Ebay stopping sellers leaving negative comments!

[menthel]

BBC NEWS | Business | EBay to ban negative seller views

What a bloody shambles!

When I had my trouble with a seller I would have been shafted. I think I will never sell there again.

[MadduckUK]

i cant believe that. what are they trying to do to themselves at the moment?

[crazy]

whats the point of feedback then?

[rastamanblues]

What is the actual point in the feedback system then?!

Who ever thought of this should actually be shot, its one of the worst ideas ive ever heard.

[StevenF]

Buyers can still leave negative feedback, it's just sellers that can't.

Example: I buy something from you. You take ages to delivery item which is faulty. I leave negative feedback.

I buy something from you. I take ages to send payment. You can't leave negative feedback about me.

Still isn't right though.

[shadowmaster]

Originally Posted by rastamanblues

Who ever thought of this should actually be shot, its one of the worst ideas ive ever heard.

Agree

Originally Posted by ebay spokesmen

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.

Very reassuring

[kalniel]

Ebay is broken anyway - they have a 'fend for yourselves' attitude which is fine if you're into that sort of thing but it could have been so much better.

[Optical668]

So basicly they are gonna make the feedback system completely useless then. So like you sell something and the buyer doesnt pay you cant warn other sellers via the feedback system that the buyer may be dogey and more buyers get their auctions ruined.

Are they serously that thick...?

[Zak33]

can't find it on their website though.

[scruffy]

Ebay and Paypal have always been "pro-buyer" in disputes, I've fallen foul of it once or twice with scheming tools on the rip.

With this now, these people will be allowed to move freely without recourse throughout eBay without any prior warning of what kinda people they are to deal with. Ebay themselves are next to useless in dispute resolution, they're slow to react and staff their call centres with morons who just couldn't give a hoot whether you're being ripped off or not.

This coupled with their stealthy rise in seller's fees is going to make eBay like the Amazon marketplace, where it's only really viable to buyers to make purchases from companies IMO.

On the upside, this does leave a burning hole in the market for someone to sail in and setup a rival auction site that encapsulates all the good things eBay has changed in recent years.

Beardy, step up to the plate we could do with your help once you've coughed up for Northern Rock.

[usxhe190]

actually i think this is the case when you deal with a company and customer relationship

hmm i never shop at ebay but how many rogue sellers vs rogue buyers?

[Lucio]

Personally I welcome this, I left a neutral feedback because the item I recieved had unmentioned staining. Seller leaves an outright personal attack as negative feedback which E-Bay refused to remove, and I couldn't buy anything using that account again because everything else I bid on, the seller removes my bid because they think I'm going to cause them trouble!

[explicitlyrics]

Should definitely be a system where both people leave feedback.
Both parties can see if somebody has left feedback.
You cannot see what the feedback is, until both people have left feedback.

If either party wants to resolve this after it has happened then you can click a "resolve this issue" button, sort the problem (hopefully), and then correct/remove both the feedback left earlier.



That is how they should do it.

[Saracen]

Originally Posted by Lucio

Personally I welcome this, I left a neutral feedback because the item I recieved had unmentioned staining. Seller leaves an outright personal attack as negative feedback which E-Bay refused to remove, and I couldn't buy anything using that account again because everything else I bid on, the seller removes my bid because they think I'm going to cause them trouble!

My view exactly.

The current system is daft. I know a lot of people that won't leave negative feedback because few sellers (and I mean big users) leave feedback UNTIL the buyer and done so. And if you leave negative, they do likewise. A few here and there does little damage to their percentages, but it has a MUCH larger impact on buyers with a few, or few dozen, feedbacks.

And most sellers won't despatch goods until they've been paid for anyway. In my opinion, the ONLY thing a buyer is obliged to do, is to pay, and pay within the mandated period using an agreed method. Providing you do that, you should get positive. And if you don't pay, the goods don't get shipped.

Buyers, however, are far more at risk, from goods that don't arrive, or aren't as advertised, or are fake, or are unreasonably late, and so on. Under the current system, a seller's feedback rating really tells buyers very little, because so few will leave negative because it will be retaliated against. About the only thing a seller can object to is if the buyer didn't pay, or didn't pay on time.

This sort of change is long overdue. As are structured selling fees that depend on anonymous customer service ratings. The companies providing better service get direct benefits from reduced costs.

[chrestomanci]

A useful tool I have used a few times is the eBay Negs firefox & IE plug in, and standalone tool:

Negative/Neutral Feedback

Basically you highlight a user ID, and click on the context menu, and the tool goes away and gathers together all the negative & neutral feedback. I would then browse through that looking for common patterns. If a seller 1% negative, and they mostly say that delivery was late or not as described, then I would consider that much more of a warning than 2% negative, but mostly from "Mr Angry" types.

If everyone used tools like that, then then bulk sellers would be much less able to hide behind high 90's positive feedback if there was a problem.

[Saracen]

That looks useful. Will give it a try.