What do you do if a buyer won't leave feedback, but keeps buying repeatedly?

[rocks2dust]

If I lower the price on my silver coins to encourage someone to buy and leave me feedback to build my rating, this buyer will snatch them up at a good price and never leave feedback. The 3rd time has just happened now. He said he would leave feedback in a message, but it's been two days and it hasn't happened. The previous two transactions are past 75 days now.

Do you have feedback on other sites that you can import here? If so, go to your My Feedback page and click the "Import Feedback" tab near the top. It is one way to bulk up to your feedback numbers to reflect your reputation across multiple sites (not all your feedback seems to get imported, at least in my case, but at least some will). Fewer and fewer people leave feedback on any site, so I wouldn't be concerned with any but negative feedback. Don't badger buyers to leave feedback, some find that irritating and simply don't do it.

In the meantime, do set up some stores, fill in your All About page and add links to your ebid.net stores both here and to the signature of every social media forum in which you participate. Can, and does, bring in people to browse your items.

[FirstGreenIsGold]

Sellers here can change their feedback. eBid support is really good and would be open to hearing the case of a seller who is having problems.

When I look at a sellers feedback, I expect that a lot of buyers don't leave feedback anymore , so I look at the feedback that the seller has given to see when they last had a sale. If the buyer didn't respond, then (in this day and age) it probably indicates that the buyer was satisfied.

[stopusingebay]

A very dangerous idea not to send the second one until you get feedback from the first one. As a seller your obligation is to send items which have been paid for as soon as possible. The buyer has no other obligation other than to pay for items bought. He is not compelled to leave feedback!!! What would you do with the second item if he did not leave feedback?? If you are getting sales, just be pleased and get over the fact that you don't always get feedback. The purpose of listing items on eBid is to get sales not to get feedback.

Just refund the buyer for the item not sent. The way I'm used to doing things, I'm not obligated to complete a transaction if I'm out of stock, if there was a mistake in the listing, or if I think the buyer is going to commit some kind of fraud. The auction site still collects the fee, and I move on. Lying to me is justification to believe some kind of fraud could be committed.

It was said that I should be happy with sales and just move on. The problem is that the buyer probably knows that it is advantageous to keep my feedback as low as possible, and that's why no feedback is left. My idea to sell something at a low price to encourage sales from different buyers doesn't work in this situation.

I know I can block the buyer. I wanted to talk about this on the forum to discuss the value of and the flaws with the feedback system in general, and any possible solutions. If a smaller and smaller minority of users leave honest feedback, then the whole system gets closer and closer to being useless. Some kind of escrow system that leaves honest feedback may be needed to replace it.

A system that relies on a majority of people being honest may become totally broken when that majority is lost. In an extreme case, the only people who would leave feedback would be doing it for some kind of extortion. Normal positive feedback would never be left.

If the buyer didn't respond, then (in this day and age) it probably indicates that the buyer was satisfied.

They don't even leave negative feedback on eBay. They threaten to, but once the refund is issued, they don't look back. Even if they aren't refunded, leaving negative feedback means that there is no longer a threat to leave negative feedback, so it reduces the likelihood that the buyer will refund them, so they don't do that either.

[tony41]

You should not list an item if you are out of stock. This is a sure way to risk getting negative feedback. What fraud is the buyer committing? It is not a fraud not to leave feedback. How is he lying to you?
If you have listed your items at a price at which you are happy to sell, you should be happy with getting sales. I think that to suggest that the buyer is not giving feedback just to keep your feedback score low is verging on paranoia. If you are that upset not to receive feedback from this buyer your only option, as I see it, is to stop selling to him by blacklisting him. IMHO, this is cutting your nose off to spite your face.

[cheaver]

You should not list an item if you out of stock. This is a sure way to risk getting negative feedback. What fraud is the buyer committing? It is not a fraud not to leave feedback. How is he lying to you?
If you have listed your items at a price at which you are happy to sell, you should be happy with getting sales. I think that to suggest that the buyer is not giving feedback just to keep your feedback score low is verging on paranoia. If you are that upset not to receive feedback from this buyer your only option, as I see it, is to stop selling to him by blacklisting him. IMHO, this is cutting your nose off to spite your face.

Well said! VERY well said.

[Posbear]

Is feedback is old hat now in the 21st century?

If you need a buyer/seller recommendation system then a 'Successful Transactions' counter might suffice.
That could show every successful sale you made or purchase you made.
Problem sales/purchases could be monitored by eBid much the same as they are now.

[stopusingebay]

You should not list an item if you are out of stock. This is a sure way to risk getting negative feedback. What fraud is the buyer committing? It is not a fraud not to leave feedback. How is he lying to you?

I would imagine that a very large number of items listed here are also listed somewhere else, and could be sold at any moment over there and go out of stock. If this site actually required and enforced that all items be in stock, it might nearly kill it.

If someone contacts me or makes an offer saying "... and I will be sure to leave you feedback", and then they don't, they're not holding up their end of the deal. I call that lying. It's like promising to pay for something and then not paying, because feedback does have value.

If you need a buyer/seller recommendation system then a 'Successful Transactions' counter might suffice.

Yes I agree that is a good system.

[cornishmaid1961]

I would imagine that a very large number of items listed here are also listed somewhere else, and could be sold at any moment over there and go out of stock. If this site actually required and enforced that all items be in stock, it might nearly kill it.

If someone contacts me or makes an offer saying "... and I will be sure to leave you feedback", and then they don't, they're not holding up their end of the deal. I call that lying. It's like promising to pay for something and then not paying, because feedback does have value.


Yes I agree that is a good system.

Surely it is the job of the seller to make sure their listings are up to date and in stock. If I was listing the same things elsewhere and they sold then I would make sure the listing was taken down here. It would give eBid a poor reputation if buyers kept finding things out of stock.

I've just had a count and on my sold list at this present time I have twenty items where feedback hasn't been left and have had umpteen in the past. It doesn't worry me at all as long as I continue getting sales !

[madelaine]

Live listings for out of stock items are really bad for your reputation, not to mention eBid's reputation.

Feedback was invented and then perverted by the dark side. I'm collecting money not feedback.

If I don't like a buyer, I blacklist that buyer but a buyer who keeps buying and pays is not likely to end up on my blacklist.

I also check feedback left by a seller who has low feedback as, just like all long time sellers on here, my feedback figures do not reflect successful transactions - Justpurrfect - feedback 3381, feedback left for others 3728 - I seldom buy on that account.

[BigKidsAttic]

I would imagine that a very large number of items listed here are also listed somewhere else, and could be sold at any moment over there and go out of stock. If this site actually required and enforced that all items be in stock, it might nearly kill it.

If someone contacts me or makes an offer saying "... and I will be sure to leave you feedback", and then they don't, they're not holding up their end of the deal. I call that lying. It's like promising to pay for something and then not paying, because feedback does have value.


Yes I agree that is a good system.

If you are that concerned with getting feedback from offering discounts to repeat buyers, then why don't you include a slip in each sale that has a unique code (you need to keep track of who you sent it to) that offers a discount on the next purchase, but only if feedback is left with the unique code in it for the previous purchase, or the code is added onto the notes when an invoice is requested.
Or something along those lines.

Jason