eBay ratings- don't want to be a jerk...

[RJBender]

Retaliatory feeback sucks, but it shouldn't dissuade a buyer from telling the truth about the transaction. It's not fair to potential future buyers. A couple negative buying feedbacks won't hurt anything, and you get a chance to respond.

And I totally agree that your experience with the buyer doesn't end with payment. I usually specify in the "you won" email that I'll leave feedback after I hear from them that they've received the item.

Well, if you have 100% feedback on 1,000 transactions your feedback will drop to 99.9 with one negative. If you only have 10 transactions, your feedback drops to 90. A person with more transactions has leverage over a newbie when it comes to feedback.

R.J.

 

[ricpr]

Man...... What a lot of energy wasted on *bay feedback! I am Buyer on *bay and in my mind that makes me a Customer. I never leave feedback....it's a waste of my time. All business exists because of demand. This is a simple case of bad Customer Service caught on paper. The fact that the seller has an avenue to retaliate against a PAYING Customer speaks volumes about how poor *bay is. You paid for something, were shorted and are worried about being able to spend money in the future on *bay?!? How backwards is this?

 

[RJBender]

That's a good explaination that still boils down to "caveat emptor" and that's always good advice.

There must be a better way of rating both seller and buyer that will satisfy MOST people. The one I have in mind would require ebay to have an active hand and more employees so I think that would kill the idea right there.

One thing I do know: ebay won't change or improve things until they begin losing money and I don't see that happening.

Walker

Walker, I compare the total feedback received to the number of members who left feedback. That tells me if the seller has many repeat customers.

I'll use my friend Craig as an example. Check out Craig's feedback:
http://feedback.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewFeedback&userid=ckejcameras
20% of his transactions represent repeat business.
Notice that in every one of his listings he says, return for refund if not satisfied.

R.J.

 

[RJBender]

Man...... What a lot of energy wasted on *bay feedback! I am Buyer on *bay and in my mind that makes me a Customer. I never leave feedback....it's a waste of my time. All business exists because of demand. This is a simple case of bad Customer Service caught on paper. The fact that the seller has an avenue to retaliate against a PAYING Customer speaks volumes about how poor *bay is. You paid for something, were shorted and are worried about being able to spend money in the future on *bay?!? How backwards is this?

You're right. What am I doing talking about eBay feedback? I should be buying more stuff!

R.J.

 

[Poptart]

My eBay account is linked as the homepage on my profile here.
<--

 

[ricpr]

That's the spirit RJ...... A good deal is where you find it. Sometimes it's on *bay.

 

[RJBender]

Pop, you should charge more for shipping. A $1 handling fee doesn't cover your time to wrap the package or your auto expenses.

R.J.

 

[doubs43]

Walker, I compare the total feedback received to the number of members who left feedback. That tells me if the seller has many repeat customers.

I'll use my friend Craig as an example. Check out Craig's feedback:
http://feedback.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewFeedback&userid=ckejcameras
20% of his transactions represent repeat business.
Notice that in every one of his listings he says, return for refund if not satisfied.

R.J.

RJ, I too check feedback rather carefully and it's important how customers phrase their evaluations. Sometimes a negative is obviously not valid. I examine photographs carefully and if they aren't sharp or fail to show important things I'm suspicious. I saw a camera a day or two back described as "excellent" but the pictures clearly showed obvious damage.

It's difficult to tell sometimes. I once read a bitter post by someone who was dissatisfied with a store that sells items on ebay for customers. They're a franchise so each is independently operated. Today I received a large package from one of those stores and I couldn't be happier. The items were all well packed an I got a fantastic bargain IMO. I left positive feedback gladly.

At the moment ebay is still the best place to find photo equipment and in spite of the chances of being burned, I'll keep bidding while doing as much as possible to reduce my risk.

Walker

 

[Poptart]

Pop, you should charge more for shipping. A $1 handling fee doesn't cover your time to wrap the package or your auto expenses.

R.J.

I only added the $1 when gas started going up. I used to just charge the postage. But the slim proft margin forces me to use recycled packing and organized p/o runs, which I like to do anyway; and to find better items to list, which I hope I'm learning to do. If everything I listed sold I'd be turning a decent profit.

 

[dexdog]

At the moment ebay is still the best place to find photo equipment and in spite of the chances of being burned, I'll keep bidding while doing as much as possible to reduce my risk.

Yeah, what he said! I like using eBay because it has all sorts of things that I would never even see, much less have a chance to buy, if it did not exist. I too try to minimize risk by checking comments recieved by sellers, etc. I also want to emphasize that out of about 85 transactions for camera gear, I only got burned once when I bought a "minty" camera from a seller in Korea, and received something with peeling leather, broken RF glass and a dented lens- definately not the camera shown in the auction. Got no responses to the 3 emails that I sent to the seller, so I reported the guy to eBay.

As an aside, I always try to give sellers that I have previously bought stuff from a extra boost by including "I am a repeat customer" in my positive feedback. All three repeat sellers later emailed me to say thanks.