Ebay idea for fixing feedback

[CGBusch]

I think there is a lot of ebayers here. What do you think of this idea. I recently had someone win an auction of mine but they never completed the deal. They had a 0 rating (new user). (In the future I'll cancel all 0 rated folks right away.) Anyways, I had to leave this guy negative feedback. He could retaliate and hurt my score. But he's a zero user. I think the feedback system should take into account the rating of the user when leaving feedback. I think the points should be awarded as such:
(feedbacker's feedback rating)/(average ebay feedback rating)

So a newbie leaves you feedback, it means very little but if an experience person leaves you feedback it means a lot.

-Chris

[Doug Kimball]

IMHO the Ebay feedback system is very flawed. Nothing to do with newbies or experienced users. In fact an experienced user with 100 percent positive feedback is probably even more reluctant to leave negative feedback & jeopradize his rating. As a seller I believe you can reply to negative feedback giving you last dibs.
My worst episode was a $8.00 cast iron spout for a windmill pump plus $9.83 shipping. Finally got contact information from Ebay after delivery promised but never sent 45 days after auction closed. Called contact number which was the mother of seller(70+ years old) who had 'loaned' her Ebay account to daughter who had been arrested & was in jail. Mother had Alzheimers I think. The mother & her daughter's kids were trying to straighten out the problem. After another couple of months she called to say she shipped my "oven" that day. I called & told her I wanted a pump spout. She asked me to forward oven to Missouri & she would send spout which was in her car. She called the next day to say UPS had intercepted oven & had redirected package to proper buyer 1200 miles away from me. She also said that she had sent my spout this day which arrived a few days later. Not the spout I had bought & unuseable. I gave up. Did I leave negative feedback? I could not as auction had expired 4 months previously. The mother had worked so hard I'm not sure I would have anyway.

[Bill Schaller]

you cannot fix the ebay feedback problem. If ebay went with your idea, than all old ebay sellers would have an open season on the newbies. and besides, a newbies money is just as important to them as yours is to you.

[Harry]

Some of my WORST eBay experiences have been with sellers with high feedback counts. The power sellers are the absolute worst because they think eBay is ALL theirs and they can do no wrong. On the other hand, buyers with zero or little feedback are cause for concern. I have one with a feedback of one who has not responded after bidding on an auction two weeks ago.

[Craig A]

The ones that irk ME are the ones who WAIT to see what kind of feedback YOU are going to leave for THEM before they will leave feedback you YOU.....and this IS the problem.
I ALWAYS leave feedback immediately upon the completion of MY end of the deal. As far as I'm concerned, a seller should not be permitted to continue selling untill ALL feedback has been posted for all their completed sales.

[Mark Congden]

Im with you on that one Craig! Mark Congden

[Bill Decker]

Ever see a eBay user that had feedback in negative numbers I've seen at least 2 in my travels. Now there's something to worry about.

[Keith Smigle]

Craig~

In the early days of eBay, you could leave feedback for any one, even if you had no business with them. And you could leave as many feedback for a person as you wanted. So you could call all of your friends with eBay accounts and every one leave positive feedback for every one else.
Ebay put an end to that eventually and created the item specific feedback.
Right now my feedback rating is 2337. That is 2337 positive feedback with a total positive feedback rating of 2703. So that is 2337 unique feedback and 366 multiple feedbacks for multi transactions with the same buyer/seller.
Now get this: If you check my total feedback left for others the number is 3195 feedbacks. So in other words, 492 buyers/sellers didn't bother to leave any feedback at all. Heck, that is more feedback than most people have all together! What a crock, especially considering I left them all a positive!

[Craig A]

I know Keith!!! THAT'S what torques me off!!!! I am totally honest in my photos and descriptions and have no fear of leaving feedback IMMEDIATELY. If some jerk wants to get into a peeing match I guess I can respond with MY side of the story. And SO WHAT if there are multiple purchases or dealings with a single party. What does THAT have do with their feedback, in effect, NOT counting??? Yeah, the totals are there but WHAT'S the distinction?? If you are a loser would they keep BUYING or SELLING to you?? HELL NO!!!!!

[ronm]

I have had one bad experience w/ebay, & after much deliberation decided to not leave the negative that the jerk deserved, just to avoid spoiling my own 100% positive. I read the guy's feedback, & he always retaliated w/some wild story whenever he was left a negative. This was over a Blake co-ax indicator, sold as "LIKE NEW", that came w/a bent shaft. It took 2 mo. to get my money back, & cost me freight to send it back to the factory to prove it was bad. First the seller tried to say it was OK, then he tried to say I damaged it, then finally blamed it on whoever he got it from. I don't know what Paypal threatened him with, but he finally agreed to take it back. Maybe I shouldn't worry so much about getting a negative, but I do kinda like that "100% positive" record...the guy dern sure deserved a negative. I don't know the solution, just my 2c...
Ron in CO...

[Jerry]

I do not know how to fix the problem, as for leaving Feedback if I am the Buyer I leave Feedback as soon as I receive the item and am satisfied..if not I contact the seller first. As a seller I leave the feedback after the Buyer has acknowledged receiving the item they purchased. By doing this I at least know the item has been received. And I also indicate in the Sale that feedback will be left after acknowledgement of receipt.

What really erks me is when sellers do not state in their auctions that they chage the Handling charge and how much it is.. I mean shipping by Priority Mail, Boxes, labels, tape are all free from the USPS>>>>>Old newspapers for Packing is free.... You can even use Click n Ship and USPS will pick up the Packages. Granted every now and again a special sized item requires a special box or some thing but why not state that up front. It seems that people use the S&H Charge to make a couple extra bucks...

