You may ask why I would even write a guide dealing with such a topic. Well I can tell you that over the years I have found that sellers must deal with many nice buyers, but also many that are a bit nutty.

I have been on eBay now for 7 years and the feedback system has changed a lot in that time. However one thing remains true...once a negative or even a neutral feedback is left, even if not deserved it is very hard or impossible to remove. That said, I am not talking about poor feedback the seller might get for poor performance, but I am talking about poor feedback he might have gotten in error and was meant for another seller, or maybe left by a buyer who has his own agenda or just is plain nasty and no matter what you do he won't be happy.

I have met all types and I feel lucky to only have 5 negatives in 7 years and just about 6,400 positive feedbacks. So one in a thousand for me have been bad boys or girls. But lets talk about something that just happened to me today.

I usually send a nice email to confirm shipment and explain to the buyer that we should both leave feedback once they email me the product has arrived safely

See Below How I Word My Emails

"On receipt it will be important for you to email me to let me know it has arrived safely and that everything is in order so I can leave feedback for you and you can then leave feedback for me. As a way of making sure my customers are satisfied, I prefer to leave feedback on notification of safe arrival of the product.

If you have any questions about my feedback policy, guarantee or any other business matters please visit my Terms & Conditions Center Now

http://mtigrp.com/ebay/terms

I think you will find it can answer most of your questions.

Now I understand that some people just don't want to bother to leave feedback and others may not know how, so after a couple of weeks on those that didn't leave feedback I send another email to make sure the item arrived and all is in order.

From experience I have learned not to leave feedback first...you lose the ability to correct and error or issue once they leave a negative. In addition dealing with so many new eBayers many don't realize what a neutral or negative feedback means to a sellers rep, so they go ahead and write things like "he charged me 50¢ more then the postage stamp" or other ridiculous reasons.

This past week I decided in the spirit of the Holiday Season, I would go into my profile and leave positive feedback for all those that may not have left me feedback. I figured after two weeks, they had to receive the item and if I didn't hear from them it was OK.

Well I was wrong once again. I sold two LED Flashlights to a buyer at way below my cost. I wanted to see what type of action I would get on the item if I really lowered my prices. I normally sell these for $14.95. So I put in an auction at $10.95, they would retail in a store at $25 each.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=20760&item=4423726018

I get an order for two and ship them immediately to the customer. He paid a total of $7 and change for the two items and had received a S&H discount on the multiple purchase.

I leave a nice feedback for him and find out today he leaves this one:

"refused to combine shipments of three sets of purchases, no email reply"

Now, I am online about 15 hours or more each day and never received any email from this guy. He only bought the two items that come packed two on a card and that was shipped the next day to him. So I went to look at other completed auctions for this guy and see he was buying these LED flashlights from a number of different sellers. I can only imagine that he mistook me for someone else because the reason made no sense.

I tried to email him, no response and then attempted to call him on the phone to explain what appeared to be a mix up, but found his number on file with eBay was a bogus or non-working number.

So I contacted eBay to notify them of the bad contact information.

You can find that form at: Home > Help > Contact Us

So now I have a Neutral Feedback that will not effect my over all score, but will show up on my profile for one year that all can see.

It isn't right, not fair, can't do a thing about it now and even if it was a mistake I end up getting the poor grade. The thing that kills me is that not only did I lose about $5 on this small deal, but went out of my way to do everything right and then get kicked in the face.

I have written that sometimes the reward in selling on eBay is not the couple of dollars you might make on an item, but the gratification and nice people you meet. Unfortunately every once and awhile you get one like this.

The new Feedback system does allow you to add comments on feedback you have left and feedback left for you, so you do have a chance to tell your side and that is a good thing.

http://pages.ebay.com/services/forum/feedback.html

But sellers, hold off as eBay recommends and do not leave feedback on any deal unless the buyer confirms all is OK and leaves feedback for you.

"We encourage you to leave feedback after each transaction is complete so that other members may benefit from your experience."

They may not understand this policy, but I do have this explained in my Terms & Conditions and in my emails, so most will understand.

By the way, if someone does leave you poor feedback and you truly didn't deserve it, go ahead and leave negative feedback for them. This usually gets them to contact you right away and ask why you left negative when they only left neutral and you can explain why. Then you can offer them a deal...eBay now allows both Buyers and Sellers to apply to have both feedbacks removed if both parties agree. I have done this a few times now and it works just great.

There will be a notation on your profile that says:

6289 feedback received by lenrapp (4 ratings mutually withdrawn)

I would rather see this on my profile then an undeserved neutral or negative feedback.

Take the Feedback Tutorial on eBay

http://pages.ebay.com/help/tutorial/feedbacktutorial/intro2.html

Hope this article will once again drive the story home to you all that you should never leave feedback if you are a seller until you know your buyers are happy campers.

Thanks for listening to me vent :-) Who said selling on eBay was going to be easy.