BrickLink Discussion Forum

In Suggestions, searme writes:

In Suggestions, yorbrick writes:

I don't think it is necessary. If you have a bad experience then leave appropriate
feedback.

Having a badge will do nothing, as sellers will find a way around it. Plus it
will need policing, which is impossible unless everyone reports tracking information
to BL, which will increase postage costs for buyers. Plus the tracking information
will still need checking to find out if it is genuine.

The shops in question clearly prove that feedback is not reliable, as they only
have 10-20% of complaints and they tend to blacklist complainers to prevent them
from buying again. Yes, a small percentage of sellers will find a way around
anything, but I still believe that for majority of them, such a badge would be
reliable. Far more reliable than blindly trusting the seller, which is what we
are mostly doing right now. I've lost all faith in the feedback system -
consider that if a seller declares on his page that he ships in 5-15 days and
then he ships every order in 15 days (which is pretty much the case with some
shops), you still have no grounds for negative feedback. And I feel like a number
of buyers is simply afraid of giving a negative feedback.

With 800+ buy orders under the belt you should know that feedback is not in any
way designed to be any barometer of service standards. If the seller is not clear
on when he/she will ship, then message them prior to placing the order and ask
what the timeframe is. That way you do not ahve to trust blindly.

A real example of why feedback is such a difficult tool to use to assess sellers:
I have an outstanding order. I asked the seller to keep proof of shipping. After
two months I ask the seller for the proof of shipping. The seller did not keep
proof of shipping. The seller offers me a refund. I did not order a refund. I
paid for the shipping in trust. The seller has no proof that the money I paid
him for shipping was used as intended. That seller is batting 0 for 3 - he has
not done a single thing I have asked him to do. Yet, if I were to leave him negative
or neutral feedback on the facts right now it will be the end of the world for
him because in his head he thinks he has done right by me by offering a full
refund of the order.

I think that if it is that mission critical that the seller must ship the next
day, then tell the seller that when you palce the order and give him/her a clear
opportunity to cancel if they cannot fulfill the order to your expectations.

If a seller then chooses to accept the order and still gives you that level of
poor service, either do not buy from the seller again or bite the bullet and
leave clear feedback such as "seller promises to ship next day but does not".

Besides - if you know sellers who are listing items they do not have on hand,
you must report those lots to BrickLink so those can be removed and if there
are a sufficient number of those lots, so the sellers can be closed down by BrickLink.
If you say nothing, then you are helping the seller to circumvent the very issues
you are complaining about.

Author:

searme

Posted:

Nov 26, 2019 05:43

Subject:

Re: "Fast Shipper" badge for Sellers

Viewed:

28 times

Topic:

What if we added a secondary feedback where instead of just writing if the service
was OK or not OK, the buyer also rates service speed between fast/regular/slow?
And sellers who are consistently rated "fast" by buyers get a badge? Still can
be misused, but should be harder to tamper with. The problem is definitely there
and the existing feedback doesn't solve it. If a dishonest store states they
ship in 5-15 days, you're obviously hoping for 5 and they're obviously
just making 15 look nice. Seriously, maybe set a limit for a maximum shipping
time? If a seller can't ship anything in less than 3 weeks, they obviously
don't have time to run a store OR they're not being truthful about their
stock.

Author:

yorbrick

Posted:

Nov 26, 2019 05:19

Subject:

Re: "Fast Shipper" badge for Sellers

Viewed:

31 times

Topic:

In Suggestions, searme writes:

In Suggestions, yorbrick writes:

So BL goes for a badge for speed of shipping. That may lead to some sellers being
sloppy to make sure they qualify for that badge. So we need a badge for accuracy.
Plus for used parts sellers, we need a badge for quality of parts. And what about
a badge for quality of packaging, as some people don't package adequately.
And so on.

And all these badges need monitoring. Should it be down to the seller to declare
they ship within 5 days, or for the buyers to monitor this. And what about correctness
of order and so on - should a buyer declare this or the seller?

If you want a fast turn around, I suggest avoiding stores that state they will
ship in 5-15 days.

If a store has 10-20% of complaints, then I'd also avoid them.

As to a store blacklisting a buyer that complains, I don't see the problem.
If a buyer is upset with a store enough to leave them negative feedback, then
surely the buyer would not want to buy from that same store again. And if they
do, surely the seller has the right to stop them. If they didn't like their
purchase first time around, then why deal with that customer again if they are
just going to complain again at the service.

Author:

SurplusParts

Posted:

Nov 26, 2019 05:14

Subject:

Re: "Fast Shipper" badge for Sellers

Viewed:

33 times

Topic:

I honestly think that if the feedback system was used as it is designed to do,
then some of these problems would be eliminated.

What is the considered % for a top store. 100%? 99%? 90%?

