I bought a brand new and cute maternity shirt on Saturday Morning. It was a BIN with immediate payment which I did.


On Tuesday she emails me and says I mail your order out after 4 days.

Ok I can accept that.

But then adds this to her email:

Thank you so much for your purchase! I have shipped the following item to
you, and you will be receiving it shortly. If you receive your item and are
happy PLEASE leave 5 stars. We strive to give the best customer service,
and if there is anyway that we can improve please let us know. Ebay now holds
stuff against sellers if they do not have high STAR ratings. We try to do
everything we can to make the 5 star rating. I will leave feedback for you
immediately after positive feedback is received.

I'm sorry but I think she has a lot of Nerve to ask me to leave her 5 stars....She waited 4 days to mail my item. and then makes me leave feedback 1st...seems like back mail to me. I would leave positive but the fact is shes a SLOW shipper. WtH!

Plus can she tell if I leave her less than 5 on shipping?

Sherry married to Alan & mom to 7(still at home)

No...you could leave her positive feedback but not 5 for shipping.

I am not going to get into the feedback thing...but ebay has made this extremely difficult for sellers. I know that you will not believe this, but ebay has pretty much allowed the buyers to continually black mail the sellers. Sellers are not allowed to leave negative feedback. Also you can refund money to the buyer and to me that should be the end of the deal. They were unhappy for whatever reason.....not what they expected, thought shipping was too high but they never bothered to look at this BEFORE they bid, or a BAD hair day - whatever. You try to make this right and refund their money and they can still leave you bad feeback! I think most sellers will agree...the ebay feedback system is not without faults! When I worked for a company that had an ebay division and did huge amount of sales on ebay....I cannot tell you how many buyers would threaten "Well, I hate to leave you bad feedback....BUT...." which always meant that they intended to leave it - no matter what!

I think you are justified in not leaving 5 stars for shipping. It's obviously was not what she stated on her auction and for whatever reson, there was a delay. OK, you said you could live with that....but it does not mean you owe her 5 stars. Just my opinion.

I think..that you are making a bit much of it..
She is just trying to promote herself as much as she can.
You can choose to do what she asks or not..

My Coupons are my American Express Card - Don't leave home without them!

I agree...the feedback system on ebay makes it hard for sellers. But if it were me I would not leave 5 stars for shipping.

I think what's probably rubbing you wrong is that the seller is basically saying they won't leave you positive feedback unless you leave them positive feedback and is also sort of implying you have to leave 5 stars as well. If you don't leave 5 stars for shipping (which I think is your right) then will the seller not leave you feedback? But other than that, I don't see them asking for the 5 stars as a big deal if it's deserved.

I actually agree about the seller feedback change...it's not fair since it was changed. One reason I haven't sold anything as a seller lately. I had sold 2 sets of coupons before the change. I left feedback for the buyers and emailed them and ask them to return it and they didn't. I finally sold a pair of shoes sent them right out. Left the buyer feedback and she left me feedback. I'm still at 100%. I have not left any bad feedback at all or neutral either. I don't understand what she means about ebay now holds stuff against sellers if they do not have high STAR ratings. Anyone know what she means? also what exactly is the policy for shipping an item. How many days or hours?

Sherry married to Alan & mom to 7(still at home)

I sold on ebay for a while and I never asked someone for feedback. I esp. never did this "i'll scratch your back if you scratch mine" scenario you are talking about. What I did was ask if they had received the item. If they had, I left feedback. If they hadn't, I waited. The buyer has paid for something and that is their part of the agreement. I just wait and make sur ethey are not gonna pull the "i never got it" card if I left premature feedback.

I've stopped leaving fb for people who tell me to give them fb. They really do not want my feedback at that point anyway, b/c it ticks me off!

eh...it's kind of like the car salesman who gives you a survey to fill out and tells you "just mark them all 5's, otherwise I don't get paid"

yeah, I get why they say that. but it's like, wait, that's not really the point of the survey (or in ebays case, the feedback), now is it?

as a seller, I would not give feedback to the buyer until they left it for me. as long as she was honest about her shipping, I don't see why she shouldn't get all the stars anyway, kwim? as long as she did exactly what you expected (what she told you she was going to do) all should be good. now if her listing said "ships in 24 hours" and it took her four days...well that's different.

I think what the seller is referring to has to do with "Power Sellers" and discounts that you receive because of your volume of sales and your ratings. You have to maintain a certain "rating" to receive a discount on your final value fees. There are different percentage values based on your volume of sales....$ amount and number of sales. You have to maintain a certain rating on all 4 things (shipping time, description, shipping costs, etc) to be entitled to these discounts....and consistantly. I cannot achieve this level for one month and then just do whatever I want....you have to maintain a certain level to be entitled to these discounts.

As far as the shipping....I think that is up to the seller. I don't think ebay has any "rules" about the time frame in which you must ship. If she did not state in her auction listing that she ships within 24 hours....then she was not dishonest to ship in 4 days. I still would not think that 4 days shipping is good shipping and warrants 5 stars...but it is a judgement call if she did not specifically say that she shipped faster in her listing.

I agree that you should take what she said with a grain of salt. From the wording, this is a automatic thing that her system sends out. When you reach a certain level of selling, a lot of the stuff is automated. I don't think she personally sent this to you....after taking 4 days. Maybe she usually ships faster...or maybe she thinks 4 days is acceptable.

Since it upset you to wait 4 days for shipping, I would just not give her 5 stars. I know that everyone does not leave me 5 stars and I think I have excellent customer service....so do what you feel is accurate. It is not like you are going to leave her negative feedback...which I would feel was EXTREME since she wrote and told you it would ship in 4 days. Just leave honest feedback, that is what the ebay system was founded on. Sometimes the system fails I think, but generally it was a good idea and works most of the time.

You have to look at the auction and when you bought it. If you bought it saturday, the earliest she could have shipped it was monday. So really she shipped it a day late. Also what does her listing say about shipping time. I know in my listings, I state that I ship within 3 days of receiving cleared payment. So if it takes me a day or 2 for whatever reason, I am still within the time frame of what i told someone.

Now ebay has made it hard on sellers. I sell and have been threatened several times that if i don't do something i will get negative feedback, and be reported to ebay for whatever reasons. I don't sell as much as i used to. But the rating system is for everyone. If you don't keep your rating at a certain level, they will tell you that you can not sell anymore.

I will say i HATE that I can't leave negative feedback for people. I have had some HORRIBLE transactions on ebay and i can't do anything a bout it. I can leave them no feedback, but that doesn't tell anyone else how they are at all.

If you are really unhappy about the shiping, I would mention something to the seller first. See what she has to say is the reason for the delay. By letting her know you are unhappy with the shipping, then she understands the feedback she will be given.


I really think that she did it within a timely fashion. Again you bought it saturday, and unless she saw it early on saturday she couldn't even mail until monday. Since it was a Buy It Now, she may not have even seen it until later on saturday. I know I check my auctions once a day, and on the day it ends, I don't check until the ending time. I know a lot of other sellers are like this as well.