I just wanted to ask what the general consensus is about "when" to give feedback on ebay.

The way its set up it's pretty obvious they want you to leave feeback before the buyer, but I've been having a terrible time with people leaving anything, which is quite annoying to say the least - especially considering I've been stuck at 18 for a month when it should be higher. I mean it's only a number but since I don't hear anything back from these buyers I can only assume the item got there - the assurance of that bubble with a plus in it provides is nice to see, letting me know everything went smoothly.

It also ticks me off I help boost their number and get nothing in return... why doesn e-bay make it so your feedback doesn't count or show up in their tally until they leave something in return. Nevermind, I know the answer to that... it would make too much sense if it worked that way.

Anyway, I'm just curious what other people's policies regarding feedback are.

The way I see it is that the buyer's part of the bargain is to send prompt payment. The seller's part is to provide the described goods. As soon as the buyer completes their part, good feedback should be left. As soon as the seller does, then theirs should be left.

I tend to avoid auctions in which the seller tries to hold the feedback as effectively a blackmailing tool because it shows little faith in their service in my opinion.

I almost always leave feedback as soon as I get the PayPal payment or money order from the buyer; if I forget it's within a day or two, tops. Despite how much I would love to hold a proverbial gun to someone's head and make them leave feedback for my services, I can't, so I figure I might as well just do my part and hope that they'll do theirs. eBay usually sends out an e-mail once a month or something to remind people to leave feedback, so hopefully if they don't do it after getting their stuff, they'll do it soon after getting that e-mail.

Granted, it does get me kinda aggrovated when people don't leave me feedback in return, but you know what? I have the money and the extra shelf space, so I guess it all works out in the end.

I have to admit I'm not very prompt with leaving feedback, and usually several weeks (plus a request from the buyer/seller) will pass before I do so. There have been a few auctions where I missed the cutoff date for giving feedback because of this (one a scathing negative comment that I would dearly have loved to make, but oh well), but otherwise I do eventually post comments. If I'm the seller, I normally wait to give feedback all in one fell swoop if I had a bunch of auctions going on at once, so for some, it will take weeks while others it will just be a few days.

On the other end, I also don't follow up and ask people to leave feedback for me after the transaction is done, mainly because I'm so bad at leaving it myself. I have no clue what my real rating would be if I were more prompt about it.

I haven't sold anything on eBay, and as the buyer, I have left feedback when my item arrives.  Many of the sellers that I've bought from have withheld feedback until I leave it first.  Initially, I thought this was annoying, but I can see a legitimate reason behind it.

Suppose the buyer paid his money, the seller left good feedback, and sent the item out to the buyer.  Now suppose that the buyer has some kind of a problem (the item doesn't arrive, let's say), and leaves negative feedback without contacting the seller to discuss the situation.  The seller may have been willing to refund the buyer's money or make some other kind of restitution, but the buyer didn't aim for a resolution.  Now the seller is kind of stuck; he's already left good feedback on the transaction, but his buyer left bad feedback.  Now, the seller could try to resolve to situation at that point and look to have the feedback mutually withdrawn, but given the way that the buyer treated the seller, he may not want to get further involved.

In this way, the buyer should be the first one to evaluate whether or not the transaction was completed to his satisfaction.  If the buyer is happy with the transaction, then the matter is closed.  If the buyer is unhappy, then the transaction is still not complete, and both parties should work toward an amicable solution.  If such a solution cannot be reached, negative feedback should be considered.

If I'm buying, I usually leave feedback when the item is received and include a friendly request for feedback in my followup email. If I'm selling, I leave feedback immediately upon receipt of payment.

Me, I like to have fun with my feedback. It helps break up the sea of "Good seller would buy from again A++++".

http://tinyurl.com/2hh6mu

Nice! Personal feedback is great and there are some real gems in there. Especially love the cyndaquil one.

