eBay Buyer demands Feedback or else

Dear eBay Queen;

I’ve been reading your column for quite a while now. I know you’ve covered several feedback issues, but I don’t remember you covering anything like this. I buy 5-10 things a week on eBay, and it seems like sellers are more desperate than ever to get feedback! Each seller is a bit different, but they all expect me to leave feedback first. I am tired of these types of sellers and their attitudes. I have decided to send all sellers that ask me to leave feedback for them first the following letter:

Dear Seller,

Thank you for you email and letting me know the status of my order. I understand and acknowledge you would like for me to leave you positive feedback. My question to you is WHY should I when you, as yet, have not done so for me? After all, I fulfilled my end of the bargain when I paid you in full via PayPal. When you leave positive feedback for me, (as you should since my obligation to you has been met by paying you,) and when I receive a quality product (as described in your eBay ad,) then I will consider giving you a positive feedback. If you don’t want to meet my demands, there will be no hope in ever seeing feedback from me.

Do you think my wording is too strong? My good friend sells stuff on eBay and he thinks I should just let it go and give a seller feedback first. I am anxious to hear your opinion.

John G

Dear John;

As a buyer I completely understand your frustration with sellers not leaving timely feedback. When I am a buyer, I’ve always left feedback first, and even then it takes some sellers a long time to leave feedback for me. While I think your letter completely reflects the opinions of many buyers in the world of eBay, I don’t think it will get you the response you are hoping for from sellers.

As a seller myself, if I received your email, I would be a bit afraid to leave you ANY feedback as it sends up some red flags. Your comment on how you would “consider” giving positive feedback makes it seem as though you might be hard to please. From a sellers perspective your email has the potential to get more people riled up, than be sympathetic to your feedback plight. I’m going to side with your friend on this one, let it go.


Dear eBay Queen;

eBay is doing it again and it's not fair. I sell in the digital delivery category. I was totally unaware of the fact that eBay has banned all digital delivery items. I haven't been busted yet, but I guess I am going to have to stop selling my e-book. This is totally unfair. The e-book I am selling is a simple how-to booklet in PDF format. I wrote it myself and under copyright laws I have the right to sell it. How can I get around this rule? I keep telling myself I need to start a website to host my e-books. I am looking for something that would be an automatic steady trickle of income that really requires no interaction from me. I guess this new rule will give me the final push to do it.

Gerry

Dear Gerry;

eBay put the new digital download rules into effect at the end of March. This was a high fraud category for eBay, and adding these new rules was not to prevent you as a seller from making money, but to keep the site safer. The rules say that you can only sell digital downloads in the Classified Ad’s Section of eBay. I know lots of seller that are still selling their e-books but are now offering them on CD. This means you will have to burn the CD and mail the item, but it still will allow you to sell your successful how-to book. For more information on this rule check out: http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/selling-digital-items.html

Having multiple venues in which to sell your items is always a good idea. I really encourage you to play within the rules of eBay’s digital download category and start your own website. You could even write an e-book on how you started your website.

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