The great ebay feedback debate. Your opinion?

[disneysteve]

This issue comes up regularly at another board and I thought I'd throw it out for discussion here. When dealing on ebay, when do you leave feedback? Answer both as a buyer and as a seller.

As a buyer, I leave feedback upon receiving the item and being satisfied with it.

As a seller, I feel the transaction is not complete until the buyer has received the item and is satisfied with it, so I don't leave feedback until I get feedback from the buyer. I indicate this in a short thank-you letter I enclose with each shipment.

My problem, however, is that not all buyers leave feedback. After a certain amount of time, I assume that they received the item safely since I haven't heard from them. If something was wrong, the item never arrived or arrived damaged, I figure they would have contacted me. So at that point, I will usually go back and leave feedback even if I got none from them. They held up their end of the deal by paying promptly, so I feel that should be acknowledge even if they didn't choose to acknowledge my participation in the deal.

What do you all think?

[sweeps]

I never leave feedback until a buyer leaves feedback. It's your only leverage in case a buyer negs you.

As a buyer I always leave feedback.

[krayziebone33]

First off, I've had very few sellers leave feedback for me before I leave feedback for them. That's usually how sellers do it on ebay in my experience.

As for me personally, I usually leave feedback as a buyer once I receive the item and attempt to use it. If it was described as a brand new item, then I make sure its in the original packaging and the whole 9.

As a seller, I leave feedback once the buyer leaves feedback for me. I make sure to ask that they contact me should any problems arise before leaving negative feedback. Fortunately, I have received all positive feedback, and once I see that, I leave feedback for the buyer.

[mike42]

As a seller, I have always left feedback as soon as the buyer pays and gives me their shipping address. I had never really thought of doing anything else, but you guys make some good points about holding back. (Maybe about 5% of people have not left me feedback... and I always just figured that was because they were really new to Ebay).

As a buyer, I leave feedback after I receive the item.

[Caoineag]

As a buyer, I leave feedback as soon as I receive the item and have used it for a little bit. Most of the sellers I have used left feedback as soon as they received my money.

[Snowgirl]

As a buyer, I always leave feedback after I received the item, inspected it (really sealed, brand new is brand new, not used a bit, minimal damage, ...), and tried it. Nowadays, most sellers wait before I give feedback to replicate, which I doesn't like very much (sorry Steve!), but 3-4 years ago most did give feedback right after I've paid.

I really equate the feedback "hostage" by the sellers as a "If you give me a negative, then you will get one for complaining!". I know not all sellers think like that, but that's what it feels like sometimes, and it makes me wary to put a neutral or less stellar comment on transactions where the item was not in that "perfect" condition but otherwise OK.

On the other hand, I like very much the new 5 stars system with specific points that is anonymous, and I check it out if available on a seller. There I can say that communication was only 3-4 stars if answers took a few days, or I got answers when enquiring after shipping data (I know it can take a while, but I like to know that "it's in the mail!").

[disneysteve]

As a buyer, I always leave feedback after I received the item, inspected it (really sealed, brand new is brand new, not used a bit, minimal damage, ...), and tried it. Nowadays, most sellers wait before I give feedback to replicate, which I doesn't like very much (sorry Steve!), but 3-4 years ago most did give feedback right after I've paid.

Thanks. This is exactly the usual source of debate.

As a seller, I don't feel the transaction is complete when I get the buyer's payment. As far as I'm concerned, the transaction isn't complete until the buyer receives the item and is satisfied. I don't want to leave feedback mid-way through the transaction.

The only way I know the buyer has received the item and is satisfied is by the buyer leaving me feedback. That's why I wait until I get feedback to post feedback for the buyer. I'm not trying to hold anyone hostage over their feedback. I'm trying to be sure the buyer is happy and the transaction is finished before leaving feedback.

[cschin4]

As a buyer I usually leave feedback. However, sometimes I just don't want to be bothered. The item is fine and I have better things to do than play on the computer. No news is good news!

[disneysteve]

No news is good news!

And that's why after a few weeks, I will go back and post feedback even if I didn't receive any from the buyer. By then, I figure things are ok.

[threebeansalad]

As a seller, I leave feedback after I get payment. I kinda think that by that point, the buyer has done all that they should do to make me happy, so I should leave their feedback.

