Confused about eBay Feedback? Take it Easy!

Feedback system on eBay is a great idea which makes it worth working for, from a seller’s point of view. Higher the feedback ratings greater the customers will be confident about dealing with you and vise versa.

So What Is A Feedback And How Does It Work?

Feedback is your online reputation. In eBay’s context, every time you make a sale, your trading partners will leave comments, either negative or neutral or positive and rate you. For a new customer checking your reputation, this stands as a confidence booster by speaking for your conductance through your dealings. Each eBay member will have an account of feedback ratings in numbers and comments.

The feedback system works in a simple manner. You get +1 point for a positive comment or nil for the neutral one while -1 for a negative comment. Now, once you earn +10 points you are given a yellow star feedback. In all there are 6 star feedbacks in different colors till your earned points reach 9,999. Then, from 10,000 points to 100,000 points there are 4 shooting star feedbacks.

How The Feedback System Does Benefit A Seller?

To know how it benefits you, the Seller, see how they are displayed in your store page. First, you have the star and/or (as the case may be) the total scores against your member ID. In the next level, you see the breakup of your scores into positive, neutral and negative in both absolute and percentage terms with the percentage of positive one being highlighted at the top.

What does it signify to a buyer? Well, we all know that feedbacks are no guarantee of a member’s true value but they are dependable indicators for sure. Say, you have a total score of 77,458 scores and 75,522 of them are positive (97.5%), would you think it will not have the buying member impacted, with almost certainty, in your favor?

There is another significant feature of eBay feedback system, that is, all feedbacks are permanent and can’t be removed (barring exclusions.) If you are positive, this will develop a history of positive feedbacks.

Dealing With Shipping Problems

The not so common but pretty irritating problems in online auctions, including eBay auctions, are the problems associated with shipping and handling. If these are not handled properly they would cause tangible loss to the buyers but potentially damaging intangible losses to you by way of negative feedbacks. In the following paragraphs let us take an overview of the commonly occurring shipping problems and ways to handle them.

Common Shipping Problems

The most common of the shipping problems are delays in delivery to the buyer. You will know that the parcel has not been received by the buyer when you receive a call, or more commonly, an email from her. If you are not a newbie to online eBay business you know what could have probably gone wrong. Reply to the mail assuring the buyer that you will investigate the matter and ask her whether it is the latest address that she had updated at eBay or PayPal. Check from your records the mailing address and documents like DC were attached properly to the parcel. Talk to the parcel carrier. If you had attached DC, you will most likely get the thing back.

If you had purchased insurance, take up the matter with the insuring company. But it is prudent to take care of fine prints at the time of purchasing the insurance than be sorry later.

Breakage complaints score next to delay or loss. Advise your customer, soon as you dispatch, to open the parcel in the presence of the delivery person so that they can both acknowledge the condition as received. It is hard to convince the insurance company otherwise. If you sell neon signs, take extra care to understand the fine print which specifically excludes neon signs among other glassware. I such cases either you refund to the customer or face a negative feedback. Not all insurance companies are alike but most eBay sellers complain against FedEx, so be careful next time.

Customer can seek redress with eBay. Study the eBay customer protection policy. eBay, under certain conditions, can reverse the amount from your PaypPal account to the buyer. One advice to all new eBay sellers, most shipping problems can be avoided by carefully handling each parcel but you will be better off by subscribing to eBay Sellers’ Protection Policy.