eBay to ban Sellers from leaving negative about Buyers

[ewxlt]

i try and stay away from ebay just because its so unreliable. the whole thing needs an overhaul imo.

In almost 200 transactions, that has not been my experience. I've had 3 auctions that were bad.

2 non-paying buyers and 1 buyer who was blind apparently.

I sold a surfboard for a friend (a girl). Spray painted in huge pink block letters on the board was the word "Princess." I did not describe that in the text since the picture was good enough.

He bought it for his son, then picked it up and said, "What? I don't want it, you didn't tell me."

I refused to budge, so 5 years later, that is still my 1 negative feedback, and it was his fault.

All in all, a positive experience for me.

 

[riscy]

Why on earth would they want to ban Peter Sellers from leaving negative comments - I thought he was dead!

 

[dsnort]

Why on earth would they want to ban Peter Sellers from leaving negative comments - I thought he was dead!

I make some pretty bad puns, but even i have limits!

 

[riscy]

Sorry dsnort - had to be done. It was the capital S in the title threw me

No offence to Peter Sellers (RIP) intended, I love all his movies and think he was a comic genius.

 

[Consultant]

I would sign up for a Google type auction service in a heartbeat. I also hate PayPal so it's even more reason for me

checkout.google.com

Unfortunately no google auction YET. I won't be surprised if they are working on one.

 

[solvs]

One of the many reasons I dread selling on eBay, even with a perfect record. The previous system was awful, but so is the new one they want to implement. I've had good luck here. Someone drops out of a sale, no big deal, I just don't mark it as sold until I'm sure it is. I don't sell that often anyway. I've been using Craigslist for big stuff. So far so good with that. But I'm very careful about how I sell and to who (or whom, whichever... please don't bother correcting that).

 

[IJ Reilly]

checkout.google.com

Unfortunately no google auction YET. I won't be surprised if they are working on one.

Maybe they should perfect some of their other projects before they move onto yet another. We really don't need yet another half-baked Google service.

 

[mrat93]

I think this sucks. I sell Wiis on ebay and I actually enjoy arguing through feedback with people who commit to buying my item, then say "Sorry my husband just found one for less, so I'm not paying." This sucks...

 

[Mac OS X Ocelot]

I don't use eBay because I have a lack of faith in humanity (see: viruses, spam, spyware, pyramid schemes, ripoff artists, and identity thieves) and I have a strong distrust of the eBay and PayPal company.

 

[katejones]

I recently bought a dvd and never recieved it. The seller said if I deposited more money they would send another (I said no im not giving them anymore money i'll just make a paypal claim) they finally said they would send another for no charge and have effectively delayed me past the point I can make a claim and still no dvd. Im still scared if I give them negative feedback they will wreck my 100% positive rating.

I think the whole feedback system needs an overhaul. Some of the things other posters suggested sound fair.

 

[afd]

I think the simplest change to make would be to make the seller leave feedback first. Once payment has been made that's the buyer completed his part of the transaction and the seller should leave feedback on this. Too many sellers hold back on feedback untill they have been feedback and basically blackmail the buyers into leaving positive feedback.
Put a time limit on leaving feedback after payment or they get bad feedback automatically.
To protect sellers from non paying buyers, buyers could be prevented from leaving feedback until they have paid.
My only negative feedback was a tit for tat feedback that I left for a firewire ipod cable that turned out to be windows only. After trying to contact seller with no success I left negative feedback and got the same back automatically.

 

[AndyR]

I think Google could do it, based on the brand name alone - plus the fact they developed their own payment system - but I don't know what they're waiting for...

I wouldn't trust Google as there GoogleCheckout system is crap! I brought an item from someone a while ago and paid through GoogleCheckout. They never shipped the item so after a few chase email the seller refused to acknowledge me and said I never ordered from them. I sent the GC receipt and he said its rubbish and ignored me after that.

I reported it to Google for a refund and was told, if the seller won't refund you thats not our problem, sort it out with your card issuer!! I tried this and they just kept refering it to Google. Spins and roundabouts.

Spent 4 months trying to sort it and eventually found the persons address by doing a lookup on his domain name. Drove up there, knocked on the door and it was some spotty little 16 year old. Gave him some abuse and when his parents came out I told them what had happened and showed them the emails and they have give such a belt round the head

All this for £10 but was so worth it in the end

 

[Abstract]

All this for £10 but was so worth it in the end

It's so funny, because if I was really rich, I think I'd spend £100 just to get back my £10. It would teach people not to mess with others. Otherwise, I'd be letting someone go for robbing me.

But for now, as a student, I'm not really in a position to do so, and so I guess I'll continue to take it up the...

 

[AndyR]

It's so funny, because if I was really rich, I think I'd spend £100 just to get back my £10. It would teach people not to mess with others. Otherwise, I'd be letting someone go for robbing me.

But for now, as a student, I'm not really in a position to do so, and so I guess I'll continue to take it up the...

Same reason I kept going with it, out of principle.

Oh yeah, his parents gave me the £10 back! Muwahahaha!

 

[mashoutposse]

Here's a solution: If you pay (buyer) or ship (seller) within 7 days, you are automatically protected from negative feedback. Within the 7 days, the worst feedback you can receive is a neutral. Buyers only qualify when using Paypal; sellers when shipping through an online trackable service (FedEx, UPS).

eBay would not have to keep track of the payments and shipping until negative feedback is left. Submitting proof of payment or shipping will automatically get the negative revised to a neutral with a note attached (similar to the note attached currently to withdrawn feedback).

 

[::Lisa::]

I think it's a great idea for those people that leave buyers negatives in spite because they received a neg to poor sellers.

However, what about non-paying bidders? There are a LOT of them. I left a buyer a neg a couple of months ago. They checked out and I never heard from them ever again. I kept emailing them for a whole month before finally leaving the neg.

So we won't be able to neg these non-payers? Or will we if we go through the non-paying bidder 'dispute console' then be allowed to leave negs? Which they will be allowed to give the seller back in spite anyway

 

[Consultant]

I wouldn't trust Google as there GoogleCheckout system is crap! I brought an item from someone a while ago and paid through GoogleCheckout. They never shipped the item so after a few chase email the seller refused to acknowledge me and said I never ordered from them. I sent the GC receipt and he said its rubbish and ignored me after that.

I reported it to Google for a refund and was told, if the seller won't refund you thats not our problem, sort it out with your card issuer!! I tried this and they just kept refering it to Google.

Seems like that would have happened no matter what form of payment method you used, due to the fact that seller isn't going to send you anything anyway.

In the US, Credit Card companies are the ones to talk to.

 

[Mac OS X Ocelot]

I think it's a great idea for those people that leave buyers negatives in spite because they received a neg to poor sellers.

However, what about non-paying bidders? There are a LOT of them. I left a buyer a neg a couple of months ago. They checked out and I never heard from them ever again. I kept emailing them for a whole month before finally leaving the neg.

So we won't be able to neg these non-payers? Or will we if we go through the non-paying bidder 'dispute console' then be allowed to leave negs? Which they will be allowed to give the seller back in spite anyway

Sounds like the solution would be a way to confirm that a buyer was a non-payer or otherwise bad buyer so that only then can a seller give them a negative (neutral or positive still allowed otherwise) and the buyer then cannot give negative feedback to the seller. In other words, being a deadbeat negates your privilege to give feedback. The same can be done for sellers that don't hold up to their end of the bargain or are late in doing so. However, I doubt eBay wants to pay for the moderators it would take to investigate all the claims.

 

[tjcampbell]

They should have two ratings, one as the "seller" and one as the "buyer". This way, users can see if they are buying from a good "seller" or selling to a good "buyer"

Spot on.

 

[notjustjay]

I recently bought a dvd and never recieved it.

And I had a bidder on a DVD who never sent money, even though he kept claiming he did. He said it was a money order, too (those things are like cash, once gone, the money's gone) and refused to send a second one. Funny how he would ignore all my emails until I threatened to escalate it and then the email would be answered within hours. Finally I gave up and sent him the darned DVD. I sent him an email essentially saying "I know you're trying to scam me, you never sent any money and you never will, but you know what, you're not worth my time chasing, so if scamming someone out of a $5 DVD makes you happy, then here, keep the DVD."

Then there was the time I won an auction on an old PowerBook and happily mailed the guy a cheque. The letter bounced: "no such address". Huh? I asked him to confirm the address, sent it again, and got it back again. "No such address". By this time the seller was getting upset with me for not paying, and I was having a hard time convincing him that he was giving me a bad address! Ultimately we parted ways amicably without completing the sale.

 

[Music_Producer]

Read the Friggin posts!

Spot on.

For the last bloody time, I posted earlier that you CAN see separate feedbacks - feedback as a seller, and feedback as a buyer. Yet, people here keep suggesting that ebay should have this facility - duh, they do. Just use your darn eyes before suggesting stuff, and READ the posts here at least!

Here's a snapshot, click on it:



Do you see the "Feedback as seller" and "Feedback as a buyer"? Does everyone see it? Good.

 

[jaw04005]

For the last bloody time, I posted earlier that you CAN see separate feedbacks - feedback as a seller, and feedback as a buyer. Yet, people here keep suggesting that ebay should have this facility - duh, they do. Just use your darn eyes before suggesting stuff, and READ the posts here at least!

There's a difference between sorting feedback into categories and having two separate feedback "scores." I think what some in the thread are suggesting is that eBay have two, completely separate feedback "scores"—one as a buyer and one as a seller.

So we won't be able to neg these non-payers? Or will we if we go through the non-paying bidder 'dispute console' then be allowed to leave negs? Which they will be allowed to give the seller back in spite anyway

From what I understand is eBay will just make it easier for us (as sellers) to get our final value fee back, and they will receive a non-paying bidder strike. Three strikes and their account is suspended.

We won't have to wait out the 7 days or whatever to receive a fee credit.

Of course, this is ridiculous because buyers can just create a new account. But eBay isn't concerned about protecting sellers—it's concerned about enticing new buyers to join the site.

 

[macEfan]

As a seller this upsets me! What if they buyer never pays? What he if pays 2 weeks late? What if he is totally rude and leave you a negative feedback because he "feels" he paid too much?

I think this is a bad move on ebay's part....

eBay needs to refine their feedback system so both parties can be treated fairly...

 

[nplima]

feedback is overrated

Guys, what exactly is your problem with buying or selling from someone who does not have 100% feedback? it's not like you don't know that there are morons out there...

"oh I sold a gizmo 3 years ago, the guy thought it was dark pink when in fact the photo showed it was bordeaux, now I have 1 negative point!" cry me a river.

If you're serious into buying and selling, you will know that there are transactions that go bad for pretty random (or petty) reasons - not just on ebay. Don't hold your breath waiting for eBay to devise a perfect scheme, just read the old transaction details to find out if the negative feedback was reasonable or just nitpicking.
If these disputes bother you so much that 55 characters on eBays form aren't enough, add a link on your listings to your own website and publish all the details about how you gave/received negative feedback. Then see if anyone cares.

 

[Eraserhead]

The problem is sellers with very high feedback ratings, if they offer bad service they can screw up your rating a lot more so most people don't leave negative feedback.

All they need to do is to and a "david and goliath" feature against sellers with high feedback.