Chinavasion | China Gadgets BlogWholesale Electronics and the Gadget Business

By David Tsang

The impact of negative feedback

The majority of eBay sellers will usually have a pleasant online transaction experience. Unfortunately, the risk and frustration of receiving negative feedback is ever-present.

As eBay no longer permits sellers to leave negative or even neutral feedback on buyers, sellers should never underestimate the impact of negative feedback on future sales and their reputation.

It is therefore crucial that all steps are taken to:

• Actively remove such negative feedback
• Prevent and minimise negative feedback in the first instance

We are going to look at how to do both things over the next few weeks but first we will start by looking at how to actively eliminate negative feedback.

Understanding the eBay rules on negative feedback

EBay has clear guidelines on removing negative feedback, particularly if it is abusive in nature. A Resolution Center is also available on eBay which is for both sellers and buyers; this covers a broad range of transaction-related problems, one of which is feedback.

Removing such feedback is a different process as eBay will only remove it under very specific circumstances.

You can also Request Feedback Revision from the buyer to revise the neutral or negative feedback they’ve left.

This is usually the best approach as it enables both parties to communicate and discuss the problem which may stem from a simple misunderstanding.

Smart buyers will most likely read the comments associated with negative feedback to see what the issues were.

If eBay or the buyer refuse to remove the negative feedback, then be sure to tell your side of the story and leave a comment of your own.

Take a broader perspective

Detailed Seller Ratings (DSRs) allow you to be scored in more detail, giving a more accurate picture of the transaction experience; this includes scores for: item as described, communication, dispatch time, postage and packaging charges.

This represents the total customer experience and provides a very high level of transparency. You should therefore aim to provide a consistent quality of service at all times.

So, even if you are not successful in removing negative feedback, your future customers will judge your services for themselves. The better your performance is, the better your feedback and the less chance there will be that you will receive more negative ratings in the future.

A few negative ratings won’t matter to potential clients if you have:

• A high percentage of positive feedback
• High Detailed Seller Ratings showing a good track record of providing a quality experience to buyers
• Favourable comments from happy customers.

So don’t worry if, you get one or two negative reviews at a time (We all know how hard Christmas can be on seller reputations).

Only transactions occurring in the past twelve months count toward your positive feedback percentage so if you rarely receive negative feedback then eventually these will “lapse” and expire from your positive feedback percentage.

Important EBay Resources

• eBay information page covering seller feedback (Read this if nothing else)
  
  
• eBay feedback withdrawal and removal policy
  
  
• Removing unfair negative feedback on eBay
  
  
• eBay abusive feedback withdrawal policy

So start reading these resources and begin working towards managing your buyer feedback. Your sales are sure to see increases while fees will drop.

Don’t forget to take part in our poll and let the world know how much of a problem negative feedback is on eBay.