After over five years of selling on
eBay, I'm changing my feedback policy effective immediately.
I've
always thought that all a buyer should be responsible for is prompt
payment according to the payment guidelines of the seller. So,
if the buyer payed promptly according to the sellers terms, positive
feedback should be left for all.
However this policy has two
flaws that I've had to contend with over the years:
1) Most
people do not leave feedback in return.
2) People can leave
irresponsible feedback
I've never worried about getting
feedback, my thought was that it was a mater of personal choice.
No one should be required to leave feedback. Those that leave
feedback recognize it as being a valuable way to determine
disreputable sellers.
However, irresponsible feedback is of
great concern to me as a full-time seller because the only negative
or neutral feedback I've received in over 5 years has been left
without any prior communication.
I believe that irresponsible
feedback (non-positive feedback left without any prior communication
with the seller) is like painting graffiti on the side of one's store
that can not be removed. After over 5 years, I still have
non-positive feedback that I can not remove from my store's wall.
I believe that like graffiti, it serves no value to the buying
public.
I feel it is very unfair to leave feedback that says
that the buyer was not satisfied with the sale but for them to never
have contacted the seller about their experience, so that there
was an opportunity to fix the problem and shopping experience.
As
a Power Seller, I've chosen to make all or at least a portion of my
living from my sales on eBay. When buyers choose to
editorialize in feedback on national name brand products that I sell
and not their buying experience with me as a seller, I'm compelled to
change my feedback policy.
Beginning immediately, I will leave
feedback only after feedback has been received by the buyer.
Please
note that I have not changed my return policy that states that you
may return any product within 7 days if you are not completely
satisfied and I will return your money. I cal this a 100%
satisfaction guarantee and have honored it a number of times over the
last 5 years.
Because of this guarantee, I remain baffled why
someone feels compelled to leave non-positive feedback and never
communicate with the seller, let alone return the item for refund.
Even more of a mystery is why someone would leave non-positive
feedback and then buy from me again. Is this not
hypocritical?
For the thousands of buyers who have received
automatic positive feedback, I apologize for any inconvenience in the
policy change.
) 
