Iv'e been going over my "my ebay" pages and decided that the detailed seller rating don't do much good unless you see a seller with mabey 2 stars on something. I was looking at my ratings and was suprised by the level. 4 and a half stars for Item as described and shipping charges. I alwasy have a brief simple description and decent pics. How can the description not be accurate? As far as shipping goes, my last few auctions, the shipping cost have bee about 20 or 30 cents over actual. My shipping time and communication ratings are better but not perfect. I shipp items within 24 hours and comunicate with buyers at least three times. Once on the invoice, once when I print a shipping label, and again when I shipp the coin. What more do people really want to stay happy? Has anybody els noticed this? I'm just afraid that peopl that buy, but don't sell on ebay will missinterpret these rating and hurt potential sales or prices.
People will misinterpret the ratings no matter how it explained to them. Sadly, no matter how well you do business, ship an item or how well it's priced, you know someone is not going to be happy with it and give you a less than startling rating or review just because they can. I think the only way you are going to make all customers happy is if you sell an item 50% cheaper than it's worth and hand deliver it to them within ten minutes.
Maybe it's just a time wasting thing to me personally, but I always just skip the star rating process when giving feedback. I think it's pointless. But, thats just me. Guy~
The 1 to 5 scale is so subject to opinion of what they really mean that it's pointless - i.e. your "4" might be someone else's "2". I guess eBay gets points for trying, but I think reading the comments is far more useful. Even a positive feedback can come with less than stellar comments.
The system seems "good in theory" as it were but there are a lot of stupid and demanding people out there. I haven't sold on ebay in quite a while and the system makes me leery honestly. I did have a screwy experience on Overstock sometime ago that illustrates what a buyers mentality can be. I put a nice Unc 1938-D Buffalo. MS65 no problem. Started the bidding at $20 with a Make It Mine (like Buy It Now) of $30. The Make it Mine has to be at least 1-1/2 times the value of starting bid on Overstock so this is important. I got a few bids then a lady used the MIM for $30. Okay, I send out the invoice. A few days later I get an email from here asking "Where is my nickel". Well, it's in my safe bimbo until I get paid and I give people a lot of time to pay. Get payment finally and ship coin. My feedback comes back as neutral because "the coin was a bit pricey"! Excuse me did I force you to bid? I would have gladly sold that coin for $25 to someone with a brain. Buyers that never sell generally have no clue what a seller goes through. Doesn't matter where you're selling.
Thanks for the replies, I guess some people are never happy. It just bugs me when I try to keep my ratings high and try to please everybody. Another thing I saw that was funny, was a power seller with almost a full five stars on everything but had several negs and nuetrals.:goof:
From me you would get 5 stars for communication - out of my few auctions only one seller sent me 3 communications and got a 5. Without seeing your description(and winning an auction to have a coin in hand to compare with) I can't tell you how I would rate you on that. For shipping you would get a 4 - I reserve 5's for free shipping. I wish they had a rating for good clear pictures - that means more to me than anything. I think the stars are worthless, but I do enter them and I do glance at them.
I do a detailed star feedback for every transaction. I hope to get them in return when I sell. Only a few ratings don't mean much, but over many transactions, a trend develops, only then can you see the bigger picture. Yeah, it's kind of silly, and takes an extra effort, but , it is there, use it you wish, ignore it if you don't.
I'm not an ebay person but my son thinks the world of it. I know one thing he does is have many, many people send in great, satisfactory, fantastic comments about him. Many pretend to buy from him and state how great everything was. He has been doing this for many years and that is the main reason I stay away from ebay. No possible way to verify anybody. I tried it once with someone that also had a fantastic rating. I purchased something that was worth about 1/10 of what it should have been and also didn't work.
You cannot leave feedback on eBay until there has been an actual transaction. I am sure that eBay cannot verify that every transaction involves a seller receiving money and then shipping goods, but they do know that they received their listing and closing fees.