That maybe is the problem. Everyone wants 100% and they don't want negative
feedback. They say they are happy for constructive feedback, but the reality
is that they don't really, unless it is positive. And some stores use some
bad methods to keep that score up.

Imagine if a top store was only 90%. Then people may be more likely to give
honest feedback as it would be less likely to ruin their perfect score.

I recently had a buying experience on Bricklink that i would consider neutral.
Wasn't disastrous, but was certainly not good. However i felt that i couldn't
leave that kind of feedback because i am a seller too, and i didn't want
to receive the same in return. Retaliatory feedback is a big problem.

But as mentioned above, sellers could just mark the shipment as shipped and it
would make no iota of difference.

I think that honest feedback is the only really way to go, but i am guilty of
the opposite myself so i won't be holding my breath that this will happen
any day soon.

Anyway, just my thoughts.
Douglas

Author:

searme

Posted:

Nov 26, 2019 04:36

Subject:

Re: "Fast Shipper" badge for Sellers

Viewed:

43 times

Topic:

In Suggestions, yorbrick writes:

Author:

yorbrick

Posted:

Nov 26, 2019 04:26

Subject:

Re: "Fast Shipper" badge for Sellers

Viewed:

43 times

Topic:

Author:

Rob_and_Shelagh

Posted:

Nov 26, 2019 04:21

Subject:

Re: "Fast Shipper" badge for Sellers

Viewed:

47 times

Topic:

In Suggestions, searme writes:

Dear Bricklink,

There are certain dishonest shops that really ruin the BL experience for shoppers.
It's hard to prove, but some sellers apparently sell pieces they don't
have in their stock and only order them from elsewhere when you place an order
with them. Apologies if that sounds like unfounded accusation, but my LUG is
aware of a number of shops whose stock is always suspiciously similar to current
LEGO PaB stock, who delay shipping when PaB runs out of stock, and who generally
take around 3 weeks to ship anything, no matter how common and widely available.
Because I see no reliable way to denounce such sellers, I suggest a different,
easily implemented solution. Just like sellers who offer instant checkout are
marked with a special badge, why not create another badge that marks sellers
who ship e.g. 3 days after payment on average? We as buyers have no access to
sellers' shipping times, we can only look up their feedback and see if people
are complaining about slow service. But your system has dates of all payments
and shipments. Simply calculate days between payment and shipping for all seller's
orders and you can get a nice average. And I'm sure this average is going
to show that certain shops typically ship after 2-3 weeks while others ship after
2-3 days. Hell, I had a seller ship an order 30 minutes after payment once. Quality
service deserves recognition, and we as buyers deserve the right to be informed
whether a particular seller provides such service or not. Transparency is the
name of the game. Right now there in no reliable way to determine that, and picking
a wrong seller can mean that your MOC will get hold up for weeks.
I sincerely hope that you will consider this simple, easy to implement request
that would drastically improve Bricklink's overall transparency for buyers.

This has been mentioned before and I certainly support identifying and warning
buyers of stores who do not operate by the rules of the site - you must have
all listed stock on hand.

The suggested solution however is not foolproof as cheating stores can simply
mark orders as shipped before they have been. IMO Bricklink should force sellers
to commit in their terms to shipping lead times at least so buyers can avoid
slow (for what ever reason) stores if they need parts quickly. Unfortunately
with any system there will always be stores that try to cheat as well as genuine
postal delays to deal with of course.

As a lug you can at least share your data with other members so they can least
favourite these stores and favourite those who have proven to ship as promised.

Robert

Author:

searme

Posted:

Nov 26, 2019 04:10

Subject:

"Fast Shipper" badge for Sellers

Viewed:

163 times

Topic:

Status:

Open

Vote:

[Yes|No]

Author:

Captain_Q

Posted:

Nov 25, 2019 04:25

Subject:

Re: streamline payment process

Viewed:

33 times

Topic:

In Suggestions, Akhoover writes:

The process for payment, when buying from multiple vendors should not be so time
consuming. I purchased from 21 vendors, still waiting to hear from one. but the
checkout time was very lengthy, possible look at how amazon checks out.

As BrainOfTheBrick has stated, Bricklink is not like amazon but, imo, more like
a Lego flea market with thousands of different stores with a lot of different
styles of selling. Amazon can combine all your items into one purchase and potentially
combine shipping for some items, if applicable.

If you are looking for quicker ways to purchase on Bricklink then you could stick
to the Bricklink stores that use "Instant Checkout", signified by having a lightning
bolt. That way you don't have to wait for a store owner to send you a manual
invoice.

Regards,
- CaptainQ

Author:

Brickwilbo

Posted:

Nov 25, 2019 01:37

Subject:

Re: streamline payment process

Viewed:

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Topic: