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