Don’t want to upset little Billy’s self esteem now, do we?
Guess EBay didn’t want to face the lawsuits from buyers for defamation. Lawyers strike again.
It really is a problem, though. I had a bizarre and unpleasant experience with one seller of pretty high ticket and unique antique item — cancelled my first bid leaving an apparently menu-selected reason that “item is no longer available for sale”, though he was continuing to accept other bids, did not reply to a request for an explanation, had an obvious shill bidder who I decided not to try to out bid, sent me a “Second Chance Offer” one day after the auction closed saying the “winner is unable to complete the transaction”, and did a dangerously poor job of packing this very fragile antique.
His overall behavior was such that I was quite confident he’d leave retaliatory negative feedback (marring my 100% positive rating) if I left honest feedback on him, so I gave him a “positive” and just hinted in the text of my feedback that he was less than stellar. I’m nearly certain he got suspended from selling for 2 months as a result of the complaints I sent to eBay, and yet I felt I had no choice but to give him a “positive” rating.
Not a matter of esteem but reputation.
Here’s a recent event:
Ordered a used router. From the picture it looked next to new, complete with box.
Paid promptly using paypal.
Item did not ship for 20 days.
Seller did not provide tracking info or respond to inquiries.
Item arrived in an unsuitable container.
Item arrived dinged, scratched and filthy, complete with a drinking glass ring on it.
So when the buyer gets treated like this and then gives deserved negative feedback about the seller, why should the seller be able to retaliate and leave underved negative remarks?
Many people won’t do business with ebayers that have more than a couple negatives, so yes, those remarks could hurt more than your feelings.