eBay Buyers: When to Leave Neutral and Negative Feedback

When you purchase a product from eBay, you have the option of leaving feedback. Feedback is crucial to buying and selling on eBay -- it helps weed out scams, determine if the person is truthful, and shows how they do business. If you buy on eBay, you'll want to pay close attention to a seller's feedback score. Too low and the seller isn't trustworthy; a perfect score is exemplary. If you're a new eBay buyer with no clue about the feedback system, you won't know when to leave neutral or negative feedback. Do you leave negative feedback if they don't respond to your email? When do you use a neutral rating? Here are some guidelines to follow.

When To Leave Neutral Feedback on eBay
If the seller didn't meet your expectations, you should leave neutral feedback. Neutral feedback doesn't affect a seller's feedback score (it stays the same, hence the word 'neutral'), but it doesn't allow the seller to collect the positive feedback point. A neutral rating is more common than negative rating -- only use negative ratings in extreme cases.

Here's when you should leave neutral feedback:

- Poor communication. If a seller doesn't respond to any of your emails, that's poor communication.

- False advertising. If the product doesn't look as good as in the photo, that's false advertising. If the color is different than in the photo, that's false advertising also. If the product looks different than in the photo, leave neutral feedback.

- Delayed shipping. If the seller says you should receive the product in 1 week and you get it a month later, leave neutral feedback.

If this happens to you, here's how to leave neutral feedback:

- No swearing! If you're angry, don't write any sort of feedback. Wait until you're calm, then write it.

- Use proper spelling and grammar.

- Stay away from insults or derogatory comments. If you're angry about the slow shipping, don't type "I didn't get this for a month! This is a terrible seller and I'll never buy from him again!" It doesn't look good for you, and you risk getting negative feedback yourself.