Facebook Plunges Again
Tumblr 101: Tips And Tricks To Get Started
eBay to eliminate negative feedback from sellers
The first thing many of us would do is leave negative feedback for the seller. But sometimes we stop to think twice before doing that. Because if we leave negative feedback, the seller might retaliate by leaving negative feedback for us. And then when we go to sell something we might find it hard to get a fair price because we have a mark or two against us.
eBay is aware of this problem, and is proposing a pretty extreme solution: prevent sellers from leaving negative feedback for buyers. The BBC reports that starting in May, sellers will no longer have the ability to leave negative feedback. Of course, sellers aren't particularly happy with the proposed change, saying it removes a tool for dealing with problem customers who refuse to pay or make trouble in other ways.
But honestly, the feedback system is really much more useful for buyers trying to find trustworthy sellers than vice versa. For the most part, if someone wins an auction, the system is set up so that you have to sell the item to them. So there's never been much reason for eBay to allow sellers to rate buyers anyway.
Comments
23
Subscribe to commentsRon BadgerowMar 23rd 2008 11:29AM
I agree that Ebay must do something about negative feedback. I do not think sellers or buyer should be able to leave feedback without a third-party intervention.
Ebay needs an "approval" method, that meets certain requirements before any comments either positive or negative are posted.
I am a buyer and a seller, so both types of feedback are important to me, but as a buyer I've been "negged" by a seller, that left a comment two or three months after we agreed to cancel the sale, due to problems I had or the seller had.
As a seller I have had reversed Pay Pal payments after the item was shipped (never resolved!) people using stolen credit cards (so I got a $800 charge-back after the item was shipped!) and negative feedback from a buyer who returned an item, brand new in the box, and demanded a refund, because they "found it some where else, fatser" and I ate the shipping cost, plus got "negged"
Truly something must be done and that should be Ebay's staff, reading feedback and resolving issue's before foul language or terrible comments are left, even as positive feedback, sellers or buyers can write negative things, that mean "negative feedback", in a positive feedback space!
Ron :)
Ebay user: ronbadgerow
wandaApr 21st 2008 1:57PM
Well, you can have ebay. Lumps, warts and all it's ugliness... you seem to enjoy one sidedness so much. Have a ball.
KAINGMay 1st 2008 10:26PM
I am so happy ebay Sellers can no longer leave feedback. Having worked in service industry for over 20 years, I am accustomed to deal with and resolve reasonable customer complaints. There are rare occassion of scam artists as described, we handle the situations to the best of our abilities and move on. Having over 300 positive feedbacks with 100% ratings, I nevertheless face Sellers that refuse to leave feedback unless I do so first. To me, this is simply wrong. We the buyers trust the Sellers and send our payment first, Sellers then are responsible for delivering the goods as described. Unfortunately, the goods are often times "less" than described. But I do not leave a negative feedback because I do like my 100% ratings and fear been smeared by bad Sellers. Now ebay Sellers are on a leveling playing field amongst themselves and are no worse systmes similar to online merchants. Look at the major outfit like Crutchfield, J&R Music World, they still get negative feedbacks. But vast majority of buyers can judge for themselves and understand that a Seller of 99.5% rating with 10K feedbacks is most likely better than a Seller with a 89.1% ratings with 10K feedbacks. Fair, very fair.