Business Practice


J

Jeremiaha Austin

North to the Future
Hello group, I finally got into On30 which I’m very excited about. I purchased a Spectrum 4-6-0 and 4 freight cars from one of our members; an excellent deal and smooth transaction.

I also purchased two 2-6-0’s, a 4-4-0 and another 4-6-0 as well as 5 freight cars, a set of trucks and six car frames from every ones favorite ebay merchant. Although value was good, shipping was slow and expensive so I gave the ebay merchant a less than stellar rating on those two points.

The merchant emailed me asking if I would retract my negative shipping comments, due to it affecting his rating. I asked him how to do that since I had already submitted the review. He said
“I can send you requests for feedback revision through the eBay system. You would have to approve the requests. If I send the requests will you approve them?” I wrote him back saying that I would do so.

Meanwhile, I also had decided to bid on another 4-6-0 that was listed on his site. I submitted my bid but was notified that this merchant was no longer accepting my bids. Fair enough, he has can decide who to sell to but asking for my grace on the one hand and being spiteful on the other just isn’t good business.

Brent
 
Brent,

You gave that "merchant" the review that you believed in and that was a reflection of your experience. He had a nerve asking you to change it just because it would effect his rating. If he doesn't want his rating effected, improve his service!

The other thing that I think is wrong is even considering changing your review in the first place. If you received poor service, why not be honest about it (as you were) so others aren't misled by false reviews and or ratings, isn't that why they have reviews?

Bad business practice is telling someone what they want to hear/read instead of what they, and everyone else, needs to hear/read.
 
This one of the reasons I avoid e-bay. The seller shouldn't know who you are. The transaction is handled though e-bay and paypal.
 
Hey Brent,

Sorry to hear about your troubles.

How long did he take to ship it to you and how much did he charge you? Was it a combined shipping deal?

For me, sellers that over charge for shipping is a red flag and I won't bid on their items.
 
The guy probably sells used cars on the side. Just walk away without any further involvement.
 
Jeremiaha Austin said:
. Although value was good, shipping was slow and expensive so I gave the ebay merchant a less than stellar rating on those two points.


Brent
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Hi Jeremiaha,

I spend a lot of time buying stuff for my layout on ebay and have also sold some stuff there. The good thing about the auction service is they will back up the statements made by the seller. On two cases the seller called stuff new in the box and were not; in one instance I got a full refund and also possession of the item, in another case a substantial reduction in cost. Once, an item was lost in the mail and I also recieved a full refund from ebay, even though it was the USPS that screwed up. These are a couple of the benefits of ebay.

To be an active user, it does take a little tolerance, especially when it comes to shipping. I always read carefully the shipping charges, and like Louis, shy away from anything that seems to charge excessive shipping.

To be considered a good buyer, I think you have to cut the seller some slack if they can't get the package in the mail right away.

Good Luck, and have fun with your hobby!!! lasm
 
I see both sides because I both buy and sell on eBay. While I may agree with giving a low rating for shipping speed, it's hard for me to understand anyone giving a low rating for shipping charges unless they were charged extra. And if you were charged extra, why didn't you appeal to eBay? If you don't like the shipping charges, don't bid on the item. It's all there up front and you don't have to pay it or bid/buy that item if you think it's excessive.

Having said that, the seller is trying to have it both ways. Asking you to be reasonable and change your ratings while not in turn also giving you the benefit of the doubt. If it were me, honestly, I'd just leave the rating as is at this point. If nothing else as punishment for the seller being too stupid to actually wait until you revised your feedback before blocking you.
 
MikeOwnby said:
...it's hard for me to understand anyone giving a low rating for shipping charges unless they were charged extra. And if you were charged extra, why didn't you appeal to eBay? If you don't like the shipping charges, don't bid on the item. It's all there up front and you don't have to pay it or bid/buy that item if you think it's excessive. ...
Click to expand...

I agree with Mike here, the only ratings I have ever given for shipping a straight up single purchase is 4 stars (reasonable) or 5 stars (very reasonable) If I thought it was other then one of those I would not have bid.

Now as far as combined shipping goes you are at the mercy of the seller. You have to commit to buy before you know if you will be treated fairly. I always ask if they combine shipping before I bid and even still I've been gouged by sellers, but they only get me once.

As far as shipping speed goes, I am not really concerned with that. Many sellers are not full time sellers and they may have busy lives. As long as its not over 2 weeks I think that is 5 star service. Unless of course they have promised fast shipping then they should be true to their word.

I prefer low cast shipping over fast shipping. That is just how I see it, others may see it differently.
 
