Feedback tweaks may prompt lower ratings
It seems Amazon's revised feedback page is prompting more buyers to leave neutral or negative feedback. Here's one comment that caught my eye on the Amazon seller board today:
I've been fighting off "3s" constantly since the new feedback system has been in place.
The new format seems to encourage buyers to "find something" to complain about... It's almost an "accusatory system" that insists the buyer find a problem...even one that may not have been significant to them.
And, amazingly, that discourages people from "communicating" with the seller...so the bad feedback always arrives "unannounced."
I've seen an increased number of "unannounced" negative feedback too. Sure, Amazon's feedback page asks buyers to notify sellers of problems before leaving feedback, but very few do so anymore.
This week I chatted with Ina Steiner at AuctionBytes about feedback at Amazon and eBay. You can listen to the podcast here.
posted by Steve Weber at 9/20/2007
11 Comments:
My big problem with Amazon feedback is getting any at all. Since 1/07 (when I started selling there) I have completed 30 sales and received 2 feedback responses. There seems to be very little buyer incentive to bother with feedback.
My feedback has been great since the new system. Of course that may not continue. What I have noticed is many buyers are simply using Amazon's script. Most are not typing individual notes. But I shouldn't be complaining about 5s! As for the number of feedback comments, I'd say 20% of my buyers leave feedback.
Most of my negative and neutral feedback was "unannounced". They didn't bother to communicate with me. I would have refunded their money if they had just asked!!
Could someone explain why Amazon went to this new system? Also, would someone speculate if there's a chance that Amazon will refine the system again to be more "seller-friendly" (if the majority of sellers thinks this provokes more negative feedback)?
My own experience: I'm a relatively new seller (1 1/2 years) that has experienced negative feedback ONLY about mail/delivery issues. For example, one buyer said I had charged exorbitant postage to Australia when it is a fact that Amazon sets the mailing charge. A second buyer entered feedback "I didn't receive the book" when in fact the standard mail delivery to Alaska takes longer. The person eventually received the book but the negative feedback has not been removed.
I have been selling books online for 2+ years. Although I due receive feedback on a very low percentage of orders, 99% of it has been good. Yesterday I received the following two negative feedbacks:
2 out of 5: "Book not unmarked as described. Poorly packaged in oversized envelope."
Date: 9/19/2007 Rated by Buyer: pr76238
2 out of 5: "Book Was Shipped In A Bubble Mailer & Arrived With Bent & Dinged In Pages."
Date: 9/19/2007 Rated by Buyer: geminifirefly
The first feed back message was about a book sent to England. My transaction record tells me that this book was sent using "Global Priority" in a "Global Priority Envelope". The book was new at the time of sending. When he says, "Poorly packaged in oversized envelope", I have no idea what he is talking about and makes me wonder if he is actually referring to my order or another one.
The 2nd feedback referrers to the book being damaged in the mail. The buyer agreed to remove the negative feedback if I refunded his entire purchase price. This I did this morning. I have not heard back from the 1st negative feedback yet.
I have been reading in "Amazon's seller discussions about booksellers being banned from Amazon's seller's database and not being allowed to sell books indefinitely based on either 1) The amount of refunds or 2) Low feedback ratings. Can you verify this?
If the new feedback system is encouraging this type of feedback, what recourse do we have? I don't know if I'm over reacting but I'm about to use "vacation settings" on my books until I hear more from other sellers on how survive this if it continues and the banning is true.
Does anyone have any ideas?
Doug,
I personally know of an Amazon bookseller with a sterling 7-year track record who was booted from Marketplace in early September and whose funds were locked for 90 days after receiving a couple of recent bogus negative feedbacks and one recent bogus A to Z claim.
It's an unwarranted hardship on the bookseller and extremely shoddy business practices by Amazon.
I think it's absolutely nutty for Amazon to be locking down seller accounts, *especially* longstanding accounts, when Amazon is automatically granting these A to Z claims -- with no human intervention, even when delivery confirmation shows prompt delivery.
Stay tuned, there will be more info on this here in the near future.
Steve,
Thanks for responding. I have placed my inventory on vacation unto further notice.
Doug
This is a sore point for me as I had a nearly 100% feedback rating until one buyer left me a 2 after claiming she hadn't received a book. In Amazon's old system, delivery confirmations counted for something. I HAD a delivery confirmation but Amazon told me they would never change that feedback; only the buyer could do so.
In spite of giving her the tracking info, she seems to be entering it incorrectly and refuses to believe I sent the book. My only recourse was a refund which I would have done anyway since she was so unhappy.
Even this made no difference. Because I don't sell a ton of books right now, since I'm keeping my inventory purposefully low due to an ill family member, each "ding" on my feedback hurts quite a bit. Also, book sales go down when that feedback score goes down. Ouch!
Steve, I was interested in your reply to Doug. You spoke of two bogus negative feedbacks and one bogus A to Z claim experienced by one seller who was closed down by Amazon. My question is this: How can it be determined that a feedback or claim could be bogus?
Anonymous,
I suppose it is hard to know for sure whether a given claim is "bogus." It's a he-said, she-said situation. My point is that these cases are not being reviewed by human beings, sellers are being shut down when they accumulate some arbitrary number of feedbacks/claims.
In this case, it's someone who I know has been a reputable seller for seven years. To not give someone in that situation the benefit of the doubt is not only unfair, but just dumb if you ask me. People don't change their business practices like that overnight.
I suppose Amazon thinks that the booted seller will just be replaced with another seller and nobody will know the difference. But my opinion is that Amazon's approach here is shortsighted and hurts Marketplace in the long run. Nobody can repeatedly, unfairly, give their business partners the shaft without there being some consequences.
Steve, I hate the new system and the fact that amazon states that most books should arrive in 20 days.We shipped a book to hawaii and it took 36 days. People bought two text books and had them sent standard and wanted refunds after ten days. Both went to the deep south from Michigan. Most of our books get to the buyer in two weeks but some places take longer and we get neg feedback or neutral. We have been getting orders that people say they didn't get and they have had them for 5 to 7 days according to our delivery confirmation. It is making it so we don't want to deal with all the hassles anymore.
phil knknewandusedbooks
I had 100% perfect feedback untill one buyer made a comment that was classed as neutral, which dropped me to 89%. NO I don't like the new rating system.
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