posted on September 3, 2000 12:15:14 PM
I'm guessing you'll be asked to edit out that i.d. pretty soon. But, I just checked it out. 143 negs -
I thinks it's amazing that he's still in business. Just proves that some people don't take advantage of looking at the feedback profile before they bid.
As a buyer I don't automatically discount a person who has negs - but, I give it a close look - especially if I think the response to the neg sounds lame or hateful.
posted on September 3, 2000 12:24:04 PM
I always read what the negatives say and what the Sellers response is. I also look to see if the Seller negged the person back (just to retaliate). I look at each seller or buyer individually. There are two sides to every story. Yesterday, I was considering bidding and checked the seller's feedback. There were a lot of neutrals and a lot of negs, all within the past month. Most of them related to S/H charges being excessive. Since the Seller specifically listed these charges in his TOS, including the fact that s/h may exceed the actual cost to ship and that he WOULD NOT reduce s/h for multiple wins, I felt these negs were unfair and uncalled for. The guy had it all spelled out. In reading his TOS, he just sounded like such an A#$ ("negative person" that I began to have second thoughts. The responses to his negs and neutrals were just flat out rude and obnoxious (totally unprofessional). I decided to look at the feedback he left for other people and discovered that this Seller engages in Retaliatory Feedback on a regular basis. He was absolutely nasty about it, too. One lady complained that her item had been received in a used, dirty pizza box that was full of ants when she received it. This Seller had the nerve to respond with "So What? You received it in one piece, didn't you?" He then went on to leave a negative for her, making her out to be some sort of psycho loser. NO WAY would I do business with this person, even if he had the last widget available in the world and was selling it for a bargain price. For the most part, a Seller with negatives don't necessarily scare me away. It depends on the reason for the neg, the response to it (i.e. did the Seller attempt to make good? was the buyer being unreasonable? Was the Seller notified there was a problem prior to being negged?, etc.). If a Seller has a large number of negatives, I will probably look elsewhere.
posted on September 3, 2000 12:43:56 PM
. . . and then, you have AW users on here who swear up and down that "Sellers can easily change their user name and start a new account too!"
posted on September 3, 2000 12:51:44 PM
No negs do not make a buyer nessarily good or bad.
even the comments to go with the neg dont make them good or bad.
there ability to handle a sales from start to finish with each buyer personely makes them good or bad, feed back genrally gives you 1 one way of helping decide this after all even good feed back can be better then deserved, it seems many sellers are selling to buyer for is the good feed back the Item is a gift for it
and many buyers buy for the same reason.
they bid $10 I will give you good feed back if you give me good feed back and we will let exchange this item so it looks like good business.
even in business hotels and resorts are rate 1 to 5 stars yearly but they were provideing excellent service to many years before they earned there stars.
they had to be good at what they did long before they earn there stripes.just cause they had no star 5 years ago dont mean they werent good places just not recognized yet took thousands of happy people who visiting to get them there 1 star
posted on September 3, 2000 01:10:38 PM
I'm sort of new @ Ebay.
Have done well.
Scared to death over negs but after viewing this monkey I see HIS Buyers all they care are prize. Quality seems not important. Knowing you have a GOOD chance of getting riped is not important.
I always though.... TO GOOD TO BE TRUE...?
posted on September 3, 2000 01:30:04 PM
I guess some sellers are so insecure that they feel they have to justify every customer complaint. I have plenty of positives (3100) and plenty of negatives (about 1%). If customers left feedback like they should, my rating would be well over 10,000. Then again, there have been times that I totally screwed up a transaction and the buyer was kind enough not to complain.
I got an undeserved complaint this week. Winner wanted to pay by check, though auction stated money order or CC only. Winner refused to pay, left complaint. I also got an email from another seller saying this person had deadbeated and failed to pay in their auction too.
