Despite the ongoing attraction of Amazon Prime, I have recently bought some items on eBay. Mostly postcards to add to my small but growing collection of Brighton and Hove and Sussex scenes. Nothing pricey.
And so, as a diligent eBayer, I popped onto the site to leave some feedback because I was a happy customer to a clutch of sellers.
Maybe I’ve been away too long, but I was struck by what a faff it is to leave feedback these days. Aside from writing a comment, leaving a happy, positive feedback can mean 7 clicks on the site to say everything is tickety-boo.
Not only do you need to pick whether your feedback is positive or not. You have to chose those DSRs, pen a comment and agree that the item arrived within the expected timeframe.
A few thoughts. I bought about a dozen postcards over the New Year period and I honestly couldn’t tell you which ones arrived on time or not. Needless to say I agreed with the eBay estimates and said they arrived on time although I can’t say for sure they all did. (Who could?)
And the option to leave feedback is really quite hard to find these days, especially on the app. So I reckon lots of happy buyers don’t even bother. It’s the aggrieved and uptight who do seek it out.
What’s the percentage of feedback even left these days? More than 50%? Less? Hardly any? I’m not surprised buyers cannot be bothered. It’s a right rigmarole.
Surely there only needs to be one question: “Happy?”
21 Responses
I have to agree with you. As a seller we have 5349 transactions on eBay and we have only had 3265 feedback left. I would think if we had all our feedback left we would get more sales as we would Look like a much more professional seller!
I never leave feedback on Amazon and always leave feedback on ebay. Fact is for me ebay is the only online shopping experience where I leave feedback. However the thought of going through the ebay feedback process and the pressure ebay puts on buyers to leave feedback does put me off buying on ebay and tend to use Amazon and others more and more. Only use ebay to buy now if item cheap. Wonder how many other buyers share this view of being put off ebay by the feedback tedium?
A simplified process may make for happier buyers perhaps?
One click?
That would be pos , neg , or neut then?
plus ça change …………
Give business sellers the automatic feedback rating of positive 5**** for everything unless buyer wishes to modify this in any way. The buyer only has to do something if they wish to modify.
For private non business sellers let the existing system remain as there is clearly a more random less consistent customer service from private non business sellers. Also this would give “business privates” a further incentive to come out and register as business sellers.
I despair of leaving eBay feedback, mainly because I tend to use the eBay Mobile App and it’s even worse to leave feedback there than on the desktop site.
On a desktop you can at least leave feedback in bulk (if you can find the link) but on a mobile you have to go into each purchased item one at a time.
I’d love a button that said “Leave good feedback for everything, I had no problems” with perhaps an option to exclude an item if there was an issue.
I don’t want to leave comments, I don’t want to fill out stars, I don’t want to confirm ontime delivery, I don’t want to leave a positive/neutral/negative rating. I just want to say “Everything was great” and have done with it.
And if you get poor feedback its very difficult to respond at the moment, there is an ongoing glitch that fails to log the comment
more to the point eBay only calculates the delivery in time defect from feedback actually left..
so it’s not skewed from the start at all is it… you have to wonder if the kinder that devise these hoops have a clue.
I find it bad and unbeliveable that you can say the item hasn’t arrived on time before the estimates stated, this should just be an automatic yes if the buyer is leaving the feedback before the estimate?
And here is the problem- feedback is dwindling however those who have a gripe or are unreasonable leave neuts or negs- soon your feedback rating plunges and there is nothing you can do. A very dangerous game indeed.
This shows precisely why the new performance criteria are so unfair.
Most buyers who don’t leave feedback are not unhappy.
But you can be sure that nearly all buyers with a gripe will do so.
Ebay has decided that no feedback will not count, so there will be an inbuilt bias to complainers, especially as the delivery criteria are so tight.
In order to keep their status, sellers will need every one of their happy customers to jump through all of these hoops.
It sucks.
Its not all about the clicks I feel its mostly about how many emails you have to send to blackmail the seller into giving you a discount or a free item then feedback follows positive five stars all the way not forgetting the all important delivery estimate yes it arrived on time.
This has happened to me a few times
.
Ask Amazon….
Just received a neg for 1 day late delivery (thank you RM)…..When we asked the customer, they said Amazon had asked for feedback and they left it.
MESSAGE to AMAZON …Stop sending the feedback request email so bloody quickly…!!