Well it has happened...I got my first neg today....and it was totally undeserved. I feel so lousy right now.
I am an honest seller and try to do whats right. There was nothing wrong with the item I sent to them. I have
bad feeling that this was one of those situations where they want a refund, then they keep said item and the
refund.
I was just starting to build a customer base too. It is so depressing to think this one faceless person can come
along and mess everything up like this.
I believe in keeping the customer happy, but not at the expense of chopping my own hand off in the
process.
I suppose I will live to see another day, but it sure is depressing right now.
posted on May 4, 2000 10:56:55 AM new
I've been there before. Before you start thinking of going to the extremes, the best thing to do is grab a glass a cool beer & calm down. There are a lot of unreasonable people out there & many who just want to get something for free.
You can't avoid it. My motto with Yahoo is to take things easy. Somebody bids & don't pay, I don't get mad. Relist & forget about it. If he doesn't reply to my e-mails the 1st time round, he isn't going to reply to my next 10 e-mails. I use the blacklist function a lot & I get bids everyday. Its still upsetting for me to get a bad feedback especially since I take pride in my work but that's life. You can't satisfy everyone & the best I can do is my best. Besides that some people are just plain mean & I can't be bothered with them.
posted on May 4, 2000 03:00:22 PM new
Hi Jwood..sorry about your negative! was it on yahoo??? Yahoo lets you comment directly back under the persons negative comment..if you feel it was undeserved, say so! i have 170 positives on ebay 30 on yahoo and the only negative i ever got was on yahoo. Im begining to think yahoo has an entirley different customer base than ebay does.(imho, way more deadbeat bidders, and way more you have to hold there hand through the whole transaction) anyways, if i look at someones feedback and see a lot of positives and one or two negatives i usually think they came from some "impossible to please type".
posted on May 4, 2000 03:34:04 PM new
PLEASE LISTEN VERY CAREFULLY ON NEGATIVE FEEDBACK, ON HOW TO STOP IT IN IT'S TRACKS !!!
i have been on line for 15 months with yahoo, i have built up a customer base, and some really good clubs as well with free
benefits, http://clubs.yahoo.com/clubs/houseofstartrek...
the reason i am writing this post is to help you, so listen...
yahoo is a great auction site. but it does have it's problems,
the two major are getting more bidders, and the second is
deadbeat bidders, i will address the second one...
deadbeatbidders have been a hugh issue at yahoo sellers everywhere, and in the clubs as well. i have used this formula, and it works, so listen up, remember their are 95% complainers, and %5 people who solve the problem, so here is the solution!!!
when setting up your auctions put the 5 rating on each auction, this will leave the deadbeats behind in the water, second, when you recieve a bid, check out that bidder right away, does he have a weird name like born_to_porn, if he or she does, red lights should go up, look at feedback file, negative only, cancell it, if it is a negative and positive account like 5 positive 3 negative cancell this one too. next look at contact information, is their an address on the profile area, e-mail ??? none, cancell it... yes you will lose some business, but the rewards out way the pennies, also start a club free with your policy statement, e-mail this to each winner, to clear things up right away what you expect... when you have a good customer treat them like gold, when you have a bad customer treat them like gold, you will clear up even negative feedback with honey, don't like losing profits !!! then do my formula, it will cut down on all the dead beat bidders out their, trust me !!!
respectfully submitted:
[email protected]
house of star trek
http://clubs.yahoo.com/clubs/houseofstartrek
posted on May 4, 2000 08:08:47 PM new
Thank you all for your input. I am still feeling down a bit, but I know "this to will pass"
It was on Yahoo. And I believe that you are right about a different sort of user on yahoo. And I also believe that I will start my auctions from now on with a user rating of at 2 or 3 so maybe I can not only weed out the deadbeats but also the ones who are just out there to cause a person trouble.
I always thought that are honest people out there with 0 feedback, but right now I am wondering if it worth taking the chance to try and find them. I know it isn't fair to them, but this has not set well with me at all.
