A question for those of you that sell things on ebay...

Do you wait until the buyer has left your feedback before leaving feedback for the buyer?

My thoughts are: As soon as I have paid I have fullfilled my ebay obligation and should be left positive feedback. My feedback should not be dependent on the feedback I leave.

By Tunnia on Monday, December 20, 2004 - 01:30 pm:

I agree with you and it bothers me a lot! When I pay immediately for an item and then have a problem with a purchase I feel like I can't leave the proper feedback because that person hasn't left feedback on me yet and I don't want them to mess up my 100% feedback when I did everything correctly. I have that situation as we speak because I used a "buy it now" for something I needed asap, paid immediately, paid for priority mail, and then waited four weeks for the item to arrive. I am reluctant to leave the correct feedback because the person hasn't left any feedback for me.

When I sell on Ebay I leave feedback as soon as they pay because I feel that they have fulfilled their part of the bargain.

By Robin on Monday, December 20, 2004 - 04:02 pm:

I leave feedback when I feel really satisfied about a purchase. I have never left negative feedback and only once did I leave a neutral. The neutral really deserved a negative but I didn't want to have an e-bay debate. I have usually gotten positive feedback (never any negative or neutral), I sometimes remind the other person that I have left positive feedback and would like the same. Sometimes, you just have to deal with the fact that people don't leave feedback.

By Breann on Monday, December 20, 2004 - 04:14 pm:

I agree that once I have paid I have fulfilled my obligation.

But as a seller, I have a story to share
I sold an item to a person. They paid quickly and I left positive feedback for them right away. (This is when I was still fairly new to e-bay)
Well about a couple weeks after I shipped the item, I got an e-mail from e-bay saying they had received a complaint that I never mailed the item. What??!! I mailed it right away. I e-mailed e-bay and reassured them that I DID mail the item.
Then I started getting nasty e-mails from the buyer. Telling me I was a liar and a theif! They left me negative feedback I had already left them positive and I wished so badly that I could have changed it to negative.
So now I wait until I have heard from the buyer before I leave feedback. Feedback is meant to be left to tell how the entire transaction went. Not just how fast the payment was made.

I always leave feedback when I purchase items. And I usually receive feedback from items I sell. That is the only negative I've received and it's now "off my record" so my score is back to 100%!

By Livvy on Monday, December 20, 2004 - 04:27 pm:

I would email the person you had the transaction with and ask them to leave feedback if they are satisfied with the transaction. It will either prompt them to leave feedback or give them the opportunity to let you know if they aren't happy about the transaction.

When I ship an item I have sold, I jot a quick note (and include it with their item) that says that I will leave the buyer feedback as soon as I have heard from them and know that they are happy with our transaction.

I have definitely left much more feedback than I have received and that is frustrating but some people really could care less about the feedback portion of the transaction.

By Kate on Monday, December 20, 2004 - 04:35 pm:

Well, I've never sold on ebay, but I agree with Breann. If I did sell, I would wait until I knew the buyer had received the item and was pleased with it, thus the transaction completed. Usually, the only way the seller knows the item was received is when the buyer leaves feedback, hence that's probably why this keeps happening to you. Just paying promptly is only half the transaction. If you receive it and aren't happy for some reason, the transaction is very much NOT completed and more communication needs to take place. How that buyer handles that communication and how that buyer allows the seller to fix the problem is key. If the buyer is completely unreasonable and acts inappropriately, the seller would want his feedback to reflect that, to warn other ebayers about that buyer. Make sense?

By Boxzgrl on Monday, December 20, 2004 - 04:55 pm:

I don't care when feedback is left as long as they do it! I ALWAYS leave feedback no matter what. Its how people build theirselves on ebay as trustworthy buyers and sellers. I've been using ebay for a while but my "score" next to my name shows 49 but if you look at the feedback i've left for others (every transaction ever done) it is about 61 or so. That's 11 people who could care less whether or not they left feedback.


What i've seen that sounds great for sellers is to mention in your comment section that you will gladly leave positive feedback (if all went well) once feedback is received from them.

By Palmbchprincess on Monday, December 20, 2004 - 05:43 pm:

I tend to leave feedback right after payment is received, but lots of people don't bother to leave any at all, and that bugs me. It's against Ebay policy to "barter" feedback by saying "I'll leave you a positive when you leave me one." I've seen people flat out post that in their listings, and in that case I feel bullied into leaving feedback, and will avoid the member, or not leave anything. (Rare...)

By Claire on Monday, December 20, 2004 - 06:26 pm:

Feedback is VOLUNTARY - period.

I used to leave feedback first as a seller but then as time went on I changed my policy, not because anyone left me a neutral or negative but because just because they paid does not mean it's over. Anything could happen from the time if leaves my hands & it reaches the buyer and how we BOTH handle it should be reflected in the feedback.

I don’t worry about feedback any more – if they leave it great if they don’t I don’t worry about it.

By Bobbie~moderatr on Monday, December 20, 2004 - 11:57 pm:

Crys, If I read anything referring to feed back on and item I go back to the previous page and will not buy from that person. If I see that I assume the seller will be a lot of work and I am not up for work.... I also have issues with the people that won't sell to people with low scores (newer people). "if you don't have a score of ** at least don't bother to bid as your bid will be removed"

By Claire on Tuesday, December 21, 2004 - 08:19 am:

I hate that low score thing too Bobbie! Good grief everyone started off with 0 feedback.

By Breann on Tuesday, December 21, 2004 - 09:22 am:

The low score thing is ridiculous in my opinion. Like Claire said, everyone started off with zero.

By Missmudd on Tuesday, December 21, 2004 - 10:46 am:

When I ship an item I email the buyer and say something like, I have left you positive feedback, I would appreciate that you would do the same for me if you are happy w/ your purchase. And then I leave it like that. Another thing you can do is when you go to their feedback there is a tab that says feedback left for others. Sometimes that gives a clue if they will or wont leave you feedback.