Should eBay sellers leave postitive feedback to all buyers? eBuyer itspaid4 appears to think so.

 Here is yet another post provoked by what I consider misleading and/or offensive review on eBay left by upset buyer.

The review itself states "I dp not trust this seller and the little packet that he sold me! "

We can't and won't argue with this statement because it is clearly subjective and as long as it does not violate the eBay rules, which I do not think it does, we will not try to have it corrected or removed.

All that said, I still think it carries negative implication and is thus misleading in regards to the products listed and delivered by us.

Here is full unedited transcript of the exchange that lead to the review:

Pre-sale messages (Nov 19th):

itspaid4:

Please tell me what capacitors are included with identifying each capacitor?

 Coppell TV Repair LLC:

Gladly. There are no capacitors in this repair kit at this time.

itspaid4:

If you could please identify exactly what is included in this kit?

Coppell TV Repair LLC:

If you could would you please read the "KIT CONTENTS" section in the description?

itspaid4:

I read the what's included, that's why I asked you my question. it does not identify a single component such as transistors and so forth.

 

Coppell TV Repair LLC:

Not sure what you mean.
it tells you which exact components on the board are included in the kit.
It does not tell you what they are, but why should it?!
Ultimately do you want to repair a board or do you just want to learn what it takes to repair one?
eBay is not the place for the second kind and frankly neither are most retail outlets out there.

 

itspaid4:

It gives you numbers and does not identify any relevant part on the power supply board. I have a background in electronic and electrical repair of 30 years.

 

 Coppell TV Repair LLC:

With all due respect to your 30 years in business I think what you are saying is nonsense.

The public description - which is more than what most vendors offer , the parts and a board is literally all that's needed to have the components replaced with 99% chance of having the board fixed.

There is no "relevant" parts on the power supply.
There are EXACT parts per our listing and if you can't find them then you're either looking at a different type of board or something has gone seriously bad during your 30 years of electronic repairs....no offense meant.

This is not from a generic online retailer, this is from someone who has serviced tens and possibly hundreds of those boards and has assembled all our repair kits only from first hand experience.

Post-sale messages (Dec 24th):

itspaid4:

We will gladly leave you positive feedback once it is left on our behalf.

Coppell TV Repair LLC:

The eBay feedback system is dis-balanced as it allows buyers to leave negative feedback to sellers, but not the other way around while clearly there are buyers out there who definitely deserve negative feedback just there surely are sellers that deserve it.

Because of that asymmetry it is our policy to only leave feedback to buyers once they leave their own feedback to us.

Besides, a positive feedback is the ultimate way sellers know their buyers are happy and know that concludes the transaction for them.

Many sellers leave positive feedback automatically. That may be the smart thing to do if you want to get most positive feedbacks back, but it doesn't make it right :-)

itspaid4:

Then you will not get positive feedback at all.

 

Coppell TV Repair LLC:

No hard feelings here, it is not like you are required to leave feedback - much like we aren't.

If you were to leave one, though, it should be based on how what you received compares to what is advertised because that is the single most important metric of a seller - how well do they cover they promises.

How well we cover buyer's expectations is a different matter altogether and there is simply no one uni-formal and fair way to do it.

 ---

Well those are the facts.

Being one side of the argument and also the one putting the effort to put it all out in case anyone cares at all I will take what I consider the earned privilege to add a few notes.

First, the post-sale responses were written without the slightest idea of the pre-sale exchange, i.e. without any opinion of the party that was asking for feedback; I only saw them when compiling the full exchange history now.
Anyone else asking the same could have gotten the same response.

Second, I do see how our responses are not what's considered by many top not customer service.
As I have said over and over in this blog I am OK with that. There are too many different characters out there and we have limited resources. 

We have to be either good in what we do or the way we do it and between the to I chose the former with the clear understanding it wold only work for those who care more for the contents than the packaging.

It is ironic, frankly, as even as a middle aged man past his prime I still fall for that same package over content trap myself, only in different departments.

 

Third, I personally am curious why did the buyer bought the repair kit in the first place if they do not trust us as they say in the review? (have you seen how many positive reviews are there for the same "little packet" and how many other buyers it has helped?)

 

Also why did they offer leaving positive feedback after item delivery if they do not trust us as they say in the review?

It appears to me that the "do not trust the buyer" sentiment only appeared after us rejecting to leave positive feedback before they do so.

Which, in my book, is both discriminatory and misleading, since it has no relation to the product advertised and sold or its delivery.

 

What do you think?