To quote the immortal words of MeatLoaf

Two out of Three ain't bad....but let me tell you Four out of Five is really damned irritating.

Let me fill you in. As well as eeking out a meagre living by selling books on our own site, we also sell on various other online sites, one of which is the mighty Amazon. Now Amazon believe in feedback. It is the heart of their Marketplace system - helping the buyer to sort the good from the bad. Survival of the fittest and all that. Whilst you'll hear a lot of sellers kvetching about this, on the whole I'm not all that bothered - we work hard, we ship quickly we get lots of 5's. But - and this is a big emboldened BUT I absolutely do have a problem with people who say everything was excellent and then give us 4 out of 5. Below are actual pieces of feedback we've received

4 out of 5:
"Perfect seller!"

4 out of 5:
"I'm very pleased"

4 out of 5:
"A1"

4 out of 5:
"Very happy"

4 out of 5:
"Book arrived in excellent condition"

4 out of 5:
"Order arrived on time. Accurate description. I would recommend to a friend."

I have to say that my problem isn't so much with the people who gave us 4 - though quite why they couldn't click the 5 button is an unfathomable mystery sometimes. Usually though they were happy, we were happy they were happy, everything was hunky-dory. But the point is, and bear with me I am getting to it, Amazon weren't happy. Every time somebody gives us 4 out of 5 for a transaction they were genuinely happy with, Amazon penalize us and drop our rating a bit. Unfortunately they don't make that clear to the feedback leaver (feedbackee?) who carries on in total oblivion, thinking that in leaving us a 4 they think they were doing us a favour, whereas in fact a 4 is a great big poisoned chalice, might as well just go the whole hog and say we were pants and give us a 1.

So when leaving feedback in future dear buyer, be generous, let your heart rule your head, give yourself a pat on the back, good karma yourself up, think big and leave sellers 5 out of 5 (unless they were pants of course).

And to all you teachers out there (for you seem to be the guilty ones more often than not) who love to give 4's in the hope that you can inspire us into trying a bit harder - do me a favour and go buy your books from some great big Mega Lister who can cope with the ratings loss. We little independents need all the help can get.