Secrets of the eBay

“I Can Walk a Hundred Yards to My Office”
Sellers who have an inventory that’s bigger than their living space can
accommodate the need to find a warehouse or office. David Alexander just
built a new facility that functions as receiving area, shipping dock, and
warehouse. Not only that, but the location is extra convenient, too. “I just
built a 5,000-sq. ft. warehouse near the airport in town. I just built on some
property close to my house, so I can walk a hundred yards to get to work.”
The facility (some of which is shown in Figure 9-7) is big enough to
hold all the paper-related items he sells. “We sell all kinds of comic books
and movie posters and paper collectibles, sports publications, auto racing
programs. Anything made of paper, pretty much, we sell it.”
CHAPTER 9: Build a Good Reputation 191
Should You Remind Others to Leave Feedback?
So many steps are involved in an eBay sale that it takes some real effort to remember
to leave feedback. Unless you provide outstanding service or solve a special problem
encountered by one of your customers, you might not receive feedback from each one of
your buyers after a transaction. If that happens, should you send a reminder e-mail urging
someone to leave you feedback?
You need to be careful where such reminders are concerned. Some eBay users are
offended if you remind them about leaving feedback—especially if your message says
something along the lines of, “I’ll be glad to leave you feedback if you leave some for me
first.” Most sellers know that it’s not advisable to leave feedback for someone until well
after the transaction has ended—or until a buyer has left feedback for them first. Too many
problems can occur as much as a week or two after an item has shipped. A buyer might
decide to return the item because it doesn’t fit, or because he or she just isn’t satisfied with
it in some way. The buyer might claim that the item was never received even though you
have a delivery confirmation record to that effect. If you’ve already left positive feedback
for that person as soon as the transaction has ended, you don’t have any “leverage” to
encourage the buyer to follow through with his or her part of the transaction honestly.
Personally, I’m not offended when someone asks me to leave feedback—unless they
say you need to leave feedback for them first. But before you send out your own reminder
message, keep in mind that you won’t get a feedback comment with every transaction
you conduct. As David Alexander points out: “The feedback number you have doesn’t
necessarily reflect the number of sales you have made because repeat customers don’t
leave feedback for every sale. If you have 5,000 for instance, you have probably 10,000 to
15,000 sales. I have a huge amount of multiple buyers, and people never leave feedback
anymore. People buy ten items at a time, and they only leave feedback once.”