EBay Feedback Changes
New Feedback Changes on EBay Unfair to Sellers
eBay's website states the feedback changes being made are
*Beginning in February, buyers and sellers will be able to earn up to one Feedback per week from the same trading partner. Today, members may only affect each other's Feedback scores one time, regardless of the number of transactions between the parties. This change will both encourage repeat transactions and reward good service.
*Sellers will no longer be able to leave negative or neutral Feedback for buyers. This change will occur in May, 2008.
*Removal of negative and neutral Feedback left by members who are suspended or who fail to respond to the Unpaid Item Process (UPI).
*Positive Feedback percentage will be based on the past 12 months of Feedback, rather than lifetime, since it is most indicative of the seller's recent performance.
Restrictions on when Feedback can be left:
*Buyers must wait three days before leaving negative or neutral Feedback
*Instead of 90 days, members will be able to leave Feedback for 60 days
So this means that buyers can leave you negative feedback but you can't leave them negative feedback. I think this is bogus. Sometimes buyers leave sellers feedback that is completely unjustified. eBay's reasoning for these changes is to make the grading system more fair, that customers often didn't leave bad feedback because they were afraid of retaliatory feedback but what about the buyers leaving retaliatory feedback? Sure, it's great to make it easy for the buyers but what about the sellers? They are just as important and this change stinks. Now if they got rid of negative or neutral all across the board for both sellers and buyers, that would be more fair. But only allowing the buyers to rate negatively could cause future problems for eBay sellers.
I've been a seller on eBay since 1997 and have over 1700 feedback with a percentage rating of 99.9 so I feel that I can speak from experience when I say, that a buyer paying for their item is no reason to leave feedback right away. Sellers should wait until the buyer has received the item. Why? Because if there is a problem, the buyer needs to give the seller the chance to rectify the problem. Things happen. An item can be lost in the mail, get broke on the journey to the buyer, or heaven forbid even send the wrong item to the buyer. If the seller does everything in their power to fix whatever is wrong, then they may not deserve a negative rating that is left for them.
Another thing I've seen on eBay is buyers leaving negative feedback because "an item took to long to get to them." Now sure, on eBay you have bad sellers mixed in with the good. Some sellers don't ship right away but some do. I had a book that I sent media mail to New York a couple of years ago. It was stated clearly in my description that media mail takes 4 to 21 business days and if you need a book faster to chose priority mail. After the person ordered, I sent it out media the next day. Around 2 1/2 weeks later I received negative feedback because "the book took to long to arrive, I needed it for a class and it came to late." I checked the delivery date (I always use tracking and with these changes, I recommend that you do too) and it was at the end of the timeframe for media mail. So I was blamed that a book took the normal time via media mail. For sellers that have had similar experiences, there is no way to protect themselves against this unjust feedback.
eBay is increasing the blocked bidder list from 1,000 to 5,000. I don't see how this is helpful. Even for the big time sellers, 5,000 sounds like a lot. So sellers can block 5,000 buyers but can't stick up for themselves if negative is left. I agree that negative feedback has been abused by some sellers AND buyers, but this change is not the answer.
The only good change that I see is that you'll be able to earn one unique feedback a week from repeat buyers. So if you have someone who buys from you more then once (but not in the same week), their feedback will count as a unique feedback as opposed to now, where it doesn't count beyond the first.
This is all slated to take place in Feb & May 2008.
The feedback changes comes hand in hand with the announced change regarding eBay lowering listing fees, which is also a joke because they're jacking up the final value fee in auction, fixed price and store inventory listings.
eBay, how about listening to the sellers for once?
Published by Shannon Wilson
Shannon Wilson lives in California. She enjoys spending time with her family and in her spare time, she works on her novel and various articles for AC. She is a hands on parent, president of her children's s... View profile
- A Seller's Take on Ebay's Fee and Feedback Changes - Part Two - and How to Use Eba...After Ebay changed its fee structure, I wrote an article. My history with Ebay goes back many years. Here is an update and more info
- How to Give Negative EBay Feedback Without RetaliationWhen one gives negative feedback on Ebay, the other party will almost certainly give you negative feedback in return as payback. This article describes how to give negative feedback yet avoid the payback feedback.
- Massive Changes Anger EBay Users WorldwideStarting this month, eBay made changes to their feedback and payment policies. The fallout from these changes may render eBay a "has been."
5 Mistakes New Buyers Make on EBayI've been a member of eBay for many years and I often see new buyers making the same mistakes over and over again. These mistakes can cause new buyers to lose money and hurt the...- How to Get 100% Positive Feedback on EtsyIf you're going to sell on Etsy, you'll need to have 100% positive feedback like other shops. There are secrets to gaining this, but they're not really secret -- unless you don't consider courtesy at the top of your...
- Why Should You Even Give EBAY Feedback Ratings Anymore?
