Just to make it 'real' about the "below 98% is bad" idea, I worked at a company for 25 years that had numerous internal and external feedback measurements. If our performance in any of them fell below 99.7% people were in serious trouble, and if that continued, managers would be replaced and teams would descend to find out why there was a problem.

What that means, is in that particular company one customer in every 300 complaining could seriously affect one's job.

98% is giving a break.

OK, back to the rants. :D

 

hmm well when i worked at sears we had at least a 1 in 50 ratio of people being ____ed off and going insane.

 

I only have a 75% because they didn't like my bad review. I paid right after the auction, held up my end of the deal. They sent me scrached up stuff, no 3m tape on the logo. But they gave me a neg and called me names on the feedback. I only have 4 feedbacks.

 

I know about negative feedback. I have one. The jerk gave it to me because I didn't answer his email for a few days because I was away. I also know about being in business because I am and have been for many years. And if I had 5% of my clients unhappy, I'd be out of business.

 

Sellers often put low prices on products and make up the difference in S&H for 3 reasons:

1) Price conscious buyers will click on lower priced items first
2) It saves them money on initial listing fees
3) It saves them a lot of money on final value fees

It is a shady way of doing it and I can see eBay noobs falling for it, but it would be their own fault for not knowing enough about the auction. It should be chalked up as lesson learned, buyer beware, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger, etc. Leaving a negative comment will only get you the same in return, and nobody wants that. If you can't come to an agreement with the seller, there are ways to get out of it without any negative feedback on either side and the seller can get back some of his fees.

I do listings once in a while at work for overstocked and discontinued parts and it always amazes me how many people don't read the entire auction before bidding. Some people even pay for overnight shipping when they are 3 blocks away, and get mad after they receive the part to find out they could have picked it up.

I definitely believe that less than 98% feedback should make you hesitate about dealing with a seller. But you also have to consider the fact that many buyers don't leave return feedback on an auction they won. I would have to look up the records to be sure, but I estimate about 60% of my buyers leave feedback. I can guarantee you that 100% of unhappy customers will leave negative feedback. So (using hypothetical numbers), a 97% feedback rating could actually be 99% if all buyers left feedback. That's why many sellers now do not leave feedback until after the buyer does. That, and it cuts down on the number of people leaving negative or neutral feedback for stupid reasons (e.g. color of X-brand shirt doesn't match my Y-brand shoes).

Also, multiple feedback from the same buyer doesn't count towards your rating. So an extremely happy customer, one that buys from you over and over, can leave positive feedback but it doesn't add to the feedback score. I guess it's eBay's way of trying to keep things fair so people can't easily up their score by selling parts back and forth to another account.


A message I read from eBay just this morning about excessive shipping charges: