in feedback hostage, the practice of witholding leaving feedback for
the buyer until they can see what feedback the buyer leaves for them.
If a buyer is unhappy with some part of the trasaction and leaves
feedbck to reflect that experience, the seller will reciprocate the bad
feedback on the buyers profile even though the buyer did everything
right! These sellers have completely corrupted the intended use of
Ebay's feedback system.
The result of this practice is to inflate the sellers feedback
record well above what it should be. Many unhappy buyers just don't
leave feedback for these sellers or leave bad comments with a positive
rating out of fear the seller will retaliate with a negative to hurt
their own rating. Or they leave the seller a negative, the seller
retaliates, then agree to the mutual feedback withdrawl offered by the
seller. How can anyone trust a seller engaged in feedback hostage
rating when those unhappy are afraid to post feedback?
I can think of no other business-customer relationship where
there is a mechanism for the business to retaliate against an unhappy
customer. Competing peer to peer trading sites often have no ability at
all to rate the customer, so retaliation is not an issue. Can you
imagine making a complaint about a product you bought at Sears, only to
have Sears complain about you?
Sellers who engage in "feedback hostage" have invented all kinds of
excuses to justify the practice. From claiming their automated system
does it that way (not true, they have chosen to set it like that, they
could choose to have it leave feedback on receipt of paypal payment) to
claiming Ebay says they should do it that way. But what does Ebay
really say?
Ebay's help section clearly recommends the proper way for sellers to operate is to leave feedback first:
"Leaving Feedback Just as building your reputation is important, so is it for the buyer. Make sure to leave feedback for your buyers after you receive payment.
In difficult situations, try and work things out first with your buyers
before leaving negative feedback. Remember, feedback is permanent.
Acknowledge Payment Once you receive payment from your buyer send an email to 1) acknowledge receipt of payment and 2) to notify the buyer that you will be shipping the item. It's also a good idea to leave feedback for your buyer at this point.
Here are the basics of listing items for sale: 6. Leave feedback. After your successful sale, leave feedback for your buyer, and ask that they do the same."
"The Official Ebay Bible" book by Ebay's dean of education Jim Griffith
uses even stronger language to promote sellers beine the one to leave
feedback first is the proper way to operate.
Feedback hostage sellers often claim they do it because there are so
many bad buyers out there leaving unjustified neagtive feedback. Is
this really the case? If that were the case why does almost everyone on
EBay have very close to 100% rating, including sellers who always leave
feedback for their buyer first? One seller on the Nortica top 500
largest Ebay sellers list who always leaves feedback on payment has a
99.9% rating from receiving over 77,000 feedback! A random sampling of
the top sellers list finds the sellers who leave feedback first average
a higher feedback percentage then those who hold feedback hostage. It
seems highly unlikely that is achieved just by luck, while these
feedback hostage sellers get bad buyers leaving negatives left and
right.
The truth is the vast majority of Ebay buyers are great, the number
leaving unjustified negative feedback tiny. Sellers who complain about
all these bad buyers are most likely doing something themselves to
cause buyers to want to leave them negative feedback.
Want to avoid feedback hostage - many sellers who do it state
so right in their listing. When you see something like "We always
reciprocate positive feedback" or "Leave postive feedback for me so I
will know that the item has been received and you are happy with the
transaction", it should be considered an implied threat meaning "if you
leave a neg or neutral for me you are surely going to get a neg in
return". But what if the listing says nothing on feedback...
Luckily there is a simple solution for buyers. In seconds one can click
on a sellers profie and compare the dates they left/received feedback
from the same buyer. If a number of transactions show the seller has
left feedback on the same or later day then they received it you have
found a feedback hostage seller. If being able to trust that a seller's
feedback profile truly reflects their service is important, and you
want the ability to leave feedback if you are unhappy without receiving
retaliation feedback, move on to the next seller. There are many great
sellers on ebay operating in a professional business like manner who do
not engage in feedback hostage.
There are many benefits from buying from sellers who leave
feedback first. It serves as a great filter - Sellers who engage in
selling bootleg items, misdescribe item condition, use unreliable drop
shippers, are slow to ship or fail to respond to emails are unlikely to
be among the sellers leaving feedback first. They know they will have
customer complaints, so protect their rating through the threat of
retaliation. Buyers can be confident sellers who have left feedback
first, thereby allowing their buyers to leave honest feedback without
any threat, have a profile that accurately reflects their service.
Finally, while most transactions on ebay are completed without a hitch,
if something goes wrong you can leave an honest comment without knowing
the seller will retaliate even though you did nothing wrong.
Holding feedback hostage is the one of the most dishonorable
practices on eBay. I refuse to do business with sellers enaged in it.
Colin Rule, eBay and PayPal's Director of Online Dispute
Resolution, wrote an excellent blog entry on feedback for the eBay
Chatter:
"Life is too short to live in fear. If a buyer communicates well and
pays quickly, why wait? Give them the positive. It communicates
something important about our values: we choose to trust, and we
believe that people are basically good. It's really rare for a buyer to
leave a neg for a good seller that leaves them a positive. It doesn't
make us vulnerable to take the first step... in fact, just the
opposite. It frees us from the constant fear and worry of being
susceptible to the one unreasonable person out there."
Read the whole thing:
http://www.ebaychatter.com/the_chatter/2006/08/let_he_who_is_w.html
Oct 2007, Ebay
now sends out emails to new sellers on their first sale advising them
to leave feedback when payment is received, and have also written that
in the "power up" newsletter delivered exclusively to power sellers: "Leave positive feedback when you receive payment"
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