Rant eBay to "ban sellers from leaving negative comments about buyers"

Full story on BBC.

A total joke if you ask me. Discuss.

 

no way, that has to be a joke. It will make selling on ebay a horrible risk, they say the seller can contact ebay if the sale goes wrong but since when did ebay ever side with the seller?

 

There have been a few occasions where I may have given negative feedback to a seller, but didn't because it would just result in getting negative myself.

Not sure an all-out ban on negative feedback is the right solution though, possible something as simply as requiring sellers to leave feedback first would do the trick

 

This is bad.

My solution is that the feedback cannot be viewed until both feedback from both seller and buyer have been left.

 

And no increase in feedback rating for both until they have, that way it forces you to leave the feedback

 

Should make buyer identity invisible in seller feedback instead of banning negative comments.

 

or simply force the seller to leave feedback as soon as payment is received?
it's what i do - as far as i am concerned the transaction is over on my end after i've received payment and sent the item.

 

what Fod said, as soon as I've received payment I leave feedback.

 

^ What they Said ^
They shouldn't stop sellers leaving feedback about buyers, they should make the sellers leave the feedback before they let the buyer have an oppurtunity to leave feedback.
If a seller sells something crap, and get negative feedback because they took a month to post it, or it was not as described, then they leave negative feedback on the buyer, even though the buyer has completed his end of the deal.

 

I just sold my Canon EOS 350D on eBay for £240,-- on the 3rd of February. So why am I doing a Price Check here? Because the buyer has not paid yet, that's why. Nor has he responded to any of my messages. He just bid and vanished, and thus screwed up for several other serious bidders who were committed to buying -- and for me, the seller. I now have to relist and go through the whole song and dance again.

I'd like to reserve the right to leave some feedback about this timewaster. Else what is the point of selling on eBay? And eBay will conclude the same if all their sellers, who are their source of income, walk.

I also think that it is perfectly OK for people to respond to negative feedback left for them. Best get both sides of the story before making any judgements.

 

I've opened this discussion out to the front page!

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2008/02/06/ebay_to_ban_negative_seller_feedback/1

 

This is so stupid! The whole point of negative comments is to inform other people that you weren't happy with the service/goods you recieved. Of course it slows down trade, but surely it would be good to get rid of th real sheisters on there selling dodgy kit at knock down prices.

 

The flip side to this is that ****-stirrers can buy low cost items expect unreasonable service and now not worry about a retaliatory neg. Unreasonable service for me would be expecting next day delivery delivery but paying for first class, not reading the listing and then getting upity when the item is not what they thought it was, seller being let down by the Royal mail (lost in post) etc.

 

im sorry if what i mention, is what ebay does (i dont know, and was to lazy to find out). What trademe does is allows each participate to change there feedback (comment and different smiley face which reflects there number feedback) once, i dont know how succseful this is as ive never needed to change mine. They also allow a response to allow you to explain your side. I know its not perfect but im yet to see anyone complain about it

 

I can definitely see the problem there, having received retaliatory negative feedback (on another platform) before on a transaction that was fine from my side of things (paid instantly). But I don't agree with the solution. How is a seller to know how trustworthy a buyer is if the only feedback others can leave on them is positive?

 

This is why I have almost stopped using ebay - I tend to buy most of my stuff from specialist forums and Yahoo Auctions Japan, At least they are honest.

Seller should leave feedback on payment as the buyers contract is then complete. If they dont pay ebay's NPB system should neg them for you and allow sell to previous winning bidder or re-list quicker than current system.

 

Wow that sucks, my gf just re-sold some jeans (bought them, didn't like them so sold them on for about twice the price she payed) and one of the bidders was a new eBayer who had not paid on two items. She asked the bidder if they were actually going to pay for the item, she received no reply so retracted the bid because it seemed they were a time waster.

If the negative feedback had not been left she would have never known, the buyer wouldn't have paid and she would have had to wait for a week to file a NBP complaint.

I think Fods idea is a great one, force the seller to give feedback before the buyer once payment has been made. If the seller doesn't leave feedback before the buyer does, they lose the opportunity.

 

the thing is noone like being forced into anything

 

This is a big mistake. As a buyer I have never left negative, however as a seller I have chosen to do so twice. Once when the bidder never responded for weeks, I finally left negative and relisted.... found out later that after bidding they had been in an accident and spent 3 months in the hospital! I offered to go through the "remove negative" process with them but again never heard back. In the other case, buyer bid and was top bidder for the last 4 days of the auction, then after winning tells me that he changed his mind, doesn't want to spend this much and isn't going to send me the money. Had to go through the current relist process (a real pain) then left them negative.

The threat of negative feedback is one of the few things that help to keep the participants honest. If this really is implemented I'll disallow any bidders that don't already have a lot of positive feedback or find a different service to sell on.

 

What a stupid idea

Looks like everyone will be tightening up their buyers requirements, good luck buying anything if you have no feedback