It doesn't help my feelings at all to know that I gave the user glowing feedback 2 days before they gave me a underserved neg.....
posted on May 4, 2000 08:49:03 PM new
you can lead a horse to water, but you cannot make him drink it !!! how true...
like a prize fighter going in the ring getting hit, time after time again and again...
you ask for help, well if you want it , here it is. if you want to get hit by the nuts out their, who love to put negative on your good name, than so be it. part of growing up, and part of making a success of anything in life, is to know when to listen, and to learn. i have cut my problems down from 100 percent to only 3 to 5 percent of deadbeat bidders. the person who wants to complain, and not listen and learn is a complainer, or just hungry after money, gets burned, than cries the blues, protect yourself, and don't get burned !!! follow the people who are successful, that have a proven track record. then your in the winners circle.
whatever it takes to make the money, and please your customers, and avoid the deadbeat bidders, that is the formula, rating 5, with a quick check when their is a bid, then cancel if in doubt, doubt, means no address, no e-mail, bad feedback, no feedback, etc... i rather lose a few pennies, than have my name stained !!! learn from a person who's been their and back !!!
posted on May 5, 2000 05:19:12 AM new
I DID THIS !!!
AFTER I WOKE UP, AND SMELLED THE ROSES, OR THE DEADBEATS IN THIS CASE, I DID THIS,
first i made peace with each bad bidder i could, even if i wanted to spit blood. then after i got them to remove the negative, i black listed them from future bidding, second, i changed all my 1000 auctions to 5 rating. this cut down on 95% of my problems with deadbeats... i have reduced my auctions on yahoo from $500.000 to only $100.000 because of the relist feature went from 10 to 2 now. my other auctions are on 10 other auction sites.
i also started a club...http://clubs.yahoo.com/clubs/houseofstartrek
thru this club i give free shipping on auctions over $10.00 minimum, and free appraisals for star trek, and it is the fastest growing star trek club on yahoo out of over 300 plus clubs. i only have 3 negatives from children who never bought, and are either still negative accounts or little feedback accounts. my positive rating is over 258 wth a total of over 300 plus from customers. on ebay as well i have a excellent account too. this works for me, and if you don't want the problems, trust me, protect yourself. at my club you can pull anything you want about me, my web page, my profile page, my auctions, look thru, check my feedback as well. i want to see you succeed...
richard
h.o.s.t.
http://clubs.yahoo.com/clubs/houseofstartrek
[ edited by startrek on May 5, 2000 05:20 AM ]
posted on May 5, 2000 05:53:42 AM new
I do believe you when you say this worked for you, but there is no where I am bowing to this nerdy bidder. As soon as they send me back the item, I will send the refund, but not the other way around. If I had any doubts whatsoever about the quality of the item then I would more inclined to send the refund. But as I have sold several of these items, so far with glowing praise, I just will not be suckered into losing money just because he decides to behave this way.
I know, I am being stuborn but if he wants his money back, he will have to return the item.
It is just the prinicple of the thing. It rubs me the wrong way to think I have to bow to unscruplous bidder just to protect my feedback rating. Thats like saying they have all the rights and I have none to protect me.
I know, I know, you don't agree with me....however I do agree that you have worked it out nicely.
I just can't bring myself to refund money in this money manner. I would gladly do it if they would return the item.
I guess I am just upset right now, but believe me, the bidder rating will raise on my auctions, I hate to do it, but I just don't see myself as having any other choice. And if I am in doubt about a bidder, I will cancel everything. I just don't want to go through this again.
Thanks, I really appreciate you insight into this.....All of you guys and gals insight. Maybe in about a year, I will finally calm down!
posted on May 5, 2000 08:56:14 PM new
I don't know if people actually go in to look at the feedback of a seller! They see something like "45" and say, "Well, alright, then!"
posted on May 13, 2000 06:59:49 PM new
If i set a rateing of 5 I would never sell seeing most of everyone who buys seems to be new.
And i always read in these threads about deadbeat bidders, I must be the luckyest man around. in over a hundred sales on yahoo I have had no more than 5 - 6 people who have not gone through with the sale. And half of them where real sorry and apoligetic,haveing some sort of excuse like i had to get a new starter for the car i found it more important at the time. I'm not saying that i believe the story but i have no reason not to believe it either. I personaly have had a lot more dead beats and trouble on ebay.
posted on May 13, 2000 10:33:17 PM new
I am a buyer not a seller, most of my purchases have been at egghead.com. I do however bid frequently on both E-bay and Yahoo, have not won an auction at either yet. Looking for the eternal bargin. My wife does buy at ebay. Thought I would let you know both me and my wife do check seller feedback. If there is negative feedback, look to see ratio to positive and if possible check the actual neg. Of, course if there is a lot of negs, we do not bid. We realize that no one is perfect, buyer or seller. On Yahoo & Ebay, I have no feedback,(0), since I have not won an auction at either, have not wanted anything bad enough, and I guess in some cases I may not be able to bid on items becase of a 0 rating.
posted on May 21, 2000 03:07:25 AM new
Jwoodcrafts,
I would NOT recommend you raise your bidder minimum rating to 5. I can't count the number of times I've given buyers their FIRST FEEDBACK (especially on Yahoo), and they are usually very appreciative of their purchase AND their feedback!