'Point being negative feedback, both deserved and undeserved, is unavoidable. Any seller that comes here bragging about their immaculate shipping, perfect customer service, superior quality of items, etc., is a liar. Everyone screws up occasionally. Feedback is only useful for detecting a pattern of abuse by seller. Most new sellers are overly-concerned with every little comment. Believe me, I am more suspicious of the sellers who act as though they've never deserved negative feedback.
posted on September 3, 2000 01:40:31 PM
The seller in question is running about 7% negs, and most are for DOA items coupled with no communication to fix the problem. There is a clear pattern to the feedbacks and troubles mentioned.
posted on September 3, 2000 02:30:06 PM
Sure 'nuff - I know that - this place as well as many others will turn heaven and earth to protect the "vilest" of characters in their quest to rob the innocent of innocents! Almost like it is sacroligious to make the mere mention of a "wrong-doer" - well, so be it!! I got my 2-cents worth in while it lasted - may I, as a forthright do-gooder, interested in the welfare of all honest people in the on-line auction world be banned from ever placing another bit of information about the riff-raff existing in our midst...
Sorry I ever brought the subject to bear...
Herb
posted on September 3, 2000 02:30:14 PM
Negatives in themselves do not necessarily mean that much today. You have to realize how many really stange people there are out there. You have to read the negatives and the review the auction. In my opinion feedback should be a factor ONLY related to the sale and a violation of the stated terms. All too often today you see feedback left by people who are having second thoughts after the fact. There should be obvious rules for feedback that should be enforced. For instance, if a seller offers something "untested" and "as is" and is negged by the buyer because "it didn't work", that neg should be removed. After a few weeks the auction is gone but the neg still impunes the character of the seller. As for people looking to see if "retaliatory feedback was left", could you imagine what would happen if these childish sellers or buyers had no fear of being retaliated against!
posted on September 3, 2000 02:47:03 PM
Unfortunately, a lot of bidders dont read the comments, they just look at the number. So a busy seller can look good even with 10% negs. A seller (you would think she would know better) on Yahoo won about a dozen auctions from a seller with a rating of about 40. Unfortunately, they were for 60 auctions as a buyer and about 30 auctions as a seller in which the seller got mostly negs.
I once bid on two expensive cameras from a seller with a "mixed" rating. He had mostly good ratings but a significant number of bad ones (about 3%). A few people even emailed me to warn me and say "I cant believe you bid on that guy's auctions." When I read the negs, it was for telling the bidder after the auction that he didnt have the item in stock and had to order it. Not for taking money and not delivering. So I took the chance and won both cameras at very good prices, paid with a CC and got exactly what I won. It pays to read.
posted on September 3, 2000 02:49:18 PM
No, negatives do not necessarily mean a seller is a bad one IMO. I do check all fb, thanks to that site someone recommended on one of these threads that brings up just the negatives and neutrals.
I check to see why the buyer is unhappy and then check TOS if still available. It depends also on the item that was auctioned. The low end ones seem to bring more negatives. I am leery if the reason is because item was never received, shipped more than 2 wks after the end of auction, didn't work or arrived broken. I also check seller's response to see if it was an emotional one or factual. Responses such as "Buyer never informed me of the problem", make me feel easier about bidding on the seller's auction. I stay far away from sellers who call buyers names and "shout". I also look to see who left the first neg, to see if it might be retaliatory.
Edited for grammar.
[ edited by london4 on Sep 3, 2000 02:51 PM ]
posted on September 3, 2000 03:01:08 PM
A seller with negatives is not necessarily bad. It depends on if explanations cross the line to excuses and everyone has their own perceptions of when this occurs. I agree with your point though, that sometimes there is a legitimate reason that should not be construed as an excuse.
It would be refreshing to see, in response to a complaint, "Sorry, I made a mistake".
posted on September 3, 2000 03:12:30 PM
MtnMama...since the quote you used was in a post that was addressed directly to another user (the post even began with the other user's name to identify it as directed at that user only), it can hardly be called a "blanket statement".
You have also taken the quote out of context...the context that involved the whole thread in general and the posts the comment was directed towards in particular.
And, as you have noted, your misperception that it in fact was a blanket statement by the poster (me) was addressed and you were assured it was directed to one person alone. Rather than accepting that you misunderstood my words, you chose to start another thread and falsely state my words were a "blanket statement".
My dear, I think you are busily trying to make a mountain out of a molehill.
Since I chose not to use the entire quote and did not mention your name, I don't think you should be chastising me. That particular part of your quote got me thinking. What if others felt like that? What if my two "mistaken" negatives, which I explained in my feedback, were taken as excuses, rather than reasons.
