Limiting the damage of bad feedback

Hi there!

Ok, we have all had some feedback that has made us go...."Hang on a minute!".... Well if you haven't I bet you have been dreading the day it happens to you.

You work really hard to service your customers as a seller and as a buyer you read everything properly and you paid promptly, so why would anyone want to leave you less than glowing feedback...grrr.

It happens!

The thing with feedback is it is someone's objective opinion on how they thought the transaction went and we are all different.

So what do you do if you eagerly click open your feedback page only to find a glowing red dot (why does red always seems brighter than green..hmmm?).

First thing, did you deserve it, no really. Stop and think are there areas you could improve on?

As a seller;

• Did you post the item out within a day or so of payment being received?
  
• Did you let the buyer know their payment was received?
  
• Did you description disclose EVERYTHING that it could have?
  
• Were you pictures clear and a correct representation of the item?

As a buyer;

• Did you really pay straight away?
• Did you happily follow the sellers instructions or did you try and change the terms after the sale?
• Did you let the seller know of any concerns you had, before leaving them feedback?
• Did you READ the listing completely and ask all the questions you needed to before making your decision to buy?
  

There could be so many things that you may have not done well, for many reasons, or maybe you just didn't know it was expected. Don't sweat the stuff you can't change, but try to take stock and use this as a lesson to do better in the future. Maybe this was what you needed to learn to do things a better way!

So, your SURE you didn't deserve the feedback. What can you do?

Let's get this straight right up.....ebay will not care if this is fair or not...even if the facts are glaringly obvious....they believe in everyone's right to leave feedback, good or bad.

There are a couple of reasons for removal of feedback from eBay, they are limited, but check them out to be sure you can't get it removed by eBay painlessly.

The reasons are;

(taken directly from the eBay help section)

Feedback that meets any of the circumstances below is feedback abuse and may be subject to removal. Feedback that doesn't meet any of the reasons outlined below will not be removed:

• eBay is provided with a valid court order finding that the disputed feedback is slanderous, libelous, defamatory or otherwise illegal.

• The feedback comment contains profane, vulgar, obscene, or racist language or adult material. Inflammatory language, such as "fraud, liar, cheater, scam artist, con man" etc., while strongly discouraged, will not be removed.

• The feedback comment contains personal identifying information about another user, including real name, address, phone number, or e-mail address.

• The feedback makes reference to an eBay, PayPal or law enforcement organization investigation.

• The feedback comment contains links or scripts.

• Negative feedback intended for another user will be considered for removal only in situations where the user responsible for the mistaken posting informs eBay of the error and has already placed the same feedback for the correct user.

• Feedback left by a person ineligible to participate in eBay transactions, according to Section 1 of the eBay User Agreement, at the time of the transaction or the time the feedback was left.

• Feedback left by a user who provided eBay with false contact information and could not be contacted. In general, the transaction period is considered to be 90 days from the end of the listing or 30 days from the date the feedback was left, whichever was longer.

• Feedback left by a user who bid on or purchased an item solely to have the opportunity to leave negative feedback for the seller, with no intention of completing the transaction.

• Feedback left by users who are indefinitely suspended for certain policy violations within 90 days of registration. eBay takes the position that members who are indefinitely suspended soon after registration shouldn't be able to permanently impact another member's account.

Most of these are obvious, like is your feedback contains bad language, however there are times you will need to point out to eBay customer service, how it is offensive. Don't forget they are American and words are different in each language, they may need educating on some Aussie ( or other non-USA countries) words at times.

Things you can do;


Pull the other persons details from eBay. You can do that by clicking on the "advanced search" link under the normal search box at the top of the page and then clicking on "Find Contact Information" link. You will get your trading partners details and they will yours. If the details are incorrect, you have grounds to apply to eBay.

