Feedback Dilemna

With the next two posts up.

Even considering "something other than 5 stars because technically the first coin sent was not - as described" is a bit "out there". Why would you ever consider dinging a seller when they more than went above and beyond to make it right? And particularly when you compounded the mistake by not catching it in the ad's pics either - you said the coin matched the pics but was SL instead of LL. That is why it is a weird question that some/many consider scary or bizarro.

Most folks aren't "looking for an excuse" to ding a seller, IOW. Good that you asked before dinging him/her,but that you felt any "uncertainty" about possibly doing it at all does seem a bit odd.

@yooper, It wasn't your question that was ill advised and poorly stated, it was our responses. We spoke in general terms and made it sound like we were talking about you. I can assure you that we were not.

You did entirely the right thing. That is what this forum is for. If you are new to a situation, such as ebay feedbacks, and unsure, you ask before proceeding. Which is what you did, the right thing. I apologize if any general statements I made about some of the less than savory characters on ebay, sounded like they were directed at you.

The ebay feedback system, has little to to with improving ebay or the buyer and seller experience. It has more to do with petulant little children (buyers and sellers alike) trying to punish each other for transactions that did not go their way. Is it a method to weed out dishonest sellers and buyers or to warn people of such ? Supposedly, but your whole family does not have enough fingers and toes to count the number of thieves and fraudsters with 99%-100% feedback.

Don't think of it as a way to help people improve their service, because it is not. If in the end you are happy, 5 stars good feedback no matter the route they took. If you got cheated, neg feedback. Pure and simple.

Like mentioned most of this isn't necessarily directed right at you. But one thing most buyers dont realize is anything but 5 stars is held against a seller.

Long story short basically give 5 stars if youre happy with the final outcome.




I agree with what you guys said. ebay has certainly done a great job of creating a market with unreasonable expectations which theyre now trying to level the playing field for some.

I basically just expect somewhat of a problem every 50-100 buyers at this point. Leaving a low rating for shipping despite the charge being posted ahead of time and shipped exactly how it said seems to be the preferred bad feedback method now a days.

Please don't take it personally, we are just trying to help!

basebal, you said:



My guess is that you've had a couple buyers be jerks in this regard and I feel for you. But I must admit it is usually the one "rating" where I will give 4 or 3 stars on occasion.

Typically, when the seller charges $3 and then you get the coin in an envelope with no protection and a regular stamp on it. Or they charge $5 and then send it with no insurance and in a basic 20c bubble mailer with 1.93 postage. IMO, $3 is fine as long as they secure the coin and send it first class. But if they charge more they need to be spending that fee on postage and insurance and not to goose more profits.

That is why I don't agree with your statement that "any fee for s&h" that a buyer agreed to "pay for" by purchasing means the seller should always get 5*. If the seller put the fee into getting the coin to you securely then I agree, but if they overcharged to make a few bucks more then I think they should be dinged to stop them from abusing that fee.

Maybe I am an exception, but I don't buy into the "handling" as an excuse for adding a bunch of profit. I rarely buy infomercial products because of it as well. The $9.99 bargain becomes $29.99 with s&h and it costs them $1 to ship. It is a cheat and a scam.

Whatever service level it says if what people get from me, if its says first class itll be first class priority will be priority ect. It will always have tracking I refuse to ship anything without it.

But I actually disagree with you about dinging people for what they charge for shipping if its shipped how it says it will even if someone is over charging. Yes ding away if you pay for priority and get first class or pay for first class and get a letter with a stamp thats when low ratings should be given.

BUT if its sent how it said it should be it should absolutely end there. You know what the charges are ahead of time. If you dont like the shipping fee then find someone else. I completely disagree with the notion of basically demanding someone charge in a way thats acceptable to you with the low feedback. The terms are all posted ahead of time without any hidden fees and youre taking away a sellers discount for delivering something exactly as promised.

If you cant tell I'm a little bitter about it as my only dings ever have been for someone doing that to me when shipped exactly as promised. Thats really my major complaint about ebay as a whole, it was a good idea to have that rating its just very easily abused.

I would add too one thing that gets over looked is the more sellers that lose their discount because of things like that the more expensive ebay will be. If they owe another 2 or 3 percent to ebay thats going to get factored into listing prices.

Bass thats exactly what I do. I dont care is someone charges .01 for the item and 299.99 for shipping its just the total that matters not how it got there.

You can just skip the star if it makes you feel better, but you got the one described and the one pictured. So, 5 stars.