posted on January 11, 2001 08:00:22 PM new
I recently have made a practice of leaving feedback as soon as payment is received.......well tonight I got a really undeserved neg from a jerk who has been a pill to deal with from day one.......it has made me wonder if I should only leave feedback once feedback is left for me........or if I should wait a period of time before leaving feedback........what do you guys do?
posted on January 11, 2001 08:20:05 PM new
Ileave feedback when I ship the item out. I feel that the person has earned their feedback, if they neg me later, oh well.
posted on January 12, 2001 12:20:13 AM new
thekismeme
We have made a practice lately of leaving feedback once the transaction is concluded.
I disagree that a person has earned positive feedback just by paying. To me positive feedback doesn't mean prompt payment, it means that the transaction was a positive experience.
If a person is hard to deal with they definitely don't deserve positive feedback. A person who is polite and friendly usually always deserves positive feedback, even if the rest of the transaction doesn't go as smoothly as I would like.
If the person pays promptly and is very friendly: Glowing positive
If the person pays promptly and I don't receive any communication from them: Positive
If the person is a slow payer and is very nice and polite: A Warm Positive
If the person pays promptly but is a pain in the butt: NO FEEDBACK or a neutral is left stating "Customer was hard to deal with but paid promptly"...
If the person doesn't pay: Negative
We recently emailed a buyer (who was a problem since first contact) that her item had been shipped. We got an email in return: "Why haven't you rated me then, are you afraid of getting negative feedback?... Give me my feedback. I earned it by paying promptly." We simply told her that she would not be receiving feedback because she was very rude to us and we had nothing positive to say about the transaction....
posted on January 12, 2001 12:31:20 AM new
I've given this a lot of thought & tried it different ways. I've decided to wait until I hear from the buyer that they have received the item and the transaction is satisfactorily over.
I'm concerned about leaving a "Prompt payment. Great buyer. Credit to Ebay...etc." if the buyer turns out to give me problems after delivery (see horror stories posted in other threads). I think other sellers might want to know about things like that so as to avoid Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde buyers.
When I notify the buyers that shipment has been made, I tell them to contact me when they receive the item so I can leave them positive feedback. That way, the buyer knows when to expect the feedback to be posted.
I could be wrong.....I'm interested to hear what more experienced sellers are doing.
posted on January 12, 2001 12:35:48 AM new
Misscandle---I like your way best and that is how I do it. The transaction is complete when the buyer is satisfied with their purchase.
posted on January 12, 2001 01:16:36 AM new
I usually leave feedback when payment arrives, unless they have been a total jerk and kept me waiting for payment. In cases like this I may wait to leave feedback, but not very often. Mostly it is left when payment is made and the parcel is shipped and on it's way to them.
posted on January 12, 2001 01:29:03 AM new
As a seller I leave positive feedback when I'm paid.
As a buyer I leave positive feedback after the item has arrived and the seller has left feedback or hell freezes over (which ever comes first).
A retaliatory neg serves no purpose except revenge, buyers aren't going to research the feedback of the person that negs you. Simply reply to the neg with something polite, "Regretably I was unable to satisfy this customer" and leave it at that.
posted on January 12, 2001 01:48:27 AM new
I do the same way misscandle does. As soon as I know the buyer is satisfied, I leave feedback. I do not ask for feedback but I think I get more feedback this way.
posted on January 12, 2001 02:40:28 AM new
I leave feedback the day I mail out the item. The feedback I leave is to indicate my satisfaction with the customer's timely payment and isn't contigent on whatever FB they leave me (although to date I have had only positives).
posted on January 12, 2001 03:10:20 AM new
I left feedback for bidders when payment arrived for over a year. I found some people try to take advantage of that by asking for partial refunds for no reason or stupid reasons. Example= Guy purchased a 110 year old wood working plane from me. I left feedack when I sent the item. He wanted a 25% refund because when he took it to a mackine shop friend of his the bottom is 1/10,000" off from end to end.
He threatened negative feedback if I didn't pay. I offered him a total refund including shipping to return it, but I refused a partial refund. He ended up leaving me a nuetral saying me description was poor.
After 5 simular situations I changed to leaving feedback after the bidder does. That was over a year ago and have never had a request for a refund or partial refund.
posted on January 12, 2001 04:27:59 AM new
As a buyer I find the sellers who leave feedback when I have met my committment i.e. funds received to be the most honorable. The only reason not to do so, is to make sure you still have control of the transaction; that is very tacky! I have always left feedback, while 20+ sellers out of 90 never reciprocated. I never bought from them again.
posted on January 12, 2001 05:13:52 AM new
I leave feedback when payment is received and ship the same or next day.
In my (wife's) store, when someone buys something the transaction may not be over, but you say thank you, come again. You smile, you're pleasant. They may never come back, they may not say your welcome, they may badmouth you after they leave. I have no control over that. Their check may bounce, too late, I already said thank you, come back soon.
It is best to smile (even on-line), be pleasant, and reasonable. Not everyone will smile back, and not everyone will be reasonable - or even appreciative.
posted on January 12, 2001 01:34:49 PM newanothertreasure:In my (wife's) store, when someone buys something the transaction may not be over, but you say thank you, come again. You smile, you're pleasant. They may never come back, they may not say your welcome, they may badmouth you after they leave. I have no control over that. Their check may bounce, too late, I already said thank you, come back soon.
Yes, but feedback isn't a way of saying "Thank you" it is a rating system. You can say "Thank you" to a customer and if their check bounces then you report them to the police or a credit service.
