How many people actually read feedback comments on eBay, as opposed to just looking at the score?

Question

If you are an experienced eBayer, how many times have you read the person's actual feedback comments, and why did you choose to in those cases?

Answer 1

every time i buy

Answer 2

i use ebay a fair bit, and i find you really *have* to read the feedback comments if you dont want to be stung. On the first hand you want to see what the general feedback is for delivery and customer service, i always switch to view max (200 i think) , and sometimes i will use the From Buyers Tab as Im not really intrested in how well they pay for their goods! although it can be intresting it may mask comments if there are too many seller comments from the ones left from buyers

More importantly I always scroll back to the last neg feedback they had (which is not always a bad thing-you cant help newbies hitting you with a neg rather than bothering to contact the seller), but the thing here, is to see how the seller reacts to the neg. feedback. The seller may be a power seller, and have screen after screen of really good coments, but the reponses to neutral and neg feedbacks really draw a picture of the seller. Also users may leave a neg comment inside a positive feedback in order to avoid retribution.

For example I was buying a item of moderate cost off ebay, and in the end I whitlled down my choices down to only three sellers I would consider buying from - my main choice, after a bit of searching turned out a bit iffy - a great seller, but responded outrageously to negs or problems, it was just that he was pumping out so many items, that the few items that were faulty/neg feedbacks would be buried screens away in the feedbacks, so it would appear at first glance that the seller was brilliant. I found other sellers that were so impeccable that even when they got a neg feedback (that was unjustified), they either responded with a factual, non emotional neg/neutral feedback - these are the sellers i tend to go for.

So I had a choice buy from a seller with good track record, but if i was unlucky enough to be in the very small percentage of faulty items /problem with order/item I would prob not get very far, so i opted to play safe - go for sellers with feedbacks that indicate good customer service.

Also I find a lot of blackmailing amongst ebay. 'If you leave a neg I'll leave an even worse one' sort of thing. Its a real pity you cant really secure yourself from this sort of retribution - i used to sell a lot so I became i square trader - you have to pay though, it did mean tho i got discount on removing neg feedbacks. I left the square trader - its only worth it if your a power seller. From a buyers point of view it gets worse - if you have a fairly high score which you have earnt over a long period you dont want ot ruin it with negs - so if you get a legitamate bad seller and you have tried all the options of negotiation unsuccesfully, do you leave a neg and leave yourself wide open for for a slanderous attack or not leave a feedback at all. I know of the number of times I was annoyed with service or goods, and I've either just left it, or left a negative comment inside a positive feedback.

So in my opinion it *always* pays to read the freedbacks and not just look at the score, I have been stung to many times in the early days from so called power sellers or sellers with high feedback scores not to do it nowadays.

Answer 3

I read the feedback a lot. Usually when the person has a score of less than 99.7%, because it's not that hard to have a score of 100%. If the person has a reputation for stealing money, I'm not going to buy from them! If it's something like slow shipping that is giving them a lower score, it usually doesn't bother me and I'll buy from them anyway.

Answer 4

I read the person's feedback all the time, usually the first 3-5 pages of feedback.

Answer 5

If there is negative feedback I scan for the negative ones to see WHY.