Wednesday, February 6th 2008

EBay to Ban Negative/Neutral User Feedback

Most of you surely know how trading on eBay works: the buyer buys something the seller is selling, and they both leave each other feedback based on their experience. If one of them stiffed the other, the feedback will reflect that, providing a nice layer of protection. However, eBay is planning on relinquishing that protection. It would seem as though some pesky buyers abused the system, and left negative feedback where none was necessary. Now, to prevent future problems, eBay is planning on eliminating the negative and neutral feedback altogether. In a quest to be politically correct and universally pleasing, eBay has taken up the mentality "if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all". This has left both buyers and sellers in a uproar, claiming that there is very little protection if a sale fails to come through.
Source: Neowin.net
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43 Comments on EBay to Ban Negative/Neutral User Feedback

#26
Scrizz
wow i just wont do anymore business on ebay
Posted on Reply
#27
Unregistered
I never use ebay anyway,i think its too easy to get ripped off.
#28
ChillyMyst
PinchyI disagree here. Being a seller myself, I understand why this logic wouldnt work, and why I personally leave feedback once it has been left for me (after selling).

The reason I (and probably what most other sellers do it) leave feedback after, is because if you dont, you give the buyer too much power. Sure, they have done their job and paid for their product...but if they get the product a day late (due to postage delay?) or find a minor problem that won't even affect the item, they can leave a negative feedback and the seller cant do anything. If the seller hasnt left them a positive, then the buyer leaves a negative, the buyer will know they are getting one in return - so they will probably just leave a neutral or badly commented positive, which is a lot fairer IMHO.

Another thing with this is if the item is DOA, and the seller refunds the price...some buyers still leave a negative feedback, especially when the seller has already left his positive.

And yeah, there are a lot of power sellers who have an automated feedback system :p.
or when a guy i know sold his fx5900ultra and the buyer left bad feedback because the cards dx9 performance was total ASS, he couldnt get ebay to remove it dispite it being more a product complain then service complaint.

it would be like me saying bestbuy sucks because a sony tv i bought there only got 1/2 the chanils its sposta get and had a bunch of dead pixles...........its not bestbuys fault, its sony's :)
Posted on Reply
#29
Ketxxx
Heedless Psychic
Ebay sucks anyeay. Fuck it.
Posted on Reply
#30
eidairaman1
The Exiled Airman
thats some shit, cause you know what that basically tells what people to stay away from on the site and who to go with.
Posted on Reply
#31
Pinchy
ChillyMystor when a guy i know sold his fx5900ultra and the buyer left bad feedback because the cards dx9 performance was total ASS, he couldnt get ebay to remove it dispite it being more a product complain then service complaint.

it would be like me saying bestbuy sucks because a sony tv i bought there only got 1/2 the chanils its sposta get and had a bunch of dead pixles...........its not bestbuys fault, its sony's :)
lol, exactly.

And ebay isnt bad if you are patient and know how to get a deal.
Posted on Reply
#32
thebeephaha
Pinchylol, exactly.

And ebay isnt bad if you are patient and know how to get a deal.
Without ebay my MSRP $1500.00 Pioneer Elite receiver wouldn't have cost me a mere $360 with 2yr warranty...

The only reason I bought it too was because of over 500+ positive feedback and 1 negative on the guy. I KNEW for like 95% I wasn't going to get screwed over.
Posted on Reply
#33
btarunr
Editor & Senior Moderator
No more buying from ebay for me.
Posted on Reply
#34
Laurijan
If that really happens one can give negative feedback through writing all the negative stuff into the "positive" feedback..
Posted on Reply
#35
asb2106
I like to know negatives before I even get to the positives, I like to know what might go wrong. I say no-go on banning neg. feedback
Posted on Reply
#36
thegave
Fuck this shit so hard!

