5 Examples of Negative Feedback on eBay and How to Avoid Them

I’ve been buying and selling on eBay for almost five years. I’ve rarely had negative feedback on my account because I follow a few basic principles, but it does happen. I witness it a lot from sellers that I buy from. Over the years, I’ve noticed the trends of why a seller gets negative feedback and here are five common examples.

1. “Where is my item?” As a seller, it’s important to keep your buyer up to date and overly communicate. Your customers want to be in the know about every detail of their package. It may sound weird but for some it’s necessary to keep them from worrying that their package has been lost. Let them know when you’ve given the package to the post office, what the tracking number is and even try to email them when it arrives, even though the tracking states so.

2. “Slow shipping”. The best way to combat this is to ship as fast as possible, typically within one or two days of the sale. Shipping can be slow even if it’s out of your control. A package that arrives in two days can still be considered slow if you took four days to ship it. Also, tracking takes a while to update, so it may appear that it hasn’t moved for days. However, the sooner you ship the sooner information is available. So don’t risk getting negative feedback for an extra day to ship.

3. “Smelt of smoke”. For some reason a lot of eBay sellers must smoke because I’ve been surprised to see this so often. Make sure, when shipping an item, you get someone else to smell it. If you smoke, you may be immune to the smell and wouldn’t be able to tell the difference. If it does have an odorous smell, wash it or simply don’t sell it.

4. “Poor communication”. It’s most common after a sale goes bad and a seller refuses to resolve the issue. When a sale goes bad, the best thing to do is communicate with the buyer. Some sellers simply send a refund and hope that resolves the issue. Though, many buyers may be upset and may still leave negative feedback. Humble yourself and allow the buyer to explain and express themselves while you apologize. This shows the seller that it wasn’t intentional and you value the sale.

5. “Poor condition”. You’ve heard the phrase, “no news is good news”. Sellers sometimes have a habit of not giving enough information about their products. They think if they over-explain a product, they will be trapped by their words if it’s not as so. However, this can work in reverse. Just because you didn’t explain that a shirt had a hole in it, doesn’t mean you aren’t liable for it. Make sure to accurately picture and explain all of the defects in the item before listing it and even still, maybe think twice about selling it.