By Elinor Mills, 6 February 2008 08:58
NEWS
In move to curtail retaliation by vengeful sellers in its feedback system, eBay plans to prohibit sellers from posting negative feedback about their customers.
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Beginning in May, sellers will not be able to leave negative or even neutral comments about their customers, only positive feedback, said an eBay spokesman.
Sellers are crying foul, saying the policy change isn't fair.
But the spokesman said some sellers have been abusing the system, retaliating against customers who leave them negative feedback, which has left many buyers afraid to leave honest comments, or even use the site at all.
He said: "The number one reason buyers cited for decreasing or ceasing their activity on eBay was negative unwarranted retaliatory feedback they received from sellers. There has been a four-fold increase in this over the last several years. It's cited as a bigger problem than even not receiving shipment."
Meanwhile, eBay is offering more solutions to protect sellers when customers don't pay.
The move is the latest in a series of changes that involves how search results on the site will be displayed and fees for listing items announced recently.
Comments
There are 10 comments. Join the discussion
1. anonymous
I totally agree with eBay's stance on sellers negative feedback. I posted negative feedback after a seller failed to deliver within her preset timelines which meant that I had to purchase the same item elsewhere for my niece. The seller then went completely overboard and posted negative feedback on me!!! It put me off using eBay for more than a year and I am still wary of using it.
2. Guy Reynolds
Whilst this resolves the issue of tit for tat feedback by sellers, it does not solve the problem of skewed feedback ratings, in fact it makes it worse as it skews the whole feedback system against the seller.
Banning negative feedback by sellers might stop buyers being scared off from submitting negative feedback by bad sellers, it gives bad buyer free range to leave bad feedbak on sellers with no comeback. Thee result being that whilst there will be plenty of buyers on the system alot of legitmate seller will leave.
A far better option would be to keep any feedback invisible to all but the person submitting it until both parties have left some, and also to allow the individual to post comments onto the feedback they have received. In this way both parties can leave negative feedback without the comeback of tit for tat responses, and they can also leave an explaination if necessary as to why they disagree with the feedback they have been given.
3. anonymous
Would it not have been better to force sellers to leave feedback before the buyer does.
I have noticed that sellers from the UK as a rule do not leave feedback before the buyer does, where as when buying from abroad I find the sellers leeve feedback as soon as they have recieved my payment (once my part of the transaction is complete. A much better solution in my opinion. With this change it makes even more of a noncence of the feedback system, if a buyer does not keep to their part of the transaction then yes they should get negative feedback.
4. Roger Huffadine
BAD MOVE ebay
I thought that everyone knew the rules.
If you have a bad experience then don't leave feedback.
If the merchant has already left positive feedback and you have a REALLY bad experience then feel free to leave negative feedback.
In general always leave positive feedback if your experience ranged from OK > marvelous.
Why would ebay change the culture of a decade?
There is something else going on here like someone with an ego and a point to prove - who is it and what is the point?
5. Charles Smith
Ebay should display a rating of the percentage of times that a seller/buyer has lodged negative feedback against others.
This would soon help to identify those buyers/sellers who tend to over-react in posting unjustified bad feedback.
If I saw a vendor who had previously posted a lot of bad feedback I would think twice about using them.
6. David Fletcher
I suggested to ebay that positive feedback should be automatically awarded to the buyer when payment is promptly made via paypal.
The buyer can do no more than pay for the goods, therefore the only appropriate feedback is positive, therefore there is no need for the seller to have to waste time doing it.
7. Richard Marshall
This is all back to front and it's all eBay's fault. The system is broken by default.
People give positive feedback way too easily when the default rating for an acceptable transaction should be NEUTRAL feedback.
Only if a seller goes out of their way to do something extra special should they receive POSITIVE feedback.
Neutral says it was a fine transaction. Positive says it was great and Negative says the experience was a bad one. It is so simple - except for the fact that eBay has screwed it up.
Seller and Buyers are rated purely by the % of *Positive* feedback they have received... so neutral feedback effectively counts as negative - and that is clearly absurd.
Only very naive or very brave eBayers ever leave Neutral feedback.
In the current system there is no recognition for particularly good service and no distinction between excellent sellers and ones that are just OK. Until the stigma is removed from Neutral feedback, the eBay rating system is pretty much broken.
If eBay wants to change anything in the feedback system they should sort out this pigs ear.
8. anonymous
Bad move - sellers as well as buyers need to be protected!
9. Clifford Chance
I think the eBay feedback system should be extended to other walks of life. Plumbers, restaurants, holiday destinations, all kinds of other things should all be open to the rigors of public naming and shaming.
10. Karen Challinor
here's an idea
don't publish feedback until both replies are in, just indicate from whom feedback is still outstanding