EBay comments changing

[Pedro_The_Swift]

EBay to ban negative seller views

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2008/02/493.jpg The feedback system is central to eBay's online auction experience

Online auction site eBay has said it plans to overhaul its feedback system and will ban sellers from leaving negative comments about buyers. EBay said problems were occurring, and slowing down trade, when buyers left negative comments about sellers who then retaliated with their own views.
From May, those selling on eBay will not be able to leave unfavourable or neutral messages about buyers.
The move, which will affect users worldwide, has angered many sellers.
Sellers say it will leave them unprotected.
Tricky customers
Critics of the changes argue that by taking away a seller's right to complain about a problem buyer they will have very little recourse for action when a sale goes wrong.
And they complain that by still allowing buyers to leave dissenting comments about sellers, eBay has skewed the whole trading process.

HAVE YOUR SAY (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/talking_point/default.stm) Send us your comments (http://newsforums.bbc.co.uk/nol/thread.jspa?forumID=4228&edition=1&ttl=20080205165824)


When both sides have equal access and rights to leave negative comments about each other it is a well balanced trading process, they say. However, eBay counters that problem buyers can still be dealt with.
"If a buyer doesn't pay, the seller can easily contact eBay, we will review any complaint and maybe remove the buyer," a spokesman said.
The changes aim to "improve the overall customer experience", eBay said.
It added that many buyers would not leave negative comments for fear that sellers would retaliate.
As a result, buyers and sellers may not get a fair picture of what is actually happening between trading parties.
It maintains that the majority of transactions go "swimmingly".
EBay says that only a minority of sellers leave negative feedback for buyers.

[master chief]

That would be a stupid idea,if you had a buyer that wanted to be a mongrel they can leave you neg feedback regardless of the product and the seller doesnt have a leg to stand on!.stupid idea Ebay!.:mad:
maybe its time to go with Oztion,less fees to.

[Ben]

That would be a stupid idea,if you had a buyer that wanted to be a mongrel they can leave you neg feedback regardless of the product and the seller doesnt have a leg to stand on.

Yeah, I agree (and I'm only a buyer on eBay, never sold anything.)

I think it would have made more sense to change it so the buyer can only leave feedback after the seller has (since the buyer has met all their obligations first.) Keep the "mutual retraction" and feedback comment system.

There's no need for a Seller to hold their feedback as a threat for the buyer. The feedback comments and retractions is the safeguard to avoid buyers abusing the system.

[George130]

There is reason for seller feedback. When I sold my merc the buyer never paid and never collected:nazilock:.
After a few attempts at contact by email and phone I started a dispute and still nothing. At least I got him a black mark and nasy feedback. My choice was a free relisting without the negative or negative and I felt others should be warned. I also black listed him from my sales and purchases.

[incisor]

they are hopeless beyond all measures in every department except the money taking department...

i closed my online shop there due to their behaviour, it is outrageous.

i know one guy who lost $10000+ because they wiped a heap of his auctions after they had finished, claiming he was selling fraudulent copies of brand name clothing. they just shut him down without any sort of comeback. wouldn't even give him a fax number so he could fax his original buy invoices to them... whole thing was truly unbelievable.

this latest one wont hurt their bottom line, but it has to make you wonder just how overtly arrogant they have become.

IMHO they should force all sellers to leave feedback when they get their money, that way they can not blackmail you into leaving good feedback so you can get some yourself, bloody woeful.

[Xavie]

Yeah, I agree (and I'm only a buyer on eBay, never sold anything.)

I think it would have made more sense to change it so the buyer can only leave feedback after the seller has (since the buyer has met all their obligations first.) Keep the "mutual retraction" and feedback comment system.

There's no need for a Seller to hold their feedback as a threat for the buyer. The feedback comments and retractions is the safeguard to avoid buyers abusing the system.

I agree with the seller needing to leave feedback first as many even state on their page that they will not leave feedback until the buyer does and that $hits me so much and is unfair to begin with.

Xavier

[incisor]

30 January 2008 | 09:19AM EST
https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2011/08/1118.jpg

Feedback is evolving Feedback on eBay is an essential ingredient to building trust and having a positive trading experience. The current system has been in place since eBay began 12 years ago and was intended to provide a simple, honest and accurate record of members' experiences.
We’ve made adjustments to the system over the years to try to improve its accuracy, including the addition last year of anonymous Detailed Seller Ratings, but as eBay has grown, we feel the Feedback system is no longer working as well as it could - it’s time for it to evolve.
So what are the changes?