I therefore, opened this thread, well before you answered me in the other one to get other opinions.
If that was not satisfactory to you, I will ask the moderator to close this thread and delete my posts.
posted on September 3, 2000 04:33:58 PM
MtnMama...When my words are misquoted and quoted out of context then I think I have every right to call the person quoting me on it, whether the quote is attributed to me or not.
If you will edit your second post to remove any mention of my statement as you did your first, I will accept that you meant no harm.
Thanks for being understanding about this.
By the way...having negatives does not make a seller a bad seller...but a bad seller will have negatives. And almost all of us will try to rationalize our mistakes.
posted on September 3, 2000 04:53:49 PM
There were several messages after Mtnmama's initial message that have been deleted - AW moderators really oughta say something when they do that, because:
Mtnmama has edited out her post because it contained a loose quote from Amy; the message that now immediately follows Mtnmama's says she'll have to edit because she mentioned a seller's ID that has 143 negatives.
I hope nobody reading this comes to the (inaccurate) conclusion that Amy is the seller with 143 negatives!
posted on September 3, 2000 04:56:58 PM
mtnmamma - I didn't get to read the original post so can't address that. But I can address the initial question. Given the fact that a seller can get a negative for a lot of things beyond their immediate control. And a buyer can get a negative for complaining about shipping gouging, complaining about sellers not refunding money, and a whole lot of stuff that equates to a medium wide problem of LOUSY CUSTOMER SRVICE. I would never say a negative makes one a bad seller.
Its been said before, I'll say it again negatives can be indicative of a problem seller if occuring at a rapid rate over a short amount of time. If a seller does dutch auctions and something goes wrong with one auction where there were 50 buyers. That seller might get 50 negative feedbacks with a 3 day period. Is he a bad seller or did an auction develop some problems. I would suspect the later and if he has an item I want. I am going to bid.
The ebay feedback forum wasn't designed to label people as good or bad. It was designed to assist users build and maintain a confidence to complete profile. Feedback helps us identify people less likely to ship late, less likely to steal our money, and so on from a buyers perspective. From the sellers side it identifies people who send payment quickly. Other than that is just something for people to brag about and build numbers that after a certain point have no intrinsic meaning.
Take my feedback for instance. Does it say I am a bad buyer? No it doesn't. Does it say I am a bad seller? I guess that depends on the reader.
posted on September 3, 2000 05:11:57 PM
Wait - Wait - Wait - Wait --
Don't be accusing mtnmama about mentioning an eBay user with 143 negative feedbacks -- It was my doing!! AND, mtnmama told me that I cannot mention particular usernames on this thread...
Sorry, mtnmama, that I got you involved with this - surely was not my intention at all...
posted on September 3, 2000 07:15:08 PM
There Amy, happy now? Do you always get what you want, when you want it? I just want to make you VERY happy.
Moderator would you please lock this thread?
As a matter of fact, delete it so Amy will be estatic, even though I apologized in the other thread and even told her it was part of her statement that got me wondering, she still isn't happy. What a shame, one person can dictate to others how to post or what to post.
BTW, I was not the one who mentioned the person with 143 negatives, I was the one who told that poster it was against CG.
Also, Amy, that was not a misquoted quote. That was part of your original quote, with just one or two words left out. But, as you wish, I'm out of this totally. I wish you good luck with your auctions.
that I began to have second thoughts. The responses to his negs and neutrals were just flat out rude and obnoxious (totally unprofessional). I decided to look at the feedback he left for other people and discovered that this Seller engages in Retaliatory Feedback on a regular basis. He was absolutely nasty about it, too. One lady complained that her item had been received in a used, dirty pizza box that was full of ants when she received it. This Seller had the nerve to respond with "So What? You received it in one piece, didn't you?" He then went on to leave a negative for her, making her out to be some sort of psycho loser. NO WAY would I do business with this person, even if he had the last widget available in the world and was selling it for a bargain price. For the most part, a Seller with negatives don't necessarily scare me away. It depends on the reason for the neg, the response to it (i.e. did the Seller attempt to make good? was the buyer being unreasonable? Was the Seller notified there was a problem prior to being negged?, etc.). If a Seller has a large number of negatives, I will probably look elsewhere.