AW Daily - Tips & Tactics - After the Auction: Addressing Retaliatory Negatives

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Feedback is an essential ingredient in the online auction process. It's a measure by which users can determine the honesty and integrity of their fellow buyers and sellers. Unfortunately, however, there are some folks who abuse the feedback process, and at some point it's likely that you'll be the recipient of unwarranted retaliatory feedback. How should you respond? How do you go about restoring your good name? Keep reading for some tips--which are applicable for both buyers and sellers--on how to deal with retaliatory negatives.

Determine If It's Legit
First, read the neg carefully and see if there is some validity to it. Negative feedback should have a Joe Friday "just the facts" approach, and not be inflammatory or filled with personal attacks and digressive rants. If you're new to the auction game, you might have committed a newbie mistake. But if, on the other hand, you did not commit a genuine faux pas and have been wrongly maligned, taking action is the next step. Based on how the neg is written, it's usually pretty easy to ascertain whether someone is making legitimate claims or blatantly slamming you in order to veil their own dubious behavior. If the negative was justified, try to make amends and post a neutral explaining that you were wrong. Better yet, see if you can edit your original feedback. Either way, the hope is that the user in question will amend the negative he or she gave you.

Do Some Research
Check out the person's feedback profile and find out if he or she has a habit of leaving unwarranted negs--an obvious red flag. Also, turn to the message boards and query your fellow users. Have they too had a problem with the same person? Whether investigating a buyer or seller, it's always a good idea to do a little detective work and see if you're dealing with a repeat offender. You might also consider contacting people who received negative feedback from the same person. Ask them what their experience was like, what happened, etc. Anything sound familiar? You can use this information as ammo when you eventually respond to the neg.

Post a Neutral Response
If someone is going to slap you with an unfounded retaliatory neg, there's basically nothing you can do in the way of prevention. You can, however, post a neutral response to the neg. This allows you to explain your case and comment specifically on the charges made against you. Craft your response in a calm, straightforward, and factual manner. When your reasoned and well-thought-out comments are juxtaposed against an inflammatory neg, other users will know that you've likely been targeted unfairly.

Also, warn others that this particular user leaves unwarranted negatives. Cite your detective work and that other buyers or sellers have received inappropriate comments. Of course, negative feedback can sully reputations. But regular online auction users are well aware of the problem of bogus feedback, and just because you might have a neg or two doesn't mean that someone won't want to do business with you. Lastly, don't post your reply immediately after reading a neg. It's best to let it sit for a while. Don't respond to a rant with another rant.

Contact the Site
Policies regarding retaliatory negative feedback varies from site to site. Some allow users to hide feedback (keep in mind, though, that some users might consider this to be suspicious behavior), while others will take action against users who are proven to be abusers of the feedback system.Study your particular site for details. How a site handles the issue of unwarranted retaliatory feedback may determine whether or not you'll use the site in the future.

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