💔 The Damage of Neutral Reviews: Why Small Businesses Like Ours Are Reconsidering eBay

Running a small business isn’t easy. We don’t have shiny office buildings, board meetings, or customer service departments run by AI bots. We are real people, often working out of our homes, packing orders late at night, replying to every message personally, and trying to keep our heads above water while doing what we love helping pets and their humans.

But nothing, truly nothing, is more demoralising than seeing our hard work publicly undermined by careless, neutral reviews from buyers who barely give our products a chance.

Tried it once, left a review, and vanished like a ghost. Thanks for the scientific evaluation, Doctor Doolittle. 🐾📦

Let’s talk about the review in the image above a customer left a neutral rating after using our product just once. That’s right. One use. Not even 24 hours of observation. No follow-up. No waiting to see results. Just a public shrug: “Too soon to know.”

And there it is a big, ugly mark against us for the world to see.

🧨 Neutral Reviews Are Not Neutral at All

On eBay, neutral reviews are not harmless. They affect our search rankings, reduce buyer confidence, and ultimately chip away at our credibility. When a customer says, “It’s too soon to know,” and still leaves a neutral review, it’s like turning up to a restaurant, sniffing the food, and then leaving a two-star rating because you “might like it later.”

Imagine if every buyer did this. Our business would be buried. For what? For following the instructions, shipping the product quickly, and doing absolutely nothing wrong.

🐾 The Cost of Cheap Products and Entitled Buyers

Let’s be honest. The cheaper the product, the more entitled and careless the buyer often seems to be. It’s heartbreaking.

We sell some of our pet care essentials — like Canker Blaster Drops — at extremely low prices to make them accessible. We’re not Amazon. We’re not a conglomerate. We’re just a small team (okay, one woman and a dog) trying to make pet care affordable and effective.

But those low prices seem to attract buyers who expect luxury service for pennies and feel oddly comfortable punishing small sellers with vague reviews when they don’t get instant miracles.

These same customers often don’t respond to messages, ignore polite requests for feedback revision, and act as if they’re above common decency. The superiority complex is real, and it’s exhausting.

📉 How It Hurts Our Business

A neutral review might not feel like a big deal to the buyer, but here’s what it means for us:

• Lower visibility in search: eBay’s algorithm doesn’t care if it’s 3-star or 1-star. Not five stars? You’re going down the list.

• Reduced trust: Potential buyers see those reviews and second guess a purchase.

• Demoralisation: Small business owners lose motivation to continue serving customers who don’t care.

• Hesitation to offer affordable pricing: Why risk selling £5 items that might earn a “meh” review and damage the entire shop?

🤯 We Sent a Feedback Revision Request. Silence.

We didn’t attack, blame, or insult. We politely explained that our product needs time to work and asked if they would kindly revise the review. But no response.

Not even a “no thanks.” Just silence.

Would it have taken 30 seconds to click a button and help a struggling business out? Yes. But the buyer was too busy. Or didn’t care. Or maybe just enjoyed the power trip. Either way, they’ve moved on. We haven’t — because the consequences linger for us, not them.

❌ We’re Considering Pulling Low-Cost Products Off eBay

We’re now seriously thinking about stopping the sale of our lowest-cost items on eBay altogether.

Why?

Because they attract more complaints than praise, more hassle than help. And if you give away your soul (and product) for £5 and still get punished, what’s the point?

We’ll focus on our own website, where customers tend to be more thoughtful, where we can tell our story, and where our hard work is respected. We may lose a few sales, but we’ll gain our peace back.

🐕 We’re Just a Small Business with a Big Heart

If you’re reading this and you’ve left a neutral review like that in the past, please consider how it affects the person on the other side. There’s no corporate buffer here. It’s just us — hand-labelling bottles, responding to every message, and praying our products help your pets.

We love animals. That’s why we started this. But human behaviour, especially on platforms like eBay, is what’s pushing us to the edge.

If you’ve ever supported a small business with a thoughtful review, shared kind words, or just showed patience — thank you. You’re the reason we keep going.

But to the careless buyers: Please remember that your feedback is not just a star. It’s someone’s livelihood, someone’s dream, someone’s fight to stay afloat.

Warmest Regards

www.canker.co.uk

Small biz reality: 1-star effort for 5-star care. Dog sniffed it = expert review. eBay, thanks for the emotional damage in cardboard. 📦🐾