Nemo1985 wrote on 2024-03-01, 06:09:
That would be right if the seller could leave a negative feedback to the buyer, which can't since I'm registered on ebay (back to 2018), so wrong at least for how ebay works in Europe (I don't know if in US is different).
Exactly my point, Forbes did an article on this before Ebay changed their fb system:
"You'll see that the vast majority of sellers have 99+% positive ratings. If you were grading on a curve, a 98% would probably be equivalent to a "C" on a report card--and it's relatively hard to find buyers with this rating. Below 97%? Forget it. No one's going to buy from you.
There are some who point to the consistently high ratings as a sign the system is working. After all, so this line of argument goes, all the bad sellers are simply weeded out. They get bad ratings, they can't sell, they withdraw their sorry little wares from eBay. End of story.
But there's another, less positive explanation: People are afraid of what is referred to in the eBay community as "retaliatory feedback." That's when a seller (or a buyer--it can happen on both sides) becomes annoyed or enraged at a negative comment posted by someone else about them, and in retaliation posts a negative comment in return. The system obviously has no way of determining for sure the motivations of the various people posting. It therefore happens--and happens quite a lot, according to some estimates--that an innocent person's reputation suffers. And on eBay, reputation is everything, and it results in very specific financial rewards or punishments.
It is this ominous threat of retaliatory feedback that causes everyone to be so very, very nice on eBay, according to some. Rather than risk a negative comment on their own account, many members would rather say nothing than too much. And the way eBay is currently set up, you have no way of knowing the percentage of the total transactions a particular buyer or seller has participated in that has resulted in their existing rating. Yes, you know how many people rated him or her, but you don't know how many people refrained from providing any feedback at all."
And the new system was implemented not long after. People could argue that it put too much power in the hands of buyers but it also put a stop to the retaliatory feedback problem and forced sellers to up their game and take better care of their customers. The same thing happened when Google allowed users to leave business reviews, it forced shops to make sure their buyers were actually satisfied and the quality of service got much better as a result. Sure, some people are gaming the system but the benefits far outweigh the risks because most buyers are honest and just want a quick, easy transaction.