EBAY Feedback Question

[supermike80 1,898]

This is a little old but still bugs me.

I bought a PC Game through EBAY. The description was that the game was in good condition. I won the bid and got the product. It definitely was NOT in good condition. It was usable(found out later thank goodness) but totally destroyed the purpose which was to give it as a gift( and yes, the receiver was to be told it was from EBAY, I was not trying to pawn it off as new). The box was mangled(which I expect from used games--no biggie) and the disc was scratched heavily(NOT EXPECTED)

So I left "neutral" feedback on this seller saying the CD was not in good condition and it took a couple weeks for him to even ship the damn thing.

He went off. Saying I should have contacted him and so on. I countered by saying I didn't think it was right for him to claim something was in good condition, when it clearly was not. Regardless of the fact I could have received a refund, the product was not as advertised-period. It was a gift and going through the hassle of returning it, spending my time for something that was not as advertised seemed wrong to me.

 

Of course he left me negative feedback.....which I could give two sheets about.

Was I wrong to give neutral feedback? By the way his rating is 98.9% of 178 items, so I am obviously not the only one on this.

[pingpong 0]

You should have first tried to resolve it with him. Using the feedback as your way to tell him you were unhappy will get you nowhere.

 

That being said, you were wrong not to leave him negative feedback. WTF is neutral? You don't care that he sold you a crapass product?

[redtodd 7]

I guess when I think of "Good" condition, I think of the baseball cards and comic book ratings. Good is actually kind of so-so of a condition. I usually cared whether it was mint or near mint with "very good" being my bottom. If it said good condition, I would expect some wear on it.

[edjr 6,580]

ebay feedback is the biggest scam ever.

 

the person that SELLS should be automatically required to give feedback once the item has been paid for.

 

focking scam

[davebg 0]

You should have first tried to resolve it with him.

See, this is one thing I never understand about Ebay people. Whenever I hear this I can't help but let it convince me that Ebay is a total focking scam. It's almost as if it's an unwritten rule of Ebay that sellers are free to try to misrepresent and rip off people...waiting for the buyer to complain and then the seller will make good, but if the buyer doesn't bother to complain, well, good for the seller b/c they just pulled a fast one. Then, the seller gets mad about any rating that isn't 100% positive.

 

Here's an idea, don't be so shady when selling stuff on Ebay.

[davebg 0]

ebay feedback is the biggest scam ever.

 

the person that SELLS should be automatically required to give feedback once the item has been paid for.

 

focking scam

I am in 100% agreement. The buyer has one and only one responsibility to the seller and that's to pay on time. If the buyer pays on time, then the seller should be forced to give a positive rating to the buyer.

 

The fact that a seller can leave negative feedback about a buyer, even after they paid on time, simply because the seller doesn't like getting called out for not being "as advertised" is total horse sh|t.

[yostevo 0]

Was I wrong to give neutral feedback?

 

Not wrong per say, but you didn't follow the protocol that a lot of people ask you to. It's kinda like going to your local grocery store and buying something that turns out to be spoiled in the box. Do you take it back and ask for a refund/new one or do you just stand outside their door with a picket sign saying how bad or "neutral" their service is and basically don't shop with them.

 

That's what feedback ends up being for the seller.

 

I tend to agree with you on leaving feedback as you see fit but I also see the flip side. There are a-hole buyers who will fock u over because they are morons.

[davebg 0]

Not wrong per say, but you didn't follow the protocol that a lot of people ask you to. It's kinda like going to your local grocery store and buying something that turns out to be spoiled in the box. Do you take it back and ask for a refund/new one or do you just stand outside their door with a picket sign saying how bad or "neutral" their service is and basically don't shop with them.

 

That's what feedback ends up being for the seller.

 

I tend to agree with you on leaving feedback as you see fit but I also see the flip side. There are a-hole buyers who will fock u over because they are morons.

A couple of comments:

 

1. It seems to me that sellers who try to pull shady deals shouldn't expect buyers to follow "protocol" when they feel they've been wronged.