There is also the option of getting a court order finding that the disputed feedback is slanderous, libelous, defamatory or otherwise illegal. It is not always as expensive as you think, some small claims courts can put these together for next to nothing. You can also try a local law firm and see if they have a junior (or the like) who's fees will not be so high, to put together a letter for eBay, requesting the removal. You will find that eBay are very willing to comply with any orders issued against them, or more to the point against feedback on their site.

If you find you have no grounds for removal, then don't panic yet, there is still a chance for mutual withdrawal.

If you and your trading partner agree eBay will remove the "dot" and the percentage change, though the comment itself will remain (which goes back to what we said it the first blog.....Don't leave emotional feedback, you can't take it back!!!). The only thing though is once the red or grey dot is removed, no-one but you and your buyer or seller will know if it was a neg or a neutral that was left, so asked for mutual withdrawal of neutral feedback with caution.

Often once the heat of the moment in which both of you or one of you leaves negative feedback passes, one of you or both of you may feel a little differently about what you wrote about the other person.

I have used mutual withdrawal twice, (both for neutrals, which in hindsight, maybe I should have left so people didn't think they were negs, LOL). Each time the buyer had left the feedback for me without contacting me first with what ever problem it was that they had (both were very small and easy to fix problems). I emailed each buyer and explained how the feedback system worked. Lets not forget that the feedback system is not really to be taken at face value (remember I was going to leave a neutral for my first purchase, because everything was ok, but not outstanding). So after explaining the a neg (or in my case a neutral) was a BAD thing and stating exactly how I would fix the problem the customer had presented in the feedback, I simply asked for them to kindly remove the poor feedback they had left for me.

At this time, I hadn't left them any feedback and I certainly DID NOT threaten to leave them a neg or neutral if they didn't go along with the mutual withdrawal. I left a link to the mutual withdrawal section (don't won't to make it like hard work, for them to remove the feedback :0).

I had success both times, though remember I did resolve the customers issues for them, so the "reason" for the comment was for all intent and purposes removed.

I think the trick with mutual withdrawals is to step back from the "you gave me a neg, so here's yours in return" mentality and use your customer service skills to solve the issue, first and foremost. Then deal with the feedback.......Would I have given a neutral or neg to my customers if they had refused my offer to withdraw their feedback......I really don't know....It would show VERY poor communication skills by them. Leaving their feedback prior to letting the seller know there was a problem, but then to not removed it even after someone took the time out to explain the system to them AND still resolve their problem......Well, I would really have considered it ;0)

Take care and see you again soon,
Amanda
Help My Auction!
www.helpmyauction.com

Feedback Part 3 - Sellers feedback!

Hi and welcome back!

Today we are going to start with feedback from a sellers point of view, both as a reference for sellers and so buyers know what sellers are really thinking!

Does it matter to a seller what sort of feedback a buyer has? Well, the answer to that is not really. Most sellers will not even have time to check into the bidders on their auctions or if it a buy it now item, they don't get a choice at all (within reason, we'll get to those in a second). To be honest, most sellers are really not bothered who is buying from them as long as they end up paying!

There are a few sellers out there, who do like to vet their buyers, often sellers of expensive items. What they will be looking for, is negatives on your account stating you didn't pay, or worse that you were abusive to the other seller involved.

They may also look at what sort of feedback you give to others. I mean no-one wants a serial complainer buying from them or someone with no respect for other people, so if any of the feedback you have given to other sellers is offensive in anyway, i.e you have called someone names, or sworn, or if you seem to be critical of unreasonable things (like "slow delivery", yet the feedback is left only days after the auction end, so people know it must have been quick, that sort of thing), you could find your bid cancelled.

Sellers can add certain buyers to their "blocked bidder list" , which can contain up to 1000 usernames of members, who they do not want bidding on their items. These can be past non pay bidders, members who you have had trouble with personally, or it could be a member a seller you know has had trouble with.

Don't forget, like buyers can tell other people not to buy from someone who didn't live up to their expectations, so can sellers (though normally, you would only block a buyer of another seller, if the buyer had done something really bad). Remember though when blocking people, you have not had personal dealings with, that a person who can be really difficult for one people can be totally different with you. We all click in different ways.