Bruette said:
...Now as far as combined shipping goes you are at the mercy of the seller. You have to commit to buy before you know if you will be treated fairly. I always ask if they combine shipping before I bid and even still I've been gouged by sellers, but they only get me once...
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I make it a practice to get an exact quote, not some vague "yes, we combine shipping", though I have forgotten to do that a few times and it has bitten me once or twice. I'm lucky enough to deal exclusively in just N-scale stuff as far as what I sell, so my combined shipping is fairly simple. A starting fee plus a set amount for each additional item. That way nobody even has to ask what I'll charge, it's all right there to begin with. I do understand that maybe selling a wider variety of items that vary greatly in weight and size would make a set scale like that very difficult to accomplish.

The combined shipping, though, would be my one caveat to leaving bad ratings for shipping cost. I mean, if I can look on the USPS website and see that a package cost $8.20 to ship and the seller still charged me $17.00 for shipping? Yeah, that's getting one star. And yes, that's happened when I forgot to ask or the auctions were ending and I didn't have time to get a quote. I've also had a seller tell me "I can't combine because they're already boxed up individually", then received it all in one box. One star, negative feedback, reported to eBay and everything on that one. So yeah, there are exceptions that I hadn't thought of when it comes to shipping cost.
 
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Isn't against eBay's rules to contact a buyer who gives a low rating? How did the seller know it was you? That is also supposed to be a secret - but then with eBay changing rules whenever they feel like it - I guess that is understandable.

Hopefully you didn't change your feedback. Just being nosey - how much were you charged compared to what you thought you should have been invoiced??

BTW I charge what the shipping calculator charges & got hit with 2 "high shipping costs " marks.
 
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jayl1 said:
...Isn't against eBay's rules to contact a buyer who gives a low rating? How did the seller know it was you? That is also supposed to be a secret - but then with eBay changing rules whenever they feel like it - I guess that is understandable...
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It's in fact encouraged to contact a buyer who leaves negative feedback to resolve the issue. The star ratings are indeed anonymous but it doesn't take much to figure out where a low rating came from if you also gave negative feedback. There haven't been any rule changes in that regard, though, as far as the anonymity of the star ratings.
 
I would have told him "I will change my review when you improve your service. If you demonstrate to me lower and faster shipping on my next purchase, I will give you a better better review. Goodbye."

And that's all I got to say about that...--Forrest Gump

Brad
 
G'day all......I buy 95% of my stuff on EBAY...mostly model rail but other things on occasions too...One of my very regular dealers goes out of his way to look after me and I return the favour by his (always best efforts ) to get me the best price , fastest shipping and best option to ship...that a perfect rating goes his way... In the first few transactions with him though this wasn't the case...Two or three times he let me down with slow postage or not combining post charges so I rated it accordingly. He never asked me to change a rating but he did once send me a return email about why I gave a less than 100% rating ..I was honest with him and to his eternal credit in at least 40 transactions since , he's often contacted me if there is an issue with my order and done his best to fix...This I appreciate greatly..and because of his loyalty and respect for my opinion he gets as much business from me as I can send and will do so while it stays the same...EBAY Feedback HAS To be done honestly to make it truly beneficial and to give all buyers and sellers the right to honest business practices...otherwise why bother having it . I might be a little naive but when I deal with a new seller , the very first thing I do is to check their feedback score and read any recent Negative ratings...If they rate less than 98% over a reasonable amount of transactions I think twice before using them..but many are more tolerable than me.....Cheers Rod..
 
I stopped selling on E-bay because shipping/packaging/paying their fee's outweighed the worth of selling anything. On one occasion last year I sold four locomotives. By the time I paid for shipping for the four and adequate packaging I had already gone over the cost of one of the locomotives I had sold (roughly $70.00). I sent everything two day priority with tracking so I could get confirmation that they had arrived so I could actually get my money. Some of you may like low cost shipping that takes forever, but I want to be paid as quickly as possible, and shipping confirmation of arrival is the quickest way to do that. There is no way I am waiting a month to receive my money.

I received 100% on all my reviews, but in the end it was not worth it.
 
It's interesting that the conversation has moved to Shipping and its expediency and cost. EBay isn't the only expensive slow shipper - FedEx is, in my opinion, worse. I have made purchases from Micro-Mark, who I think is great; however they only use FedEx as a shipper. I live about 280 miles (about 4 1/2 hour drive) from the Micro-Mark warehouse, store or whatever it actually is, YET, it takes Fed Ex 7 days to deliver the package at a cost of $12 for shipping! I could drive to Micro-Mark and back in a day.

The worse part of this is that the shipping method is called "FedEx Smart Post" and is suppose to be the most "efficient and minimal transit time". If they call 7 days to 280 miles minimal transit time, I'd hate to see what they called a delay!!!

As a result of Fed Ex's appalling service, I wont deal with Micro Mark again.
 
Contacted ebay customer service about the merchants blocking my future purchases until I recant my negative review. The practice is not allowed by ebay rules "Review Extortion" is what it's called. Ebay will put the merchant on notice with a warning. I'm still blocked by the merchant.
 
Considering the amount of that seller's sales, I doubt anything will actually be done. eBay has become the venue for the BIG seller, not the little guy.
 
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