yeah -- what Lee said....
Brint K in Atlanta
>You have to understand that:
Your reliability / trustworthiness / honesty / etc as a seller is determined entirely by how other people rate you, based on their transaction with you. And that rating plays a BIG part in influencing other people's decision whether or not to do business with you. In many cases, the market determines the price (which generally hovers in the same area for identical products from different sellers). When someone decides to give you (the seller) their business, it's often because of your rating. So it's in your own best interest to treat the customers well, lest they bring your rating down.
While buyers/bidders can choose their seller, it doesn't work the other way. Sellers _have to_ deal with the highest bidder. So the best way to build up a good rating for yourself is to buy lots of items (notice, I did NOT say, "spend a lot of money") and pay the sellers quickly. If you do that, then the seller will give YOU good feedback, building up your rating (I think this all draws from game theory -- right?). In other words, it's actually in everyone's best interests to deal honestly and honorably, and to treat one another well.
So, in answer to your three points:
1) Why? Because a dynamic has developed over time such that the seller often waits to see what kind of feedback the buyer will leave for the seller before s/he leaves feedback for the buyer. Consequently, as a buyer (and assuming my transaction goes well), I will leave positive feedback for the seller as soon as I can, so that s/he will leave ME some positive feedback (thereby improving my rating).
2) Yes -- but that's when there's no incentive for the buyer to leave feedback. If you were to put a Suggestion Box at the door of Office Depot, then you might get a few responses a day (and those mostly from disgruntled customers). But if you riged the box so that it gave $1 to every person who dropped in a suggestion, then I'd bet dollars to donuts you'd have to empty that thing several times each day.
Another reason (and this also applies to question #1) is that, if you don't leave feedback, you'll regularly get friendly, computer-generated reminders from eBay telling you that you haven't left any feedback yet on your transaction.
3) You're right -- the text of the comments are almost entirely mindless. Why? BECAUSE THEY DON'T COUNT FOR ANYTHING. What you've written has no bearing on the other's feedback rating -- only whether you've clicked on the "negative" or the "positive" button. In fact, you could click the "positive" button, write, "This was absolutely the worst commercial transaction I have ever had in my life, the seller is a complete jerk" -- and he'd still get one more positive feedback to add to his rating. Consequenty, lots of folks feel little need to write anything of substance in the comments if it's positive. I suspect most of them read what other folks have written before them, and write something similar. OTOH, if it's negative, I think you'll find that people tend to be quite specific (which attests, I think, to your observation in Question #2).
I've been an eBay member for 4 years and engaged in about 25 transactions over that time, mostly buying. I think it works pretty darn well, within its built-in constraints. The warning, "caveat emptor" still obtains, but if you're smart, do your research, and stay away from the impulse buying and risky merchandise, then you can usually get a good deal.
Just my -- well, I guess it's closer to 12 or 14 cents, in this case...
;-)
