Feedback at a glance: understand eBay feedback

What is feedback

eBay's Feedback system is the way that you have to know whether a seller is trustworthy. It consists of a rating and a short comment. The ratings determine an eBayer's profile.

By clicking on the eBayer's ID, you can read all the comments that the eBayer has received regarding a transaction, whether as a buyer or as a seller.

Types of feedback comments

The comments can be positive, negative or neutral. When to use which one?

If a transaction goes smooth, that is you receive correspondence from the seller, your item arrives promptly and it is as described, then positive feedback should be left. The seller will reply with a positive comment too.

Examples of positive comments are:

"Product as described, good seller" "WOW! Can't say how impressed I am in so few words! Top Bloke"

If there is something definitely wrong in the transaction, such as receiving an item which is clearly not as described, and the seller doesn't respond to emails, you can post a negative comment.

However, remember that before leaving any negative comment you should try to communicate with the seller to resolve it. Instead of immediately posting a negative comment when your jar comes broken into pieces, write a polite email to the seller asking for what you want (a refund, for example) and you will find that most sellers are more than willing to co-operate. They want to avoid that you post a negative comment.

If you are to use negative comments, make them necessary as a warning for other eBayers. For example: "Item arrived broken, seller refused to refund. Very uncooperative" "Payment cheque bounced and buyer didn't respond to emails for two months. Beware"

The neutral comments don't affect the feedback rating, but they show that the eBayer who left the comment wasn't utterly satisfied about the transaction. For example: "Seller doesn't respond to emails, shipping took very long. Avoid" "Bidder made high bid and never payed nor responded to emails. Gone. Avoid"

who leaves feedback first?

Many people on eBay seem to think that the seller is the one who leaves feedback first, as soon as the transaction goes through. This is not quite right.

The item has to still arrive to the customer, and the customer, obviously, needs to be satisfied with the item. Therefore, the buyer is the one that posts the feedback first, as soon as he is happy with the transaction. If he is not, he should first contact the seller to try to resolve the issue in a more convenient way than leaving a negative comment, and use this way as the last resort.

From their side, all the seller wants is that the customer is happy and leaves positive feedback, so he can do the same. A seller is not going to leave negative feedback if the payment goes correctly (which is easily done).

An eye for an eye

We are humans and we fall into foolish things just by following our feelings. Retaliatory negative comments are comments which simply reply with anger to another comment, usually negative, but fair up to a degree. As the feedback comments are permanent, we should not fall into retaliatory comments, but just use a negative reply if really needed. Sometimes it is much better not to respond to a negative comment at all.

Mutual withdrawn of negative feedback

Sometimes a seller and a buyer leave each other negative feedback, and then they resolve the issue later. That negative feedback can be removed, if both seller and buyer agree on it.

For having the feedback removed they need to contact eBay within 30 days of either eBayer leaving feedback or within 90 days of the transaction end date.

Follow up to feedback

A follow up gives you the opportunity to respond to the feedback comments that had been left for you in your profile. That means that you can give your point of view over a transaction.

For example, the buyer leaves you a negative comment: "Stupid seller, didn't ship for a month, didn't respond to emails"

You can respond to it with a follow up of this tone (given it's true): "Had to suddenly go to care for my ill grandfather. Away for a month. Sorry!"

Conclusion

The whole point of the feedback comments is that other potential buyers can read them and therefore observe how the seller deals with their transactions. So don't fall into revengeful comments or comments that say nothing about the actual transaction. Stick to the facts, and be polite. In the end, remember that you're dealing with other human beings behind the computer, just like you.

Comments? Questions? Email Here

© HowtoAdvice.com

How to Advice .com