Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Shipping Excellence - Is It Possible To Get All 5's On eBay?

If you are a seller on eBay, you know that eBay has taken away the power of the reciprocal feedback (i.e., you leave me negative feedback, I leave you the same). Bummer! In today's eBay marketplace, the buyer has all of the power. I call that "eBay Buyer's Dominance" - "EBD" for short. It is absolutely ridiculous. For example, today I received some new feedback "points" for some stuff I sold recently.

Here is the actual feedback left for me:

FAST Shipping, item exactly as described! Good job ! Thanks Great deal!!!
Buyer: dada2d ( 355) Dec-10-08 17:09

FAST Shipping, item exactly as described! Good job ! Thanks Great deal!!!
Buyer: dada2d ( 355) Dec-10-08 17:09

FAST Shipping, item exactly as described! Good job ! Thanks Great deal!!!
Buyer: dada2d ( 355) Dec-10-08 17:09

The best seller on Ebay, a great transaction!!
Buyer: josephcardone ( 602) Dec-10-08 13:49

Nice Condition! Thanks for the careful shipping 5 Star Seller
Buyer: gorillacookiegirl ( 1284) Dec-10-08 13:23

the figure looks great, very pro seller thanks Ed
Buyer: trainmancat ( 302) Dec-10-08 12:54

an excellent seller, will visit again, thanks, Ed
Buyer: trainmancat ( 302) Dec-10-08 12:52

Now that's what I call excellent feedback. Each buyer basically says, "Kevin, you are the man!"

So riddle me this Batman. Why did my overall "Detailed Seller Rating" go down? The answer is simple. eBay's new system SUCKS! Only in this messed up auction universe (where it costs me more money to sell an item than I make in profit) can a seller be "punished" for being "the man" (or woman, as the case may be).

It is so frustrating. Makes me almost want to send my next package out like this:


Yes, guys and girls - that toy was actually mailed just as you see it (the white is covering up the "to" and "from" addresses)! At first I thought that this was just a joke. However, I tracked the package on usps.com (tracking number 0307 3330 0001 7125 0234) and it was actually accepted, processed and delivered by our United States Postal Service!

And to think: my local post office gives me a ton of crap because I like to recycle boxes (you know, trying to reduce my carbon footprint at the same time saving money)! What's more sad than that? It appears that the toy arrived in better condition than 50% of the packages I receive when I'm an eBay buyer!

1 comments:

web-betty said...

I actually agree with eBay's new system of NOT letting sellers leave negative feedback anymore--sellers were abusing the old system by waiting until someone received their item, and then left feedback, before deciding what to say.

Many sellers weren't basing their feedback on actual buyer's "performance", mainly did they pay on time, they were basing it on what the buyer said about them. That is NOT how the system should work.

I have not sold on eBay in quite a while, so you may point out some valid flaws, however, keeping sellers from hurting buyer's feedback rating simply because they didn't like what was said about them is a good step in the right directin.