I am a S.C.A.R.E.D Seller

[juspreet]

As every other seller on ebay, I am also a scared seller these days.
I am scared of leaving a negative feedback to a non paying buyer because he will also do the same and spoil my image.
Interesting thing is that the buyer who never paid for the item and never received the item still has the power to leave a feedback and comment on a seller's item and his communication, shipping and handling etc. which he never experienced.
I am scared of buyers who demand things and services which are clearly mentioned as not available in the listing; like COD.
If I give COD facility I may loose money if the buyer rejects the delivery.
If I stick to my policy the buyer can safely leave me a negative feedback and all I can do is scream, shout and bang my head on the wall, but I can't remove his/her comments of feedback which are permanently added to my profile.

Customer is the king; literally on ebay.
He can buy and not pay. Still he can comment on you, your item and your service.

I have even noticed some sellers using this loophole to spoil fellow sellers feedback score.

It is as simple as this. I register with a new id on ebay. Buy a thing from my competitor, never pay for it.
When he files a upi, just respond saying sorry your terms are not acceptable, the seller closes the dispute, get fvf granted and the next day I leave him a negative feedback saying seller was not good. Even if the seller reciprocates, and leaves a negative feedback, I move on and register a new id with ebay. And I can play again.

Feedback is important for sellers but not for buyers and no established seller on ebay can dare to leave a negative feedback for a customer because of fear of getting a negative in return.
A buyer can anytime come up with a new ebay id but seller if chooses to do so has to part with all the hard work he put to make a respectable feedback score.

So many sellers gave excellent ideas and solutions for this so many times to ebay team but....

Hoping for a change to happen, I prefer to stay scarred till then from my non paying buyers.

[coolbrasco]

Dear cvproductivesolutions,

Feedback is double edged sward. Should be used very carefully.

What if a fraud seller make an unpaid strike against a good buyer who paid via cheque/DD, and run away with his money? Then the poor buyer has to run behind eBay proving his innocence and payment proof to remove his feedback.

The only solution is self discipline from both seller and buyer.

eBay is free system designed such a way that gives opportunity for both buyers and sellers. If you read my previous articles about Netizens's behavior you will understand. Technology gives ultimate freedom to everyone, it is up to them use it for good cause or bad.

Take YouTube, it gives ultimate freedom to users. Even countries cannot fight with them. Many countries blocked them, still users can go via back doors of proxies. No one one control them. Even Bill Gates is fooled by some one saying the blog is belonged to Apple's Chief and he is not, it is recently exposed by NewYork times. Even next generation war will be using technology not muscle power.

Only way of survival as Netizens is think positive, do good and stay safe.

Kind regards,
CoolBrasCo.

[coolbrasco]

Article about Bill Gates fooled....

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6932721.stm

Don't 100% believe what is in the net.

[juspreet]

Dear Coolbrasco,
Thanks for sparing time to share your thoughts.
We all very well know that feedback is more important for a seller than a buyer. As a buyer even if I have -ve feedback but I am paying for my next purchase on time there is no reason for a seller to leave a -ve feedback.
Also buyer can close one account and start a new one. It doesn't hurt him.
If the buyer pays by cheque/dd he can retain a copy of that to prove he paid.
Even as a seller I had to provide POD to ebay for items whose buyer had paid but was suspended.

The issue is not -ve feedback from a genuine and paying buyer.
The issue is how and why a non-paying buyer gives his judgment for a seller, his product or service.

[sapana@ebay.com]

Hi All,

My two cents on this interesting topic!

I understand that it is painful for any seller to receive negative feedback, especially when they think that it is undeserved. I agree that it is difficult to digest feedback left from a bidder who never intended to pay. The policy to remove feedback of users who do not answer to UPI dispute takes care of most such buyers. The customer support team regularly removes feedback that has been left unjustly. The seller also has the option of approaching third party dispute resolution agency (ODR India) to get a feedback mediated. In my mind an effective way is to give a calm and factual response to the feedback received. It will help others understand your side of the story.

Having said the above, we also need to keep in mind that not all non-paying buyers are bad and not all feedback left by such buyers is incorrect. There can be genuine reasons for a buyer to back out from a deal, things like bad experience with seller interaction, items with low start price & high shipping charge, error from the seller’s side or a genuine reason to cancel the deal. Since there is so much subjectivity involved in such cases, it is difficult to design any system that can understand these nuances and subtleties. If eBay intervenes in this system, it will impact the credibility of the whole feedback system.

In a nut shell, it is not an easy answer. However, we are equally keen to make the system more robust. Detailed seller rating introduced in March this year, has helped a lot in differentiating good sellers from the not so good ones. The feedback team is further trying to find means to take care of complaints such as these. We shall keep you updated on any changes that will help us improve the feedback system.

Warm Regards,
Sapana

[juspreet]

First I would like to thank Sapana for responding. Although this discussion board is called Feedback to ebay Inida team but still it took ebay around 20 days to respond to this thread.
Anyway, Sapana has given quite a few good reasons from a buyer's view point but there is another angle to this.
A buyer if not satisfied whether he paid or not can easily leave a negative feedback for a seller. If he gets more negative feedbacks in return he can safely open a new ebay account and start all over again. Feedback is not a big issue for the buyer.
Contrary to this, even the top ebay sellers will agree that they are scared like me)to leave a negative feedback for a buyer even if the buyer backed out or didn't pay for reasons best known to the buyer.
Some top sellers agree that it is safe to leave a neutral feedback and that too also if buyer didn't respond to upi so that even if the buyer leaves a feedback that will be canceled by ebay.
But sellers will not dare to leave a negative feedback for a buyer who responded to upi for fear of getting reciprocal feedback from the buyer.
I agree 'Customer is King' but it is the seller's grit, determination and innovations that generate revenue for ebay.
I know many sellers have at times sold at loss just to save their image and avoid negative feedback.

How many buyers honor their bids if they feel they have overbid??? Not many. Buyers can easily back out.

So in my view ebay should at least look at that aspect and help sellers save their reputation, at least from non serious, non paying buyers.

Rest I know that this is just time pass for us sellers to vent out our frustration; ebay will walk it's own path.