posted on June 3, 2003 05:23:02 PM new
Hi everyone!
Started my day off with neutral that was left for me overnight. I've spent the day mulling it over and can't quite decide how to respond. My feedback is 961 with 3 neutrals (that includes the one last night) and zero negs. The other two neutrals were for items that although well packed, were damagaged in enroute to the customer. (They were both from a time when I left feedback right after the person paid. Those two neutrals were a wake up and I changed to waiting till the item arrived.)
I know it's only a neutral and there are more pressing issues. But it still ticks me off that they didn't at least send an email with their concerns.
I've thought about just letting it go and not leaving feedback for them. They have been a member since 1999 and have 30 positives. The neutral was along the lines of "described as new open box item, appears used, works fine." This was for an item I sold in March.
Any comments...
posted on June 3, 2003 05:40:01 PM new
At least return the neutral feedback. If it was from an auction back in March then you are running out of time to leave any feedback at all.
posted on June 3, 2003 06:31:14 PM new
You are going to receive a lot of different opinions on this one. My personal opinion is that 99.9% of all problems can be resolved through communications between reasonable people. Anyone who would smear your profile without first contacting you is begging for a neg. It would actually be a service to any future sellers he may deal with and it might teach him to try to work out future problems first before resorting to bad feedback. As Jackswebb says " a neutral is a neg in sheeps clothing". You might also email him first and find out why it took him almost three months to discover there might have been a problem.
The light at the end of the tunnel will turn out to be an oncoming train.
posted on June 3, 2003 06:42:12 PM new
Ah, a kinder more gentler board, round table has me a bit over wound. LOL! Well, here's my two cents. Although the neutral with no prior communication would tick me off, especially tonight, I don't think I'd leave a neg. Although I'd be awfully tempted to that would appear retalitory to other bidders who may check the type of feedback you leave for others. I would leave a neutral stating that problems were not communicated to you prior to leaving feedback or something that would indicate you are always willing to assist when there are problems. That, at least to me, would give other bidders the idea that you are willing to work out any problems they may have with an item they buy. JMO.
Cheryl
My religion is simple, my religion is kindness.
--Dalai Llama
posted on June 3, 2003 11:20:59 PM new
I only leave positives or negatives. I'm not neutral about anything, especially when it comes to money and my online selling reputation. So, I ask myself if the overall transaction was a positive one for me, or a negative one?
I also ask whether I did anything wrong, or whether I deserved the comment left for me. If so, I take my lumps.
Then, I think about what steps the buyer took to communicate their concerns to me, and to allow me to make things right with them. If the first I'm hearing about it is in feedback, then that is not a positive selling experience for me. eBay has warning screens that encourage us to communicate and try to work things out before leaving non-positive feedback, so I assume they knew what they were doing.
posted on June 3, 2003 11:50:59 PM new
Do you really believe very many buyers are going to look at the feedback left by the sellers for others? I receive around 15-25 feedbacks a day, so a neutral or negative go off the page very quickly. I really doubt that even .1% of buyers would really care when they see my 99.7% positive feedback on my power seller account...
Here is how I look at it (and I know some will say I am being retalitory, and I don't care!!) - When you leave neutral or negative for someone, you actually get a warning that advises you to try to work out the problem with the person before leaving feedback. You have to click on OK after you read this message. I also have a message on my invoice that tells the buyer that I want them to contact me with any problems, as I sell used items that can have problems.
I get really annoyed with a buyer who does not try to contact me about a problem and leaves me neutral or negative feedback. I had one of each in the past couple of days (and the negative was from a newbie who has been on ebay for less than a month) - I gave them both negatives in return, because in both cases they did not try to contact me and just went to poor feedback. I also don't see a need to return a neutral for a neutral. I think both neutrals and negatives can harm my business, and should be dealt with appropriately. If they contact me, and either we work it out or don't, I probably would not leave poor feedback unless they were a real jerk. It is the non contact thing that seals the deal for me, and will get a negative from me.
posted on June 4, 2003 09:50:08 AM new
Sounds about right. Many negatives from buyers may be 'crimes of passion' where they lose it and hit the negative button and hastily leave the feedback without thinking about working out the problem. They deserve the return negative to teach them that that was a bad course of action that they took.
The omni-prescent feedback percentage ranking is an interesting thing and people probably use it in many different ways. I really like the new percentage setup as I can tell at a glance the general quality of the seller. If the rating is below 95%-97% then I scutinize the rating and see how old the negatives and neutrals are before placing a bid. The new percentage feedback rating is one of the best innovations that ebay has come up with in my opinion.
posted on June 4, 2003 10:49:23 AM new
I would return the favor with a neutral - something like "Seller's Beware - Poor Communication". Sometimes that's just the wake up call ebay buyers need to make them realize that sellers do care about their reputations.
posted on June 4, 2003 03:33:03 PM new
i would leave no feedback until I could think clearly, a couple of days, then do what I felt was right.
if he paid promptly and emailed soon after end of auction, I would probably leave a positive..but that is just me "paid promptly, but would not deal with again"
I would respond to the neutral he left with "did not contact me with problem, will not deal with again".
posted on June 4, 2003 08:22:54 PM new
Thank you all for your input. I thought it through and decided to respond to my neutral with "Was never contacted about the issue, never given a chance to take care of it." and then responded with a neutral for them with the same "No contact about problem nor given chance to rectify before leaving feedback".
Although I must admit, I started to leave a neg instead of a neutral after the screen popped up asking me if I was sure I wanted to leave this feedback. They had to go through the same screen detailing the same Are You Sure? questions. One of the statements even asks you to make sure you contact the other party to work things out before leaving this feedback. But they proceeded.
Anyway... I blocked them and will move on to more pressing issues. Which right about now is getting some sleep.
