eBay Ends Negative Seller Feedback
February 06, 2008 | by Christopher Nickson
The auction giant is set to overhaul its feedback system and stop sellers leaving negative comments about purchasers.
As anyone who uses eBay knows, feedback is an important tool. It allows a buyer or seller to know how reliable the other party in a transaction is before bidding, and then lets both parties rate the exchange later. Good feedback is like good credit.
A lot of that is going to change over the next few months, however. As part of the overhaul of its feedback system, eBay will eliminate the possibility of sellers leaving either negative or neutral feedback about buyers, according to the BBC.
The company claims that it was causing problems and slowing the system down, as a negative comment then prompted more comments in return. Not surprisingly, sellers worldwide aren’t too happy with the move.
After all, purchasers will still be able to leave negative comments about sellers, so sellers feel that the elimination of their right to do the same effectively ruins the point of feedback. Obviously, eBay disagrees.
"If a buyer doesn't pay, the seller can easily contact eBay, we will review any complaint and maybe remove the buyer," a spokesman told the BBC.
Although the company claims that very few sellers leave negative feedback for purchasers, they obviously feel it’s enough to warrant this action, which they claim will “improve the overall customer experience.” Sellers might argue that point.
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Ju5t@GuY on Feb 6th, 2008 at 9:01 AM:
This is ridiculous. Will it stop me from using EBAY, no. But whats frustrating is that you can't please everyone and EBAY is essentially a massive online garage sale. People don't read everything on the listing over 50% of the time, and they don't thoroughly look at all the pictures and or text. So when they buy their trinket and it's not museum quality like they fatefully anticipated; they can leave negative feedback, but even though the seller disclosed the item 100%, they get screwed and can't counter the transaction with equal commentary? I know not all sellers or buyers are all 100% reasonable, but if your not familiar with EBAY, it's full of cons on both sides of the table. So EBAY is making this change to speed things up, and taking on the conflicts themselves by offering to discontinue accounts? Yea, like that's going to happen. The brainchild behind this move should be slapped, then canned.