EBay abandons negative comments about buyers (Sellers will no longer be able to leave neg. feedback)

The Times (U.K.) ^ | February 6, 2008 | Suzy Jagger and Jonathan Richards

[4yearlurker]

What’s your seller ID? I want to block you.

[Tanniker Smith]

So I’ll leave “Postitive feedback”: You suck. I wish I could still give Negative Feedback!!!!!!! F- F- F- F-

[Tanniker Smith]

I have to agree with you. I stopped buying stuff on eBay because the shipping was ridiculous. I bought in the old days when people package and mailed things themselves at the Post Office. Now they just use UPS and charge high fees for everything.

I remember the days of shipping books to someone second class to save on the postage. (His choice, he took the risk.)

I have literally seen auctions for things worth about a dollar (regardless of the bid price) that had have shipping costs of 8 bucks or more. Just silly.

The impulse buys have disappeared for me entirely.

[Stoat]

Now buyers can ding me and I have no recourse.

Hopefully the ability for sellers to at least comment about a specific feedback will be retained.  This will allow thoughtful and savvy buyers to make a determination as to whether the negative feedback is valid or not.

I've been a heavy eBay buyer for a number of years and have learned to factor all of this in to my buying decisions.  If a seller has slightly less than 100% positive rating but with thousands of transactions, I view that as 100% anyway because I know that there are a certain number of idiots and hairballs out there.....these are likely the same ones who keep the Mods and the Viking Kitties busy with their Zot thunderbolts here on Free Republic   :-)

If a seller has less than a 100% positive rating but with only a few transactions, I'll take a look at the feedback and see what it was all about.  Usually it's a matter of a newbie whose expectations were unrealistic.  In my experience the number of feedbacks that I've seen where the buyer appears to have been treated fraudulently are very few, but they are there.

Ebay has been getting more and more expensive for sellers and less useful.

This has been a common complaint that I've heard from sellers whom I've dealt with for a long time and have developed friendships with off eBay.  Many refuse to accept Paypal and are moving to Amazon.  There's a lot of unhappiness out there, and it appears that eBay is instituting this new policy in order to make the site appear more welcoming to buyers, perhaps at the cost of alienating many sellers.  From the posted article:

..........will block sellers from posting any negative or neutral comments about buyers who purchase their goods to coax more of them on to the site.

*****************************************

 I will probably wrap up my selling by June and just quit for a while.

Since they are beginning this new policy in May, it seems that you will have an opportunity to see how it's implemented before you call it quits.  Hopefully some sort of recourse will be left to sellers, particularly since that's where eBay's profits come from.

[Osage Orange]

I know why sellers charge more for S & H.

I do the same thing.....It's because FeeBay charges the listing fee based on the selling price...and the Final Value Fee based on the selling price. NOT the S & H....BUT, if you are paid by PayPal..( Which is owned by FeeBay..) I pay a fee based on the total.

IMO, the whole thing for Feebay is to try and recoup some of those lost fees.

I've seen people list something for .99 cents...with $25 S & H. And it was a GREAT BUY. Why would anyone...not find out what the seller is charging for S & H. No different than all the T.V. ads selling "TIMELIFE" albums...for .99 cents...but costs you $16.99 in S & H.

I had a guy complain once...that it cost $3 to ship...but I charged $7.99. I asked him...if the TOTAL price was cheaper than he could buy it anywhere? He said yeah, it was a great deal. I then asked him..if I was straight up front about my S & H fee's? He said yes...

The whole Feedback deal is just plain wrong....but the increase of 66% in FINAL VALUE FEES is going to hurt buyers in their pocketbooks.

Personally the stuff I sell...is seasonal. I have a few items listed right now...but they all end this coming week-end..and I will not list anything for the rest of the month. I also...will stop accepting PayPal, and just go back to Money Orders and personal checks. I've NEVER had any problem with taking them.

Feebay has made a big mistake....in all the new changes. This article doesn't even begin to detail some of the noxious changes.

I've listed a few things over at Wagglepop.com now. It's been around for awhile...but not much traffic. FeeBay has the name....but maybe it's good that they've forced sellers to look around at their options.

[BaBaStooey]

The only time I was hit with negative feedback, was when I was a buyer, and I gave a seller neutral feedback, because I felt that the cost of the shipping and handling was too high (roughly $5) relative to the long length of time (nearly a month) that it took to ship the item (one CD).

The seller retaliated by hitting me with negative feedback. Their biggest complaint was that I e-mailed them a few times during that long month, trying to follow up to see if I would ever get the item.

If the new rules have anything to do with someone else in my situation no longer experiencing what I experienced, then I support it wholeheartedly.

