eBay sellers to be banned from criticizing buyers
In a move to curtail retaliation by vengeful sellers in its feedback system, eBay plans to prohibit sellers from posting negative feedback about their customers.
Beginning in May, sellers will not be able to leave negative or even neutral comments about their customers, only positive feedback, said spokesman Usher Lieberman.
(Credit: eBay)But Lieberman says some sellers have been abusing the system, retaliating against customers who leave them negative feedback. And that has left many buyers afraid to leave honest comments, or even use the site, period, he says.
"The No. 1 reason buyers cited for decreasing or ceasing their activity on eBay was negative unwarranted retaliatory feedback they received from sellers," Lieberman says. "There has been a four-fold increase in this over the last several years. It's cited as a bigger problem than even not receiving shipment."
Meanwhile, eBay is offering more solutions to protect sellers when customers don't pay.
The move is the latest in a series of changes that involves how search results on the site will be displayed and recently announced fees for listing items.
For the record, I have nothing but good things to say about the person I bought a white embroidered linen shower curtain from last month on eBay.
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- My Mama said...
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by kingsnoofer
February 5, 2008 9:24 PM PST
- I was brought up with many good values. Not the least of which was "If you can't say something nice about someone don't say anything at all." Sage advice. It has got me out of plenty of scrapes. With that in mind I agree with the removal of non-positive feedback. But remove it from both sides. If the establishment fears a rampage of retalliatory comments then they should take the non-positives away from buyers too. Not doing so would give a buyer the power to besmirch the name of a seller without any chance or threat of recompense.
To this end I suggest a kudos system. Instead of a list of positives and negatives. Fore example, My friend has about 50 positives and one negative. A good record. Given the ratio most people would overlook the negative and chalk it up to a bad day or an immature participant. But if we were to see a ratio of the number of completed transactions to the number of kudos, or positives, it would give as well a rounded picture of the seller or buyer. If someone were to be unhappy they could choose to not give kudos and the ratio would drop slightly. If someone felt they were wronged by the lack of comment then they too could simply decline to leave a comment. People with high transaction to kudos ratios would be trusted more often. It is simple and plain. Moreover the transition to this system is done very easily. Ebay has all the data and could just remove the negatives and leave positives vs the number of completed transactions.
On a personal note I could see this method benefiting buyers and sellers alike. If I completed a transaction and received no comment it would compell me to communicate with the other party and discuss what I could do better or even make amends. Either way it's better than a maddening and anticlimatic fight with Ebay to remove an unwarranted comment.
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