Wednesday, February 6th 2008

EBay to Ban Negative/Neutral User Feedback

Most of you surely know how trading on eBay works: the buyer buys something the seller is selling, and they both leave each other feedback based on their experience. If one of them stiffed the other, the feedback will reflect that, providing a nice layer of protection. However, eBay is planning on relinquishing that protection. It would seem as though some pesky buyers abused the system, and left negative feedback where none was necessary. Now, to prevent future problems, eBay is planning on eliminating the negative and neutral feedback altogether. In a quest to be politically correct and universally pleasing, eBay has taken up the mentality "if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all". This has left both buyers and sellers in a uproar, claiming that there is very little protection if a sale fails to come through.
Source: Neowin.net
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43 Comments on EBay to Ban Negative/Neutral User Feedback

#2
Ravenas
And the funny thing about is eBay is how they are always saying the do things that their user base wants.

eBay :nutkick: user base
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#3
WarEagleAU
Bird of Prey
so sad that a few bad apples spoils the whole bunch. You cant get rid of negative feedback unless you plan on shelling out millions when things go horribly wrong.
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#4
MopeyMartian
Horrible idea! I hope this doesn't become the new trend for all online vendors. Imagine sites like Amazon and Newegg without user ratings. :shadedshu
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#5
DaMulta
My stars went supernova
You no what's funny. If you gave someone bad feedback now, they can fight it and get it removed. All of the bigger users already know this.

I think it's BS>
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#6
a111087
lol, where is logic behind this?
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#7
Ravenas
MopeyMartianHorrible idea! I hope this doesn't become the new trend for all online vendors. Imagine sites like Amazon and Newegg without user ratings. :shadedshu
Newegg and Amazon reviews are about the products they sell... The bad thing about this is that the reviews on ebays are about the USERS. Users can really screw you over on ebay.
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#8
3991vhtes
Well, how would someone know that <user> ripped another user off?! They wouldn't, allowing the people that screw people to screw more. That's a terrible idea, and I hope it fails.
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#9
AphexDreamer
a111087lol, where is logic behind this?
Its no Logic.... ITS eBAY SCIENCE!!
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#10
panchoman
Sold my stars!
YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Finally! now i can pull all my scams on ebay and not got get any negative feedback :D :toast:!




(sarcasm)
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#11
Hawk1
Heatware and the like may have an opportunity here. If ebay will not list negative/neutral feedback, these other parties may fill the void.
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#12
Shizelbs
I'm in the middle of getting stiffed by a buyer. I plan on leaving 'positive feedback' but making fun of him for being too stupid and lazy to figure out how to get a money order off to me.
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#13
Steevo
RavenasNewegg and Amazon reviews are about the products they sell... The bad thing about this is that the reviews on ebays are about the USERS. Users can really screw you over on ebay.
Except anyone including those who didn't buy the product can give a review based on what the feel, and that might just have been a bad feeling of gas, not that the card is bad from the pictures you saw.
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#14
Ravenas
SteevoExcept anyone including those who didn't buy the product can give a review based on what the feel, and that might just have been a bad feeling of gas, not that the card is bad from the pictures you saw.
Yes but it still concerns the PRODUCT not the USER'S past history of scams ect ect...This is a horrible idea, because I block all users if they have more than 2 negative feedback. Why do I do that? Because you'll have scammers bidding on your items and winning them. Like when I sold my Xbox 360 on ebay, it sold 4 times to scammers. Luckly they kept refunding me my money, but that's just rediculous. So now I got rid of the problem simply because of the negative review database.
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#15
candle_86
3991vhtesWell, how would someone know that <user> ripped another user off?! They wouldn't, allowing the people that screw people to screw more. That's a terrible idea, and I hope it fails.
because there is a fail safe in the system that users also know, if you get ripped off, report bad seller to ebay, they take it from his paypal or credit card, if he is broke they pay you and put it on his credit score. Ive done this a few times, and if the seller does this to much, bam banned from ebay.
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#16
ChillyMyst
DaMultaYou no what's funny. If you gave someone bad feedback now, they can fight it and get it removed. All of the bigger users already know this.

I think it's BS>
my buddy had to fight a bad feedback for not sending something when it turned out the guys wife accepted it and sold it, the guy gave him a bad feedback, dispite the item having been signed for on delivery.........so i think its good to have a recorse of acction for situations where somebody is just being malitious :)
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#17
jothy
i think this is a horrible idea... one more reason not to use ebay for me
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#18
Pinchy
Sometimes feedback can be a pain, eg, I send a NEW graphics card to someone in three thick layers of bubble wrap and an extra padded bag (if you literally pegged it across the room, it wouldnt do anything) and the guy claimed that when he got it, the heatsink was off and there was theramal paste everywhere.

I dont know what it is (I reckon he dropped it or tried to play around with it) but I had to suffer a negative feedback for it :p.


