posted on June 29, 2002 07:38:36 PM new
I've been considering for a while to limit my auctions to those with FB of 50 or higher, for a number of reasons.
Then this:
I made a mistake of putting an opening bid on something worth $350.00 to $500.00 for a dollar. And it went for $1.00, presumably because I required buyer pick up, and the seasonal slump.
He, an apparent youngster, picked up, and I delivered. I was not thrilled but I'm a woman of my word.
Here's the best part: Then he emails me asking if I would "swap positive feedback."
My response was: "If you are happy with your purchase and service leave feedback saying so. If you are not happy--say so. Or say nothing. I never leave feedback on a sale first and I'm not the desperate for +'s that I "swap".
posted on June 29, 2002 07:56:33 PM new
First of all, 50 is an excessively high feedback number to expect from a bidder. A lot of people bid infrequently, have been good ebay buyers for years, but may still have a feedback below 50.
Secondly, there's no way to prevent a last second snipe by anybody regardless of feedback rating. You can state it in your auction terms, but that will just turn away the good bidders while the ones that are going to be a nuisance will bid anyway.
posted on June 29, 2002 08:01:22 PM new
Sellers put lot of restrictions on their auctions and I don't know why you can't. If you are having problems and think that maybe you will, then go ahead. If you think that will stop them I doubt it because nobody reads the TOS's (ask Jack). I think first, eBay education should be given to everyone that signs up, starting 1. If you can't read don't bid. #2. If you can't pay don't bid, Maybe someone should think up a list, like Dave Letterman's, the top 10 instructions before bidding. I am not making lite of your idea, it seems to be getting worse and you know it gets worse before it gets better. Let's hope it gets better faster.
posted on June 29, 2002 08:12:26 PM new
Libra: Good idea. I've thought for a year or two that there should be a tutorial or at least a 10-question test all newbies have to pass before their registration is complete. It would of course be on the honor system, but even if they have to ask someone what the answers are, at least they would have heard the rules first!!!!
posted on June 29, 2002 08:20:15 PM new
You seriously need to end an auction early rather than give it away. There is no wrong in withdrawing the item before the end if you cancel the bid. It is within the rules even if they don't like it.
I have seen a live auctioneer do that any number of times. If it is not advertised as an absolute auction it is within their discretion.
posted on June 29, 2002 11:12:51 PM new
Yeah, I think that you are blaming the buyer for your screw up. You should have reviewed the auction. Upon discovering your mistake, you could have canceled it or revised your starting bid.
As for the 50 feedback requirement, even though as a fellow seller, I disagree with you on this, you can do it if you want. However, if I want to buy one of your items, using my other user id with below 50 feedback I am going to bypass your auctions.
[ edited by clarksville on Jun 29, 2002 11:14 PM ]
posted on June 29, 2002 11:27:41 PM new
If you want to severly limit your target audience go head and require a 50 feedback minimum. I'm guessing that at least half of our business comes from buyers with ratings less than 50.
posted on June 30, 2002 05:34:11 AM new
What is wrong with 18 yr old buyers? They are now adults with the same rights as those many years their senior. They also have the same obligations. I have sold to many young people and find most to be good customers. They are usually so excited to be able to participate as adults that they prove to be happy, reliable customers. No one should be punished for their age prior to proving they are unreliable. That is age discrimination pure and simple.
posted on June 30, 2002 05:51:37 AM new
i completely agree with capolady. i do understand somewhat the feedback thing. about having a certain amount of feedback but the age issue is absurd. most of my buyers actually have 0 feedback and i have no issue selling to them. they need to start on ebay somehow and if everyone has this huge issue with 0 feedback buyers i dont see how ebay sales are going to do anything but decline. kind of liek the problem 18 yos have with finding meaningful employment. employers want experience so they wont hire you, then how the hell are you supposed to gain any?!
i think its very sad that youd let the experience of one buyer make you so biased!
posted on June 30, 2002 08:45:34 AM new
I'm not talking about age discrimination. I'm talking about limiting my auctions to more experienced buyers. I get the stupidest demands and FB from those with little experience. It's not worth the hassle to me. Maybe eBay should restrict newbies ability to leave feedback until a minimum of purchases, which of course they'd never do.
