Feedback!

A basic guideline for leaving feedback.

Just when is the right time to leave feedback?

The simple answer and the right answer is:

Feedback should be left when your end of the transaction has been satisfied!

99% of the time this means: Seller First!

The most important thing to remember is that

Feedback speaks for itself!

Sellers:

The end of the buyers obligation ended when you received their hard earned money. They sent money, and they deserve positive feedback. End of story. End of discussion. Zip. Nada. Why wouldn't they deserve it? Under what possible conditions could you, as a seller not be happy with money you received from your buyer? Of course there are going to be exceptions, there always are.

The optimum time to leave your glowing feedback for money sent so quickly would be right after the funds have cleared and you have shipped their item. This way, the buyer will know the item is on the way.

What if they don't like their item you say. What if I left them a positive feedback and they leave me a negative you say. So What. Let them. Feedback speaks for itself.

• Buyers need only to be polite and to pay you in a timely manner to deserve positive feedback.
• Buyers do not have to love your item to deserve feedback
• Buyers should not have to leave you positive feedback to deserve feedback

Seller first also applies to the non-paying bidder. If the bidder did not pay, and after going through the non paying bidder process has still not paid, then leave them a negative feedback. Again, end of story. But they might retaliate by leaving me a negative, you say. So what? Let them. Feedback speaks for itself.

There is a gray area here. Does a buyer who takes 30 days, 45 days, 60 days to pay deserve a positive feedback? I don't know, but they certainly don't deserve a negative either. That leaves us with the good  ol' "Neutral". The "neutral" feedback indicator is about as rare as Hen' teeth! You just don't see them because they have somehow been turned in to a negative in the eyes of most sellers and buyers. In the case of a slow paying bidder, I guess the best course is just to leave NO feedback or go ahead and give them the benefit of being human and give them a positive feedback.

And what about the unreasonable buyer? Yes there are some out there and you will leave feedback as appropriate on a case by case basis. This is a guideline afterall, not etched in stone.

You might get a few neutrals, or even negatives, but in the long run  feedback always speaks for itself!

Buyers:

You won the auction. You clicked on the "pay now" button which sent your payment info to the seller. You paid either quickly with paypal, or timely by check or money order right? You deserve feedback. Period. End of discussion.

• Do not leave feedback for a seller until they have left it for you first!

• Beware of the seller who has a policy of making sure they receive positive feedback before they will leave you one!

This is generally the rule to follow. Of course there are a few exceptions.

• You did not receive your item
• Your item was significantly different than described
• The shipping charges were outrageous and were not disclosed to you until after the auction ended, or you were defrauded in another way.

In these cases, it may be necessary for you to leave a negative feedback for the seller. You will have to leave it first and you can  bet your right arm that you ARE going to receive an unwarranted negative feedback in return. This hurts, but it is the only way. Remember: Feedback speaks for itself.

Of course, had people been following my logic all the time, the seller would have already left you a positive feedback. But, I guess it makes sense that if they are going to defraud you in some way, they are definately going to be one of the sellers who insist on a positive before they will leave you a feedback to begin with!

There are going to be some gray areas for buyers too. What if you received your item and it isn't what you expected? It isn't as big, or as new, or as pretty or whatever. You look at the seller's auction again and they didn't really say anything to mislead you. The picture just isn't that good. You missed something when you didn't read all of it... They could have described it better, but didn't... You paid too much. Do they deserve a negative feedback for this? Absolutely not! Buyers remorse, not reading and not asking questions are your problem, and not the sellers. What about slow shipping? Mistakes etc... Well again, we have the good ol' "Neutral". Use it, that is what it is for. Again, Feedback speaks for itself.

Feedback speaks for itself.

How many times have I used that phrase now? I use it because it is so true. We people, you, me all of us out here in Ebay land are not stupid. If we look at a seller's (or buyers) feedback and see they have 10,000 positive feedbacks and several hundred negatives with each and every negative showing a reply that calls the buyer names etc, and then we look at the feedback they left for others and see that this seller retaliates every single negative and even neutral feedback left for them, we pretty much know we are dealing with a nasty, belligerent and just plain mean person.. They are out there, we have all seen them. We can see the feedback speaking for itself, even if they have tried to control it. by asking the buyer to leave it first, they are trying to insure a positive feedback, because the buyer knows that if they leave a negative feedback, they are going to get one in return. They (seller's) hope this is enough of a deterrent.

 Imagine what we would see if the buyers did not leave their positive comments until the seller left them a feedback... a whole and much worse picture I'm afraid. The seller would most likely have to change their ways, or would not last long.

What about a seller whose feedback is 1000. He has 5 negatives. You look at them and can tell they are for some bogus thing or another, or a retaliation for a non payment negative. Same with the Seller who has 10,000 positives and 10 or 20 feedbacks. We can tell, we're not stupid. This is a good seller..

I could go on and on I guess, but hopefully I have made my point. In order for the feedback system to work the way it was intended, (or at least the way I think it was intended), the seller must leave it first. (In most cases).

I truly believe that a majority of sellers who withold positive feedback until they have received positive feedback do so because they fear they will receive a negative. They fear it because of their practices and past wrong doing. The other sellers who do it, do so because they have been led to believe that receiving even one negative feedback is the end of the world and that a neutral is the same as a negative. It isn't... Feedback speaks for itself - Listen to it!

I take this feedback guideline seriously and even post it on my auctions which you can vist at:

Shelleygeo's Auctions

I try to leave feedback for my buyers before they leave one for me. Do they beat me to it? Sure, sometimes. I sometimes wait and do it in batches, or may have a reason or two for not leaving one right away, but for the most part I try to practice what I preach and hope others will adopt this policy as well.

Disclaimer: I am just a seller and a buyer on ebay. This is just my opinion based on my 8 years experience in dealing with trading partners on Ebay

copyright by shelleygeo 2006