Repeat feedback credit – coming in February
Members will receive credit for multiple feedback from the same buyer or seller for purchases made in different calendar weeks (Monday though Sunday).This is great news for sellers. If you deliver great customer service – and it shows through repeat buyers – your feedback score will reflect this.
Feedback percentage – coming in May
The feedback percentage which calculates a member’s percentage of positive feedback will be based on the last 12 months only (not a member’s lifetime transactions as it is today).
No negative or neutral feedback for buyers - coming in May
Sellers will not be able to leave negative or neutral feedback for buyers. Of course sellers will have the option to not leave any feedback if they feel the buyer has not warranted positive feedback.We know this is a huge change and it’s important we put appropriate protection in place for sellers so that buyers don’t abuse the system. With this in mind, we're also introducing these changes in May:
All negative and neutral feedback comments will be removed (not just de-scored) when a buyer doesn’t respond to the Unpaid Item Dispute (UPI) process.
All negative and neutral feedback comments left by suspended members will be removed. This will be done retroactively, so all negative and neutral feedback left by suspended members in the past will also be removed.
Buyers will not be able to leave negative or neutral feedback within 3 days of the end of a listing. We expect this will help promote communication between the buyer and seller so they try to resolve their issues before leaving feedback.
The number of days a member can leave feedback by will be reduced from 90 to 60.
Sellers will have an increased block bidder list capacity (up to 5000 User IDs).These and many other changes were announced today on eBay.com in a “Message from Bill Cobb”. It is important to note that other changes in the eBay.com announcement are NOT currently scheduled to launch on eBay.com.au.
Regards,
The eBay team

[HangOver]

Just how thick are they !

So the way it will work? :
Seller sells 1000 items with 90% crap feedback they now have a score of 100 positive sales?

HangOver <---shaking head in disbelief

[ladas]

I will have my little say, based on personal experiences.

In my view the seller should leave his feedback as soon as the buyer has completed his part of the contract, ie he's said he'll buy it, and has sent the money. There is nothing more the buyer can do to improve on his performance. His part is complete.

The seller has yet to complete his part of the bargain - and it anoys me a little that seelers will not/and do not leave feedback for the buyer until he has left one for the seller.

This to me is wrong, the buyer commits to buy, at the price agreed, for the product as described. Then he pays the money. He has completed his part of the bargain - so why cant the seller leave feedback based on the performance of the buyer to do just what he is meant to - buy, then pay.
The feedback should take into account the time it took the buyer to contact the seller, and the time it took the buyer to pay.

But the buyer should not be held to ransom with statements like

I would appreciate positive feedback when you have the time and I will do the same for you in return

Things like

a negative feedback from the buyer will result in the same from the seller.

The only reason a seller should leave a neg feedback is because of something he did wrong - like fail to contact, or fail to pay - in those instances the buyer cannot leave any feedback as the deal is not complete, but 'tit for tat' negative feedback is just not playing by the rules

[100I]

There's a 3rd part of the transaction though, the postage.

When you specifically state pickup only, and some Wally bids and wins from whoop whoop, the seller is then forced to decide whether to stuff around packing everything safely (so they don't incur neg feedback) or do they cancel the sale & relist? What recourse is there to vent when people don't play by the sellers rules?
Either way it's frustrating.

[Ben]

When you specifically state pickup only, and some Wally bids and wins from whoop whoop, the seller is then forced to decide whether to stuff around packing everything safely (so they don't incur neg feedback) or do they cancel the sale & relist? What recourse is there to vent when people don't play by the sellers rules?

The buyer shouldn't be making payment before sorting out the postage/pick up side of things. So in those cases, a seller wouldn't leave good feedback.

If the buyer paid and the seller had left feedback, then the buyer left negative feedback because "pick up only" was really "pick up only", then the seller can always comment on the negative feedback entry. Eg. "Buyer didn't pay attention to 'pick up only'." and the feedback mutual retraction could come into play when sorting out refunding the buyer.

[p38arover]

It annoys me that sellers won't leave feedback until the buyer has done so.

[Xavie]

It annoy me that sellers won't leave feedback until th buyer has done so.

As a buyer I generally refuse to leave feedback if the seller has not. And I get so many abusive emails. So I always just send another letter on to ebay with the abusive email attatched and tell them to fix their system.
When I have sold items I leave feedback as soon as money comes in.


Xavier

[sclarke]

Dont get me started on Ebay.....

I got booted for life due to 2 people OS that were not happy with a product. i refunded them and i still got booted.....

[cartm58]

seeing a seller won't send you the goods till you have paid for them and he doesn't care about anything except you paying for items bought the seller's only got 2 choices in comments, paid on time and in full or didn't pay so sellers should only have right to post comment when buyer doesn't pay for their goods.

As buyer l have had mixed results with sellers 95% okay 5% either misdescription of goods, failure to post articles within reasonable time, lie about the transaction.

Ebay is about giving people confidence that money spent will see goods sent, so l favour anything that puts the buyer at ease, seller only loses potential of getting money from 1 buyer if they fail and keeps goods so they can sell them again anyway and make up on loss whereas buyer risks losing money completely if seller a cheat thief liar bogus.

[Davo]

Yes, anything that makes people more comfortable and assures their rights will only help ebay. I find all the odd stories about their dictatorial behaviour enough to put me off buying that much and certainly from ever using it to run an online shop. There's no way I'm going to try and make some kind of living from a system that has no mediation.

