Encouraging customers to leave feedback?

[theElench]

When I first came here I read that it was usual to leave buyers FB soon after the purchase (for all the reasons already given). I tried that for a while but it didn't seem to encourage buyers to reciprocate.

I then went back to doing what I had done on the other site, no FB until the buyer left it for me. That didn't make any difference.

During a previous discussion about lack of FB and suggestions that a Transaction Counter could be provided to counter the negative appearance of so many sellers with so little FB, someone came up with another excellent reason for leaving FB for buyers soon after their purchase.

That it is, in itself, a transaction counter. Although I missed a few during the period when I wasn't leaving FB until I had received it, I now know that I have made (at least) 80 sales here, although my FB says 49, including purchases.

When I've had "discussions" with the anti-ebid chorus on obay I've used this provable and steadily increasing number to counter the "Nothing ever sells on ebid" lie.

Something else I've found during those discussions is that some sellers under-estimate how much they have sold here (and were honest enough to say so). From memory over a period of years they said they had sold little or nothing, but going back over their sales records found that often they had sold a lot more. The memory of sales with long gaps in between tends to fade, I wonder how many sellers here, now, are similar? Thinking that they sell less than the do in reality.

I have wondered if the ASL is prominent enough. If it was made more so would it help to get buyers to leave more FB?

I recently sold an item to a friend, I asked them to complete the purchase through ebid without any help from me and give me verbal FB on how they found the site. They found the item easily. Paid with PP, no problem. Emails gave them updates - payment made / shipped etc. My friend didn't mention that they ever found, or even thought to look for the ASL and completed their purchase apparently without ever looking at it. (Just a thought, perhaps the emails from ebid should have a prominent prompt in them ("See further details on the ASL")?) We discussed the transaction at some length, they liked the site in general and didn't have any problem with the basics of making a problem-free purchase. Although I mentioned FB and the ASL, they have never returned to leave me FB

[purplestevie]

I leave feedback when i receive like from the said buyer/s, i do this because as many of you know i once received 35 negative's from a buyer whom left them because i blocked her!! (thats another story) luckily i came to the forum and a lot of you backed me and i got all the negs removed. Needless to say that buyer/seller was eventually removed, although they did sign up again!! thankfully they are no longer selling here.

A lot of my sellers dont leave feedback, i dont put business cards or notes in my packages and i try at least once a week to do a mass leaving of feedback. I have quite a few regular multi buyers on ebid and multi buyers that i have recently signed up from facebook some of the latter havent left feedback, and for whatever reason instant on a paypal invoice.

For me feedback isnt important but i do understand it will be important to others especially if you havent any. All my feedback is from ebid and not imported from elsewhere.

Is feeddback old hat? Is it evil bays fault, are reviews the way to go?

[FirstGreenIsGold]

I leave feedback when I ship. Since many buyers don't leave feedback, looking at the feedback that a seller has left for buyers is a way to tell if they've recently sold anything.