Still don't like (gently put) the feedback system

Right now I have this feedback on my page:

"Negative i didn't get my parts and I'm starting to get very angry why haven't i gotten my package?"

It is an international order (Holland - USA) that has been shipped 12 days ago, and will probably be at the customer soon. It was shipped 3 days after the order was placed.

I contacted the customer, asked him to remove it and be a bit more patient. I contacten Admin, no results.

I feel this (in my opinion underserved) feedback hurts my store, and I think it is ridiculous that there is nothing I can do about it. At least let me, as asked many times before, respond to the feedback.

Comments

  • 34 Comments sorted by Votes Date Added
  • Oh, and of course I also got the paypal claim back....
  • edited October 2014 Vote Up0Vote Down
    Ouch! I agree the feedback system could use a little review. Customers are already shielded from non-positive feedback, what is there to protect sellers against totally unreasonable customers?

    On a different topic, it's probably a good idea to write down the expected delays for each shipping method, so that the customer knows what to expect.
  • Thanks for the warning, buyer blocked... 12 days to file a PP claim and a negative left is far to soon on an international order, so I'd rather not have such a customer in my store...

    Feedback is what it is right now, but agreed, it could use some improvements and being able to reply to a feedback seems the first logical step. And being able to leave a negative (as a seller) on a canceled order after a 'report issue' would also be a good thing IMHO for the sake of other sellers...

  • edited October 2014 Vote Up0Vote Down
    On a different topic, it's probably a good idea to write down the expected delays for each shipping method, so that the customer knows what to expect.
    What good would it do? I've had cases where orders shipped around the same date towards the same country arrived with weeks intervals.
    I even had an Australian customer in the past who bought twice in less then 10 days and his second was delivered after about 12 days, the first order got in a month later.

    A Bulgarian repeated customer got his 4th order 5 days after shipping, left feedback so I thought hmm, wasn't that supposed to be on order 3 (from 1 week earlier)? No he says: order 4 came in, number 3 not yet. And it actually never did get in, he ordered again a few months later and the 5th got in just as well, but that numer 3 never did (I did compensate him a bit on his 5th)

    I even had a buyer from Chili here on BO who's tiny padded mail (1 minifig, 1 part, 1 sticker) was shipped 2 days after his payment, okt 13th 2013 and he got it on december 3th 2013, we exchanged a few mails about it during those 1.5 months, I was kinda happy he finally told me he got it.

    International buyers should simply be aware there is no such thing as a 'guarantee' when it comes down to transit times, and contacting them and explaining them is the best option for the future, that is offcourse if the buyer is willing to listen ;-)

  • What good would it do? I've had cases where orders shipped around the same date towards the same country arrived with weeks intervals. I even had an Australian customer in the past who bought twice in less then 10 days and his second was delivered after about 12 days, the first order got in a month later.
    Exactly :). I'm just saying a note such as "Typical delivery time of 1-2 weeks, occasionally up to 5 weeks" can help clarify things a little.

    But let's remain on the thread's topic: the feedback system.
  • can you share the buyers name i cant see it on your feedback! id rather he didnt enter my store ;)
  • Click on 'view all feedback' you can see the name then.
  • I don't see it. Removed?
  • Nope, still there:
    http://royroy.brickowl.com/user/15489/feedback

    Maybe you weren't looking at the OP's feedback?
  • @BrickItOn Thanks for posting this. At the moment preventative action seems to be the best way to protect or defend yourself on this site.
    Katie
  • Not sure about your transaction, but I sold to this person and it was a USA order. Everything went smoothly here.

    Chris
  • edited October 2014 Vote Up0Vote Down
    In lieu of being able to leave (negative) feedback for the rare unreasonable buyer, how about if the number of sellers who have BLOCKED the buyer is shown, ideally with accompanying comments, etc.

    I would suggest that if this info was shown only to registered BO sellers when logged on, it would be an excellent premium service that BO could offer. It would be a tangible incentive for BL sellers to migrate. And frankly, I would be willing to pay for this, for example as an add-on option.

