Feedback Etiquette

[Bigwooly1013]

So I've been fairly active both buying and selling in the online paintball community here recently. And i've noticed that while everyone seems to value having feedback threads and what not available it's almost like pulling teeth to get people to leave feedback.

So i guess this is kind of a mini rant but i just don't get it.

I mean I truly value being able to read about other positive and/or negative transactions that have been had with people.

Now here's the real dilemma i am pondering when a buyer purchase something from me should I always leave feedback for that person regardless of whether or not they communicate to you that the item was received and was acceptable?

I always ship with DC so i know that the item arrived but i don't feel that just because i know the item was delivered that the transaction is complete. I usually give the buyer a day or two to see if they let me know the item arrived and everything was okay. If i don't hear from them i send a pm letting them know that i see it was delivered and ask them if the item was okay.

When I receive no news from a buyer should i still proceed to leave them feedback on the transaction?

Anyways i guess my semi rant/questioning is over. Thanks for reading.

[cougar20th]

I find the same problems many places. Ive more or less given up on the feedback system alot of places especially for small transactions. Alot of this is also lazness on my part.

My major rant would be about people that you up front tell them you cant ship until x day. They ***** & complain about that shipdate. So you go out of your way to ship it the next day. Only to be hounded everyday for a week after youve shipped about when they would see it. Then I can only assume they recieved it because all comunication stopped. They wont even reply to my inquirys about if they recieved it. I know they did because of DC. It happened several times to me.

[Temo Vryce]

Personally I like the way ebay's system works. The buyer leave feedback first and then the seller leaves feedback.

If I'm buying from you, that's what I do. Once I have the item and confirm it's in the condition stated, I leave my feedback and expect you to do the same. If the people you are selling to aren't leaving you feedback, then it's your choice if you should leave it for them.

[theGOLDENchild]

Personally I like the way ebay's system works. The buyer leave feedback first and then the seller leaves feedback.

If I'm buying from you, that's what I do. Once I have the item and confirm it's in the condition stated, I leave my feedback and expect you to do the same. If the people you are selling to aren't leaving you feedback, then it's your choice if you should leave it for them.

The flaw with that is the buyer is scared to leave negative feedback knowing that the seller will retaliate by leaving negative feedback, even if the buyer did not deserve it.

[Bigwooly1013]

The flaw with that is the buyer is scared to leave negative feedback knowing that the seller will retaliate by leaving negative feedback, even if the buyer did not deserve it.

see this is the scenario that i am worried about as a seller. Which is why i try to do my best to communicate with the buyer and ensure that everything was acceptable.

As we all know it only takes one bad feedback on these kinds of forums to ruin a perfect reputation. and personally i would much rather work towards an agreeable solution to any issues that arise for any given transaction than to simply receive negative feedback for something that may or may not have been anything i could control.

[DSR75]

I feel that regardless you should always leave feedback. It helps others know whether or not to deal with that person. If the transaction was great, say that. If it wasn't, tell us too.

Now I do agree that before leaving negative feedback, an attempt must be made to come to an agreeable solution if there has been a problem.

As a side note, when I receive the tank I'll be leaving feedback for you.

[sjrtk]

I try not to leave negative feed back for anyone with out doing everything in my power to try to fix a problem in a way that is acceptable to both parties even if I have given them months to help. I am still sitting on that for some one else, but as far as Ebay goes i'll leave bad feed back if I have gotten to that point with some one. I am much less forgiving there than here.

[tribalman]

i wish stores had a system like this instead of just word of mouth (and easier to find than a BBB report). 2 weeks in and i'm still waiting for an item i ordered that said "in stock and ships within 24 hours". i asked a week ago and they said it wasn't in and had to be shipped from the manufacturer. doesn't that mean it's NOT in stock?

[ProblemKinder]

if they don't receive the product, or it's damaged or somethings missing or whatever, they will contact you. So I would say no news is good news, especially if you use DC and know that it was received. so I would atleast leave feedback saying something about prompt payment no hassle or something. that might encourage them to leave some feedback for you, fast shipping good condition or something.

I only have one reply to my feedback thread on AO I don't do alot of stuff on AO. but I have a moderate amount of ebay experience and it's nice to atleast have one more 'green' feedback even if nothing particularily spectacular happened. in the end what matters is that the payment was as fast as agreed upon, the shipping was as fast as agreed upon, and the condition of the product was exactly as agreed upon. 90% of transactions don't involved much more than that.