Why can't some sellers recognise a favour?

[bowspearer]

Communication from this guy was so bad that there was no mention of when the item had been posted and when I got the item, it was just placed in a custom made box- ie, box cardboard had been wrapped around it without even a single layer of bubblewrap being around it.

The upshot of it was that the box was slightly dinged- not enough to file a Paypal dispute, but enough that it was an issue where I couldn't leave positive feedback.

So I decided to be nice about it and not leave feedback at all, as even a neutral looks bad with the reason of "damage due to item being poorly packed".

Anyway the guy contacts me a few days ago, asking me to leave feedback. I explained that because the box was damaged due to them poorly packing the item, I wasn't going to leave feedback.

Now you would think that the seller would recognise this as me being really nice about it and doing them a favour- especially as this guy has a feedback rating of 100%.

Yet no response from the seller and no leaving me positive feedback, even though they were paid within a day of invoicing me and the auction finishing and more to the point, me being more than reasonable over their poor packing job and not leaving any kind of feedback which could hurt their feedback rep.

I just sent them an additional message telling them they had 4 days (48 hours before the feedback deadline for this listing) to leave positive feedback or I'd be leaving them the feedback they deserved for poor packing (either neutral or negative).

Maybe I'm being unreasonable with that, but you'd think that some sellers would recognise when you're doing them a favour and respond in kind.

[dannyrand]

Wow, you get the short end of the stick again... you have the worst luck ever.

[bowspearer]

I wouldn't say it's all bad- there are plenty of good transactions that I do have. I thought this one was worth mentioning for the sheer "wth" nature of it.

[lastchance2ownit]

Here's my question - who cares if the guy leaves you positive feedback from paying on time? it's not like that feedback counts for anything. It's not like there's even a chance that he leaves you negative feedback and, as a buyer, it's not like someone in the future is going to deny you from bidding on something because you have less positive feedback.

Also, say you sell items as well - it's not like that positive feedback would be factored into you DSR ratings either.

I could never understand why anyone would give a crap about receiving positive feedback as a buyer - it clearly has zero impact on anything. As a seller, I only left it as a holdover habit from the days when feedback actually counted for a buyer and because it allowed me to keep track of which auctions were completed in total. I will say that it still annoys the crap out of me when buyers that have over 50 positive feedback email me over and over again to leave feedback. I mean c'mon - you obviously have nothing else going on in your life!!

Ebay has made feedback competely meaningless for buyers.

Just thought you should know!

[bowspearer]

And who says I only ever buy on eBay? There are the odd times when I also sell- even if it has no impact on my DSR, it still indicates an eBayer with a solid track record. Besides that though and how much I do or do not have going on in my life, it's the principle of the matter, and believe it or not, some sellers do actually care about feedback scores potential buyers have.

[lastchance2ownit]

No offense, you're wring there - Sellers don't care. If you have 10+ positive feedback, there isn't a seller out there who won;t take your bid.

[bowspearer]

You'd be surprised there- especially when it comes to international dealings.

[BoogDoc7]

Sellers can't leave negs for buyers.

I think you handled this properly - and the guy deserves to get dinged for it. This is what neutrals are for. You contacted him, let him know the issues, and he didn't respond.

As a seller, I usually just leave feedback when it's left for me (or sometimes when asked for).

[joeybones]

Jan 21, 2011 13:11:53 GMT -6 lastchance2ownit said:

Here's my question - who cares if the guy leaves you positive feedback from paying on time? it's not like that feedback counts for anything. It's not like there's even a chance that he leaves you negative feedback and, as a buyer, it's not like someone in the future is going to deny you from bidding on something because you have less positive feedback.

Also, say you sell items as well - it's not like that positive feedback would be factored into you DSR ratings either.

I could never understand why anyone would give a crap about receiving positive feedback as a buyer - it clearly has zero impact on anything. As a seller, I only left it as a holdover habit from the days when feedback actually counted for a buyer and because it allowed me to keep track of which auctions were completed in total. I will say that it still annoys the crap out of me when buyers that have over 50 positive feedback email me over and over again to leave feedback. I mean c'mon - you obviously have nothing else going on in your life!!

Ebay has made feedback competely meaningless for buyers.

Just thought you should know!

Sellers want feedback.
They have done alot to deserve the positive feedback.
..inventory,photographing,listing,questions,packaging,mailing etc..
Its just a fair gesture to recieve. If you do it enough times and you do it well ebay will "reward" you, with the 'power seller' status.
Offering better search results for your listings, and 20% off Final value fees....and the final value fees add up fast.

[jongernaut]

I hope you left him a NEG. it acts as a warning to other buyers, and possibly a wake up call to the seller. I got less than 5-stars on the condition of an item once and feel terrible about it, now I try to go over every item with a fine tooth comb.

[tfnut]

Jan 28, 2011 17:33:35 GMT -6 joeybones said:

Sellers want feedback.
They have done alot to deserve the positive feedback.
..inventory,photographing,listing,questions,packaging,mailing etc..
Its just a fair gesture to recieve. If you do it enough times and you do it well ebay will "reward" you, with the 'power seller' status.
Offering better search results for your listings, and 20% off Final value fees....and the final value fees add up fast.

The only problem with this is that Ebay doesn't bother to TELL buyers that their DSR ratings affect sellers' bottom line.

Ebay doesn't really WANT to give that good DSR rebate, so they downplay the impact of DSRs to buyers. And thus, you get buyers that do things like ding you on shipping cost because you didn't offer free shipping, or had the audacity to add a $1.00 for packing materials.

Or worse, they DO understand, and use any trick in the book to try to get a completely undeserved partial or full refund, knowing that Ebay has essentially neutered Seller's rights in a myriad of ways.