  • Another possibility would be to use your About page to explain that you have only received 1 negative feedback due to...(whatever the issue) and then explain the circumstances of the issue and that you provide excellent customer service.
  • Chris: Yes, maybe if the Buyer would only buy in the US, all would be fine..

    Otherwise: No message back from the buyer on my question to have some patience and delete the feedback in the meanwhile, and no message back from BO on my question if it could be deleted, since it is the wrong place to communicate.

    I think that bothers me most: no message from BO back, as on many suggestions made here on the forum.

    I thought/hoped the lack of communication and implementing of good suggestions that is discussed so much on the other site would be different here, and BO would be a replacement for BL. But I think I will keep my BL store open for now.. ;)
  • Nope, still there:
    http://royroy.brickowl.com/user/15489/feedback

    Maybe you weren't looking at the OP's feedback?
    d'oh.

  • @BrickItOn We received your chargeback problem report, these are logged against the customer so that other stores can see the information. They are not responded to by us.

    We do still intend to allow stores to post a public reply to feedback. The suggestion by lotsofbricks also sounds sensible.

    There is a list of reasons for which we remove feedback in the terms and conditions linked to at the bottom of the page. Stores disagreeing with the feedback, or stores feeling it is the wrong place to communicate is not a reason for which we remove negative feedback.
  • edited October 2014 Vote Up0Vote Down
    So there is no feedback on problem reports?

    The suggestion by LOB sounds like a workaround. I am suppost the react on feedback on another part of the site instead of where the feedback is?

    But ok, if BO feels that it needs to protect buyers from shops that are not able to get a shipment across the ocean whitin 2 weeks, so be it.

    I do hope however that the buyer takes the time and trouble to rollback everything. Changes are big that he won't, as many buyers don't "complete" an order, unless something went wrong.

    (http://www.brickowl.com/forum#/discussion/2731/please-make-order-maintainance-more-accessible-for-customers)

  • Admin Said:
    There is a list of reasons for which we remove feedback in the terms and conditions linked to at the bottom of the page.

    Feedback left about an order should be a true representation of your order experience.

    It must not contain any personally identifiable information.
    It must not contain any profanity.
    It must not be retaliatory.
    It must not be about local tax issues, such as import charges.
    Any item of feedback may be removed for any reason if it is deemed to be have been given in bad faith.
    Based on these terms I would argue that the feedback was not really a true representation of the order experience since it was a communication to the seller. And unless I misunderstand, it seems to have been done in bad faith since the buyer used the feedback system when his message clearly should have been communicated via PM.

    Brian

  • Unfortunately I have no interest in feedback removal discussion by committee, almost every negative feedback results in an e-mail to myself, so I am quite aware that nobody ever feels that they are deserved. Negative feedback serves the purpose of giving a customer some form of confidence in placing an order, that other customers have been able to comment on a store, and if they encounter issues, they will also have at least that form of recourse. I do not wish to erode that form of confidence.
  • Believe me: If I receive a negative because I f*cked up, you won't hear me.

    You might have no interest in it, I have: This buyer does not respond to messages, marked the order as "recieved" prior to the feedback (don't know why), and the probability that this user will change his Feedback into "thanks, I got it" is minimal.

    That said: This feedback stating I DON#T SHIP might be there for ever, without me being able to explain what happened. Ridicoulous in my opinion. If you just look at the votes topics about feedback gets, why don't you get the feeling users are unhappy with this system?
  • edited October 2014 Vote Up0Vote Down
    Sorry, double
  • If unreasonable feedback won't be removed, then we should minimally allow a seller to explain his side of the story.

    Being able to quickly locate and read non-positive feedback (and the seller's reply) would complement the system nicely.
  • As mentioned previously in the thread, we do still intend to allow stores to post a public reply to feedback.
  • edited October 2014 Vote Up0Vote Down
    In my topic I suggested improved interface that encourages buyers to update payment status and feedback. I think that if buyers are being extra encouraged to leave feedback, the feedback score will improve. Why? Because right now someone is more likely to describe their experience when something went wrong than when everything is OK. This skews the perception of how satisfied previous customers were.

