Ebay feedback – getting to be so touchy now??

[KimberlyRose]

Interesting about Ebay’s new policies. I guess I can kind of see it from their POV even though it’s a pain to sellers. They want to keep up their quality product and have to be the best they can be to do that. It sure does make me not ever want to sell anything on Ebay though with all these rules and regulations, heh.

It's why we decided against selling some things on eBay, to tell you the truth.

[stargazer]

Interesting about Ebay’s new policies. I guess I can kind of see it from their POV even though it’s a pain to sellers. They want to keep up their quality product and have to be the best they can be to do that. It sure does make me not ever want to sell anything on Ebay though with all these rules and regulations, heh.

It's why we decided against selling some things on eBay, to tell you the truth.

Same here.  I have some stuff I do actually want to sell, but am leary about going back to Ebay even though I sold on there before with a perfect 100% rating.  Now, who knows?

[Miss Unleaded]

It's an absolutely idiotic policy and has made me quit using Ebay altogether.

Ditto.

I don't see any threat or sensitivity in the message, for previously stated reasons.

[Lisbeth]

I would not give a feedback if it was less than 5-star and "going to affect bonuses/performance ratings."  I think that insisting that everyone give 5 stars defeats the purpose of feedback.

[VorFemme]

In the last six months, I have either given a five star rating or a negative.  The item wasn't here at the 45 days after shipping point after I had asked repeatedly where it was (coming to USA from China - but something ordered a week later from a different seller was in my mailbox in two weeks).  I was promised this, that, and the other - but an item ordered the first few days in October finally showed up in mid-December (after I'd gone past the date to get my $ back through PayPal AND left a negative).

When it finally got here, it was not exactly as shown (beaded earrings - clear spacer beads were larger than shown - there is a difference between 1/8 the size of the colored beads and 1/4 the size of the colored beads).  I ended up wrapping them for a gift exchange at Red Hats and the lady who got them liked them (red beads, even if not hat shaped).  But I just didn't like the way that they looked when they showed up and the experience had left me with an off taste, as it were.

If I can figure out how to get back in, I will add that they did show up.........finally.  But I haven't been able to get back in to add a bit more information - might have to see if the seller responded and I can respond to their response (sounds complicated).

[Twik]

I would not give a feedback if it was less than 5-star and "going to affect bonuses/performance ratings."  I think that insisting that everyone give 5 stars defeats the purpose of feedback.

It depends on why you're giving it. The purpose of feedback on sites like Amazon and eBay is to tell other buyers if the seller is reputable. Five stars is the standard for "everything went smoothly". It's not feedback intended to tell sellers "I got what I wanted in a timely manner, but you didn't do anything extraordinary, so I'm leaving off a star, to encourage you to make your good service even better next time."

[Scritzy]

It's not just eBay that's doing this type of "feedback". When I bought a new car earlier this year, the salesman repeatedly asked me if there was anything he could do to make my experience better. Just before I drove off the lot, he told me that I might be getting a survey from the car company. He told me that even one rating less than a 5 on any part of the survey would affect his job performance reviews.

Things have changed a lot since my last job, then. Our department's overall reviews for training were so high that Big Boss told us he had to cut them because "nobody's THAT perfect!"

[Hanna]

One person that had that on their invoice majorly scammed me.
I never left the feedback because I was trying to resolve the issue and before it was resolved my ability to leave feedback expired.

[bonzombiekitty]

Buyers CAN’T receive negative feedback, is that what I understood you to say? What is the reasoning for that? Doesn’t seem right that there would then be no consequences for a buyer who does something wrong to the seller

I think the reasoning was along the line of "Too many sellers are using bad feedback as a threat/revenge against buyers that had legitimate problems, and it's driving away buyers.  We can't come up with a good enough system that prevents this sort of situation from happening, and the buyers are more important to keep happy than the sellers, so we'll keep sellers from being able to punish buyers".