Sellers can also choose from different criteria for their bidders, while not all of this is in relation to feedback, one of the options is to limit buyers with a negative feedback score. I don't mean someone who has had a negative at some stage, I mean whose score has gone down past zero into minus figures.

So, as a seller when do I leave feedback?

Well that's up to you. Really feedback is voluntary as you know and what works for one seller may not work for another. After speaking with many different sellers on when they leave their feedback and why, I will give you some rationales for each side of the "argument".

Buyers like to receive it upon receipt of their payment. Right or wrong many buyers do not see that they have any roll in the transaction other than to make payment to you promptly. Many buyers believe also, that sellers who have confidence in their items and service have no reason NOT to leave feedback asap after the payment has been received.

This approach is also easy for sellers, they can draw a line under the transactions in their records, so to speak and move on, knowing that every "job" involved with the sale is done. It also increases not only the buyers happiness (getting feedback), but also the chance of them leaving you, the seller, feedback in return. Lots of buyers will not leave feedback for their seller until the seller leaves some for them. The argument is that, they are not free to leave a completely unbiased account of the transaction, if they are in fear of retaliatory feedback being left for them.

The other idea is to leave feedback after the buyer. A lot of sellers do not consider the transaction over until the goods are received by the customer and they are satisfied with the goods. In fact in most countries this would be the legal definition of when the transaction is complete.

By leaving feedback after the buyer has either left feedback for you or has contacted you to say the item arrived and all is ok, you are not protecting your feedback from unwarranted negative feedback, but you do have some control over it. A lot of buyers feel "brave" when they already have positive feedback left for them and can leave feedback that may not be fitting of the transaction. More importantly, many sellers, report threats and unreasonable requests from buyers asking for things in return for them NOT leaving you a negative comment.

For example, told to me, was an international buyer. She bid and won 4 x polo shirts in the dying seconds of the auctions. The auctions were listed on Australian eBay, in Australian sizing, which is obviously different to what it is in other countries. The buyer did not read the listing before bidding, as she was in a hurry, to catch the end of the auction and thus did not notice that it was noted inside the listing the size conversions for other countries. The buyer paid quickly and positive feedback was left for her by the seller.

She received the polo shirts and they did not fit. She emailed the seller, without any normal sense of courtesy (as she felt she had the seller over a barrel, with the feedback issue), and stated that she had been mislead and that the shirts were not the size listed in the auction, as she was that size and they didn't fit. The seller immediately worked out what must have happened and emailed to apologize for her disappointment, but pointed out that they were the size listed, but that the sizes do vary between the two countries and that this was noted in the listing. The seller offered her the option, to exchange the polos for a size that fit her, upon return of those shirts in original condition. The buyer refused as she said they fit her daughter and she wanted to keep them. She did however demand a full refund including postage or she would leave negative feedback.

Obviously no seller would bow to that kind of extortion and the original offer to exchange the polos was extended again. The buyer pointed out how 4 x negative feedbacks, would look for the sellers reputation and again demanded to keep the shirts AND get her money back......The seller now has 4 x negative comments sitting on their feedback score.

At one stage I personally was getting 3-4 threats per week, always demanding (never asking) something, and always with the threat that I would get negative feedback if I didn't comply.

It takes a brave seller to stand up to that sort of thing week in week out, so the majority of medium sized sellers will not leave feedback until it is left for them. This is their business or sole form of income and they just can't risk new buyers being turned off by a comment, that is not true and they can not afford to give into the outrageous demands, just to keep the negs away.

Hobby sellers, do not need their accounts for their income so many of them will just give it when the payment is received for ease of record keeping.

Interestingly, you will find, that the biggest sellers will leave feedback asap, due to the reasons listed above, but also because they will receive so many positive feedbacks in a week, that ignoring the few that will threaten a negative if they don't receive A, B or C, and coping the neg on the chin, does not hurt them. Literally they can "afford" to get lots of negatives per month as part of general trading and still come out looking pretty good.

