No Feedback Left!

[CremeEggThief]

I am very new to selling on eBay. I have sold four items so far, but have only received feedback from one buyer. Two buyers paid through PayPal straight away when they won their auctions on Friday 31st August. I posted their parcels on the Saturday (1st September) morning, obtained proof of postage and e-mailed them to advise them I'd sent them. It is now a week later and I have had no contact from them and no feedback has been left for me.

In the third instance, I noticed the buyer didn't live far away from me, so I offered her the option of collection instead of postage, which she accepted. I had to send her another invoice to reflect this, and when she paid, I met her on Thursday 6th to give her the items. She seemed happy enough, but she has not left any feedback either.

Is it normal for feedback not to be left promptly? Should I e-mail these buyers to ask why they haven't left any (I would word it along the lines of I hope there wasn't a problem with...)? Or is it common for people to take their time about leaving feedback?

Please advise. Thank you.

i have it pretty often that the buyers don't leave feedback.

Never, ever nag for feedback. It can annoy people and they may ding your stars. I know it's aggravating, but feedback isn't compulsory, and some people just don't do it. (And no news is good news, to an extent. I'm sure this isn't the case with your buyers, but I have a few times not left any feedback at all when I think it's just a difference of opinion on what constitutes "good condition" for example. I don't want to harm their stars, but nor can I in all honesty leave flawless.) Other times people leave feedback in batches, so nothing for weeks and then they do them all at once. I've had feedback given just before the expiry for it before. And all good, too.

I've had an email thanking me for an item on two occasions, with raves about how much they loved it. No feedback. That's a bit weird, definitely, but hey, at least they were happy. It's when you send something lovely at 9 am when they paid at 6 pm the day before, you refund them postage as it was a bit less than they paid and you never charge for packaging materials, and the item is in every way as described... and they then ding all your stars down to a 3 on all fronts. That's really aggravating!

Things work out on Ebay. You treat people well, and the odd non-leaver, or worse arbitrarily horrible leaver, doesn't matter. Overall your rating will still be excellent. I'd just relax and enjoy your 100% positive. And bear in mind a lot of buyers never look past the number and percentage, so haven't a clue how much you've bought/sold. Personally, I always look at feedback left when deciding whether to bid. I think it tells you volumes about someone, how they treat people who can't neg them back. If someone is consistently unpleasant about sellers, then they're the one with the issue. I'm sure I can't be alone there.

I agree never ask for feedback - it is voluntary. Lots never leave any and that is fine.

Also the item you delivered yourself, you did insist on cash didn't you and not Paypal?

Thanks all. I did think asking for feedback might be a bit needy, but I just wasn't sure of the protocol. So I won't nag anyone.

Thanks again. I'm sure I'll be back, asking about eBay etiquette, before too long!

Is there a way to see what star ratings a buyer's given you? When I'm the buyer and I go to rate a seller, it says they won't see my detailed ratings.

Thanks :)

There absolutely is a way, yes. Buyers aren't told the truth on this one.

On your seller dashboard you can note down individual transactions in batches of 10, and while they anonymise who gave what, it's pretty easy if your feedback is almost always flawless, and suddenly drops, to know who gave what. You just take 9 from the perfect star period and then add the last few, one by one. As soon as it stops being perfect you can see what imperfect stars were left, and by which transaction. It's really useful in blocking bidders, frankly.

I've had two who left good feedback, and then poor stars under the guise of anonymity. One, she didn't read the measurements on a designer jumper a friend gave me for DS which he hardly wore, and like a lot of French child's clobber it came up small. As I had stated on the listing. The woman lived in Australia and I'd refunded her a fiver on postage as my guesstimate was way out, and when she said it didn't fit I offered to pay her both ways postage plus refund if she wanted to send it back. She didn't want to do that. She wanted to keep it. And give me 2 stars for as described and 3 for everything else. Knowing those stars and who gave them was bloody useful, in that I was able to block her - and she did try to bid on other things later, too. The exchange rate is great for Australia atm.

But yes. If a seller sells more than 11 items in a close-ish time frame, they can work out who left what.

I should add, in case I'm scaring you, that my averages are 4.9 on all fronts. Like I say, the overwhelming majority of people in this world are lovely, and as long as you are honest in describing any issues, fair on postage, and send things quickly, you'll build up lovely feedback before you know it.

Sorry to post yet again, but I just wanted to reinforce fergoose on the Paypal thing - it is NOT SAFE to allow Paypal for any collections or deliveries, because the only proof of safe transfer of item Paypal accept is an online trackable method. Paypal make out they protect sellers, but they don't. They protect buyers.

There have been awful cases of people selling laptops and iPhones on Ebay, accepting collection, being paid via Paypal... and then finding the buyer is claiming never to have received it and filing a dispute. Which they automatically win in the absence of any online tracked delivery evidence. A receipt is worthless. So the seller loses the item and the money.

Thanks perfectstorm, that's super useful!

How does see F/back in batches of 10, take away or add one more at a time? Wish I could figure out what to do to follow what Perfectstorm said.

I can't get past this part:
you can note down individual transactions in batches of 10

What do I do to note that down, or whittle it down, or... what is it I do?

Is that only possible if one sells very large volumes? I think I only have 85 sets of ratings from last 12 months.

lljkk, I've PMd you.

And I don't sell large volumes, incidentally. I've sold about the same as you, if that's the score for the last 12 months. I've just been on Ebay since 2001.

Just to say one of the three has now left me some nice feedback :).

Aww, there you go! Honestly, I've had some people not leave it for a solid month. As long as it isn't negative, you're doing okay. :)

Thank you, perfectstorm.