Protect your eBay Feedback and DSR’s

Filed under eBay Feedback by on April 7, 2010 at 9:00 am {no comments}

Sometimes you have to go above and beyond the call of duty to keep an eBay customer happy.  I’m sure anyone that works, or has worked, in retail has had to deal with strange demands from customers.  I had an interesting situation recently where I had to decide what to do.

I decided to put some items in my eBay store on sale for 25% off.  The sale was to start at 6pm one evening and last till the end of the month.

About 5 minutes before the sale started I had someone buy one of my items.  By the time they finished paying for the item my sale had started.  They noticed that suddenly the item they just payed full price for was now 25% cheaper.

So guess what they did?  They sent me the following email.

“….I just purchased and paid for this item and when I went back to “My Ebay” site a few minutes later I found the item had been reduced to $3-75 and I paid $5-00 for it. Could you rectify this problem….. “

Let’s look at a few facts here:-

  1. The person purchased the item before the sale started.
  2. They pressed the “Buy It Now” button agreeing to the price at the time of purchase.  Therefore they entered an agreement to pay the price advertised at the time.
  3. It is just a coincidence that my sale started shortly after their payment went through.

I had a decision to make.

I had to decide whether to enforce my pricing, or protect my feedback rating and DSR’s.

I decided to protect my feedback and DSR’s.

It wasn’t worth the extra $1.25 that I would have earned on the product to have the buyer leave me negative feedback and low DSR’s.

I replied with the following message back to the buyer.

“….No worries at all. I had a sale scheduled to start today at 6pm. You must have purchased this item just before it started. I’m more than happy to pass on this cheaper price to you. I will refund the discount to you as a partial refund through PayPal. You can check you account shortly to see that it has been completed….”

I do wonder whether the buyer then realised that they had demanded a discount that I really didn’t have to give them.  Probably not!  But I can rest assured that I provided great customer service above and beyond what I was required to do.

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eBay Feedback – Negative Feedback

Filed under eBay Feedback by on March 20, 2010 at 9:00 am {3 comments}

eBay feedback.  It is such an important thing in the eBay world.  It is your online reputation as a buyer and a seller.

As a seller having a 100% positive feedback rating is a sign that you are a great eBay member to deal with.  It shows that for the past 12 month period you have had people buy from you that have been happy with the interaction and customer service you provided.

So what do you do if you ever receive negative feedback?

The silly thing about negative feedback is that it is not a question of ‘IF’ you ever get it, it is a question of ‘WHEN’ it does eventually happen.

Unfortunately you can’t please everybody, and many people you will just never please at all regardless of your level of service to them.

If, or when, you ever do receive negative feedback the most important thing is WHAT you do to try to rectify the situation.  Now this can be as simple as contacting the buyer and finding out exactly what the problem was and trying to fix it to the satisfaction of all involved.  In a perfect world you would hope that the buyer contacted you before leaving that feedback to try and get a solution but, believe me, that doesn’t always happen.

If you get no response from the buyer after several attempts then there isn’t a lot you can do.  If the negative feedback was unfair, or untrue, you can contact eBay and ask to get the feedback removed, but there does have to be certain criteria for this to occur.  Click on the following link to read more on the eBay help pages about this:- http://pages.ebay.com.au/help/feedback/questions/remove.html

Personally I have never received negative feedback YET!

I have, however, received a negative comment as positive feedback (by the way this is against the eBay rules).  The person did not try to contact me before leaving the comment so I contacted them and asked for specifics about the problem.  The problem ended up being that the buyer disagreed with the description of the condition of the article that I sold.  There was absolutely no way to appease this buyer and they were very rude so to the only way I knew how to rectify the situation was to refunded both the purchase price and the postage cost via PayPal (a very valuable tool in this situation!)  I also posted a reply to the buyer’s feedback simply stating, “Buyer not satisfied with condition of item, full refund given”, and I left it at that and moved on to my other eBay auctions and other satisfied, polite customers.  For more info on how to reply to feedback that has been left follow this link:- http://help.ebay.com.au/Help/Getting_Started/Feedback_ratings/Leaving_feedback#respond

I did have grounds for requesting the removal of this comment as it did break the rule of leaving a negative comment as positive, but I chose to just block the person from ever bidding on my items again (another great eBay tool!!)

I would actually have preferred that this customer left this comment as negative feedback.

Why, I hear you ask?