Gravid: It's alright. Once I cancelled an auction an hour before close because I saw I spelled Bacarrat wrong and search wasn't picking it up. I got some nasty emails for that one. So, I like to do-the-right-thing, or am a schmuck if you prefer.
posted on June 30, 2002 09:03:08 AM new
I am a buyer only with a feedback of around 150 since the middle of December, 2001. Here are my opinions as a buyer only:
1. Starting a high value item at $1.00 may seem silly, but from I have heard and read, in most cases, the bidding will get up to a reasonable value before it closes. I think many sellers know this. I cannot, however, understand the logic.
2. Setting rules in your TOS is fine, but if there is too much fine print, we will simply avoid bidding. Some sellers include a set of rules in their TOS that make the eBay Policies seem tame in comparison. If you have been burned by a buyer, don't bother to say "because I have been burned by a buyer, I insist on ...." in your TOS - it will only turn us off.
edited for spelling and to add that I agree with capolady, and would add that many of the richest dot.commers in the world started making their fortures at 18 ... you may be surprised to know the average age of the folks who really own eBay!
posted on June 30, 2002 09:17:40 AM newI'm talking about limiting my auctions to more experienced buyers.
But how do you determine a buyer's experience? I know a lot of good buyers who have been on ebay for years but simply make very few purchases so they have low feedback. It doesn't make them bad bidders.
I know other sellers have suggested cutting off those with 0 feedback, or less than 10, but 50 is the highest I've ever seen suggested. It's unnecessarily exclusionary. Look over your past auctions and see just how many auctions bidders have feedbacks under 50 and you'll probably see a lot. And don't just look at the winners - check out the feedback of those who simply bid on your auctions - remember, their bids are what propped up the final price.
posted on June 30, 2002 09:21:16 AM new
I would not restrict, easily half my buyers have feedback under 50, lots of newbies. I have only had 3 NPBs in the past 6 months. Tends to be on cheaper $10-20 items too so I don't care too much.
My boyfriend has been on ebay since Nov 8, 1998 and his feedaback is only 36. He has definitely spent way more than I spent in my first 50 transactions. Typical guy he is not a shopper but when he wants something, it is often a high tkt item. He and his father are collectors of old clocks and have bought things at prices more than my car cost.
posted on June 30, 2002 10:36:54 AM new
I would rather have you blocked (and I do) than the 18 year old with little feedback. He followed all your terms and picked the item up and now you want to be a pain and set all kinds of rules to have it were no one can bid on your auctions. Just keep up the good work and you won't have to worry about blocking out anyone anymore Now were is that ole ignire button, I honestly don't know how you got off of that list
posted on June 30, 2002 01:08:38 PM new
It appears you didn't get the response you were fishing for. Just exactly how did you expect us to respond to your story?
posted on June 30, 2002 01:43:10 PM new
I actually had this particular auction on my watch list.
The pictures (to show color only) might as well have been left out. You stated "you didn't want to lay the darn thing out for a picture".
Your description was just the nice side of rude, "it has a few nicks and the hardware is missing" and "i don't want someone coming to my house and saying euck it has a nick"
Your buyer bid what you asked and paid what he bid. His feedback is just below 50, is that the reason for the high number you are thinking about. And feedback number means nothing since your number isn't that high, not mentioning the negs and neutrals you have.
posted on June 30, 2002 02:25:09 PM new
>>I actually had this particular auction on my watch list.<<
Why? Not to bid apparently. Since you know my eBay ID, which has recently changed, I can only suspect you are a cyberstalker.
>>The pictures (to show color only) might as well have been left out. You stated "you didn't want to lay the darn thing out for a picture".<<
My perogative, no?
>>Your description was just the nice side of rude, "it has a few nicks and the hardware is missing" and "i don't want someone coming to my house and saying euck it has a nick"<<
So?
>>Your buyer bid what you asked and paid what he bid. His feedback is just below 50, is that the reason for the high number you are thinking about.<<
I have no problem with the sale, except that considering all, prompt, glowing feedback indicating that the kid appreciated the deal would've helped make me feel better about it; certainly not an email saying effectively: "I leave you a positive if you leave me a positive." That's all.
Actually 50 was a random number I picked, which admittedly is a bit high. The BIQ's FB # I haven't made a point of checking.
>> And feedback number means nothing since your number isn't that high, not mentioning the negs and neutrals you have.<<
If you mean by FB number the number of positives, I agree with you. Under eBay policy neither +'s or -'s truly reflect the quality of the transaction. So I don't kiss butt for +'s, and I'm not afraid to leave negs. Again, since eBay FB is such an arbitrary affair, I don't put a whole lot of weight on it. So you can bring up my absurd negs and neutrals but the fact is I don't care. In fact, most of those were left by vindictive cyberstalkers or newbies.