At the end of the day, you can not protect yourself as a seller against negative feedback. Some is deserved, we all make mistakes, and these should be taken on the chin and learnt from. The rest, the unwarranted ones, if the person really wants to leave it for you they will and they won't care that you can give back the same in turn. So it doesn't matter on that level if you go first or second.

You need to decide what is right for you and your business and most importantly your customers.

It is noted that some categories attract a lot of strange and aggressive buyers, for example items aimed at teenagers-20's somethings, get a lot more, where as someone selling collectables may get less. However no category is immune.

Ok, next time we will talk about what to do when you get negative feedback. When eBay will remove it and what steps you can take to get it removed if eBay will not co-operate.

Until then,
Happy auctioning,
Amanda
www.helpmyauction.com

Feedback Part 2 (eBay and other sites)

Ok, so we have talked about what to look for in a sellers feedback, when you are buying, but what about your feedback?

Did you know that a neutral rating is anything but neutral? No, neither did I when I first started on eBay. The first thing I bought was an Enid Blyton book for my daughter, Narissa. I paid, it arrived and it was as expected. I thought about the transaction and I ummed and arhed for a while about whether it was an exceptional transaction or just average. I ended up choosing positive as I was feeling generous that day, but I felt like I was doing the seller a favour, as really nothing had happened that "knocked my socks off" as a buyer. Little did I know that if I had left a neutral, being as the transaction as fine, my seller probably would have had a fit and wandered what they had done wrong.

Yes, sellers take any comments other than a positive very, very personally.

In an ideal world, positive feedback would be like an A+, when someone had gone above and beyond. In the auction world, a positive is expected unless there has been a problem.

So how would I break down what I think each comments means ( not what it SHOULD be, but what it actually stands for on eBay and other auction sites today) -

Positive -

• Any transaction where you got your item, it didn't take an excessive time to get to you and it was what you ordered.
  
• The seller, did not abuse you or charge you excess fees (a small handling fee - in addition to packaging or postage - is generally accepted, but once it gets over $5 or so it gets into the dodgy category).
  
• There may have been a problem with the order, but the seller fixed it to your satisfaction.
• Of course, any transaction where your expectations were exceeded. There are loads of FANTASTIC sellers on there and you can really experience outstanding customer service (even better than what you would get in a retail store). Don't be shy to let someone know if you were really pleased, not just via feedback, but also email, etc. It means the world to a seller to get such positive reinforcement and it would most likely mean they will keep treating their customers in that way :0)
  

Neutral -

• There may have been some problems with the transaction, that got fixed in the end though not to your 100% satisfaction.
  
• The seller didn't communicate with you or wasn't not polite in their communications.
  
• The item whilst not grossly different to what you ordered, was not what you expected, even after you read and re-read the listing again to make sure it wasn't you misunderstanding what you were getting when you ordered it.
  
• The item took an excessive time to reach you and it wasn't a postal delay, it was the seller not getting it into the post in a timely fashion.
  
• You paid for one sort of postage - say insured - and it was sent via regular post, the seller didn't offer any sort of refund when advised of their error.

Negative -

• Your item didn't arrive and the seller does not refund or replace the item even though you either paid for a secure postage method (ie express post, registered post, courier, etc) or, it was sent via regular post and your seller can not provide proof of postage. This is a little tricky, as buyers do need to take responsibility for the postage method they choose to pay for and can not expect a seller to wear the cost if you choose regular post over insured post when it is offered to you. However if you take insured post, etc, then you have a right to expect a replacement or refund should the item not turn up. If the seller does not provide either of these then you have every right to be very angry.
  
