's impossible to bar them, and they tend to have a 30 per cent deadbeat rate... (I now cancel their bids if they don't reply to emails).

For all these reasons, I only leave feedback for buyers after they've done so for me. Ony any item where condition is subjective (ie lenses) I offer a no-quibble return, less shipping, unless the item is misdescribed. And I am content when people from whom I buy do the same. My only neg is from Cambridgephoto (if only I'd google'd them before an impulse buy!), a retaliation for a neg I left them. Any buyer or seller can look and see that the neg is retaliation, and therefore I don't think it's a huge problem.

BTW, one piece of advice I would ive everyone is to ship everything signed for; buyers like it, if you clearly state how the item's sent and don't inflate the shipping prices (which is one of my bugbears as a buyer). I'm always surprised when I buy an item using PayPal, and a shipper sends the item regular mail, because if the buyer claims the item hasn't arrived, the seller hasn't got a leg to stand on under PayPal rules, and will automatically have a chargeback.

 

[eclat]

I must add one caveat, which is that I wait to hear from the buyer first on items I sell that do not have a return policy (i.e. "As Is") I don't want some seller regretting a calculated risk HE/SHE made at MY expense.

And it's a good point that there are deadbeat buyers out there--just like there are dishonest sellers. When it comes to ratings though, I don't want to research what the ins and outs of a particular negative bid were when it almost always comes down to "He said, She said." Sellers have some protection: they can cancel bids, as stated above, AND they've got the person's money before they ever send the item. Buyers, on the other hand? A seller can cancel a bid without consulting the bidder, can even cancel the auction without consulting all the bidders. But a bidder cannot do the same--s/he must get an ok from the seller before cancelling a bid. And so what's the buyer got left in terms of leverage? Feedback. Think about it: he trust the seller's description, formalizes the transaction by making a bid, then closes his end of the deal first by sending cash first. Now you expect me, as a buyer, if it turns out that I've got a dud, to ALSO leave feedback first before the seller does? Not a chance. Eeeks-bay is way biased toward the seller. Feedback is the only real leverage a buyer has against a dishonest/fraudulent seller.

 

[eclat]

Totally agree with Paul regading signed-for shipping. The only way to go. Mutual protection for both buyer and seller.

 

[eclat]

Tom,

Nothin like a good ol-fashioned disputation among friends. I do appreciate your points and will only respond very briefly.

Ebay does allow you to set parameters regarding buyers, such as blocking buyers registered in countries you'd prefer not to ship to, or buyers with a negative feedback score, or with unpaid items strikes, etc. And though you are indeed technically correct that there is no provision for blocking zero feedback scores, you can block non-eBay members who, by default, are the vast percentage of folks with no feedback. It stands to reason, doesn't it, that members have generally purchased a thing or two and have received some feedback.

And yes, to indicate that sellers who hold off from giving feedback are uniformily holding buyers hostage is probably an overstatement, though I still do happen to think that it isn't "best practice." But I'm sure that, like you, there are many perfectly honrable and scrupulous sellers out there who are nonetheless not willing to stick their necks out for buyers. I can understand why.

And finally, to your friendly point about my apparent double-standard. In some cases, I am unsure whether a particular item is repairable or not, or whether it's even broken. I'll get cameras from time to time, for example, that I don't have batteries for so I can't test them. So I make that clear and sell them "As Is." Being a student of human nature, however, I realize that the potential for disapointment is proportionately larger when someone takes a risk on an item and the risk ends up biting them in the proverbial a**. When that happens, they are far more likely to blame the seller for a lemon, even though the seller was clear about the risk the buyer was taking. It's not a double-standard I use... it's basic business ground rules. That's the very nature of "As Is" auctions--the stakes are higher, and when the stakes are higher, so is the irrationality quotient. Seems to be to be fairly straightforward.

That said, you can have the last word if you choose. It seems that, if anyone else happens to read this, we've at least made somewhat compelling arguments for either side of the equation, and all things being equal, I guess my position is just more "equal" than yours. 🙂

Thanks for the back-n-forth. Iron sharpens iron. Cheers.

 

[eclat]

so much for "very briefly". :bang:

 

[eclat]

Ha Ha! You may have the last word yet, Tom. I just had a bidder swipe one of my auctions at the last-minute for an AS IS item, which I made very clear in the description doesn't work properly, and he emails me a day later and says he didn't know something was wrong with the camera and he wants to cancel his winning bid. Of course, I could've just let him go and made a second-chance offer to the second highest bidder, but it's a matter of principle here. This guy has 6 bid retractions in the last 6 months. Apparently he makes a habit of this. Sooooo, I'm going on principle and sticking him to it. Looks like the days of my 100% rating are coming to a close. Alas...

 

[titrisol]

After reading this thread, I found the last seller I bought from has not left feedback for me.
Following the sellers premises here I emailed him as sson as I got the item, stating everything is fine, he said he'll leave feedback soon and so forth.
I waited for 4 or 5 days and left + feedback for him so not to "hold him hostage" which in my opinion is bull.
So i decided to resort for a last stint, just emailed him reminding him to leave me ffedback and stating that what he does is morally wrong... if he doesn;t like it THOUGH!

 

[eclat]

nah, you're not holding him hostage... so to speak... he's holding you hostage by waiting to hear from you before leaving feedback himself. You ponied up your end of the bargain; he should leave you feedback accordingly. The fact that he hasn't... that's what's bull.

 

[Pherdinand]

eclat: maybe that's how you have to pay for your lucky GSN transaction, heh🙂 Sorry couldn't resist
Yeah i'm aware of the fact that buyers are not better than sellers.

 

[Heath]

I too have 100% positive feedback from sellers (I am a buyer only at the moment). Even after I complained to a seller that a CD she sent me was snapped because of insufficient packaging and no labelling that the package was fragile. She apologised and sent another CD at HER expense and this time well packaged and labelled.

I am still waiting for feedback from the seller of the Yashica J I bout at the begining of the month that took 2 and a half weeks to get here. When it finally arrived he had sent it registered at HIS expense. I even gave him positive feedback.

Both of these sellers have my utmost respect despite the hassle of the delay in sending of the Yashica.

One of my latest wins however is pi$$ing me off. I won a Praktica MTL-5 body from this guy for a great price ($11.50) but the seller has not suplied me with a quote for the postage cost. I have contacted him twice since I won it and he has still not gotten back to me. Tonight I went through eBay to get his listed contact details so I could ring him to get the quote so I could pay him. Guess what? I rang the number and the guy who answered informed me that the guy I am looking for didn't live there. In fact he didn't even know him. The only address he had supplied eBay was a suburb name, no street name or number listed, which goes against eBay policy. Yes, I have contacted eBay about this. Just waiting now to see what happens. Pity, I really wanted that body to go with all my screw mount SLR lenses.

Heath