EBay to ban negative seller views

[Queen Bee]

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.

'Open forum'

The feedback forum was introduced by Ebay founder Pierre Omidyar in February 1996.

In a message then, he said: "By creating an open market that encourages honest dealings, I hope to make it easier to conduct business with strangers over the net.

"Now, we have an open forum. Use it. Make your complaints in the open.

"Better yet, give your praise in the open. Let everyone know what a joy it was to deal with someone. Above all, conduct yourself in a professional manner."

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.

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.

Original article: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7228460.stm

To me this seems like a very bad move. This system gives sellers no protection from problem buyers... and knowing eBay's management, they won't deal with problem buyers appropriately. I estimate that there will be an increased amount of non-payers as well as additional stress on the sellers themselves.

[donecweb]

Rachel, I miss read your post and thought it was stopping all negative feedback about sellers. Now I see it is about sellers leaving negative feedback about their customers. I see no problem with that at all. They should be allowed to place a non-negative feedback explaining a customers complaint.

[Queen Bee]

I see no problem with that at all. They should be allowed to place a non-negative feedback explaining a customers complaint.

They have that in place specifically on the seller's feedback page itself. But the new rules no longer allow sellers to leave negative feedback on buyer's pages. Wouldn't that prevent other sellers from being warned about a problem buyer, or am I mistaken?

[Menard]

This would seem like a one-way street in favor of the buyers. I have argued on forums and in an article I wrote that too many sellers on eBay have adopted a hostage feedback system; they'll leave feedback after the buyer leaves feedback to discourage negative feedback for fear that the seller will retaliate if the buyer leaves negative feedback. This scews the entire system as buyers aren't being honest in their feedback for fear of retaliation and has created an odd percentage system where a seller with a 95% approval rating could be considered a poor seller.

Not allowing the seller to leave negative feedback, if it is warranted, messes up the whole system, IMO. The seller loses part of the incentive that the buyer has to complete a transaction, and it will affect how sellers in general conduct their business with buyers as that guideline will be amiss. Buyers who have been with eBay for years wll be getting the shaft as they have maintained their ratings by completing transactions; now any buyer could feasibly maintain a perfect score, all the time skipping out on paying a seller if they so choose.

I have never been one to take sides with sellers on eBay as they have more than enough advantages over buyers and many of them are very poor business people with unfairly high ratings. That said, this move screws both sellers and buyers, and even if it only affected sellers, I would think it unfair and another of eBay's plainly stupid moves like what they tried several years ago with only allowing the buy-it-now option if you provided them with your credit card number or paid them a fee. The buy-it-now fiasco did not last long, and I suspect they will get even more flak over this seller feedback and end up doing an about-face on it as well.

[Andy]

I never really liked eBay. I have only been a seller and always felt on edge about what kind of person had bought my goods. Luckily they turned out to be good buyers and didn't mess me around. I also gave them good service I think.

As a seller, you don't want to deal with any awkward customers since they waste too much of your time. I think this is a good move. Sellers should act professionally so the majority of their buyers will leave positive comments.
 
Professional retailers don't waste time with bad buyers, they either call the police, refuse to do business with them again or promptly provide a no questions asked refund on return of goods.

eBay will likely ban people that get complained about too often.

[Queen Bee]

eBay will likely ban people that get complained about too often.

This is my main worry. As an eBay seller for 4 years, I found that eBay never took care of anything they claimed they would. Complaints about buyers were easily dismissed. As an eBay buyer, I lost over $600 on ripoff sellers that both eBay and Paypal did nothing to reconcile.

Only if they are determined to start resolving issues between buyers and sellers will this new system work. We will have to wait and see. Personally, I'm happy not to use their services anymore. Although Amazon.com tends to be higher cost, I find their system much more reliable.

[SensoVision]

Maybe if feedback system would be completely anonymous and you wouldn't know who leave feedback, reviews would be less biased and sellers and buyers would tell what they really think.
Personally I live frank reviews but till now I got luck and get what I've paid for so never had any need to leave negative feedback.