e-bay extortion

[EZ_E]

How do you feel about this scenario: you win a product via e-bay and immediately pay for it via paypal but yet, the seller refrains from leaving feedback until buyer receives item and leaves feedback first.

[Gunsmoke]

Wait until the last day to leave feedback and neg him.

[gmarguli]

It's neither. Lots of crazys out there on eBay.

 

I do not post feedback until the buyer lets me know they received the item and are happy. They can do this either by leaving feedback first or emailing me. I do not require them leaving feedback first. As soon as I get an email from them, I leave feedback.

 

And sellers should wait until the buyer receives the item. This is per eBay suggestions.

[Wihlborg]

Victor,

 

I guess answer to this question depends upon whether you are the buyer or the seller.

 

As a buyer, you feel that you have fulfilled your end of the deal by paying quickly, with good funds, so why should the seller hold back positive feedback until you have left feedback for them.

 

Of course the other side of the coin so to speak is that as a seller, the deal is not completed until both parties are happy with the transaction. There is really no way for a seller to know if the person who receives the item is happy with the transaction until after they receive it.

 

The item may be exactly as described, packaged well, and sent quickly, but your winning bidder is a bidder from hell who wants to take you there as well.

 

I admit it used to bother me when sellers held back feedback until I had left feedback for them. But it just doesn’t matter to me any more. It’s much better than the losers who leave you no feedback at all!

 

John

[cpm9ball]

Victor,

 

Of course the other side of the coin so to speak is that as a seller, the deal is not completed until both parties are happy with the transaction. There is really no way for a seller to know if the person who receives the item is happy with the transaction until after they receive it.

 

John

 

Give me a break, John! The seller could care less about your happiness as long as he/she has your money. Yes, there are some sellers who care about your repeat business, but I don't equate that to caring about your happiness.

 

Chris

[GAB]

It's neither. Lots of crazys out there on eBay.

 

I do not post feedback until the buyer lets me know they received the item and are happy. They can do this either by leaving feedback first or emailing me. I do not require them leaving feedback first. As soon as I get an email from them, I leave feedback.

 

And sellers should wait until the buyer receives the item. This is per eBay suggestions.

 

I agree with this method completely. I always let the buyer know that I will leave feedback as soon as I hear from him that the transaction was acceptable - via feedback or email. I still have a half dozen "un-left" feedbacks because I never heard from the customers. I can only guess that they were satisfied because they never left any feedback, and I've never had any returns ?? My only feedback would be "lousy communication" - so why bother?

[TomB]

I don't like the policy and in these cases, if I am the buyer, I simply do not leave feedback at all. One prominent member of the PCGS boards has this as his policy, if I remember correctly, and on the coin that I bought from him last year he received no ebay feedback at all from me, even though I was happy with the item. Of course, I did email him to let him know I was happy with the coin, yet he never left me feedback, presumably because I did not leave him feedback first.

[Wihlborg]

Chris,

 

I was not referring to whether the seller cared about a buyer’s happiness. To be honest, I don't care if a seller is happy or not about my happiness. As long as they were honest with me and I am happy, that's all I care about.

 

What I was referring to was that from a seller’s point of view, they have no way of knowing if some crazy eBay bidder would leave a negative feedback comment for some imagery slight after they had already left positive feedback for that buyer.

 

Of course this is just my opinion, but after much thought about the matter in my beginning years on eBay, I came to see the seller’s side also. As I said, I just don’t care any longer if a seller leaves feedback before or after I do.

 

John

[Beijim]

From a seller's perspective, the transaction is not complete until the buyer has received the item and is happy. If I've had good email communication from the buyer, or the buyer and/or buyer's reputation is known to me, I may leave positive feedback prior to the buyer informing me of satisfaction.

 

Most of the time, however, I leave feedback only after the buyer has either left feedback or otherwise informed me that the transaction is satisfactory. I do this for two reasons:

 

- If the buyer ignores my satisfaction guaranteed policy and leaves negative feedback irresponsibly, I'll have little recourse. Withholding feedback until I know the buyer is satisfied is one of the only ways I have of encouraging rational behavior in the event the buyer is unhappy. I suppose this approach could be called "trust but verify."

 

- In my limited selling career, I've encountered an annoying number of deadbeats who permit others to leave positive feedback while they do nothing. I prefer not to reward this behavior because I find it deplorable. After having left positive feedback for a few of these losers and never hearing word one in response, I elected to change my policy and let them go first.

 

Ultimately, I tend to work on a case by case basis. If the buyer paid with lightning speed and has excellent feedback demonstrating a high probability of rational behavior, I'll leave positive feedback and be done with it. Otherwise, I'll hold off but respond immediately when I receive their confirmation that everything's cool.

 

Beijim

[EZ_E]

Here is a very eloquent, well stated response from a seller concerning this topic:

 

Response from john-zilver

Item: J011 Belgium, Sint Bernhard dog medal ca.1960 (8368932645)

This message was sent after the listing closed.

john-zilver is the seller.

 

 

 

Hello Victor, I started selling medals on eBay in 2001 and always left feedback after receiving the payment. Never had to discuss why. I leave positive feedback because the buyer fullfilled his part of the deal and I hope he wil leave positive feedback when he receives the medal and is satisfied with my part of the deal. It only happened once in 1800+ deals that someone was not satisfied with his purchase. He contacted me, sent back the medal, got back his money and .... left positive feedback. I think that when I wait leaving feedback until the deal is finished, it is easy to leave negative feedback for a buyer when he did the same. I think there is always a possebility to solve a problem with a buyer. Thats why I don't leave feedback at the end of a deal, because I believe there is no difference in the end. Best Regards, John Wiersma The Netherlands

[James_OldeTowne]

I voted "prudent".

 

It's a tough area, but sellers are much more susceptible to being held hostage than buyers, in my opinion. I feel this to be true even in spite of the plethora of sleazy sellers.

 

As a seller, rarely do I give feedback first. On the other hand, I seldom wait for payment before sending the item! So in reality, I am often the first to take action toward completion of a transaction.

 

James