As a buyer, I wait until I get the item.

I admit, sometimes I just forget to leave feedback as both buyer and seller.

Here's another question-- when do you leave negative feedback? I never have, although I'm had some less than positive dealings. In these cases, I leave no feedback at all. In both situations, the issue was eventually resolved, so it wasn't exactly negative, but it wasn't positive either. I suppose I could have left neutral ratings.

In the first incident, the person sent me the wrong dress. I had to ship it back to her and wait for her to ship me the right dress. She clearly stated she wouldn't mail MY dress until she received the wrong dress back. I understand she wanted the dress back, but why should I have to wait while her mistake got sorted out? She re-imbursed for the shipping, but it caused a delay and a hassle.

The second incident was a book I ordered from half.com from a large seller. I never received the book. They re-reimbursed me and said it must have been lost in the mail, but I suspect it was never sent because they advertise books they don't really have in stock.

[nanamom]

As a buyer, I wait until the item is in my hand and I know it works. If there is a problem that the seller resolve correctly or at least as best they can I leave positive feedback. Anyone can make a mistake, I appreciate it when they fix their mistake. As a seller I wait to hear from the buyer. If there is a problem I resolve it. If I don't hear from them in a month I leave them feedback and assume it is OK. I have been tempted to leave negative feedback but am afraid of retaliation. My record is 100% and I want to keep it. I am in a dispute right now where I never received the item and the seller doesn't seem to care. She says she printed the shipping label and that proves she mailed it. I have never not received an item before. We'll see what paypal says. I ordered a shipment of 48 books and has several listed that weren't in it as well as some duplicates. It also took forever to get here. The problem was never resolved and I never left negative feedback because I was afraid she would leave it for me. I was wrong I'm sure.

[disneysteve]

when do you leave negative feedback? I never have, although I'm had some less than positive dealings. In these cases, I leave no feedback at all. In both situations, the issue was eventually resolved, so it wasn't exactly negative, but it wasn't positive either. I suppose I could have left neutral ratings.

In the first incident, the person sent me the wrong dress. I had to ship it back to her and wait for her to ship me the right dress. She clearly stated she wouldn't mail MY dress until she received the wrong dress back. I understand she wanted the dress back, but why should I have to wait while her mistake got sorted out? She re-imbursed for the shipping, but it caused a delay and a hassle.

The second incident was a book I ordered from half.com from a large seller. I never received the book. They re-reimbursed me and said it must have been lost in the mail, but I suspect it was never sent because they advertise books they don't really have in stock.

I don't think either of those situations warranted a negative. In both cases, the problem was resolved. I reserve negative feedback for transactions that are never resolved in a satisfactory way. As a buyer, if I never receive the item or something is wrong with the item and the buyer doesn't rectify the problem, I will leave a neg. As a seller, if the buyer never pays for the item, I will leave a neg.

[Gruntina]

I am really bad at giving feedback. Mainly because I purchase something from eBay like once a year or something. I am very quick with paying which often result in an immediate feedback response from sellers. I have the idea in my head to provide feedback once I get my item shipped to me. But after a week or so, I just put off providing feedback because normally I do not like to be on the computer at home since I am on it all day at work. I limit 10 minutes at lunch to personal and that’s the time I use to look at this site. About 75 percent of the time I leave feedback. I know it’s horrible but if I only use ebay like once a year, it’s not something that I ease into and out of easily.

[DebbieL]

I've never been a seller, but when I used to buy off eBay, I would leave feedback after I received the item (sometimes great feedback, sometimes only average, once or twice a complaint).

[jodi]

I once received a note from a seller stating something to the effect of "I will not leave feedback for you until you leave it for me - and if it's negative, you'll get the same". Even though the transaction went well, I don't think I even bothered. What an attitude. Feedback should be reflective of the transaction, not retaliatory. As a buyer, I try to leave it as soon as possible after I receive the satisfactory item (though I sometimes forget - I just left some today for Christmas presents I bought a month ago!). I sell so rarely that I don't really have a policy, but my thoughts are to leave it after the buyer pays. As soon as they pay, the burden is on the seller to complete the transaction - the buyer's part is done.