Jump to content
 

Ebay feedback


eastworld
 Share

Recommended Posts

49 minutes ago, eastworld said:

My wife sells quite a bit on ebay, but we have noticed in the last year or so that few people seem to bother to leave feedback. Is it just us, or is this a general trend?

Many people can't be bothered with it - if you go into a shop and buy something, that's the end of the transaction.  Why should online be more time-consuming??

 

Feedback is useful when dealing with private individuals, second-hand goods etc in order to to get some sort of idea of whether the seller is honest in descriptions/likely to rip you off on postage etc, so it's worthwhile on model railway items - but I really don't care what you thought of say, some cat food you bought online.

If the purchase is an major item made by a big company - say a washing machine, it;s not the retailer I want to know about, it's whether the product itself is any good.

 

 

One thing that will irritate me is being badgered for feedback - that's likely to cause me to leave a negative comment.

  • Like 2
Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Gold
1 hour ago, Michael Hodgson said:

Many people can't be bothered with it - if you go into a shop and buy something, that's the end of the transaction.  Why should online be more time-consuming??

 

Feedback is useful when dealing with private individuals, second-hand goods etc in order to to get some sort of idea of whether the seller is honest in descriptions/likely to rip you off on postage etc, so it's worthwhile on model railway items - but I really don't care what you thought of say, some cat food you bought online.

If the purchase is an major item made by a big company - say a washing machine, it;s not the retailer I want to know about, it's whether the product itself is any good.

 

 

One thing that will irritate me is being badgered for feedback - that's likely to cause me to leave a negative comment.

I used to leave feedback for eBay purchases all the time, now I only do for those from private sellers.

 

I definitely agree about the irritation of being badgered for feedback - it seems that almost every time you buy anything online now you get pestered a day or so later to leave a review - often before the purchase has even turned up!

  • Agree 3
Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Premium
1 hour ago, Michael Hodgson said:

Feedback is useful when dealing with private individuals, second-hand goods etc in order to to get some sort of idea of whether the seller is honest in descriptions/likely to rip you off on postage ...

 

Positive feedback is of great value to private sellers and buyers alike, and certainly plays an important part in my eBay buying decisions.

 

I always leave feedback, for buyers and sellers, as a matter of common courtesy. I consider not leaving any as a sign of laziness and disregard for a sellers future sales prospects.

 

  • Like 1
  • Agree 3
Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Premium

I have noticed that in general feedback leaving stated to wane last year and in the last few months has plummeted to near nothing.

 

Nobody seems to be bothered anymore, the increase in online buying and the constant badgering by firms for feedback every time you visit a website let alone buy anything (effectively virtual nagware) has given everyone feedback fatigue.

 

I personally think nobody ever reads it anyway, its just a tick box exercise for firms looking to qualify for their BS5750 or whatever worthless nonsense business qualification it is called nowadays. 

  • Agree 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, eastworld said:

My wife sells quite a bit on ebay, but we have noticed in the last year or so that few people seem to bother to leave feedback. Is it just us, or is this a general trend?

 

Certainly seems the general trend. I haven't received feedback on a single sale in the last month, and it's been a reasonably busy month too!

Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Premium

The change to the feedback system has not helped. It used to remember the vaious feedback left; on clicking in the text box and starting, autofill suggestions of my previous messages appeared. That disappeared when the system was 'improved' to allow more characters. There's an irony; now that everyone can write longer messages, fewer messages are left.

Edited by DIW
typpo
  • Agree 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Gold

I have a sort of standard response that is the equivalent of saying "thank you" in a shop. It is "Bought something, it turned up well wrapped and on time. Recommended." Feel free to copy and paste, I do. Sometimes, I even get a "thank you for your review". Go figure.

Link to post
Share on other sites

I use ebay far more as a buyer than a seller, and used to send feedback once I'd received an item and checked it was OK. I then had a handful of sellers not leaving feedback in return, so my new tactic is that if the seller has left feedback, I will do so in return. If they don't, I'll send a message thanking them for the item and confirming it has arrived safely. That means that they have no reason not to leave feedback; I've confirmed that I am happy with the item via the ebay system so if I were to leave negative feedback they would have grounds to dispute that with ebay. If they don't then leave feedback, neither do I.

 

My exception to that rule is that if sellers have been communicative during the transaction, going above what's expected.

 

 

  • Like 2
Link to post
Share on other sites

Sellers leaving feedback for buyers strikes me as pretty meaningless.   Somebody buys something, and you don't send it until they pay - given that they do, what more is there to say?  High feedback as a buyer tells you only that they have bought lots of other stuff in the past .... so what?    You can't refuse to sell something to somebody just because you think their feedback is a bit on the low side.   Sellers can't leave negative feedback when the buyer turns out to be a timewaster who doesn't pay. 

 

However as a seller you want positive feedback to aid future sales, so it would be a tactical error not to leave feedback for buyers. 

But if I buy loads of stuff on ebay, I get a good score just for that.  I might still be completely useless as a seller.  In short, it's a biased and very misleading system.

 

Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Premium

Sellers can't leave negative feedback for buyers though which is ridiculous. There have been a few rogue buyers (remember a while back the numpties deliberately bidding up Bachmann LUL S Stock to crazy levels and then not paying?) but because of the way the system works, they will never be struck off, just keep accruing 'positive' feedback every time.

 

You do see with some listings 'bids from people with less than ### positive feedback will be cancelled' which I am pretty sure is in fact illegal...

  • Agree 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

On 02/12/2021 at 00:51, 96701 said:

I have a sort of standard response that is the equivalent of saying "thank you" in a shop. It is "Bought something, it turned up well wrapped and on time. Recommended." Feel free to copy and paste, I do. Sometimes, I even get a "thank you for your review". Go figure.

 

 

Snap !!. As a buyer I always leave feedback. However rarely do I check a sellers feedback when buying, if I do normally its when the item is overdue. Trouble is locally we have an issue with Royal Mail deliveries since routes were altered, possibly a dispute ? 

 

As a seller I leave feedback once the buyer has, simply as it lets me know its arrived and the buyer is happy. If the buyer cannot be bothered to leave feedback why should I

 

If I buy on mail order usually I don't bother leaving feedback.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...