 

2. I'm not a big fan of your analogy. I always thought of the feedback in Ebay as a "word of mouth" kind of thing. If I bought some spoiled meat at my grocery store, I'd probably mention it to my neighbors (well, maybe not to the dog sh|t lady...that crapper busting fatty can get mad cow disease for all I care.)

 

3. I concede your point about stoopid people leaving bad feedback for no reason, but that's the format that the seller agreed to and, let's be honest, if you don't have the people skills to deal with people, particularly customers, then maybe you shouldn't be in consumer sales (which is largely what Ebay is.)

 

Disclaimer: I have only ever bought one thing on Ebay and it was a craptastic set of poker chips. It was a total rip off. The stickers/labels on the chips fell off b/c they didn't lie flat due to a "bump" in the middle of the chip from the manufacturing process. Of course, this "bump" also meant that the chips didn't stack properly. Yes, the seller offered to return my money, but it was one of those scams where you pay virtually nothing for the product and like $30+ for the shipping. So, great, this guy will refund what I paid for the goods, which wouldn't cover my shipping expenses back to him and he keeps what he overcharged me on the shipping. Then, this doosh gets mad b/c I gave him a negative review and told everyone how craptastic his goods were. Hence, my opinion of Ebay.

[yostevo 0]

A couple of comments:

 

1. It seems to me that sellers who try to pull shady deals shouldn't expect buyers to follow "protocol" when they feel they've been wronged.

As a seller, I absolutely agree that alls you need to do is run an honest ad and there should not be any problems. However,the problem is that some people are just real stupid. A lot of people will not even read the ad in it's entirety or fail to see that an item has no return policy or isn't brand new etc..etc.. The seller can spell it out in bold letters yet the buyers fail to see the pertinent details. The buyers then want to blame someone for their own mistakes and leave garbage feedback. Happens all the time. As a seller, you are just asking the customer to at least contact the seller first before leaving bad feedback so that the seller can at least:

 

A. Attempt to make amends should you be at fault which is what any good business would do. Mistakes will happen because it's human nature. Tell me (and the world for that matter) I'm a worthless POS business person after I've made zero attempts to rectify the situation.(refund,return, discount etc...) That's understandable and should be expected.

B. Point out any pertinent info. to a buyer who maybe failed to see it the first time to head off unwarranted bad feedback due to their own negligence.

C. Remind them that shipping time and damage is not necessarily the fault of the seller. That's why shipping insurance is offered.

 

2. I'm not a big fan of your analogy. I always thought of the feedback in Ebay as a "word of mouth" kind of thing. If I bought some spoiled meat at my grocery store, I'd probably mention it to my neighbors (well, maybe not to the dog sh|t lady...that crapper busting fatty can get mad cow disease for all I care.)

The fact that it's word of mouth spelled out to a billion people is the problem itself. It can be an absolute lie which costs you business because again, the people failed to read the ad properly, or other various reasons out of the seller's control. Granted, there are shady sellers out there but there are an equal # of shady/ignorant buyers who just have to click the send button which contains bogus info. to cost you some serious cash.

[Signature_Athletes 0]

ebay feedback is the biggest scam ever.

 

the person that SELLS should be automatically required to give feedback once the item has been paid for.

 

focking scam

I couldn't agree with you more on this. I have a sports memorabilia business on eBay and I have my feedback set to automatically give positive feedback when a person pays. When they complete there end of the deal, they should be rewarded.

 

I bought from a guy who refused to give feedback until I gave feedback. This is a dead give-away that they are not confident in the products they are selling. I am refusing to give him feedback (even though it would be positive) to this day and never will. I told him this is a poor way to run an eBay business. He has over 2000 feedback score and a 97.4% positive. This is not good, and I told him his feedback strategy is the only reason he is probably as high as he is. Losers like this ruin any reputation eBay may still have.