• If you paid for only regular post and the item doesn't turn up your seller should provide you with proof of postage and make a claim with Australia Post (AP) for compensation on your behalf. They can then ask AP, to send any compo that is granted directly to you. You may need to provide the seller with a stat dec or a written signed statement saying you never received the item, for then to make the claim for you. If your seller gives you the "too bad, so sad" line as you only paid for regular post, then it really isn't good enough, they can not be held responsible if AP do not pay up on the claim, but they do need to follow through with the paper work to try and get this on your behalf.
• The seller was abusive in any way during the transaction. Swearing or threatening behaviour is not acceptable from either party.
• The item is not what is was advertised to be (and you are sure you haven't made a mistake in your reading) and they will not fix the error, via a replacement or refund.
• You were charged a premium postage rate, but got inadequate packaging or postage with your item. Good packing costs money and most buyers are happy to pay it, but no-one should pay top rate postage and have their item exposed to damage.
• The item is counterfeit (knock off, fake, or for CD's etc, burn or copied). This is ILLEGAL and I personally do not even think that you need to give the seller a chance to explain, if you don't want to. Obviously ask them for a refund, but I would not feel wrong about taking a refund and still giving a negative to warn other people -PROVIDING YOU ARE 100% SURE IT IS FAKE! There are also other avenues you can take if you receive fake goods, etc police or even going directly to the company who owns the trademark. Some of the trademark owners will actually give you a genuine item in return for the info on your seller, so they can try and bring legal proceedings against them.

Ok now - the much debated when to leave feedback?? If you got your item, in good time and you are happy, leave feedback for the seller. Many do not leave feedback for you as a buyer straight away for a variety of reasons. Some have programs that respond to you leaving your feedback and will respond in kind. Some do it in batches at the end of the week or month. Many will only leave feedback once the buyer leaves it for them OR have emailed that the item arrived ok with no issues. The reason for this, is highlighted in my first couple of paragraphs, a lot of buyers do not know what feedback is about and may leave a feedback innocently, that would damage the sellers reputation and thus their livelihood.

A lot of people say that this is feedback ransom and that they as a buyer can not feel free to express what they really thought, if it wasn't a good experience as the seller will leave them a negative in return out of spite. Whilst this does happen at times, remember nothing can stop you from leaving your comment if you have something to say. The worse thing that can happen is that you get a negative, but I tell you what buyers may not buyer from sellers with negatives, but sellers will sell to anyone who pays them :0) If you had a problem and you emailed the seller and gave them the opportunity to sort it out and they didn't take it.....Give them the feedback they deserve! Even if they "neg" you back, no doubt anyone who does read it, can piece together what happened (as we discussed in Feedback Part 1) and will know you did nothing wrong.

Anyway does any one ever believe anyone with a huge feedback score and 100% rating is perfect NO WAY....They are either just really good at problem solving or people were too scared to say what they really thought.

All of that said the only one rule you NEED to remember is that............FEEDBACK IS VOLUNTARY! No one has to give you any (no matter how quickly you paid) and you don't have to give anyone any if you don't want to. Each to his own ;0)

Next time we will look at feedback from a sellers point of view,
Cheers,
Amanda
www.helpmyauction.com

Feedback Part 1 -Ebay (and other sites)

Feedback Part 1

So lets talk about feedback!

Most auction sites and particularly eBay, are built around a reputation system called "feedback". Basically, anyone we trade with can leave us a comment, good, bad or other wise about what they thought of how things went.

Sounds pretty simple, doesn't it? What you wouldn't think of, is what a fuss can come out of what should be such a simple thing. Problem is that while we all can say we don't care about our feedback, we only care about our sales, our customers or our purchases, we do infact take our feedback personally. We just can't help it...can we :-)

Today we will look at feedback from a buyers point of view, starting with how to choose a trading partner from their feedback. All up, to cover this huge topic from all angles, it is going to take a while, so to stop you from falling asleep, lol, we'll break it down into a few blogs :-)

First of all as a buyer, you need to check out your potential trading partner's feedback, so see what sort of trader they are. They will have a mix of positive, neutral and negative comments. It is easy to think that any negative comments at all would mean they are not safe to trade with, right? No, not at all. We need to look at how long they have been trading, how many people they have traded with and what sort of negatives they have.