Yahoo doesn't have enough bidders as it is, and you can't afford to eliminate ANY with positive ratings unless they have a rash of recent negative comments.
Some of my deadbeat bidders have had ratings well over 5, and some of my repeat customers are still under 5 (since mine only count once).
What if no bidders would bid if the SELLER had less than 5? We ALL start out at (0), and my first Yahoo buyers trusted me, even with a (0) after my nickname.
posted on May 21, 2000 11:09:27 PM new
My first feedback I received on Yahoo was a neg and it was all downhill from there. The rudeness and impatience was beyond what I expected. My auctions would end on Thurs-Fri and by Sun I was getting negs like, "I won your auction, please contact me." I began to wonder 1)why not just email me and ask like a normal person, 2)after a few days, why a neg and 3)this is nothing like ebay. I couldn't take my Yahoo auctions seriously like on ebay after that first neg. I pretty much wait a few days, wait for their emails to see if they're serious in buying it, then send them an email saying "if you still want it, send $..."
posted on May 22, 2000 06:06:58 AM new
Well, I did get one bid on an item after this underserved neg. That is all. It seems that no one is even looking at my auctions anymore.
I think that when all of them run their course I will just get a new user name for Yahoo and start all over. Which is kinda depressing since I finally got some very good positive feedbacks after a lot of selling. It took forever to get those feedbacks, it just seems that people don't leave feedback much at Yahoo.
I hate to start all over from ground zero, but if I am ever going to sell anything else at Yahoo, it looks to be the only way to go.
Very depressing....
"Don't go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first."---Mark Twain
posted on May 22, 2000 10:04:01 AM new
"it just seems that people don't leave feedback much at Yahoo."
Are you encouraging your winners to post it? I put a note in every package which says "Thanks for your purchase, I hope you enjoy this item. I'd appreciate your posting positive feedback for me under item #______, as I have done for you."
My rating is 259-1-0 and I have put in that same note from day 1. Still only about 70% do return it but at least I'm doing what I can to encourage them.
I doubt your sales have fallen off because of 1 neg, I hear many bidders say they don't even look at the actual FB's, just the # beside the seller name on the ad. I think sales are just down right now all over Yahoo. I browse my categories every day and hardly see bidders for any ad but there used to be many. That's what is really discouraging.
I hope you responded to the neg--that's all you can do--explain your side in reasonable, unemotional terms. As long as you defend yourself and don't get into a FB war bidders can tell you are reputable and ran across one problem bidder. Good Luck
posted on May 22, 2000 07:02:18 PM new
I have a Yahoo rating of +80 and -5 and all of my -5 are from non serious bidders. Then never answer my emails and when I leave the feed back for them they claim I took there money and never send there item that is what upsets me the most. I got a average rating today that caused my rating to drop 1 because he thinks I took too long to send out is two items. he got 2 different things so I offered him less shipping and handling cost and waited for his second item payment before sending out his 2 items. I guess I should have just let him pay more,,,,,LOL
posted on May 23, 2000 03:03:02 AM new
My auctions would end on Thurs-Fri and by Sun I was getting negs like, "I won your auction, please contact me." ......
Why are you waiting so long to contact your buyers? I make it a rule to contact my buyers the day the auction closes, or at least the next day. If they have several items that close on different days, I tell them that I am aware of it, and will contact them again when the next item closes.
Making a buyer wait for 3 days seems way too long.
posted on May 23, 2000 04:34:22 AM new
He bid on the second item after I had already received his payment for the first item. He asked me to hold it till I got the money for the second item and I told him I would and that he only needed to send me the amount for the item and nothing for S/H. I waited for his money then shipped it out that same day and he still left bad neg. feed back.
posted on June 2, 2000 08:08:24 AM new
To jwoodcrafts: I buy on yahoo and yes, I do check the feedback but, may I recommend responding to it? Most people can tell the difference of someone deserving it or was taken advantage by a rip-off artist. Really! Put a response there.
