[Axelsrd]

.... an increasing practice where sellers who had received a bad rating would retaliate by posting a poor rating on the buyer.

That's exactly right. The only thing a seller should leave negative feedback for is non payment. If a seller recieves payment within the time stated, there should be no option other then a positive rating. On the other hand, the buyer has more options for a negative rating such as didn't recieve item, damaged item, item not as described...etc. I agree 100% with the new policy.

[Melinda]

Unfortunately, this doesn’t let sellers warn other sellers about buyers who scam the system as I described earlier, a method that is becoming more popular for thieves.

[South40]

The only thing a seller should leave negative feedback for is non payment.

Almost. Some buyers can be wrong in what they expected from the sale due many times to their error is reading the listing. But for the most part you are right. I hate it when I pay immediately for a purchase but have to wait until I leave a positive feedback for the seller before I get the positive feedback I've already earned. It's tantamount to extortion.

[kansascdr]

I use ebay a lot. I sell and buy so I know it from both sides. I recently sold an item and jumped the gun by leaving the buyer positive feedback. Much to my chagrin he then complained and wanted to return the item saying it was not as described. I’m no dummy. I knew exactly what was going on. It had cost more to ship the item than what was paid and the buyer wanted to hold me up for a refund thinking I would refund his money and tell him to keep the item. I refused. He left negative feedback. Not allowing seller the option of leaving negative feedback is a really stupid idea on ebays part. If the sellers cannot police the bad buyers then they will eventually become fed up with Ebay and shift to another venue.