I’m not afraid of negative feedback at all.  It’s going to happen occasionally so no one can avoid it forever.  As I stated earlier in this post the most important thing is what action you take to find a solution that is adequate for both the buyer and yourself as the seller.  Everything else is irrelevant.  Your response to negative feedback will show future buyers that you do at least try to fix any problem that may occur.

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eBay Feedback – Who leaves it first?

Filed under eBay Feedback by on March 14, 2010 at 9:00 am {no comments}

I’ve read many different opinions about this subject and there are some very, very good arguments for both sides.

I personally used to leave feedback first.  Yes, I really did!

I used to leave feedback as soon as I put the item in the post.  Many people will disagree with this, but all I can say is that it worked for me.

I chose to leave feedback first for the following reasons:-
- this way I know I have completed my dealings with that auction and can move onto others.
- I did however invite the buyer to contact me if they had any concerns with the item they had purchased.
- But otherwise I had finished with the listing and if I received feedback GREAT, and if I don’t then that’s was OK too.
- I just found this easyto manage than constantly having to go back to listings to check whether I’ve received buyer feedback first (and YES I know there are programs out there to automate this, I’ll figure them out eventually!)

I have only recently decided to wait till the buyer leaves feedback first.  So why the change of heart?

It is only after researching this subject to write this blog that I changed my mind and started to leave feedback after the buyer left me feedback.

Here are the reasons why I now wait for the buyer to be first to leave feedback:-
- the transaction really isn’t over till the buyer receives the item, finds they are happy with it, and then completes the transaction by letting me know of their satisfaction through feedback.
- the buyers payment and communication isn’t the only thing you are rating them on.  You are rating them on their capability to thoroughly complete the sale from purchase through to feedback ratings.
- you are also rating them on their ability to complete the transaction by leaving you feedback.  Fast payment and great communication aren’t the only things that make a highly recommended buyer.
- you can then leave them feedback based on a completed transaction knowing that they are happy with the product that has been purchased.

So what should you do?

I say do what you feel is right for you.  Try it both ways (heaven knows I have!).  Leave feedback for a buyer first in a few auctions.  And in a few other auctions wait till the buyer leaves it for you first.  Do some statistics on how it works for you and see which you prefer.

At the end of the day I do not believe there is absolutely one way that everybody must do things.

Please feel free to leave me some comments on how you prefer to tackle this subject.

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eBay Feedback – What to do if the buyer doesn’t leave you feedback?

Filed under eBay Feedback by on March 11, 2010 at 9:00 am {one comment}

There are statistics on feedback being left by buyers after a completed eBay sale.  It runs at less than 50%.  This means that on average every 10 people you sell to, maybe 5 of them will leave you feedback.  These statistics aren’t good for the newbie seller who is trying to build their feedback score.

In reality I think what is going on is that the average buyer doesn’t realise how important feedback is to the seller.  There are so many new, or inexperienced buyers on eBay who just don’t understand ‘the game’ of eBay, they don’t understand that feedback and DSR’s are our ‘online business reputation’.

So what do you do?

Well, what you don’t do is hassle the buyer and demand that they leave you feedback.  Don’t laugh, I know someone who does this.  Obviously it has never resulted in feedback being left, but it has resulted in complaints being made to eBay and written warnings being given.

Personally I don’t do anything.  If a buyer for some reason chooses not to leave feedback, or just never gets around to it, so be it.  I’ve done my job.   I’ve completed the transaction to the best of my ability, left them feedback and moved on to the next eBay item that I have sold.  Sometimes I find that a month or two down the track I’ll receive a feedback comment from someone who I sold to weeks ago.  This is a nice surprise and just a bonus.

Some ways to gently remind your customers is to add a note to their invoice (if you include these in your parcels), or email them a quick message via eBay Messages when you mark their item as sent.  I send a short message when I have posted their item thanking them again for their purchase, letting them know it is on the way, letting them know an estimated day of arrival and also that I have left them feedback for this transaction (a friendly way of prompting reciprocal feedback).  I generally find this works well as I get many messages in return thanking me for letting them know and promising feedback after it arrives.  Do they do it??  Most do, some still don’t.

Overall my rate of reciprocal feedback from buyers is definitely not at 100% but it would run at around the 75% mark.  So for every 10 people I sell to 7-8 will leave feedback.

For further reading about eBay feedback here is the link to eBay’s page.
http://pages.ebay.com.au/help/feedback/howitworks.html

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