I say "Thank you" when my Ebay customers pay me and I leave feedback when they let me know the deal is complete.
posted on January 12, 2001 03:41:02 PM new
I agree with bkmunroe - feedback isn't left to say thank-you, it's to let the next person know how that Seller/Buyer handled their transaction.
I think feedback should be left after the Buyer has received the item and is happy with the transaction.
Paying for an item is only the beginning of the transaction....
posted on January 12, 2001 04:30:48 PM new
We leave feedback, only after the customer has received and accepted the item. The customer, generally, will leave feed back first and then we reciprocate. Here's why..
1. A transaction is not complete until the customer receives and accepts the item. So leaving feed back prior to that may present problems.
2. The customer may have paid for the item, but what if they claim they didn't receive it, or whatever else you can think of? Trouble can occur and how both of you handle that is very important as well.
Simply paying for an item doesn't complete the transaction. That's only a part of it.
posted on January 12, 2001 04:50:57 PM new
It's nice that we can each have our own opinion as to when the buyer deserves feedback! I would hate to be governed by one person's opinion.
I would also hate to have to keep track of when someone leaves me feedback so that I can, in turn, leave them feedback. That's cheesy!
Haven't had problem one doing it that way. Some buyers don't bother to leave feedback but I can live with that. I just make sure that I do my part.
[ edited by sharkbaby on Jan 12, 2001 04:52 PM ]
posted on January 12, 2001 07:02:57 PM new
Up until 2 days ago, I would have answered this question with what was my usual practice: leave feedback when payment was received. It worked for me because I never expected any problems; I describe accurately and if some problem did arise, I was confident that I could work it out with the buyer. So, I was not in the least fearful of leaving feedback and closing off MY opportunity to change my mind.
Three days ago, I had a buyer pay with a credit card through PayPal. Something bothered me about the transaction and I hesitated before running out to the PO to immediately mail the item (like I usually do.) As it turns out, the credit card was stolen andthe account was a fraud. Pulled the E-bay contact info and it was bogus.
When I went to this buyer's feedback file, I noticed that all the sellers had received payment the same day as the auction ended and they left positive feedback that day or the next. Well, they all got stiffed by this jerk and guess what? They couldn't even warn anyone about what he was doing. All his feedback was positive and they couldn't add to or change what they posted even though they knew he was a ripoff.
As of now, I am waiting until I am sure the payment is OK and the buyer e-mails me that they are satisfied with the item. What I plan to do is e-mail when payment is received telling them thanks and that the item is shipping. I will ask them to let me know when it arrives and if all is well. When I hear back, I will again thank them and tell them I am off to leave positive feedback. I think a lot of buyers handle it this way and it makes sense.
posted on January 12, 2001 07:20:19 PM new
I leave feed back JUST AS SOON as I receive pymt.NO MATTER HOW they pay.I feel they earned it for being responsible! I also leave feed back as soon as goods are received!!I don't wait to see what they will say about me!! The other day I was a little upset because,I bought some thing from someone with quite a high number.I payed within 5 min.of the close of the auction,so I did everything on my end! Now they did not leave feed back on me untill I left feed back on them which I did as soon as I received the goods! Now what would have happened if the deal went bad,and for some reason I did not praise them,does that mean they would have bad mouthed me like I did something wrong?!!
posted on January 13, 2001 12:07:15 AM new
If you have a large number of auctions, or even 10-20 a week, I think it's way too much trouble to track every transaction and check, oh good, they left me positive feedback, now I'll leave them positive feedback.
I don't have that much time to waste, and as mentioned earlier in this thread, that feeling of being in control may turn off some buyers, it is kind of cheesy.
A positive feedback is a like a tip, so if they paid, in a timely manner, they get one. If I don't have anything nice to say, I'd rather not say anything at all.
Besides, I use post-auction management, both with AuctionWatch for my Yahoo! auctions, and another one for eBay (which will remain annonymous), mostly for the simplicity of not mixing up the two. A lot of post-management programs automatically post positive feedback when you enter the payment. Occasionally I override it, and leave a personalized comment.
*********That leads me to another point...
EBay would like to see us leave negative feedback when it is deserved, stating we may enounter a few "battle wounds" in the form of retaliatory feedback, but our positive feedback will help offset it.
True, it benefits our fellow eBay sellers, but, the risk of sounding selfish and conceited, I don't want to risk my good feedback rating for the benefit of complete strangers. I do, however, appreciate, when others leave negative feedback to bad apples when it helps warn me.
I state in my ads that I reserve to cancell any bids, and not to bid if your feedback is below zero. The only way to get it below zero is for someone to leave a neg. I've cancelled a bid from someone who bid and had a -1 feedback rating.
posted on January 13, 2001 12:26:28 AM new
From above: "If you have a large number of auctions, or even 10-20 a week, I think it's way too much trouble to track every transaction and check, oh good, they left me positive feedback, now I'll leave them positive feedback."
eBud software checks this for you, it's quick and easy to leave feedback for those that have left it for you...
posted on January 13, 2001 12:59:44 AM new
That's an interesting feature, I like that.
However, I like to think that by posting posting positive feedback first, it encourages the bidder to leave it for me, and to do so without fear of receiving a negative or neutral.
There are benefits to both, I think the bidders like it when the seller posts positive feedback first. As a seller, I always feel nervous until I have received my positive feedback, or the item is off the database, whichever comes first.
posted on January 13, 2001 01:26:29 AM new
If the item is "lost" in the mail it should be mentioned in the buyer's feedback profile, or if there is a report of damaged item, request for refund/exchange, bounced check, a whole host of reasons why it may be necessary to leave feedback after payment is received.
