What's wrong with the feedback system on eBay?
Feedback is very important - if you are buying a big ticket item especially. BUT I find that I have to be oh so careful when I leave feedback for someone that I have bought something from or for certain people who buy from me.
There are dirty things that go on here - like the sellers who say "I will mirror your feedback" - to me that's BLACKMAIL! That's like the creep who gave me my one negative - NO I will never get over it! SORRY! If you are not happy with your purchase the first thing you should do is contact the seller and discuss it through email. If you feel that you have been cheated - or that the item is really NOT AS DESCRIBED and the seller won't do anything for you - well then you want to leave either NEUTRAL or NEGATIVE feedback. BUT if this seller has not left feedback for you yet - well, BE CAREFUL! Because that will open the door for them to leave NEGATIVE feedback for you!
What's wrong with this picture? A LOT!
This is what is wrong with feedback as far as I'm concerned. When I want to say that the item that I received was not up to snuff - I won't - because I know that person will then leave NEGATIVE feedback for me.
I feel that it works when a person like myself has mostly (oh, there we go again) Positive feedback. You read my feedback and you see that I am honest, ship things quickly and that the items that I ship are wonderful.
But what happens when a person is totally unreasonable - like the gal who bought the $400 sneakers for $50 and decides she does want that $10 credit! She can leave me NEGATIVE feedback. She can say that the sneakers weren't new (even though they indeed were/are) - than what? - if she left me NEGATIVE feedback - do I do the same to her? Well, truthfully, I wouldn't - I could possibly leave her a NEUTRAL (which doesn't effect her actual percentage) and say that I felt she was being unreasonable. That's about the most that I would do. I actually left her POSITIVE feedback as she paid immediately.
Or what about the crazy who told me that the CHANEL sunglasses were FAKE! When they of course were TOTALLY real? My niece bought them at Neiman Marcus. She was really crazy - sent me about 10 emails threatening me! I don't have to be threatened - I take anything back - who wants such a nut to have such wonderful sunglasses anyway? I took them back and they sold immediately to someone else (for more money) who wanted to wear them to her High School reunion! She loved them - even paid more to have them shipped express!
So tell me - how can eBay make the feedback system work better? It's good, but certainly has its flaws!
Have a comment? Leave it here!
posted by mygirls4 @ 8:52 AM
3 Comments:
I totally agree with you about feed back. I never leave it anymore because I found I was saying the same wonderful things all the time no matter what shape the garment arrived in or how far short it fell from my expectations out of fear that as a buyer i would get negative feed back and not be able to buy on Ebay. (of course your things are always perfect which is why I continue to buy from you). I have no Idea what the solution is of course as a buyer I like to see that a Seller is experienced and has an excellent percentage of good feedback but the system is flawed and does lead to "blackmail" as you say.
I, too am in agreement with you. I bought a few vintage Vogue magazines from a seller. He described them as being in "ok used condition" and said they "seemed complete." Well each magazine was missing at least 30 pages. He was pretty hostile when I complained about it and answered me in monosyllabic illiterate sentences. "OK, lady, so what about it?" kind of thing.
He was not going to do anything for me. I noticed that despite the fact that I had paid instantly, he had not given me feedback. After all, I had held up my end of the bargain. In fact, I noticed that he was in the habit of giving negative retaliatory feedback to anyone who dared give him a neutral or negative.
My solution: I checked the positive feedback box, but wrote something very negative in Spanish. Enough people speak Spanish that at least they will get a chuckle out of it. "Received magazines. Están faltando muchas páginas y huelen mal! Muy gracias!" Translation: They were missing many pages and smelled bad! He immediately gave me positive feedback. It turned a bad experience into something I can now laugh about.
I really understand this. As a buyer and a seller it's hard to know when to leave feedback and what to say. I have been on ebay since the 90's when things were a tad friendlier. People didn't jump to paypal (well, I don't think it was around) at the slightest provocation and we just emailed or called if there was a problem. We actually sent *gasp* cash through the mail!
I have gotten to be a seller that unfortunately, waits to leave feedback. I am not the sort of person that retaliates but I have to prevent buyers from giving me a neg without contacting me. I will always make it right, just give us sellers (with great feedback) a chance.
I had a situation where a woman purchased a vintage bag for 5 dollars, (yes really- 5 dollars) and negged me because the bag wasn't new. I couldn't have possibly known she didn't read the listing and I couldn't have fixed it because she didn't even contact me to let me know she was unhappy.
I hate making the buyer feel as if I am holding their feedback hostage but I also want the opportunity to work it out if there is an issue.
However, as a buyer, I really get understand how it feels to not be able to voice your thoughts. I have dealt with two sellers who really deserved a negative, I mean really deserved it. I purchased a pair of diamond earrings and got plastic studs in the package. I was eventually refunded but buy was it a struggle.
The second one flat out told me "don't look for ebay or paypal to help you, this isn't a tangible item"
Sellers like that are what make me wavier once in a while over ebay's policies.
So I guess, all in all, feedback is necessary but it is flawed, even with the new star system.
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