[Danette]

Amazon:
Sellers on Marketplace can leave feedback for buyers.
Sellers on Seller Central CANNOT leave feedback for buyers.

[CodeToad]

So much for knowing the criminals on eBay.

[Osage Orange]

I think this is a decent idea. As a buyer, I was once HIGHLY unsatisfied with my purchase, and wrote so.

Did you attempt to work it out before giving that negative?

The seller responded by writing a highly negative review of me, then immediately offered to retract it if I would do likewise... in other words, their ability to leave negative comments was used as blackmail.

Yes, that was wrong. But now...the buyer's will have the upper hand...with ZERO fear of getting a negative FB.

The sellers have FAR less risk on eBay, since they do not release the goods until the money has cleared.

That's not true...if you are paid via PayPal. The buyer can get a charge back...very easily. So, the scammer buyer's know this..they order and say they never got it...or it's damaged. They get their money back, and the seller is screwed.

As such, they should not also have the ability to abuse the comments feature simply to retain falsely high ratings.

That's a two-way street. LEt me tell you a story...I sold a guy something...he never paid. I sent e-mails...no response. I filed Feebay's Non-Paying Bidder system on him, because I STILL get charged fees, and can recoop some of them by going thru the process....He replied to it. But never paid me. I decided to leave him a negative, to try and warn others. Guess what? Because he at least posted something..at the NPB site...he left me a neg. So, a guy doesn't pay me....but can still leave ME neg FB. That's crazy. And it's still that way at FeeBay.

Buyers risk getting shafted by inaccurate photos and descriptions, poor shipping, late shipping, etc. The comments feature is really the only tool that they have, and giving sellers equal power there is unnecessary.

Again..it's a two-way street. That just became a ONE-WAY St.

If you aren't a seller....you have no idea the stuff "some" buyer's attempt to do.

[gdani]

Perhaps even worse than not allowing sellers to leave negative feedback is the move to charge 8.75% in Final Value Fees (post-auction $ for Ebay) for items under $25.

Between posting fees, PayPal fees, and Final Value Fees it's really not worthwhile to sell on Ebay anymore.

[Danette]

Aren’t the fees on Amazon higher? Anybody know?

[Osage Orange]

wagglepop.com

[Osage Orange]

ROFLOL!!!!!

[Osage Orange]

Where did you go..with your gun stuff?

[Blennos]

I get this message when trying www.postaroo.com:

Postaroo has shutdown. Thank you for using Postaroo in the past.

[Danette]

I went to wagglepop to check it out. It may be good for sellers, but as a buyer, there’s not a whole lot there. I did a search for various common items and got mostly “0” returns.

[Stoat]

I stopped buying stuff on eBay because the shipping was ridiculous.

Although I agree with what you say about not buying things without careful consideration, I'm wondering if I might be so bold as to suggest a reconsideration of your blanket condemnation of eBay buying due to the shipping costs....there are at least a few reasons for this:

• Many sellers have very low shipping rates.....but if the item is a really good deal, be prepared for highly competitive bidding which will bring your ultimate costs up anyway.
• I have purchased high-ticket items from sellers who have breathtakingly high shipping fees, for the reason that the high shipping costs will scare many buyers away and so the bidding on the item is frequently more sedate.  I've frequently gotten spectacular deals on things with astronomical shipping rates.....but my end cost was far less than I could have hoped to get it anywhere else....all because I was the only one bidding on the item because the shipping cost was so high.
• Judge each seller independently and look at their feedback statements, not just the numbers.  I've found that reputable sellers who charge a bit more for shipping will oftentimes package your item quite a bit better.  Many sellers view their quality of packaging as a point of pride (those sellers are in my "favorite sellers" list) but they view this service as being something of value and so they won't give it away, which I consider reasonable on their part.  If you pay rock-bottom prices for shipping and your item arrives broken, the hassle and expense that you'll go through in order to correct the matter will far outweigh any savings you've garnered on the original shipping fees.  But it's true....there are some unscrupulous sellers out there who will charge an arm and a leg for shipping an inexpensive, unbreakable item via the cheapest and slowest possible route in a flimsy wrapper.

Caveat Emptor.

 

[Osage Orange]

Yes, I know....not much traffic. Needs more sellers...then the buyers will come??? I'm testing it out. Feebay is the monster...no doubt about it.

Gotta start somewhere....

I said somewhere on this thread...it may not work, but one never knows.

[ctdonath2]

The group added that it is rare for buyers to renege on payments.

Rare, maybe, but when someone buys a CAR and doesn't follow thru, something should be said.

Don't ask. Apparently eBay doesn't want me to talk about it.

[Danette]

Ebay has banned Google checkout.