First post, by Kreshna Aryaguna Nurzaman
- Rank
- l33t
For fellow Vogons ebayers, here's the news.
Online auction site eBay has said it plans to overhaul its feedback system and will ban sellers from leaving negative comments a […]
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.
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.
So whaddya think? While it sounds unfair to allow only buyers to leave negative feedback, thus leaving sellers unprotected, as an ebay buyer myself I have to admit that the current feedback system makes buyer reluctant to leave honest (albeit negative) feedback, out of fear of negative retaliatory feedback. In fact, there were times when I, as buyer, left positive feedback for bad sellers, simply because I want to keep my own record perfectly clean. At least the new feedback system will keep shady sellers from downgrading buyer's ratings for pedantic bullshit reasons.
Furthermore, in a system where "buyer pays first" instead of "seller ships first", it is reasonable that the buyers should get bigger protection.
Things being said, there should be a way to protect sellers from buyer that just want to "test the water"; if a buyer makes a US $1000 bid on your auction and win, then tells you to go fuck yourself (or your mother) when you ask for payment, then the system should prevent such cases. Thus, I completely agree if the system penalizes non-paying bidder.
Thoughts? Opinions?
Never thought this thread would be that long, but now, for something different.....
Kreshna Aryaguna Nurzaman.
