It’s sort of a moot point at Amazon, since hardly any of the buyers know what buyer feedback is. But over at eBay, feedback is a totally different animal. At eBay, feedback is a seller’s entire reputation, and buyers pay attention to their own feedback too.
At Amazon, sellers piggyback on Amazon’s reputation somewhat. Half of the buyers don’t even realize they’re buying from a third party on Marketplace. And it’s pretty obvious that Amazon prefers to hide buyer feedback because it doesn’t want to irritate any of those buyers. Perhaps Amazon feels it can’t afford to lose a longtime customer who may bolt from Amazon completely if they feel insulted after getting a bad rating from a seller.
Now there’s speculation that eBay is thinking of going even further than Amazon — by forcing sellers to leave positive feedback for buyers who pay promptly. As Ina Steiner writes at AuctionBytes:
The etiquette of leaving feedback has been debated for years, such as the question of who should leave feedback first – buyer or seller – and when. Those who leave feedback first often feel their trading partner then has the upper hand and can wield the threat of negative feedback as a weapon unless their demands — reasonable or not — are satisfied.
eBay has been surveying buyers about whether they’d like automatic positive feedback. Some sellers believe the cake is already baked — that eBay is going ahead with this, and is doing the survey only as a formality.
This would fit in with eBay’s recent emphasis on fixed-price transactions and no-hassle buying at eBay Express. But no wonder rank-and-file sellers are livid about the idea of automatic positives for buyers.
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12 Comments
I used to leave positive feedback upon payment–if they paid on time, but then I had 3 or 4 cases in a short span of time where the buyer held the threat of negative feedback over my head–for various reasons–one buyer took over a week to pay but still expected his book yesterday, another buyer was unhappy with the book but would not send it back even with a pre paid shipping label, another buyer said that they didn’t receive the book despite the signature confirmation with their sig, another buyer said that the box was empty, when I checked this buyer’s feedback it was a scam that they had pulled b4 with other sellers who had already left feedback–what could I do?
So now, I wait until I know the buyer is satisfied with their purchase–Since doing this I have not had these kinds of problems with buyers.
I have to file at least 1 unpaid item transaction a month, what happens in these situations? Will the buyer still get a positive feedback even though it took them 2 weeks to pay? Some of these buyers get irratated over an unpaid notice being filed, now they will be more likely to leave a negative just for that.
I suppose if I still sell on Ebay Ill just have to take the Chance of Negative feedback and not be a slave to it.
As primarily a buyer on eBay, I used to believe that my responsibility had been filled upon timely payment and that I deserved positive feedback at that point. While I realize that feedback is optional, I resented and would not deal with sellers who insisted they would leave positive feedback only AFTER the buyer had done the same. Now however, so many tales like the one above have convinced me that there are juast as many scam buyers as scam sellers out there. Fortunately, my rating is high enough that I really dont worry about it anymore, one way or the other.
There is actually buyer feedback at amazon, it’s just that pretty much nobody knows about it.
If you go to any order you have made in your seller account, you will see a button that says ‘leave buyer feedback’.
There are only a couple of reasons that leaving buyers feedback is helpful in online trading. The biggest reason is on -payment and that is irrelevent at amazon since payment is automatic.
The reason that it could be useful, if used, at amazon, is to find buyers who are trying to cheat sellers by making false claims (my book did not show up, the post office damaged it, etc).
Whenever a buyer receives a refund from me because a book did not arrive, I give them a five out of five (because I want to assume they are honest) and leave the comment “book did not arrive to this buyer; provided full refund from our store”. If a seller were to ever go to this buyer’s feedback page, they would see my feedback and maybe others if this buyer had a history of “missing books”.
This doesn’t happen now because so few sellers or buyers know about the feature, but it could be useful if a few more sellers knew. I just don’t want amazon to make buyer feedback as visible as at e-bay, because I really don’t want to deal with giving hundreds of buyer feedbacks when the vast majority of the time there is no reason to do so at amazon.
I think it would be great to be able to have a place for seller’s to give a “head’s up” about buyers…how many buyers routinely complain about a book, knowing that the seller will try to keep them happy by offering some sort of compensation, such as a refund, etc.
Then there are the buyers who don’t want to be pleased, the ones who would rather just “teach you a lesson” by leaving negative feedback and refusing to retract it no matter what is offered.
If there was a place on Amazon we could log those types of issues about buyers, and all sellers AND buyers knew about it and could check, like on EBAY, it might help to cut down on the scammers and the “punishers”.
The way it is now, it’s pretty one-sided.
Too many eBay sellers hold buyers hostage to positive feedback. I’m glad to see eBay contemplating this change in policy.
I’ve encountered sellers who say in their item description they have software that automatically leaves the same feedback for buyers as the buyer for the seller.
That renders the feedback system irrelevant, in my opinion, and I won’t buy from a seller like that.
Nor will I buy from a seller who says upfront he or she will leave feedback after the buyer has left feedback.
Of course there are buyers who will pay promptly and then become unreasonable later, but I usually pay within minutes of winning an auction, unless I’m away from home, in which case, I pay within a few hours of the auction’s end.