I stand by my stuff and I don't put a lot of fluff in my item descriptions.
But back to your seeming to knows so much about me...
posted on June 30, 2002 02:34:22 PM new
nycyn, quite a few of us have been keeping our eye on you since that big fiasco you caused a couple of months ago.
every once in a while i look at what you have up for bid just to see if there is anything interesting there.
i pointed out the parts of your auction that may be the reason you did not get more bids. nobody says you have to kiss b**t, but, as sellers we do have to at least make the item seem attractive if we want to sell an item for near what it is worth.
if you treated this poor bidder the way you do everything else, i do not wonder that he does not leave feedback first.
posted on June 30, 2002 03:31:00 PM new
>>nycyn, quite a few of us have been keeping our eye on you since that big fiasco you caused a couple of months ago.<<
posted on June 30, 2002 05:57:11 PM new
nycyn: I don't know why you are taking this out on an 18 yr. old with low eedback What would you do to me with 250+ pos fdbcks if I won your stupid auction for $1.00? What the H++l doesfdbck have to do with somone bidding? I have sold to newbies withzero fdbck & everything was just fine.
posted on June 30, 2002 07:26:09 PM new
>>nycyn
If I was your buyer, I would hold off on the feedback, too.<<
Then you are irrational. You mean you would get a fantastic bargain, which as Gravid pointed out I could've deprived you of at the last minute, or made some other BS excuse, and you would withhold FB because you simply didn't like me?
This is what is wrong with eBay's FB system. It is entirely subjective.
I obviously have no reason to give the kid a neg. Why would anybody think I would? Because I don't pawn all over him? People need to be more secure in themselves, plus.
posted on June 30, 2002 10:02:17 PM new
nycyn you responded to my last post as:
[b]Then you are irrational. You mean you would get a fantastic bargain, which as Gravid pointed out I could've deprived you of at the last minute, or made some other BS excuse, and you would withhold FB because you simply didn't like me?
This is what is wrong with eBay's FB system. It is entirely subjective.
I obviously have no reason to give the kid a neg. Why would anybody think I would? Because I don't pawn all over him? People need to be more secure in themselves, plus[/b]
If you exhibited this bad attitude to me, a buyer in the hypothetical situation, I wouldn't wait, I would neg you in a heartbeat and let all my friends know what happened.
Friendly advise, or do you "know it all?" first your agism prejudicial attitude toward the 18 year old is very evident, by your own words and actions, ie referring the the buyer as "kid."
Also, the rule of thumb in retail is that you may sell a $1.00 item one day and the customer, liking the service may come back the next (or whenever) to buy a higher priced item. If they don't like the service, they will take their wad of money elsewhere.
Maybe you need to take a course on business, particularly customer service.
Once again, it was your fault that you failed to look at the auction after you listed it. Then you could have revised it.
Quit blaming the buyer.
[ edited by clarksville on Jun 30, 2002 10:07 PM ]
posted on June 30, 2002 10:53:04 PM new
nycyn wrote:
"I'm talking about limiting my auctions to more experienced buyers." in reference to allowing only 50 plus feedback buyers to bid.
You know nycyn, there are many of us who have multiple ids on eBay. Just because a person has zero, one, or whatever doesn't mean that you are selling to an inexperienced buyer.
How do you know if this particular buyer isn't a person older than you think and has been on eBay for quite awhile, who is purposely playing games with you? Do you feel your chains being yanked?
Matter of fact with my one user id, I have under 50 feedback and was registered about a year and a half ago, but I have WAY MORE EXPERIENCE than you!
[ edited by clarksville on Jun 30, 2002 10:57 PM ]
posted on July 1, 2002 08:44:58 AM new
This could be another silly feedback thread, but it isn't.
What you are talking about is random acts of prejudice. I have over 3000 transactions but, when I realized that I was bidding against too many of my repeat customers (not too good for business!!), I made a newbie ID for bidding. One newbie seller (under 50) tried to charge me $14 to ship three tee shirts because I had won three auctions. So much for his concept of "combined shipping". He slammed me with a triple neg. so I negged him back. On three separate occasions . sheesh! what a moron!
If you really want to know how seller's treat newbies, made a new ID. That story was nothing compared to others!
just a sidebar...How do you know this guy's age, anyway?
One Nation, under God, INDIVISIBLE, with liberty and Justice for All.
. sheesh! what a moron!