If for example, they have 4 negatives this month but also 400 positive comments, that is not too bad. If they had 4 negative comments and say 4 positive comments, then that would be a potential concern. Think of it like a shop in a mall. If they only had 8 customers that day and four left really unhappy, you'd have to be crazy to want to deal with them. If though they had 400 or even 1000 people through the doors that day and only 4 weren't happy, that's pretty good odds. You know the old saying, you can't please everyone all of the time.....it still applies for online trading, particularly when you add in the element of inexperienced traders selling along side of experienced retailers.

The next thing to look for, is if the sorts of negatives they have, make any sort of pattern. Do they all say, "I paid and I never received my xxx" or are they all different complaints. In general if there is a problem with one particular area of the sellers service, it will come out via multiple complaints about the same thing.

What sort of person gave the negative? Are they new and expecting too much (i.e. expecting the item to be received from one side of the country to the other in 1 day, etc), or did they use bad language or name calling that would make them seem unreasonable or are their complaints level headed and logical.

Is the problem referred to, something you can look into for yourself? On the very right hand side to of the line where the person left the negative (on eBay feedback anyhow) you will see the item number, if it is still in the eBay system, you can click on it and have a look at the listing yourself. It could be that the person's complaint was that the item was too small, yet when you look at the listing yourself you can see the seller clearly provided dimensions and the buyer had obviously made an error. Normally with a little investigation you can piece together within reason, what happened in the transaction from each person's point of view.

You can also check how the seller responded to the complaint, by checking what feedback they left for the disgruntled buyer. Did they overreact and give the buyer a negative in return for no real reason, or was their response fair and calm? Did it look like the seller was working through the issues with the buyer? Did they resort to name calling, etc?

You can also look at the buyer's feedback and click on the link "Left for others" to see what sort of comments do they normally give out. Are they a serial complainer (we have all met some of those in real life) or was the other feedback they left fair and reasonable, leading you to believe there really was something wrong with that transaction?

By looking through all of this information, you can start to piece together who you are dealing with and how they will react to any problems. Remember problems don't ruin transactions, it's how the people involved deal with them that count.

No feedback score will protect you 100%, but it is a reference point to start with. For larger dollar transactions, always look at paying via credit card or using an escrow service and look for any buyer protection offers each auction sites offers.

Next time, we will look at leaving feedback as a buyer.

See you then,
Amanda
www.helpmyauction.com

Welcome - My First Help My Auction Blog

Hi and welcome to my Help My Auction Blog!!

My name is Amanda Callbutt and I have been a full time ebay powerseller for around 3 years now. I have tried and tested every new product going, that was designed to help you with your auctions...some are good, some are bad and some are very, very, ugly!

So I decided to start a website (and blog, haha), full of info about all thing auction site related and also online selling and marketing related! It is nothing to do with what I normally sell on ebay (which is clothing...don't even get me started on clothing, lol), it is all to do with the back end of the auction game.

I learnt things the hard way and have made so many mistakes along the way but there is always something new to learn to keep on top of the game. It's really not until you start to look back that you realise just how much you have learnt and how much you have to offer others.

After starting offically -6 months or so ago - as an Ebay education specialist, I found that so many of my students really benifited from hearing about my personal experiences and the products I use and recommend, or don't recommend for that matter, that I realised that there was a huge gap needing to be filled.

Half of the students were far more interested in that than the shiny new ebay course I was presenting. I fact, I find that while I am presenting it, I constantly need to stop and give people the "real deal" on things, rather than just the ebay "party line". The brutal fact is people want to learn from other people just like them, not from companies that want to sell them things.

So if you want to hear my regular blogs on all thing auctions, feel free to click on subcribe.

See you again soon,
Amanda
www.helpmyauction.com
www.stores.ebay.com.au/hanaonline