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.
Your point about the blackmail aspect of seller feedback on buyers is appreciated and I adjust my previous position.
I think there should be a means to leave feedback about buyers but perhaps it has to be restricted to POST-official complaint to Ebay (regarding scamming, non-payment, etc.)
In any case, I recently won a jersey on EBay and PayPal still had my old account as the default and I told the buyer this and that I would look into how that resolves and still pay him from my open account. I did so and when I had not received the item, he said I had cancelled the payment and to pay him the money.
He and I went through several messages where I had to explain it to him. Because PayPal/Ebay want you to document your communications, I initiated a dispute on PayPal and he refunded my money after sending me a late email saying he would send the item.
All he had to do was send the stupid item. I feel like, in my bones, the person either had too many sales to understand that he WAS paid from the same guy with the cancelled payment OR he thought he could scam me out of some extra cash by playing stupid.
Well, I’m out the jersey but I got refunded.
I didn’t leave him any feedback with an implicit understanding that he wouldn’t leave me any. Consider it a misunderstanding and move on, since no one took a financial loss.