Having said that though, I left neg feedback for this guy who sent me a P4C800 Dlx when he advertised it as a P4C800-E Dlx. But I left the feedback more because he was being a dick to me than anything else.
Online auction site eBay has said it plans to overhaul its feedback system and will ban sellers from leaving negative comments about buyers.
Hm. That means there's no incentive for me to pay as soon as the auction ends... And I won't get recognition for that... =(
Posted on Reply
#37
asb2106
thegavebump this shit so hard!

Having said that though, I left neg feedback for this guy who sent me a P4C800 Dlx when he advertised it as a P4C800-E Dlx. But I left the feedback more because he was being a dick to me than anything else.



Hm. That means there's no incentive for me to pay as soon as the auction ends... And I won't get recognition for that... =(
I feel the same way, this will have me completely away from ebay. I rarely get anything from there as it is, but if this is the case, Im done for good
Posted on Reply
#38
thegave
Actually after reading the source text and having a good think about it, this doesn't actually sound so bad and may end up being a good thing.

They're banning sellers from leaving Negative or Neutral for sellers, which means if we keep paying for auctions promptly and the seller isn't a dick, we'll still get positive feedback, and it takes away the whole Mexican standoff situation of feedbacks since I doubt sellers will have no reason to hold positive feedback hostage.

Buyers will still be able to leave sellers negative feedback if the transaction goes wrong, and if the buyer doesn't pay up, then a Payment Not Received can be filed with eBay and any user that has very little feedback but has been a member for a while can be assumed to be a "bad buyer".

When you think about it, I think the seller has much more protection and so less need for feedback anyway. The seller is in posession of the item and almost no one dispatches before the funds are received anyway, so in reality all one loses is the time and seller/listing fees, which I think can be claimed back from eBay in the event of nonpayment?
Posted on Reply
#39
asb2106
well that makes sense, either way, i dont trust ebay unless it comes from a seller that also has a store with retail/online. I had a transaction that went through great, I tried to contact the seller over and over but I couldnt get in touch. I needed the item immediatly, so I would have paid pretty much anything for overnight shipping. Well the phone number he gave was bogus, the name he gave was bogus, and the email was no good. The only way I got ahold of him was through the messages in ebay. Which by the way took 4 days! I was very disapointed and that was the final straw. When I spend good money on something I feel that I should get to atleast talk to the guy.

I ended up receiving the item 2 weeks after I purchased it, which was way to late, but he wouldnt refund me once he finally responded 4 days later. And after contacting ebay and telling them about the name, phone, and email all being wrong they didnt even care. To me thats very important, wouldnt you think that the sale was bogus if all the guys contact info is false?
Posted on Reply
#40
thegave
In that situation I'm not so sure man.. I mean unless you told him before hand that you needed fast dispatch ... It's kind of hard to give someone neg feedback cos they have a fake email, address and phone number. 2 weeks is pretty long though, probably worth a neutral. or a positive but say it took ages.

the sale isn't bogus as long as you get what you paid for, and that's all ebay cares about. the details are too much for them to handle
Posted on Reply
#41
asb2106
I gave him postive feedback because i got my stuff, but when a seller had bogus info that seems like a red flag, am I wrong?
Posted on Reply
#42
asb2106
thegaveIn that situation I'm not so sure man.. I mean unless you told him before hand that you needed fast dispatch ... It's kind of hard to give someone neg feedback cos they have a fake email, address and phone number. 2 weeks is pretty long though, probably worth a neutral. or a positive but say it took ages.

the sale isn't bogus as long as you get what you paid for, and that's all ebay cares about. the details are too much for them to handle
and i never said the sale was bogus, I said the sellers info is. To me thats unacceptable, and to me I have no trust in the seller. Would you?
Posted on Reply
#43
thegave
To be honest all I go by is feedback..

It would seem kind of dodgy that a seller lists fake contact information, but if you can get to them through the eBay messaging service then that's fine. Four days is a long time though. Actually most of the sellers I deal with have an "Email seller" link instead of "Ask the seller a question" link which means they list their email and all messages go straight to them, so I don't often get that problem. And I've never actually tried calling the phone numbers.
Posted on Reply
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