Just my 50 cents worth

[KidDynamo]

Agreed that feedback is imperfect but no system would be worse, and fact is, it does keep all of us on our toes, whether we need prompting or not.

If you have enough transactions, you will eventually hit the "stinkpot", I suppose. Many people don't think very far down the road, for whatever reason. As a buyer, we all form some sort of non-verbal, non-intellectual "picture", for want of a better word, of what our mysterious seller is. In my case, oh yeah, everyone is a stand-up person with Solomon-esque judgement. Come to find out some are inexperienced children, some are adults that may never had "both oars in the water", and a few will be crooked, I 'spose. When our concocted seller "image" collapses, as it always will to some degree, we feel let down. Then come the bad vibes.

As implied in earlier posts, contacting the seller courteously is a good next step. Many times, the seller didn't put as much thought into their actions and will be glad to make a correction, but don't be surprized when you hear the same old excuses, example, "my dog ate it", or "my grandmother just died".

Probably, a lot of the excuse are a "fig leaf"; on the otherhand if you have a couple hundred transactions, by golly, somebody WILL have their grandmother die, whether they tell you or not.

I've bought a couple of AB-33 American Bosch mags. One was from close by but the shipping was twice what it cost to go 1/2 way cross the continent. When I asked him about it, he knocked half the cost of the shipping off. Without disclosing it in the listing, he had U.P.S. come to his house and pick up his out-going packages, because "I live 10 miles from the Post Office, and U.P.S. charges for this".

I felt like saying: "Well I'm sure glad you didn't hire somebody for $15/hour to tape up the box" Grrrrrrrrrrr. When the mag showed up, it had a horseshoe magnet instead of the original flat magnets, though his clever photos didn't show this, I saw the "deception" but took a chance on it. LOL

That is NOT one of my horror stories!! As much as I appreciate "the Stack", eBay has been a very great source of parts and has allowed me to do some horsetrading. I try to play some "lowball" and this has allowed me to go to our few local engine and tractor swap meets and sell a few things. There isn't a lot of local stuff for sale and I get a lot of interest! Wouldn't you know it, though, every time I sell, a few things get stolen, arrrggh. Okay, whoooo did it???

[Dewey]

Originally Posted by Craig Anderson

The ones that irk ME are the ones who WAIT to see what kind of feedback YOU are going to leave for THEM before they will leave feedback you YOU.....and this IS the problem.
I ALWAYS leave feedback immediately upon the completion of MY end of the deal. As far as I'm concerned, a seller should not be permitted to continue selling untill ALL feedback has been posted for all their completed sales.

I would DEFINITALY agree!! eBay sellers who wait for for buyers - I will NOT do business with! They have shipped there item, it is paid for, what are they waiting on?? They have done there deal, if it's slow shipping or a crappy product - as a buyer, we should not have to be afraid of getting our scores hurt due to negative or neutral feedback of a crampy product. Are they forgetting who the customer truly is????

[Gene Fisher]

I started ebay in 1999 and at that time they did not allow over 5 or 6 negative feedbacks and you were deleted. Now I notice people with over 100 bad feedbacks. Why the change of heart ? $$$$$$$$$$$$ I have over 250 sales and purchases on ebay and two jerks, one who did not like the shipping charges that were stated in the ad and the other a fellow when I sent the item and it was stated the item was a copy of the original, wanted his money back. I used to kind of regret negative feedback but just had a man who won my item and never paid. I left him a negative and I do not care if he responds. Ebay is a tool to use and not all tools stay sharp and ready for work so we work with what we have and hope for something better. Ebay needs some competition to help them as all of us deal with that on a daily basis, then they would see the world in the real light.

[Qucat]

Hi All, my first time to Smoke stack. We have a problem with Feedback as every disapears after 90 days and we often don't get our goods by surface mail in that time frame. Some must go via China on a slow boat!!I have bought a lot of parts from USA and and all bare one have been as desribed, and that was a Magneto which had no points!! I hadn't asked had I. I currently have have 2 manuals from different sellers that are over 90 days and have no comeback on insurance and can't leave feed back when they arrive. Should perhaps Ebay make this Period Longer? Lance

[Havvey]

yes i have and some have been booted

[Franz©]

I just encountered a seller who waited till he could withdraw the PayPal payment from his bank account before he would ship. I paid an hour after the auction ended on the18th, PayPal shows the money in his account on the 18th, and the withdrawl from his account on the 24th. Then, he came up with an excuse he couldn't ship till the 27th cause he missed the UPS pickup.

You can bet that seller will get scathing feedback, and if he doesn't like it too bad, I also get to respond to his comments. Ebay is getting so bad I hardly look there any more. I can often get better deals on Froogle.

[Craig A]

There was, in today's Milwaukee Journal Sentinal, a story about Ebay and how people are becoming ticked off with Ebay....particularly appox. 800 store front owners who account for over a BILLION $ in sales.
Increased fees and poor customer support were the two big issues...and there are others.
Frankly, since I get on chat here later at night I have barely even BEEN to Ebay for a while and guess what..........I don't miss it.........and I'm not spending money I WISH I had!!!
Craig

[Andrew Albrecht]

If i am not misstaken you can set an option when you list your item to prohibit ebayers with zero ratings and and even negative feed back ratings from bidding.

[Franz©]

Well, I just LOVE this crap from ePay, the pump arrived today, and the seller enclosed a printout of the PayPal notice he received.
PayPal is now advising sellers to NOT ship for several days to be certain the payment has cleared. What a crock of crap this is. PayPal is making a ton of money in addition to their fees by slow processing payments, and making sellers look bad if they take PayPal's advice.