I've always been of the opinion that, as many people on the eBay board used to say, that one doesn't leave feedback until the transaction is over. USUALLY this means when the buyer gets the item and is satisfied with it.
While one might say the buyer's only responsibility is to pay, remember that feedback is suppoosed to reflect on everything -- the behavior of the buyer in a problem situation SHOULD be taken into account, and if you leave feedback before it's sent, you can't.

-Joshua

Exactly the reason that I wait to leave feedback until I know that the buyer has received his/her item and is satisfied with it.  While leaving feedback right away after payment may show good faith, it's also risky because the transaction may yet run into problems, at which point the seller no longer has a bargaining chip.  So I think the best time to leave feedback is when both parties are fully satisfied.  It may favor the seller in a sense since the buyer has to make the payment first before the seller has to send the item, but it's something I've come to accept, even when I'm on the buying end.

As a seller, you leave feedback for the person when you receive payment for what they bought.
As a buyer, you leave feedback when you receive the item you bought.

I don't leave feedback until I receive the item, period.  And I don't forget, don't know what that's about. ;/

I'm in the above camp, but I'll add that I don't like to leave feedback for sellers unless they've already left me feedback after my payment, especially when my number is around 4 or something and there's is 10,000, you know?

Most of them don't do it manually.

They have a program that won't leave feedback until you do, so you get into a tug of war match that goes nowhere.

If you want quick feedback, sell junk on ebay for a month.

I have feedback of like 59 or something and have been only buying things for like 4 - 5 years and it's never been a problem.  I order from a lot of the same sellers, as I'm sure most of th VGM community does, and same seller feedback doesn't ++; :'(

The feedback number isn't what I'm really concerned about, it just the fact the feedback lets you know the item is got to where it was going.

as a seller selling new-in-box fixed price items in the $70-$115 range (and a lot of international sales) we dont leave feedback until the buyer leaves us one.

keep in mind that buyers already have the ultimate leverage on their side, namely paypal who can yank that money right back out of your account with a complaint.

i usually just catch up on the feedbacks on the weekend,, pasting the same one.. i dont have time to get poetic on a customer.

I see that you're right since I got a reminder email from a seller today saying that I would get automatic positive feedback after I left some myself.  So, in this case, I suppose I will, but not until after I test the thing.

That's the problem.  Unless you see mention of the seller leaving revenge feedback, you have no way to expect it.  I remember buying from a seller, after receiving the product, I needed to contact him.  I tried emailing several times over the course of a couple weeks and no response.  So I leave neutral feedback and immediately, the f*cker leaves a revenge neutral claiming they were not notified of any problems.  I paid electronically the same day the auction ended, and used multiple email accounts to try to contact the person, so I left inflammatory follow up feedback, and eventually all feedback for the auction was just removed.  This kind of BS is the reason why the feedback system sucks and doesn't have enough protections.  If you have a paper trail proving you upheld your end of the bargain in the best possible way, you shouldn't get non-positive feedback.

Agreed.

But on the flip side, say a buyer has prompt payment. You, being someone who thinks that's all the "buyer has to do" gives positive feedback.
Now, there's a problem. It ends up resoving negatively -- and get left a neg, buyer was difficult, made demands, and so forth.

You already left a positive, but I can't imagine anyone would consider that a good transaction. Thus, the buyer gets off with a totally undeserved positive.

Think about it.

-Joshua

If you're a seller and are confident of providing a good service, why would there be a problem?

I agree with everything TerraEpon has said, as I read the eBay message boards too, and I have never witnessed a group of people more in tune with eBay's policies, and the real-world scamming situations people find themselves at the hands of.

Of course, feedback is not mandatory for ANYONE, so take this advice with a grain of salt.

Feedback is to be left when the transaction is complete.

For the buyer, leave feedback after you have received the item as it is described in the listing.

For the seller, leave feedback after you have received feedback (either in eBay's system or via email, or by any other means) from the buyer that indicates they received what they paid for, and all is well.

The transaction is not over until those two conditions have been met.

