posted on June 18, 2002 08:40:22 PMI wonder why some of you have soooo many non payers, however, that it has to be such a big issue.
I think it has a lot to do with the demographics of your target audience. To put it bluntly, those who sell things which appeal to kids, teens, college students, and young adults in general tend to be catering to a less mature and responsible segment of the population. One video game seller in another forum reported that he typically had a deadbeat ratio of one out of three - that would be enough to drive me out of ebay altogether.
posted on June 18, 2002 08:50:48 PM
You said it holdenrex. There may be few deadbeat for bible sales and lots for Grateful Dead memoribilia. Some strict TOS sellers may invite deadbeats with lines like "contact me within 3 days or the item is relisted and you'll receive a negative feedback".
posted on June 18, 2002 09:21:08 PM
If that's who he's selling too..and he knows that's what happens...and if he's selling at buy it now or with few other bids..he has to raise his minimum bid..and make sure he has enough in it to make a profit. If that's the people who aren't paying..I really doubt a neg would get them upset. They'll do just as I said earlier..if they get too many negs, they'll just change their name and move on to a new one. Negs won't make them stop from bidding..since the negs wil be behind them. Of course, your retailatory bid will be there forever. I'm still not following the point of anyone getting upset if someone doesn't want to leave a neg.
posted on June 18, 2002 09:50:49 PM
I do leave negs for non-payers, but I don't begrudge other sellers for not doing so. I've never canceled a bid just because a bidder has some strikes against his record. It's quite possible that his bid won't be the winning bid - but it may be propping up the winning bid of a more responsible bidder. I'd much rather that other sellers focus on filing the FVF against the deadbeat's account - so many of them seem to be completely unaware of the FVF's impact but get all worked up over those little red feedback marks.
I have a relatively low amount of deadbeats (2% at most), and most of them get suspended before I get to leave negative feedback anyway (I always leave feedback after filing for the FVF). Of the ones that I've left, I've never received a retaliatory neg. I think a lot of sellers get retaliatory negs by making too big of a production out of the feedback process - dire warnings in their auctions, threats in their emails, etc. My strategy is to just be very professional and patient, and after all other avenues have been exhausted, slip them the neg with no fanfare.
posted on June 18, 2002 11:19:03 PM
Look at a buyers FB, what on Earth for. I never look at their FB because I don't care about it. If I'm buying I look at the sellers FB because that's what's important.
To risk retailatory negs because of a NPB is dumb, it accomplishes nothing. File for FVF, that's smart, it accomplishes a lot.
Don't blame sellers for not leaving neg FB, blame eBay for not protecting sellers & restricting deadbeats from leaving negative FB.
Do you really think I'm going to mess up my FB because of a non paying bidder....never.
eBay is not the "community" some think is it, it's millions of strangers buying & selling & no one owes anyone anything. You are all alone out there, so take care of yourself, do what is best for you, not the "community"
posted on June 20, 2002 08:05:12 AM
If the person was a complete ass and was impossible to deal with I leave negative feedback. For NPBs I file for my FVF credit and move on. I don't have time to check feedback for everyone who bids on my auctions, in fact I seldom do, so what's the point in negging buyers. I do return positive feedbacks left in my feedback profile. I consider this good customer relations.
posted on June 20, 2002 12:16:58 PM
I have a question. Of all the people who post saying "I just got my first neg after X hundreds perfect rating. It was all because I neg'ed them. I will never leave bad feedback again, it just is not worth it!"
Have any of you seen any long term effect on your sales? I do not mean just for a week or two. Sales so often run unexplained cycles that it could be just a fluke. Has anyone never recovered from 1 or bad ratings?
The few we have received on both ebay & Yahoo have had no effect. I also see people with a crazy number of neg's getting bids.
