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Retailers, Manufacturers, ePay, AudiogoN, Paypal or whatever. Buying and selling advice.

The system is flawed

Posted by grinagog (D) on December 03, 2004 at 18:20:47

"Any other course of action sets you up for feedback extortion..."

So your stance is that you want to maintain the leverage to extort feedback rather than give that leverage to the other party. That would be consistant with human nature.

As it stands the feedback system is flawed. It is a voluntary system and it seemed to be more accurate several years ago before so many people started making a big business out of it.

The simple truth of the matter is that the buyer's obligation is to pay for the auction is a timely manner. The seller's obligation is to deliver the goods as described in the listing. The two obligations being fulfilled constitutes a completed transaction. I do understand that "deliver the goods as described in the listing" is open to all manner of subjective interpretation and therein lies means for dispute.

In my own history of ~100 purchases, over 90% have been paid with paypal and typically within 24 hours of auction closing, unless there was a delay due to the seller providing shipping costs. My own history includes several transactions over $1000.00 and some requiring international wire-transfers. In my experience, the buyers and sellers of the bigger ticket items seem to be both more reasonable and more realistic about the nature of the business being conducted.

I do get the impression from both of the sellers replying above that they feel positive feedback is an obligation of the buyer. According to the rules of ebay, the only obligation the buyer has is to pay for the auction in accordance with the terms of the listing. If sellers were to include in the listing that "Feedback will only be left after we receive feeback from the buyer" this could be a reasonable expectation. Without such a qualifying statement being included in the terms of the listing, however, the buyer's obligation has been fulfilled upon payment and the seller should leave feedback at that time.

I have never left a negative feedback, even for the nitwit that I purchased 2 old Dynaco ST70s from. I asked the guy to remove the tubes and pack them seperately. He removed the tubes and placed them between the 2 amps in the same box. Needless to say, several tubes did not survive shipping. The seller did proptly replace them. The listing described amps that were in good working order, yet following the auction the seller disclosed in email that their voltages were slightly off and that they worked best when powered up with a Variac. I think I did leave a neutral of that one, as well as for the clown that left me a negative in reply to my neutral.

It is also unfortunate that the impact of a negative is far greater on my ~100 transactions that it is on a "Power Seller's" 1000+. With such numbers an occasional negative is probably a minor distraction and expected. When I buy and always pay promptly I should have a reasonable expectation of maintaining 100%.

I have been in contact with ebay regarding, and at this time I feel the best course of action is to decline to leave feedback for those who do not leave feedback for me.

eso



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