I notice a lot of sellers particularly on eBay don’t care about their feedback, comms, or service. On the one hand it’s annoying as hell to do business with such sellers but on the other hand I don’t blame them. I think perhaps there is nothing you can do in the long run to avoid negative & neutral feedback, no matter how hard you try – especially if you are selling a lot of electronics.
If you are the kind of seller who bends over backwards to maintain good communication, keep people updated & rectify errors instantly – this hurts a lot. The position of those sellers who don’t even bother answering messages becomes abundantly clear the very first time you get a neutral / negative; why bother going to all that effort & putting in all that extra work when the outcome, from the perspective of a seller, is exactly the same? Especially if it’s a negative which shows next to your your name – 98% positive looks about the same as 99.9% so why work your ass off for that extra 1.9%. Your feedback score will hover around 98% even if you never open your messages, provided you actually post items – and eBay handles the returns process on it’s own so you don’t have to even talk to buyers about returns.
But I must persist. I can’t be doing it for the feedback score – it’s about good service, making people happy & redistributing wealth. Neutrals still hurt though especially when I think it’s not my fault . . . I’m still waiting for my first negative . . maybe I’ll jump in the river, I’m very fragile in the head.