I have never understood the contention regarding these simple guidelines.  For the seller's own protection, there is absolutely no reason at all to leave feedback before the buyer has received and confirmed receipt of their item.

Having worked for a company who sells tens of thousands of dollars a month worth of used computer hardware and other goodies on eBay for over a year now, I could tell you some doozies... heh, but our automated feedback system works extremely well.  We use ChannelAdvisor, and it's set up to automatically leave feedback for the buyer once they have reported in our feedback that all is well.  If there's any kind of problem, there are multiple places in our profile and ads where they can contact us to resolve it, and we generally bend over backwards to make them happy.

I think we've left two negative feedbacks since we started... and have received 13 negatives, out of over 7700.

http://feedback.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.d … TRK:ME:UFS

The recent negatives were from customers who did not even ATTEMPT to contact us to resolve their issue.  That's the kind of stuff that gets under my skin.

Anyway, sorry for the rant.  Had to share my experience. (buy our stuff! We sell weird and wonderful things. ;D)

So why does the seller not leave feedback after they have received their item (ie money) as described?

DId you read anything she (and me and a couple others_ have said?

-Joshua

Yes. You're afraid of your customers and want to withhold feedback as protection.

And, with that in mind, just how many more negatives would Amber's company have had if she had not been holding feedback for ransom? It's a scam. If you want to sell stuff, your 'protection' should be the good service you provide. If you can't offer that in good faith (and if you fear bad reactions from your customers, you can't) then maybe being a seller isn't for you.

It sounds to me like you live the maxim "the customer is always right" no matter that the customer might haver totally unreasonable demands, and be totally wrong.

Imagine, if you will, the seller doing everything right, but the buyer doesn't like it, and wants to return it. Seller has no obligation for this, politely declines a refund, and the buyer goes off on the seller, and also leaves a neg. You really think that deserves a positive because the buyer payed?

-Joshua

Yes, you posted an abridged version of that scenario already and I understand it. But I would wonder why a customer would be unhappy if the seller did indeed, as you say, do everything right. There are two scenarios I could understand -

a) your customer is a scam artist. Well, though it may happen, there's little to be gained scamming as a buyer. If you're a scammer, you're likely going to do it as a seller, as many do. That's where the money is. In that case, the buyer needs much more protection than a seller. Besides, if they're a scammer, they'll be removed. Your positive feedback won't matter any more.

So that leaves b) your customer is a really difficult curmudgeon. Now some people are just difficult but, even in that scenario, your customer needs a grievance to set him/her off. Which really leads to -

c) The seller didn't actually do everything right.

While there is little you can do about 'a' until it happens, if you're worried about 'b', then you fear 'c' and that simply shows a lack of confidence in your service.

I've seen ebay sellers say they will leave feedback as soon as they recieve payment and maintain 100% feedback records. Even of those who don't have a 100% record (almost everyone has some problem somewhere), the ones who don't fear their customers are much more likely to attract good buyers. Treat your customers as the enemy and, well, is it any wonder you get into problems?

In the entirety of my seven-year eBay experience, I have had two negative feedbacks left for me, and both were as a buyer. My very first eBay transaction was back in 2000 when I BIN'd something and forgot about it. The other was when I bought an old magazine off of someone, and they specified the wrong e-mail for payment. I sent the payment, and the magazine never showed up. Then the seller left me a negative feedback and said I never paid, when I had the receipt in my mailbox with the incorrect e-mail address they had specified, and when payment was sent. They didn't care, and didn't respond to my e-mails after they left the feedback, so now iit's still there. Those are the .3% of my eBay feedback that aren't positive.

Which leads me to my point.

As a seller, if your service is at least adequate and your item is as described, you should not get any negative feedback. I have 100% seller feedback, and I have almost always left feedback for the buyer after they had paid for the item(s) they purchased from me. As a seller, I know that my service is great; I am honest, my shipping times are very quick and my items are as described. I have no fear of getting a negative feedback because of this. And, before you can respond with a "what if" or any vague hypothetical situations about what could happen after the transaction, you know what? If something happens after they pay it is either because the item was not as described, or the service was poor, and that is the seller's responsibility to take care of.

