Question
I am a US based seller but sell on eBay sites in a few countries. If I go to www.ebay.co.uk and check my feedback, it now shows the star feedback rating system.
I have 4.5 stars in each category except postage and packaging charges which has 4 stars. While I normally charge an extra dollar or two for packing supplies, once in a while I raise the postage charge and lower the item price to compete with scum sellers selling the same items for far below actual item cost and then charging an arm and leg for postage. When I do this I also clearly state that I am doing it in the item description. If I do not play this game, I wind up not selling any items when the scum sellers are selling theirs. We all know reporting sellers that up the shipping and lower the actual item price to ebay is a waste of time.
This morning I had 4.5 stars in all categories. Then 1 person left feedback and my star went to 4.
The person also left positive feedback stating "excellent" yet leaves me 4 stars and not 5. My feedback is 100% over 2000 feedbacks left. I have not left this person feedback yet. I am assuming it was him and there is no delay in stars showing up.
My conclusion is that I should no longer leave feedback since I cannot tell who is leaving the star feedback for me.
Your thoughts?
Answer
My thoughts is that if you have 2000 FB and 100%...
Do not worry about it.
Just leave the feedback and move on.
That's what I do.
Answer
What larruone said. As you get more and more ratings, that one will mean less and less.
Answer
You can't please everyone. (Don't even try - you'll go certifiable!)
Also remember that buyers will always blame sellers for slow delivery by the Postal Service... even if they didn't pay until they were gently reminded by a UID from eBay. Always the seller's fault!
Answer
You're complaining about a buyer giving you 4 out of 5 stars in one category? Let me ask you something. If you came to me and asked me how attractive you were, on a scale of 1 to 5, 5 being the best, and I said you were a 4, would you not take that as a compliment? I like the new feedback (beta), and I consider 3, 4, and 5 to be decent ratings. If you want to improve, improve! But you can't make everyone 100% happy 100% of the time. With postive/negative feedback, it's all or nothing. With a star system people can be more detailed and honest, and that's a good thing (Martha Stewart).
Answer
amillionthings wrote:
With postive/negative feedback, it's all or nothing. With a star system people can be more detailed and honest, and that's a good thing (Martha Stewart).
At first I didn't care for it at all, but when I thought about it, this will distance the good sellers from the crappy sellers. We've all been complaining about excessive shipping, now the sellers gouging will have it reflected in their ratings and perhaps either adjust their shipping prices or quit business. This has raised the bar a bit. Feedback as it is has gotten pretty useless with people afraid to leave negs.
Answer
We've all been complaining about excessive shipping, now the sellers gouging will have it reflected in their ratings and perhaps either adjust their shipping prices or quit business. This has raised the bar a bit.
Once this is implemented across all sites, the question is whether buyers determine between excessive shipping and international shipping, slow shipping and slow postal service, or bad communication and emails sitting in the buyer's spam filter..... et al.
It may raise the bar, but not necessarily fairly or accurately.
Cheers, Kevin
Answer
Kevin wrote:
It may raise the bar, but not necessarily fairly or accurately.
I hadn't thought of that, of course. I do think that in your case, you have sophisticated buyers who will know that to the US at least, international shipping might take a bit longer. I guess time will tell. I hope it works.
Answer
Since stars are completely arbitrary, all it will be good for is extreme cases.
And since the scale is arbitrary, my 4 might be equivalent to somebody elses 5. I may (not may, but will) call 4 a good sale, and reserve 5 for absolutely perfect. How else will I be able to set apart the *extremely* good sellers that I come across from the good sellers? Other people might stick with a 2 star system. 1=not favorable 5=favorable, with no inbetweens. Which brings us back to the stars being good only for extreme cases. In the end as a buyer, I'm interested in the written feedback. That will often tell the story between the lines.
Alex.
Answer
This issue for me is that I have over 2000 feedback 100% positive and no mutal withdrawels. I did have two feedback removed in the old system, but both were errors from the customers, one was curse words from a hijacked account and one was talking about used car parts and I don't see car parts.
Now, in order to have 2000 100% positive feedback, we work very hard. When someone leaves a positive and has a comment that we don't think is 100%, we try to solve the problem.
Now that someone has left less then 5 stars and I have no idea who it was (for sure know idea, I guess I can guess but there is no way to know) how am I supposed to improve my services if I do not know who thought I was not 100% work 5 stars and wha the actual problem is.
Selling on Amazon is such a nicer experience!