Ebay Feedback System..

the trend by a lot of sellers is to leave feedback after they have received feedback from the buyer. this is wrong, if the seller receives the correct payment in the correct form, then all responsibility is handed to the seller. he/she should leave feedback to the buyer immeadialy and post the item whatever it may be. thats how its supposed to work.
iv often received a case where a seller forgets to leave feedback to me after I leave feedback for him/her. now it may be a genuine fault but its not acceptable. if the buyer leaves negative feedback after you have left them positive when you received your payment, you must try and resolve the suituation. this isn't easy I know, but if you think you are unfairly treated by the buyer, report him/her to ebay.
this is how it works, simple as that.

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When I buy an item I always pay via paypal immediately. What more can I do?

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See my post above for your other responsibilities.

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if the seller receives the correct payment in the correct form, then all responsibility is handed to the seller.

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See my post above for your other responsibilities.

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often received a case where a seller forgets to leave feedback to me after I leave feedback for him/her. now it may be a genuine fault but its not acceptable. if the buyer leaves negative feedback after you have left them positive when you received your payment, you must try and resolve the situation. this isn't easy I know, but if you think you are unfairly treated by the buyer, report him/her to ebay. this is how it works, simple as that.

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Banjax, have you ever sold on ebay? The answer is probably no, or maybe a few things here and there. When you have over 30,000 transactions as a seller, you will see that "simple as that" doesn't even come close to being a true statement.

Do you honestly believe that if one of the scenarios in my above post happened to you, a "report to ebay" would get it removed? If so, you are sadly mistaken. They won't remove it.

Also, feedback is 100%, without a doubt, optional.

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If this is so then I would certainly reject any payment that didn't met what I had stated in the add.

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I wish it was that simple. Once the check is on your desk, it's not that easy. It already took a week to get there, clients want to be paid. To send it back and wait for a money order would take another 2 weeks. Now we're up to 3 weeks and you've got a mad customer and a mad client.

Also, that just proves my point. Although I leave positives for these people, they deserve a neutral. They made it very inconvenient for me and my clients because they were too lazy to read. It is NOT a positive transaction, just because they paid. But, if I leave them a neutral, you can bet the house that they'll leave me a negative.


It's easier to wait for the check to clear then ship.

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Once again no offense, but I take it you believe in retaliation feedback?

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What does this scenario have to do with retaliation? Answer the question I posed... Now, did this guy deserve a positive just because he paid?

Unfortunatly,its not a black and white clear cut issue. In a perfect world an honest seller could leave positive when paid and a honest buyer would leave positive feedback when the item was received.If there was any problem with the item,then it would be worked out between buyer and seller before buyer left fedback. but......

It's not a perfect world.Good people do not need rules to tell them to act responcibly,while bad people will find a way around the rules or whats the moral thing to do.

Mishap-coin said:
"What I have seen that is wrong is when some start a new ebay name and begin to sell hundreds and hundreds of auctions for advice for say $.99 and alot of the times the sales are private. I can only imagine it is between a group that builds the positive feedback up to power-sellers level."

Using auctions just to create pos feedback is against ebay rules, IF reported, AND ebay agrees, they will shut down the auctions. Power seller status requires a certain dollar amount (around $1000.00 I think) sold per month. Not just feedback.

SE Said:
"When I buy an item I always pay via paypal immediately. What more can I do? As far as I am concerned, as a buyer, I have made this transaction as quick and simple as possible for the seller. I feel that should warrant a positive feedback."

Sure, but some sellers have run into unscrupulous buyers before. If a buyer were to switch items on me, and return it, I'd be up doodie creek, because Paypal would refund him, and I would be left the sucker. Waiting with feedback doesn't prevent this, but I am of the opinion it helps. SOMEONE has to leave feedback first. I don't mind doing that, as I said, if I know the buyer is happy, or has their item and hasn't said anything for a couple weeks.

"Many sellers do hold feedback hostage until they know what the buyer is going to do."

I've always thought "I'll leave for you what you leave for me" was bad. That used to be an easy way to tell the good sellers from the bad. But now, I see many respectable sellers doing that. I don't do that, and don't plan to start.

"As soon as I get the package, I open it, inspect it and immediately leave feedback. Many times the seller never bothers to return the favor and feedback is never left."

That's a shame. I feel I owe a paying buyer feedback. I have left far more feedback for buyers than buyers have left for me. I have many repeat buyers, so I don't think anyone is unhappy.

"Even if I am not completely satisfied with a purchase or seller, I will not leave a negative because that guarantees one in return even if you have done your part flawlessly."

True for the most part, but probably not 100%. The system is flawed. I can't think of a better one though.

The feedback system will always be flawed as long as it's tilted towards the buyer so heavily.

Buyers have the luxury of being able to scrutinize a seller's feedback before they bid. Seller's don't have that luxury, a buyer with 95.9% feedback can bid on your listing with a minute left and there's nothing you can do about it.

10 negatives doesn't penalize a savvy buyer one iota. One negative can crush a seller. Not a level playing field.

The first step in fixing the feedback system is to force buyers to care about their feedback score. Allow sellers to input a minimum feedback % and a minimum feedback received that is allowed to bid on their items. If the potential buyer is under either number stated by the seller they get an error message when they try to bid.

A buyer can say their not going to buy a coin from a seller with under 10 feedback or with 99.8% or lower percentage. Sellers have absolutely no say in the quality of buyer they deal with! That's absurd! A feedback extortionist can just keep buying, and buying, and buying, bidding at the end of an auction even though his feedback is 95%. As a seller you have no choice!

Right now, buyers have the freedom to pick who they deal with, sellers do not.

Bobby, I hope you know that I respect you and appreciate the home you have made for us here. At first, I was afraid to comment for that reason. I find that ironic because the feedback system is rife with users afraid of saying what they think for fear of retaliation (in this case, I guess the retaliation is you thinking less of me or being less friendly towards me).

You certainly raised some compelling points. I agree with your point that a transaction isn't truly over when the buyer pays. I've always thought it isn't over until the buyer is satisfied with the purchase or refund. After some of your anecdotes, I suppose I should append to that: or until the seller determines that the buyer is a complete bozo and washes his hands of him.

You also point out that fb is important for sellers to maintain and almost superfluous for buyers. Buyers scrutinize seller's fb; sellers can be powerless to do anything about bad buyers. For that reason, the seller's fb should be as accurate as possible. Buyers should leave negs and neutrals when they are deserved. IMO, anything that suppresses honest fb should be removed, and if a seller waits for a buyer's positive before leaving one, that is an impediment to honest fb.

I have shared several narratives about my own negative ebay experiences here. In the most recent one, the seller left me a positive when I paid. But I had a bad experience; the seller deserved a negative in my mind. So I left one for him. However, if he had waited for my feedback, I am certain that had I left a neg and he would have given me a retaliatory negative. Under that scenario, we both would have kept our powder dry, afraid of leaving feedback. Mutually Assured Destruction. Feedback system worthless.