Am I missing something?

[aidata]

Just come from another site where the seller(s) has thousands of items listed for sale, but their total feedback is 4 negatives over the last 2 months. No positive, nothing, only negative

Would this suggest potential buyers ignore the feedback?

People who do buy, don't bother with feedback!

[meebo1]

If there is only negative feedback, then that suggests the seller is not doing things as he should

[EmpHolisticGifts]

There could be lots of reasons...
Yes it could be something to be wary of...
Many something does not work, so they go in another direction, one I saw all the negatives were of items they no longer sold and had changed direction.

Many stop for a while when too many negatives and then start again...

From ours (as I have said elsewhere) many buyers only ever leave negative or neutral feedback NEVER a positive even though bought 1000's!

From our own stats over 50% never leave feedback, I think it is a cant be bothered, life too short when everything is ok.

Unfortunately we have lots of negatives :-( Mixture of lies :-( the fact the royal mail did not deliver on time :-(
Once it was that it did not arrive in a box - no box was shown or stated! but it was 'their experience' so therefore acceptable!
Another complained about the items even though clearly shown, measurements given AND with a penny for comparison.

So some times it can be genuine, other times, yes can show concerns...

[Mandart]

Cettainly none of my last 4 sales have bothered to leave feedback, even though I did to them.... Can distort figures...

[kreativebargains]

Maybe more details could be given. That way those who do take feedback into account could make a better informed decision.

So with imaginary figures you could have.

Positive: 10
Neutral: 0
Negative: 5

That would look pretty bad. But what if they had made 1,000 sales? The vast majority of the other 985 possibly had nothing to complain about but did not bother to leave feedback. If the potential buyer saw the following they could make a more informed decision:

Positive: 10
Neutral: 0
Negative:5
No feedback left: 985

[sherlock07]

Or if no feedback left in a certain length of time, then a default positive applied.

[EmpHolisticGifts]

Yes mentioning the sales with no feedback can give a much better idea...
The only way we know the rough % is we now (as on TOS sellers can only leave positive) leave it and so helps us calculate roughly the differences etc.
Does not take into account when someone purchases 3 or 9 of the same item as its only one feedback... but a better idea than none :-)
Have no idea of the system here though.

My guess is also here unless people are coming back for something else, they will not log on specifically to leave positive.
Often on TOS people often leave it in batches once a week or less.

[adruml]

Numbers/stats can be skewed.

I like to read the feedback comments and responses before coming up with any conclusions about a seller or buyer.