 

As for the above scenario, I think you have every right to give neutral feedback. I guess I would like to be contacted first. I have sold things in the past and overlooked flaws. This happens and it would be nice to have it brought to my attention first. To get a negative feedback as a retaliation should not be allowed. These are things I think eBay need to do a better job of controlling.

[davebg 0]

As a seller, I absolutely agree that alls you need to do is run an honest ad and there should not be any problems. However,the problem is that some people are just real stupid. A lot of people will not even read the ad in it's entirety or fail to see that an item has no return policy or isn't brand new etc..etc.. The seller can spell it out in bold letters yet the buyers fail to see the pertinent details. The buyers then want to blame someone for their own mistakes and leave garbage feedback. Happens all the time. As a seller, you are just asking the customer to at least contact the seller first before leaving bad feedback so that the seller can at least:

 

A. Attempt to make amends should you be at fault which is what any good business would do. Mistakes will happen because it's human nature. Tell me (and the world for that matter) I'm a worthless POS business person after I've made zero attempts to rectify the situation.(refund,return, discount etc...) That's understandable and should be expected.

B. Point out any pertinent info. to a buyer who maybe failed to see it the first time to head off unwarranted bad feedback due to their own negligence.

C. Remind them that shipping time and damage is not necessarily the fault of the seller. That's why shipping insurance is offered.

 

The fact that it's word of mouth spelled out to a billion people is the problem itself. It can be an absolute lie which costs you business because again, the people failed to read the ad properly, or other various reasons out of the seller's control. Granted, there are shady sellers out there but there are an equal # of shady/ignorant buyers who just have to click the send button which contains bogus info. to cost you some serious cash.

Yes, there are many stoopid people out there, but you already knew that when you decided to go into business on ebay, which likely attracts some real doozies. I'm sure the ratio of idiots is higher for ebay than your average brick and mortar store (just a guess on my part.)

 

As for the part about this word of mouth being disseminated to billions of people, well, that's just a matter of the scale of ebay. Sure, the feedback/word of mouth reaches more people than if I just told my neighbors about the spoiled food, but your virtual store also attracts more customers than my local supermarket. It's a little unfair to enjoy the positives of reaching so many people via ebay to sell your stuff, but then to complain about negative feedback reaching so many people.

 

ETA: The example I gave of my ebay experience w/the poker chips was definitely my fault to a degree. I knew that it was a risk and that I might have not gotten what was advertsied. I knew it b/c of how little I was being charged for the chips vs. how much I was being charged for shipping. That still doesn't change the fact that the seller was a shady mother focker and that this exact type of scam goes on ALL THE TIME on ebay...and ebay does absofockinglutely nothing about it.

[surferskin 30]

i basically had the exact same situation happen to me. i bought 3 DVD's that were listed as "NEW"...one of them had a pretty big scratch on it and was basically unusable. i just left neutral feedback because i didn't spend that much money on them and didn't want to go through the process of shipping back the DVD for a replacement. so of course the seller decides to leave me neutral feedback because i didn't contact him first. what a focking baby. he would have got neutral at best even if he sent me a replacement because he focked up in the first place.

[Franknbeans 46]

I had some jackhole leave me negative feedback and I left him a bigger piece of hot steaming negative feedback. So there.

[mozzy84 0]

focking thief's on there, then paypal only gives me half my money back even though its obvious this guy ripped of a bunch of people I am going to an actual store from now on...leave me feedback and I will leave you feedback, that crap is bogus for the buyer....

[supermike80 1,898]

I guess my issue is that these EBAYers put somehting up as in good condition.....without even looking at the product.

Sure I would take something back to the grocery store, but I would counter that the store would take some steps to ensure the product they were selling was what they said it was.

PLUS, it isn't a grocery store. This is different. All you can go on with EBAY is the word of the seller...and if that seller just carte blanches every item they sell as good or better, without even looking to see if it really is, then I feel it is misrepresentation.

I could have left negative but I chose neutral. I felt this was fair.

 

And it definitely wasn't fair to hit me with negative, after all the whining he did about the neutral rating.