- New eBay Feedback Rules Will Hurt Sellers
- eBay Buyers: When to Leave Neutral and Negative Feedback
- Will Negative Feedback Really Affect Your eBay Business?
- Ebay Feedback
- EBay - New Feedback Rules Mean Fees Will Rocket
- Ebay Buyer Feedback: What's with the Wait?
- Sellers will no longer be able to leave negative feedback
- Sellers AND buyers make the marketplace. eBay needs to make it more fair for sellers too.
22 Comments
Post a CommentNo I don't find that odd. I don't believe that a seller who was blackmailing buyers to get good feedback would have 100% feedback because there would probably be at least one person who wouldn't fall for their blackmail threat. I think most sellers are not like that. I have bought off eBay many times and not once was I blackmailed.
I think the feedback change is a good thing. There are sellers selling useless wholesale lists and they have 100% feedback, isn't suspicious to anyone? The only thing a seller should care about is if he gets paid or not.
Most buyers are honest and they pay so it's all good. Few don't pay and very very very few are scammers. In those cases, you can always report to eBay. You can blacklist them. You should automatically blacklist buyers with 0 feedback in the first place. If the buyer is really bad, you can even submit their ID's to www.rottenbidders.com - a site where sellers share their bidder blacklists.
An alternative recommended site is elfingo.com for online auctions. They are the new ebay. Many smaller sites like this offer buyers far better deals than ebay ever could. Buyser also save a ton because this site charges little or nothing depending on the day. One more reaso I like elfingo.com is because they don't take a part of the sale at all. No commissions or final value fees. A+++ http://www.elfingo.com
This provides great, detailed information. I have read other comments that generally there is a bad feeling about ebay changes. I don't use them, so I wasn't aware of the impact of the announced changes. No wonder folks are upset!
eBay fee changes are an increase for me. I resent the news stories that are promoting the fee changes as decreases. Did eBay write those stories themselves?
As for the feedback changes, they are the death knell for eBay as far as this 10 year veteran is concerned. I am one of the small old timer sellers who specializes in the cool, unique, collectible, hard to find stuff, and I will be out of here in short order.
I've been hearing more and more reports of buyers leaving neutral or negative feedbacks for sellers or threatening to do so. Same people are shocked when the feedback they leave is reciprocated by the seller. Apparently many people think the feedback policy change is already in effect and don't realize it won't be until May. Then they threaten to report the seller to eBay because "seller's aren't allowed to leave neutrals or negatives anymore".
2/3's of my activity is as a buyer. I have never withheld feedback from a seller after I got the goods and was pleased wi
Shannon, I think your article is exceptional... Unfortunately, Ebay does not care about the little guy... These changes were made with only Ebay's ceo's pockets in mind... It will cause item prices to increase and wonderful honest sellers to leave... They want to cater to the larger and more money making producers... The lie of saving people money on listing fees was the most outrageous ever... They actually get you bigger in the end... It is not profitable anymore to sell on this venue for the average person who is trying to make a few extra bucks on the side... The one's who will survive are the major sellers who make mega bucks for Ebay and they will soon be the only sellers left on there except for the unsuspecting newbie... So sad...
Ebay also just announced that there will be no more listings for under 1.00... The sellers will have to go through their stores and re-list their items at a higher price...
I see a total collapse to this Ebay... They are a company that is driven by greed...
They have changed the feedback policy so that the buyer is the only one who can leave a negative comment to the seller... This gives the buyer the edge and gives him the ammunition they need to hold over a sellers head to get them to reduce shipping charges, or say they receive an item they don't care for and want a refund, they can request that the seller refund and if they refuse, then leave negative feedback...
When a sellers feedback score goes down (as Ebay is counting on) then the sellers FEES GO UP!! This will encourage all kinds of crooks to bid and then not pay, with no recourse what so ever for the Seller...
The fees were already too high from the hike they added last year, but this whole new system takes the cake.
Nice job on the article. I hope these changes benefit the little guy. Well have to wait and see. :-)
But to lend some balance to this, I wanted to add that 99% of all the people I dealt with were wonderful and Ebay taught me that most people there were good and paid quickly. Still, there were unscrupulous buyers and what protection is there for sellers when it comes to a feedback record? I would not sell to buyers who had terrible feedback. That was allowed, to block buyers with high negatives. Now we won't know who is a bad risk anymore! Those buyers used to just give up and go away but now they won't have to, will they? Maybe I'm missing some key point here.
Eric -
I once sold a rare book on Ebay and the buyer had bought something like 50 similar books and not paid a single seller! Only by networking with other sellers were we able to do anything about it and give her negative feedback. I understand that sellers have a responsibility but she threatened me with a negative feedback if I reported her. I still did. Now she'd be able to simply leave a negative. How fair is that for a seller? Sorry to be so emotional but I worked so hard and my kids hauled boxes of items to the post office with me and it just seems unfair to take any feedback rights away from sellers.