Comments on: Sales Tips & Hints 11/05/08 – Dealing with the Dreaded Red (Face)

By: helen

helen — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 21:34:24 +0000

Red faces that have opinions are a pet peeve of mine. FB should be factual, as Tracey said “Never paid after promising to” instead of being accusatory or giving the writers opinion of people who dont pay.

I am not a big user of the blacklist function, but I do blacklist those I redface, and I admit also to blacklisting a few traders who appear to make a point of posting accusatory feedback on a person with an otherwise good record.

Not long ago I have someone accuse me of being a cheat and a scammer when NZ post lost their package. After 14,000 feedbacks did they think I had changed profession

Another recently left me a bluey becasue NZ post lost his parcel and I made sure he had replacement free of charge the same day he confirmed his address…..But it was apparently not quick enough. Seems some traders require better service than that !!

Feedback…and excuses, I expect we could write a book about it, I have certainly had some doozies

By: auctionitis

auctionitis — Sun, 18 May 2008 03:21:49 +0000

Thanks for the feedback Graham. There definitely is a large range of opinions and ideas on feedback, and I don’t think personally that any one system is fool proof as there are too many fools out there on both sides of the equation

Now you raise an interesting topic “If you give a red you get a red”. What reasons do you give a red face? What is the content of your red face? As a seller I’ve given out hundreds of red faces for no payment and I’ve only got 5 red faces out of over 9000 total feedbacks. I have found sticking to the irrefutable facts ‘buyer did not pay’ or ‘buyer promised to pay but did not’ leaves far less room for retaliatory. I am sure if I called the buyer all kinds of names I’d get a lot more back.

Having said that i have had a couple containing swear words which TM did remove promptly. I think some categories/areas of sales attract a higher likelihood of unresolved issues and bad feedback than others.

You are right it is often the newer members that dish out reds much quicker – but this can be used as a chance to help them along the ‘right way’ to do things.

It’s been proven that negative feedback has a direct impact on your bottom line/auction sale prices so it is a financial issue to do your best to put it right even if you personally feel put out by the red face.

While having time to sue people sounds an appealing idea, the cost of any litigation in NZ puts it out of reach to the ordinary business person unless you have a relative in the business Often the response/your reaction can have more of a positive impact than a red face can have as a negative impact.

I agree that name calling should be banned from feedback – it serves no purpose at all.

By: Graham

Graham — Sun, 11 May 2008 21:23:32 +0000

Its good to see articles like this covering the bases for newbies but it would be a bit more gritty if you covered the issue of “if you give a red you get a red” I try to avoid going to my feedback as it disappointing to me don’t know why if i had the same record in a bricks and mortar store I would be real happy.
I can get 100s of positive feedback and I get one red !
I also notice that the majority of reds come from persons with a feedback less than 100.
I was interested in the Terms and condition clause
Trade Me is ordered by a valid court order to remove feedback
I wonder if any one has successfully got this applied? One of the things that really offends me is someone saying incorrect comments like I am a thief or a liar because their goods didnt turn up They assume and say the worse before they get the facts. Would love to have the time to sue them for whatever. The occasional i didn’t fulfill there needs i can handle