Some Thoughts On Feedback!!

At the time of writing (28th May 2005) I have 100% feedback and a rating of 1124. Not bad considering....

In the nearly 5 years I've been eBaying I've meet almost exclusively nice people. If it had been any other way I'd have cancelled my eBay membership years ago and sold my surplus effects off at a boot fair or similar. Through eBay I've now got a good friend in Moscow, another in France, several in the States and countless in the UK.

Of course, I've messed up a couple of times but have been able to rectify the situation to the buyer's complete satisfaction.

However, as anyone who has been eBaying for a while knows sadly there are some complete ******* out there!

Although I have NO negatives I have, in almost 5 years amassed 3 neutrals. Let me tell you about them...

One was from an American gentleman who bought a pen (very cheaply) and complained that it was a different color from the eBay picture and left a neutral "Transaction OK". I emailed him by return offering a no hassle complete refund including postage. A very fair offer I thought. But no, he'd prefer to keep the pen. The next feedback he left (for someone else) was "Quick and easy transaction but color of item was a little different than listing". Now, he reminds me of a friend who as we strolled past Big Ben (and it struck ten) looked at his watch and said "...it's 5 minutes fast". Surprise, surprise my watch gave exactly the same time as Big Ben but that just made my watch 5 minutes fast as well which is quite unusual for a radio controlled watch! I resisted the temptation to email my American buyer with instructions on how to set up a colour monitor. But only just!

The second neutral was from someone who bought a book for a pound (retail about £20) who said " yes received item, but wasnt too happy as the book stank of smoke". Now, that was a surprise because unless there was a fire in a Royal Mail sorting office it just didn't! A few months later this buyer started selling designer items and earned a string of similar negatives all along the lines of "Was not burberry!!! Tag even said Armini on it!!!!" Do bad buyers make bad sellers? You'll have to decide for yourself!

The last neutral was from someone who bought a Dior perfume tester and was "The perfume has less smel (sic) than normal one I am not sure if tis fake one or not." Now if you were going to fake a perfume would you fake a tester? Surely if you had the ability (and I do so wish I had) to fake a perfume (particularly a classic one) you'd make it one designed for sale! And the thought that Dior would produce a tester with less smel (or even smell) in order to sell such a high quality product is certainly beyond reasonable belief. In their first 12 transactions this bidder left 8 neutrals/negatives. Now, that is one unlucky bidder. If that anything like mirrored my eBay experience, I'd be off to that boot fair tomorrow!!