Feedback - to leave or not to leave?

Feedback its the crux of your business but it can also be your downfall!
If you have a bad experience you should be within your rights to express your opinion in a mature and un-abusive way. The only problem with that is the chances are you will receive bad feedback in response whether you have done something wrong or not!
So what can you do??
My humble advice is this :
Think really carefully about the experience you've had BEFORE leaving someone Negative feedback. If you have purchased something and either the goods were delayed or faulty etc... make sure you contact the Seller first to see if they are willing to refund your money. In most cases an honest seller would rather refund your money than risk their reputation or negative feedback. - Remember: Business sellers are obliged to refund your payment because of the distant selling regulations you have a 7 day cooling off period, they are not however obliged to refund Postal costs.
In my personal experience it seems that NEWBIE EBayers are more likely to leave a negative feedback comment as they are unfamiliar with the whole Ebay concept and are not familiar with the routines on how to contact the seller etc ... or in some cases they are just out to cause trouble! These ebayers dont last very long at all and its incredibly unfair to genuine Ebayers. It is becoming obvious that many sellers have been stung by Newbies befiore and now refuse to accept bids from Ebayers with a feedback score of less than 10 ..... This can also be considered quite harsh ... we all had to start somewhere!
If you have sold something and received negative feedback its really not the end of the world .... simply add a follow up comment to explain the REAL circumstances. A consise follow up comment blows the bad comment out of the window, whether it is an apoloy or a rather smart reply to an uncooperative buyer.
If you are new to eBay and want to build up your feeback profile quickly, your best option is to buy some very low price items from different sellers (If you buy multiple items from the same seller your feedback score will increase by only 1 no matter how many individual items you buy) Always ensure you complete checkout and complete the transaction quickly - this way you are almost guaranteed to get positive feedback from the seller.
There will always be troublemakers in life - Even on eBay, but if you are honest with you transactions whether you are the Winning Bidder or the seller your honesty will always shine through regardless of Negative feedback !