[incisor]

seeing a seller won't send you the goods till you have paid for them and he doesn't care about anything except you paying for items bought the seller's only got 2 choices in comments, paid on time and in full or didn't pay so sellers should only have right to post comment when buyer doesn't pay for their goods.

not quite..

some buyers are fine for a few days then try and work the lurks to get out of it for one reason or another....

there is two sides to the story and the playing field should be level, but it never will be on ebay.

[jik22]

It annoy me that sellers won't leave feedback until th buyer has done so.

That, IMHO, was the only bit that needed "fixing". The seller must be able to neg the buyer if the buyer messes about over payment, complains about postage only after winning when it was clearly listed, etc.

Mind you, I am amazed eBay has come down firmly on the side of the buyer - in my experience, they have always sided with the seller in disputes because that's where they earn their money. I'm not surprised they have shown themselves as blind as ever to the real problems and doubtless haven't listened to any feedback anyway.

I haven't used eBay since they banned gun part sales on the US site, and don't see myself in a hurry to rush back unless I have a garage full of crap to clear out.

Like most big companies, their arrogance now seems have exceeded their usefulness.

[dungarover]

Maybe I've been a lucky e-bay buyer/seller. 99.9% of the people who I've dealt with have been great but I've only had a couple of bad incidences but both were resoved without leaving negative feedback. I've had negative feedback left once but that was my fault and I was new to e-bay and wasn't too sure of the rules, etc...

I had one other time where I had won an mobile phone that I didn'/t bid on. I was ablr to resove this with e-bay and nothing further was taken. I still think that my account had been hacked into and that's the ponly way I can think that the phone was bought for a 'buy it now' price. I was in bed at the time as the auction ended at around midnight (I don't stay iup past at least 10PM during the week. I need to be up at 4:30AM).

Re-changes. I'm a fan of the neg feedback, it's a great indicator that someone is a crap e-bayer but I can also see that it can be abused with some poor bastard suffering because of some boofhead sellers/buyers.

Trav

[cockie55]

I am both a seller and buyer. I do my best to protect my self from any negative buyer feedback by accurately describing the item, properly packing and posting it quickly at a single and nominal Aust wide rate (registered). Often that means posting below cost.

I state upfront that I will not give feedback until buyer has. I do this only to ensure buyer completes payment on time and they don't forget to leave feedback on me once they have the item. If they are honest it will be accurate feedback comensurate with how I sell. That then helps consolidate my position as a good seller over and above other competing sellers of the same or similiar items.

The only people who need to be fearful of my approach are those buyers who are not honest or looneys.

Unfortunately what ebay are saying by banning seller feedback is there is on balance more sellers than buyers abusing the feedback system.

If they change so sellers can't leave feedback I would ordinarily not be to worried as all sellers are on equal footing and my selling approach should be rewarded with positive feedback.

However what I am fearful of is the combination of the looney buyer and ebay's track record on zero assistance.

Worst experiance I had of this was when they cancelled a auction after it closed and after I had payed for the item with an email saying the ebay terminated the auction because seller had violated a ebay policy. With termination neither I or seller could leave feedback.

When seller did not respond to my concerns by email I sent him some blistering emails saying I was cancelling transfer (which I couldn't as it was too late) but unbeknown to me he was away from home and his computer. In all this ebay were sending me form emails written by a machine that were useless and refusing to provide seller details other than a email address.

It all ended with ebay never acknowledging they had incorrectly terminated the auction and not doing anything so seller and I couldn't leave positive feedback for each other which no thanks to ebay the transaction deserved.

[lro11]

I am sick and tired of sellers getting away with not doing the right thing I think the feedback system does not go far enough and no support from ebay when things go sideways

[abaddonxi]

Ebay's use of the feedback system extends the transaction well past the exchange of money and goods. The exchange is not complete until both parties are satisfied which can mean when the buyer plays with their new toy, or the seller gets a buyer who won't communicate, or doesn't read the conditions of the ad, or is just a loon.

It is interesting that ebay doesn't allow sellers much leeway in blocking bidders. Sure you can set up a block bidder list, and one of the new features is the ability to extend the list to 5000 blockees. Gotta say, if you've ****ed off 5000 customers on ebay you aren't the person they want selling there, so I reckon that is a waste of time.

A seller can't block users who have, say been given multiple negs in the last 12 months. Or bidders who have left X negs for sellers in the last 12 months. For me that's one of the keys of a loony bidder, if they've left lots of negs they're probably trouble.

It also strikes me as odd that they make such a matter of received negs, highlighted on every sales page, but nothing of negs left for others. After all, if you're not leaving negs you're usually willing to go a long way to sort things out.

Ebay is a fantasy market, you fall in love with the pretty pictures and the clever or excitingly sparse description, then when you get it you discover that it isn't quite what you imagined when you were in a bidding frenzy.

Done that one before.

I got a neg from a buyer for an auction that was never completed. I misadvertised an item - thought it was from a box of six identical motherboards - I only found out less than 12 hours before the auction ended, so couldn't kill it, and the motherboard was similar spec - I emailed all the bidders telling them this and that I wouldn't expect them to honour their bids unless they wanted to.

Winner didn't want motherboard and left me a neg.

Go figure.

Cheers
Simon