Disturbing Trend with Online Auction Houses

Maybe you're new to online auctions, or maybe you're an old pro. The most popular online auction house is eBay. It's easy to use, and you can usually see if it would be safe to deal with the seller based on their feedback. But can you, really?

I've noticed a rather disturbing trend these days, and it makes it harder to determine whether or not the seller is really on the up-and-up. Do they ship promptly? Are the items as described? Do they respond to inquiries? You would think you should be able to tell based on the feedback they've received if this is the case or not so you can decide if what you're thinking of bidding on is worth trying for. But how much of the feedback is real, and how much of it is fear of retribution?

You find an item you want to bid on. The price is right, the shipping is right, and the seller has good feedback. You place your bid. The auction ends and you've won. Hooray! If you were watching you probably paid within mere moments of the auction's end. If you happened to be asleep because it was the middle of your night when it ended then you probably paid the moment you were up and knew you'd won. Good for you! You've just fulfilled your end of the deal. You were an ideal buyer, and within a few days you should have positive feedback praising you for your prompt payment. Days go by and no feedback is received. You check the auction description one more time, but you don't see anywhere where they say they will only give feedback once it has been received from you. Yes, I have seen auctions that state they will not leave feedback until you do.

Huh?

Sellers now are holding your feedback hostage. They will wait to leave your feedback until you have given them theirs. If you give them bad feedback because they had bad communication, took forever to ship your item, shipped you something other than what was described, or any number of reasons, they'll leave bad feedback for you. If you want to continue being allowed to bid on the items you want, you have to have positive feedback - so you're forced to give them feedback they may not have earned.

This isn't right. eBay and other online auction houses should be putting their feet down on these sellers. The whole point of feedback is to be able to see if the seller, or buyer, is willing and able to fulfill their end of the deal. Did the buyer pay promptly? Did the seller ship within a reasonable time frame? Was the item as described in the auction? Were the buyer and seller open to communication with one another? The point is not to blackmail one another into leaving positive feedback that wasn't earned. How can sellers know if a buyer is going to follow through on their auction if the feedback doesn't reflect appropriately? How can buyers know if the seller is legit if the feedback does not show that they routinely ship wrong items and that it takes weeks to receive the items?

Instead of just being an unenforceable rule, it should be one that could cost you your auction listing(s) and/or account. If you state in your description that you're going to withhold feedback until you've received yours, the auction should be pulled and the fees you paid for it should not be refunded. If you are proven to repeatedly wait to leave feedback for good buyers just in case they decide to complain about your business practices, you should be removed as a seller.

There's no excuse for this childish and shady behavior.