The only complaints about eBay sellers I’ve ever had were those who charged high shipping charges and promised to send Priority or UPS, and then shipped the item via Parcel Post or Media Mail, and thus it took weeks for me to receive it.
A friend posted a negative response about a seller who “forgot” to send her item and then (verified by postmark date) mailed a broken one after she inquired about it.
He posted a negative feedback in retaliation that claims she failed to pay and then “harangued” him about the item.
She should not have that blot on her feedback, just because the seller did a poor job.
I don’t feel the need to leave feedback for Amazon buyers, except that when I receive a feedback from a buyer, I always post a “Thank you for your order and for the 5 of 5 feedback” on the buyer’s feedback, not as a response in my own feedback.
It’s irrelevant, of course, as few people know about buyer feedback or see it, including the buyer.
The only complaints I have about Amazon’s feedback system is their refusal to remove feedback that is obviously not related to the seller’s performance, such as when the buyer complains he or she didn’t like the book or that the book was overpriced for the number of pages.
I don’t even have a huge problem with buyers who leave negative feedback because of poor performance by USPS.
Although USPS is beyond my control, packaging and shipping appropriately, as well as helping a buyer navigate the USPS’ tracking system, is something I can do.
I may not *deserve* a negative if the USPS loses the book, but to provide good service requires I accept responsibility when the shipper doesn’t fulfill its obligation properly.
( added to first anon comment)
I should also say that that when I was leaving feedback automatically on payment, I was lucky to get even 40% of buyers to leave feedback in return, since I switched til waiting to know if the buyer was satisfied–my feedback rate is close to 80%.
My listings don’t state anything about when I leave feedback, honestly I go through once a week and leave feedback accordingly.
Perhaps e-bay should also require buyers to leave positive feedback once the item has been shipped.
The transaction is not complete when the buyer pays, or when the seller ships but rather when the buyer has received their item and is content with the transaction. Feedback left should reflect the overall satisfaction or lack thereof, with the entire transaction and while prompt payment is one aspect of this it would be premature to leave feedback before the entire transaction is complete with the approval of both parties. Being both a buyer and seller on e-bay I have found that leaving feedback as a buyer first is the best way to signal my satisfaction and the completion of the deal.
There has been buyer Feedback for 6+ years taht I am aware of – being a MP Buyer before a Seller.
Also you must click a level below the {0} FB a buyers name shows. The [0] is only a Seller Rating – below that is their FB.
Although AZ isn’t eBay, due to Students, Foreigners and other A-Z Policy Abusers – who are using loopholes to screw honest Sellers I would like to knwo what to expect from a potential Buyer before I ship, and not be penalized by AZ if I decide not to.
To see if a buyer has claimed “shipment not received”, in an instance where the Seller reminbured outside of A-Z guarantee so their own “Performance Rating” wouldn’t suffer.
There are far more serious issues which will reach a head now that holiday time is upon us and a pending textbook season.
I am annoyed at AZ – but I am doing 2 to 1 against them elsewhere and on my own site – glad I start planning as zShops closed and Collectible Collusion and Price Fixing struck.
Most AZ Sellers – are “part-time” [have day jobs - with only a cogs-eye view, or scouters with only a knowledge base of reading what a barcode scan tells them] with no solid book selling or publishing industry overview and experience. Not being truly entrepreneurial, and really running a full time biz, the really depp issues are and will be overlooked, and not mentioned or broached.
“I’ve encountered sellers who say in their item description they have software that automatically leaves the same feedback for buyers as the buyer for the seller.
That renders the feedback system irrelevant, in my opinion, and I won’t buy from a seller like that.”
Oh, give me a break. I don’t have time to putz around all day on eBay and leave buyers feedback the second they pay. I’m running a business, not sitting around obsessing over my feedback rating.
Please don’t buy from me, as I don’t want to process your payment, ship your item, send you a confirmation with tracking and then get three emails from you begging, “Where’s my feedback, where’s my feedback, please leave feedback.” Blegh.
Personally I think feedback is irrelevant after you get several hundred positive transactions — it’s obvious the person does good business and occasionally human error factors in, as with anything else.
In any case, you’re a buyer, not a seller. Unless you have some negative feedback that you’re trying to counteract, please tell my how my immediate posting of positive feedback will help you? Because what: sellers aren’t going to sell to you if you have 362 positive feedback instead of 363?
DITTO Bookfinder
While leaving buyer feedback on Amazon is useless, I would like the ability to block certain buyers from buying from me. There are certain buyers I would like to NEVER EVER deal with again.
I think feedback for Ebay buyers is irrelevant, apart from making them feel good about themselves.
As a seller, I’d rather know how many Unpaid Item Disputes, Strikes and Paypal Disputes a buyer has been involved in – THAT would tell me far more, and allow me to be proactive if necessary – than the standard churned out positive FB that buyers receive.
And I’m guilty of doing that too – like The Bookfinder, I’m running a business, not massaging Ebay buyer’s egos by giving them a green dot just because they paid for something.