Anywho, getting rid of the negative feedback will probably lead to a lot of less profits for ebay, because new/inexperienced users will just not trust the site anymore.
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#19
OrbitzXT
RavenasNewegg and Amazon reviews are about the products they sell... The bad thing about this is that the reviews on ebays are about the USERS. Users can really screw you over on ebay.
Thats not true, I began shopping on NewEgg because of the user reviews, and ultimately stayed with them because of their customer service. I found them to be very helpful but of course always took things with a grain of salt. Without the user reviews and comfortable website, I don't see the difference between NewEgg and other online vendors.
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#20
hat
Enthusiast
horrible move. HORRIBLE. for self-explanitory reasons.

gg ebay, you just artillery striked your own base and destroyed your commander assets in the process :roll:
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#21
turtile
They aren't eliminating negative feedback. Only buyers can leave feedback which pretty much screws the sellers since they can not find bad buyers (those who don't pay or give negative feedback for no reason)
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#22
qamulek
feedback has been FTL for awhile already

Back when I still ordered stuff on ebay all the sellers wouldn't leave positive feedback for me until I left them positive feedback even though I payed by paypal within minutes of the auction closing. WTF more am I to do as a buyer then pay promptly to get my positive feedback? Nothing. They held my positive feedback hostage until they got their positive feedback. After awhile I became so disgusted with this system I stopped giving feedback unless the seller left feedback for me first. I found it a bit funny to get what looked like automated/scripted emails from sellers asking me to leave them feedback when they still didn't leave me feedback. I would like to see ebay scold sellers that don't leave feedback to the buyers before the buyers leave feedback to the sellers. I have stopped buying from ebay for awhile now though, and this no negative feedback means I certainly won't be buying from ebay again any time soon.

edit: Fore real? Only eliminating feedback from the seller?? That is a bid stupid IMO as I agree with turtile it makes it a bit hard to decide who is a good or longtime ebay buyer versus the new people which might be abusing ebay to scam the buyers.
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#23
a111087
qamulekBack when I still ordered stuff on ebay all the sellers wouldn't leave positive feedback for me until I left them positive feedback even though I payed by paypal within minutes of the auction closing. WTF more am I to do as a buyer then pay promptly to get my positive feedback? Nothing. They held my positive feedback hostage until they got their positive feedback. After awhile I became so disgusted with this system I stopped giving feedback unless the seller left feedback for me first. I found it a bit funny to get what looked like automated/scripted emails from sellers asking me to leave them feedback when they still didn't leave me feedback. I would like to see ebay scold sellers that don't leave feedback to the buyers before the buyers leave feedback to the sellers. I have stopped buying from ebay for awhile now though, and this no negative feedback means I certainly won't be buying from ebay again any time soon.
lol, they are doing the same to you, everyone just waist for their feedback :roll:
just leave the feedback and they will leave feedback for you
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#24
Pinchy
qamulekBack when I still ordered stuff on ebay all the sellers wouldn't leave positive feedback for me until I left them positive feedback even though I payed by paypal within minutes of the auction closing. WTF more am I to do as a buyer then pay promptly to get my positive feedback? Nothing. They held my positive feedback hostage until they got their positive feedback. After awhile I became so disgusted with this system I stopped giving feedback unless the seller left feedback for me first. I found it a bit funny to get what looked like automated/scripted emails from sellers asking me to leave them feedback when they still didn't leave me feedback. I would like to see ebay scold sellers that don't leave feedback to the buyers before the buyers leave feedback to the sellers. I have stopped buying from ebay for awhile now though, and this no negative feedback means I certainly won't be buying from ebay again any time soon.

edit: Fore real? Only eliminating feedback from the seller?? That is a bid stupid IMO as I agree with turtile it makes it a bit hard to decide who is a good or longtime ebay buyer versus the new people which might be abusing ebay to scam the buyers.
I disagree here. Being a seller myself, I understand why this logic wouldnt work, and why I personally leave feedback once it has been left for me (after selling).

The reason I (and probably what most other sellers do it) leave feedback after, is because if you dont, you give the buyer too much power. Sure, they have done their job and paid for their product...but if they get the product a day late (due to postage delay?) or find a minor problem that won't even affect the item, they can leave a negative feedback and the seller cant do anything. If the seller hasnt left them a positive, then the buyer leaves a negative, the buyer will know they are getting one in return - so they will probably just leave a neutral or badly commented positive, which is a lot fairer IMHO.

Another thing with this is if the item is DOA, and the seller refunds the price...some buyers still leave a negative feedback, especially when the seller has already left his positive.

And yeah, there are a lot of power sellers who have an automated feedback system :p.
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#25
Morgoth
Fueled by Sapphire
i never buy anny thing out side my own country
tip ask them for there adress so you can pick it up
day later say you have other plans and you make over the money and he schips it
if he doest you can visit him and break his finger :D
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