What are you sellers afraid of? If your service is good, you should have no fears and be confident. If you're weary, make sure your auction terms are final so the buyer understands; all sales final, no refunds, whatever you have to say that will immediately squash any attempt of them trying to get a refund or screw you over or ruin your life or steal your identity or pork your spouse or whatever else you're so afraid of. You're holding feedback over the buyer's head like a woman holding sex over a man's head to get him to mow the lawn. Maybe you need to put more thought into your side of the bargain and the strengths of your services and less thought into worrying about shit resolving badly.

No, there's C) Buyer has buyer's remorse (anything from "I payed too much" to "Ugh, this CD sucks" to whatever else). Wants money back. Seller isn't obligated in this. A seller doesn't have to bend to the buyer's will to "do everything right".

-Joshua

wow, I wasn't expecting this much debate when I posted this topic...

Hah, welcome to STC.

I've never had anyone have "buyer's remorse" after they paid for the item. That doesn't make sense to me. I've had some deadbead bidders, but that's about it, and not one has left negative feedback for me after I did for them.

im currently being blackmailed by a UK buyer (who paid for first class shipping) for a $90 doll  that we shipped 2 weeks ago... that is why we dont leave positives immediately upon payment...

they dont want to wait. they said send a replacement now because their sister's birthday is next week. (and i have to upgrade the 2nd one to priority mail to prove to paypal i shipped it)

This whole attempt to ascribe fear or a lack of confidence in oneself as a seller to those who simply wait until the transaction is completed to leave feedback is silly and baseless.  As a buyer, I feel like leaving feedback for an item received is a good way to let the seller know that everything went smoothly.   As a seller, I simply like knowing that the buyer was satisfied before leaving feedback.  There's no need to make assumptions one way or the other about a buyer/seller's intentions or the quality of a person's selling skills.  I just wait until the buyer is happy with his/her item and then leave feedback.  I'm comfortable with my approach and I've been able to maintain one hundred percent feedback with it ( http://tinyurl.com/3x9qs8 ), both on the buying end and the selling end.  That's all that matters.

It seems that some people will turn anything into a way of judging a person's character.  I guess that negative experiences as buyers has caused some people to take that position.  My only concern with feedback on Ebay is in maintaining a consistent record of good transactions.  I'm not trying to promote or discourage any sort of philosophy in the process.  Do I fear negative feedback?  Sure, but only as far as it'll cause potential buyers and sellers to doubt my honesty, which is why I'd like to avoid it.  No one wants to be judged unfairly, but I'm not going to worry about people like Jay who will assume my intentions.  In fact, I don't care about what people think of my intentions during a transaction as long as both parties are satisfied at the conclusion of it.

Oh yeah, I should have mentioned before. My own feedback has the PERFECT example of a buyer who was TOTALLY unreasonable, though in this case it was before money was exchanged. Left me my second neg (first one was a retaliatory one for negging a seller who "couldn't find the item", later relisted it, and was also charging PayPal fees)
The buyer insisted I charge a "fair price" for shipping, simply because it was like $1 more than what Half.com was charging. My terms were spelled out clearly too, and compared to most sellers today it's pretty damn cheap.

-Joshua

What happened there? Did it break in the mail or something?

Exactly, this is all I'm asking from buyers. I'm not worried about some silly little number or the services/items I provide as a seller but I just like to know that "everything went smoothly" as far as shipping goes.

Sometimes buyers forget to leave feedback after they've received their item.  You may have to ask whether or not they got the item in order to remind them.  Since I already have a lot of feedback, I don't mind waiting to see if the buyer will remember a few weeks down the road, at which point I'm happy to leave feedback in return.  For someone like yourself who is trying to establish himself as a reliable seller however, I can see how it might be a little frustrating, especially since leaving feedback ahead of time doesn't guarantee a return.  I would suggest patience above all else.  You'll get there in time.