Ebay Neg feedback to change

[Stu]

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

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7228460.stm
Makes sense to me, why would a seller need to neg a buyer? other than retaliation

Yeah I read this in the paper. Not sure it's the wisest move in terms of complete customer satisfaction, more like a case of a quicker/cheaper move for eBay.

Sure it'll cut out the practice of sellers threatening to leave buyers negative feedback if they post something unpleasant, or want to claim their money back, and that's a good thing. But it's bound to make legitimate sellers fall foul of crappy customers.

Seems like they didn't want to hurt the bottom line by increasing their investigation staff to deal with disputes. I predict they'll end up with a new raft of problems now.

Originally Posted by Stu

why would a seller need to neg a buyer? other than retaliation

Because although it is a community where buyers can help each other in vetting a seller, it doesn't seem unreasonable for sellers to do the same for each other in cases where a buyer maybe doesn't pay/delays payment/complains without good reason/denies receipt of the item/generally plays any sort of silly buggers.

There are plenty out there who do this sort of thing. A thread on here only recently with an .orger complaining about crappy buyers changing their minds and other .orgers chipped in with similar stories.

I can kinda see both sides - as I play both sides of the fence with eBay...

... that said, as someone who pretty much makes their living through eBay - I'm not too fussed about the end result, but am a little annoyed about it actually happening.

Y'see, I for one have never had to leave negative feedback for a customer - in fact as soon as I post out an order I leave feedback at the time. the customer has completed their part of the transaction, I've been paid, their goods are on the way and that's that. I see no reason to wait until they have left feedback for me first...
... OK, this has resulted in a few customers who then haven't bothered to leave me any feedback at all in return - but to be honest, such a occurance is minor and I didn't really notice the loss.

However, eBay are also changing the pricing structure for certain sellers and applying discount should you achieve certain targets. One of which is maintaining an average of 4.6 on the detailed feedback your customers can leave.
This detailed feedback is optional (as is leaving feedback anyway, but this is an optional extra) so sellers are potentially going to start noticing and being penalised if their customers don't leave any.

So, whilst the leaving of negative feedback is not a 'tool' I personally employ to encourage/persuade/blackmail* (*delete as you see fit) I am annoyed at the removing of a equal option from me as a seller.
It's perhaps the principle of the thing to me more than the thing itself.


Does anyone actually get what the hell I'm burbling on about?!


Depending on the thresholds for seller's discounted fees, I may start to add a little comment in my 'Your order has been posted' messages - just to let customers know the effect feedback can now have on a volume seller.

[Stu]

Originally Posted by MeridiaNx

Because although it is a community where buyers can help each other in vetting a seller, it doesn't seem unreasonable for sellers to do the same for each other in cases where a buyer maybe doesn't pay/delays payment/complains without good reason/denies receipt of the item/generally plays any sort of silly buggers.

There are plenty out there who do this sort of thing. A thread on here only recently with an .orger complaining about crappy buyers changing their minds and other .orgers chipped in with similar stories.

But Sellers can't really choose their buyers based on feedback. Yes OK they can set minimum standards as to strikes, & countries & number of feedback but one neg feedback to an established ebayer is going to stop him from buing again but it could hurt their selling potential. So where is the justification for that from a seller especially?

Originally Posted by K

as I play both sides of the fence...

*snigger* ...

Originally Posted by K

Does anyone actually get what the hell I'm burbling on about?!

Dragging my mind from the puerile gutter, yes I do. Especially since I hadn't heard about the incentive to maintain an average of feedback! That seems stupid, they're dangling the carrot for you but give you no way to reach it other than hoping that customer's will bother to reward your good service.

They seem to be hurting legit. sellers with schemes to prevent dodgy dealers.

[Stu]

Originally Posted by K

Does anyone actually get what the hell I'm burbling on about?!

Yes, & thanks for answering as I know you sell.
Do you send email reminders to ask for feedback?
I quite often forget to leave feedback until I get one of these. Because I generally like to wait as long as possible in case the item breaks etc.

I usually don't take offence at a reminder as long as the sale went well.

As I believe you generally have very happy customers I think a little explanation of the financial affects good detailed feedback would mean to you I would think it could only help you. The whole world loves doing ebay out of their fees!

Originally Posted by Stu

But Sellers can't really choose their buyers based on feedback. Yes OK they can set minimum standards as to strikes, & countries & number of feedback but one neg feedback to an established ebayer is going to stop him from buing again but it could hurt their selling potential. So where is the justification for that from a seller especially?

No, I agree with you that most sellers probably don't refuse to serve many buyers. But I thought I had already given the justification, in that it serves as a guide to other sellers and it prevents them from falling foul of serially crap customers. That's the important part, serially, not one off. Why would no record of the 'performance' of a buyer be a positive step forward?

Anyway, the feedback can be sorted for buying or selling. Therefore it is easy to distinguish between the two. I can't see that a negative feedback a seller got when buying something would 'hurt' their performance unduly. In fact, surely that is even one more reason to have feedback for both types of transaction. Would you want to buy from a seller who routinely got negative feedback in their capacity as a buyer? I know I wouldn't without further investigation.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, in 5 transactions where we were the sellers, we had 3 problems with the buyers:

one claiming they were sent counterfeit goods (not true),
one sabotaged sale (£1000 for a mobile phone? I don't think so)
one saying goods not received (we had proof of posting and they were signed for at the other end, oddly by someone with the same name as the buyer....)

I've also twice had issues with prospective buyers trying to get me to end the auction. Both were told to put in a bid or bu99er off.

Would you sell to any of those people if you knew their buying history?

Originally Posted by Stu

Yes, & thanks for answering as I know you sell.
Do you send email reminders to ask for feedback?
I quite often forget to leave feedback until I get one of these. Because I generally like to wait as long as possible in case the item breaks etc.

I usually don't take offence at a reminder as long as the sale went well.

I don't at the moment, but may start to go through a system of checking the last item showing that I've sold in the past 30 days and sending a reminder if any show up.

The incentives aren't something that your average eBayer is likely to be aware of - unless they read each and every announcement that eBay kicks out - which if it's titled/targetted at sellers and they only buy - why should they.
To be honest, if your average seller is unlikely to take much notice as the minimum threshold is to be a Bronze Powerseller. You get no discount for just that, they are then based on your feedback average.