    In other words, if my point is addressed, the number of positive feedbacks we receive could increase and that would also partly address this point. Incidental negative feedbacks will be drowned in positive feedbacks, while serious negative feedbacks (a negative feedback received without there being any positive trends) would stand out. Everyone would be happy: There is no trust eroded, no records destroyed, but at the same time nobody is being punished by an incidental negative feedback when there are so many positive experiences recorded as well.

    If the system would then randomly select one out of, say, 30 most recent feedback messages to display on the storefront when a customer visits, that should be fair for everyone.
  • There is an imbalance in power between the buyer and the seller.

    If the seller screws up, the buyer can leave (or not leave) feedback. Or, even if the sellers doesn't screw up...the buyer have BO's support to give this impression of the seller's performance. Additionally, the buyer holds the power to remove the negative, if he gets the right vibe. Has anyone else been extorted to achieve removal of a negative fb? I have not here, but I have on another venue.
    As mentioned previously in the thread, we do still intend to allow stores to post a public reply to feedback.
    Negative feedback serves the purpose of giving a customer some form of confidence in placing an order, that other customers have been able to comment on a store, and if they encounter issues, they will also have at least that form of recourse. I do not wish to erode that form of confidence.
    I understand your approach to safeguarding the customer's trust, but putting the seller at such a disadvantage will be counterproductive.

    You need to provide sellers with some protection against buyers who give a disproportionately high number of negative feedbacks. I suspect a small number generate MOST of them. I would be very curious to know some data on this.


  • You need to provide sellers with some protection against buyers who give a disproportionately high number of negative feedbacks. I suspect a small number generate MOST of them. I would be very curious to know some data on this.
    Well... what would you suggest?

    One could build a statistical model that gives a different "weight", a confidence rate, to the feedback given by each buyer based on their entire history. That would be the mathematically best solution, but seller feedback scores will then look like magical confidence grades to most people, and that's a problem, because customers want to feel they "understand" any risk related to their purchases.

    I really have no idea what the best solution would be.
  • I really have no idea what the best solution would be.
    No feedback system >:)
  • On a side note, an update from my side: The negative, and the Paypal claim have been deleted, I guess the buyer received the shipment (not sure however, no communication). So I guess I am lucky here for now. Doesn't mean that I have changed my opinion a bit though, just because I got lucky this time.. :).
  • @BrickItOn: good to hear it worked out, hopefully the buyer learned something... Guess those who stoplisted him could reconsider now.
  • No feedback system >:)
    Eww. :) If it were my decision, I think I would impose a system based on computing statistical confidence grades, taking into consideration the entire feedback history of all past customers, with more weight being given to the recent history.

    It would be the best system and yet everybody would hate it. :D People need to learn to love maths.
  • Guess those who stoplisted him could reconsider now.
    No way. I don't need that much trouble for 6.07 euro..

  • I would also quickly vote for the NO FEEDBACK system, RobErNat.

    Frankly, I consider all of the various systems relatively meaningless. If the seller has been around for a while, has carefully written terms, and has a decent selection of inventory (indication that he/she knows the product)...that seller WANTS to perform well in each transaction. It is fairly clear to see who is there for the short time and should be avoided. I'm really talking more about ebay-type venues than here.

    But, if it must be present, I WOULD like to be able to programmatically choose which buyer characteristics I sell to.

    Now, we can choose geographically. (I sell to the whole world, so I'm not as picky as I'm sounding.) I would like to be able to adjust the parameters to BLOCK buyers based on the data we are provided AFTER the order:

    For example,
    I would like to be able to BLOCK any buyer who has (over the last year or so) had

    Disputed Chargebacks > 0
    Non Payments > 0
    ONR Reports > 2

    and in addition,

    negative feedbacks left > 2

    This could be fine-tuned by using percentages, and different time frames. But it seems that it could be implemented relatively easily. All of that info on the buyer should be available when entering any of our stores.
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