[elephantschild]

It's not just eBay that's doing this type of "feedback". When I bought a new car earlier this year, the salesman repeatedly asked me if there was anything he could do to make my experience better. Just before I drove off the lot, he told me that I might be getting a survey from the car company. He told me that even one rating less than a 5 on any part of the survey would affect his job performance reviews.

This happened to us too!  The guy at the local dealership where we bought a car actually told us (quietly, and outside) that if a single survey comes back without a perfect rating, he gets fired. (Because "there's plenty of people lined up to do this job in this economy.")

Same thing if a survey doesn't get returned. 

Could he have been dishonest about it? Maybe. I didn't get that vibe from him. Because he did do a good job, we made sure he got his perfect rating. It turned me off the dealership for the future, though. I don't want to encourage that kind of thing.

[sparksals]

Buyers CAN’T receive negative feedback, is that what I understood you to say? What is the reasoning for that? Doesn’t seem right that there would then be no consequences for a buyer who does something wrong to the seller

I think the reasoning was along the line of "Too many sellers are using bad feedback as a threat/revenge against buyers that had legitimate problems, and it's driving away buyers.  We can't come up with a good enough system that prevents this sort of situation from happening, and the buyers are more important to keep happy than the sellers, so we'll keep sellers from being able to punish buyers".

Not only that, sellers would retaliate with negative feedback on the buyer if the buyer negged them, even for a legit reason that was the seller's fault.  Also, many sellers refused to leave feedback for buyers until the buyer left feedback for them. 

The combo of retaliatory and forced feedback is one of the reasons for the change.  I don't think the answer is what Ebay did.  They needed something in the middle. 

[TootsNYC]

I thought the change in the "no feedback left about buyers" was because there were too many sellers who would retaliate if their buyer had the audacity to question them or if the buyer left negative feedback (even if it was deserved).

And since buyers usually do FAR less volume, the buyers were feeling that their own ratings were more at risk, and it would hurt their chances to buy. And they just in general felt less safe.

And it meant that buyers were less likely to leave deserved negative feedback, so the entire ratings system lost some credibility.

It's probably still not perfect, but that's why I thought it was changed


I personally think Ebay should go to a three-star system instead of a 5-star.
3 stars = no problems (minor delays OK), safe to order from
2 stars = some problems, all resolved eventually, but safe to order from
1 star = lots of problems, or problems resolved but not that satisfactorily, might be OK to order from, maybe
0 stars = not safe to order from

[kingsrings]

Okay, I’m confused. Can the seller leave ANY feedback about me or not? Because it’s been nearly two weeks since I received my item, I left feedback (100% positive) for her, but I haven’t received any from her yet. Is that because she can’t? But if that’s the case, then it creates the conundrum of sellers possibly not wanting to sell to me because I don’t have their required amount, score, or dates of feedback. What a mess!

[TaylorMade]

Okay, I’m confused. Can the seller leave ANY feedback about me or not? Because it’s been nearly two weeks since I received my item, I left feedback (100% positive) for her, but I haven’t received any from her yet. Is that because she can’t? But if that’s the case, then it creates the conundrum of sellers possibly not wanting to sell to me because I don’t have their required amount, score, or dates of feedback. What a mess!

KR ~ Sellers can only leave positive feedback for buyers.

But... Feedback is voluntary, it is not required to leave feedback on eBay and not everyone does.  Some sellers leave feedback in 'chunks'.. Like once a month they go in and leave feedback for their buyers.

I think my favorite eBay phrase (when people get really wrapped up in feedback is:)

For Buyers:  You are buying an item, not feedback
For Sellers:  You are selling an item, not feedback

Sometimes sellers (and buyers) get so caught up in Feedback they forget the original intent was a monetary transaction for a product!

[kingsrings]

Thanks for the clarification. Unfortunately it's easy to get caught up in the feedback drama when people make it so important to the transaction.