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Does not replying to buyers' messages affect sales?
 

Most of the messages I get from customers don't demand a reply on my part and I just delete or leave them unanswered.


Do you think this behavior could affect sales negatively? In other words, will eBay demote my listings in search because of ignoring such messages?

Re: Does not replying to buyers' messages affect sales?
 

If buyer ask strange asnwer I don’t think this will affect

Re: Does not replying to buyers' messages affect sales?
 

You can setup an auto responder if you are concerned. I can say this though, it annoys potential buyers to get an auto response and not a real answer.

Re: Does not replying to buyers' messages affect sales?
 

That's for DAMN SURE! The worst is an autoresponder from a chinese person. Like wtf does that even say...

Re: Does not replying to buyers' messages affect sales?
 

It might have an effect, but it won't keep you from selling a shiitload of items. Some sellers I buy things from are known for their lack of response. They just FLAT OUT don't reply, and they sell wayyyyyyyyyyyy more than 99.9% of the people here.

Re: Does not replying to buyers' messages affect sales?
 

No, eBay doesn't have an algo or bot that demotes you for not replying unlike Amazon.

Re: Does not replying to buyers' messages affect sales?
 

I thought it was in the USA? Been a while since i needed to check

Re: Does not replying to buyers' messages affect sales?
 

I mean, none of you can really know for sure, what ebays algo takes into account when ranking your searches. Even ebay reps don't know half the time.

Re: Does not replying to buyers' messages affect sales?
 

Agreed. I maintain that it makes a difference. :peace:

Sellers with bad customer service should not rank as well as sellers with good customer service.

Prove it?

Re: Does not replying to buyers' messages affect sales?
 

Which would make perfect sense. I don't understand how people can think that such an easy data point would just be overlooked. Ebay tracks if there was any contact information shared, and whether or not the item ends without a sale. Yet people think can't track to see if you actually respond to messages, let alone care about a vital part of customer service? Ebay will just be like " well, we care about customer service and buyers being happy in every single other thing, and go after you for all of it. but messages? Meh".

Some sellers tho straight up refuse messages. I wonder if not responding to messages, is worse than not allowing messages.

It's kinda like my dad with his voicemail. He has no idea how to look at them. Yet he keeps asking me to delete voicemails. Why, so more people can leave voicemails that you will never look at?

Re: Does not replying to buyers' messages affect sales?
 

Yeah, because only the visible metrics are the ones these companies go by. They never do anything, that the general public is not able to see. They will only go by the black and white policies, that they have presented to the public. They will never do things they said they don't do, or things they haven't told us about Nope. Never such a thing.

Re: Does not replying to buyers' messages affect sales?
 

So whats the conclusion does not respond at all affect the search ranking?

Does eBah count how fast seller respond like within 24hours etx

If so How long do these logs stay?

Re: Does not replying to buyers' messages affect sales?
 

They use to do this pre-Cassini in 2013, I don't know if they still do.
Personally, I don't leave any question answered. I think it just rude to do so.

Re: Does not replying to buyers' messages affect sales?
 

It does not affect search at all. I don't answer stupid questions at all. In fact I frequently add buyers who ask too many stupid questions to my blocked bidder list.

Specific/relevant questions from someone who seems like a potential customer of course I answer but stupid questions like "what color is it", "how long did you have it", etc.. I never answer.

Re: Does not replying to buyers' messages affect sales?
 

Except sometimes buyers send you 6 messages within minutes. Are you telling me you respond to every single one of those messages?

Re: Does not replying to buyers' messages affect sales?
 

In my practice — no. It’s okay.

Re: Does not replying to buyers' messages affect sales?
 

Hah no way - chuckle :)

Re: Does not replying to buyers' messages affect sales?
 

I think that return requests and opened item not received cases are the things you need to concentrate more on because if you leave those for 1-2 days without replying it will affect the sales considerably. Doing customer service once in 1-2 days time should be enough I think, I haven't noticed any considerable change in sales level even if the customer hasn't received a reply in 2-3 days time. The only problem in keeping them waiting is that they might get pissed and leave bad feedback.