eBay Will No Longer Allow Negative Buyer Feedback

Thu Jan 31, 2008 11:39AM EST

See Comments (48)

2008 is bringing some interesting times for eBay. Its CEO Meg Whitman, one of Silicon Valley's most long-lived and controversy-free CEOs, is stepping down in March. Rumors of a big acquisition are flying. And now, some changes are in store for people who actually use the site to buy and sell stuff.

The big news: Come May 2008, sellers will no longer be able to leave negative or neutral feedback for buyers. eBay's rationale is that it will encourage buyers to leave more honest feedback for sellers. Negative feedback from buyers is rare because of the fear of reprisal from a seller leaving negative feedback against you out of spite.

And while this should remove the fear of leaving negative feedback against crooked sellers, longtime eBay merchants are already upset with the change, as it takes away their lone mechanism for fighting buyer fraud in the auction process. Just about every seller (including myself) has faced a buyer who refused to pay, or who just didn't understand how auctions worked, and once in a while I've hit these buyers with negative feedback. 

I can understand where eBay is coming from: Protecting buyers is critical in an auction system. But could this move backfire? eBay has historically placed more and more restrictions on its sellers over the years. Could this be the straw that breaks the camel's back? (I'm not sure it is, if for no other reason than that auction sellers really have nowhere else to go.) 

Other changes are also in the works, including the removal of all negative/neutral feedback left by suspended members, switching the time you can leave feedback from 90 to 60 days, and additional ability for repeat buyers to leave more feedback for sellers. (Today, your feedback for a seller counts only one time, ever.)

Hear the seller anger by listening in here! That's a lot of ranting!

LINK: Upcoming Changes to Feedback 

Comments on eBay Will No Longer Allow Negative Buyer Feedback

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  • 26 Posted by darthdvd on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:37PM EDT Report Abuse

    I can see from the comments supporting these new changes that many people have never sold on ebay. Until you deal with some of these low feedback, non paying, fraudulent buyers you wouldnt understand why the ability for sellers to leave feedback is so important. Ending seller feedback is going to cause a frenzy of irresponsible bidding and further seller headache. A fraudelent buyer need only register a new account once their old one is finally suspended for non payment months later. This is just another step ebay is taking to curb sellers rights. I will continue to divert more of my selling to craigslist and online classifieds. I may not get as much for the items, but after ebay and paypal both take their chunk the difference is quite small.

  • 27 Posted by rapmetal47 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 8:29PM EDT Report Abuse

    This is really stupid. How the heck are we going to know if the buyer/seller is a scam or lying about the product? If we can't se the negative reviews, how are we going to buy with conbfidence? This is really sad, just to spare a few goddarn people's stupid feelings. To heck with them!!!

  • 28 Posted by martin.bakner on Thu Sep 3, 2009 7:09PM EDT Report Abuse

    I've always expected that the seller should leave feedback first... since he receives his money (and should by any definition be satisfied) before delivering the item to the buyer. Besides, why would a seller not be happy if he got his money? As a buyer, I have withheld feedback until receiving a positive from a seller, but never gave a negative in retaliation. If the seller chose not to leave feedback, I did the same. When I was the seller, I left feedback as soon as payment was received... and always positive... since I got what I wanted.

  • 29 Posted by patd265 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 8:01PM EDT Report Abuse

    The problem is not the non-paying buyer. Those are easy to deal with. 99% of my non-paying buyers have 0 feedback. They wander in, purchase, don't pay and never come back. Yes, there are many other buying platforms. The problem is with the many nut-cases on eBay. Buyers and sellers who are just loony, have no life and just love the negative feedback thing. I have over 20 thousand transaction, almost 10 thousand positives and 10 negatives...all from crazy nuts or people trying to extord the seller. eBay is missing the boat on this. If negative is a bad thing then take negative away for both sides. The good old 'if you have nothing positive to say..don't say anything at all'. Buyers could still rate shipping etc. Cyclebitz

  • 30 Posted by commorancy on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:28PM EDT Report Abuse

    eBay is chock full of scam sellers as it is now. Without having negative feedback, you'll never find out who the scammers are and end up falling into their trap. I don't see the benefit to the consumers in this equation. The only thing this does is help the sellers (and specifically, the scam artists). So, yes, this will hurt eBay overall because this move only caters to the sellers, not the buyers. So the buyers leave. Unfortunately, no buyers, no sellers. Bye bye eBay.

  • 31 Posted by nunomm1 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 7:42PM EDT Report Abuse

    I'm a seller who also doesn't leave feedback until feedback is left for me. I don't do this for retaliation purposes, I do it so buyers actually live up to their end of the bargain and leave me the positive feedback I deserve. In a perfect world, all buyers would leave feedback on every transaction, but they don't. I've actually kept a spreadsheet over the last 9 months, and of the 581 items I have sold, I've only rec'd feedback on 487. That means there have been 94 transactions that I never got feedback on, one way or another. How annoying is that? Actually, those numbers are a little skewed, because starting in August of last year is when I changed my philosophy to waiting to leave feedback. I sent a note to all of the winners of my auctions, and most of them loved it. One of them said that I should start including that wording in my auctions, and now I do. Every auction I put up, I have a whole paragraph explaining that I leave feedback after the buyer receives their item and leaves feedback for me. And I haven't got 1 complaint about it. Why eBay is deciding to change the whole feedback process the way that they are is a little baffling. My suggestion for a change? With the added fees that all sellers now have to pay, eBay should have more than enough money to pay people to be 3rd Party Feedback Arbitrators. Once a buyer or a seller indicates they want to post a negative feedback, the arbitrator should be sent a note and should look into the incident and see if the negative feedback is warranted or not. He or She should hear from both the buyer and seller, try to explain what happened, and see if the negative feedback should truly be posted. This way, a buyer can't leave a negative feedback for something small like, "It took 4 days to receive my item after I paid" when they live on the East Coast and they bought something from a seller on the West Coast, or for something like, "Buyer leaves negative feedback for no reason". That's not a reason to leave a negative feedback, either. If there was an arbitrator to look at these cases, there would be no fear on a buyer's mind or a seller's mind about leaving feedback first.

  • 32 Posted by texasguy9087 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 10:01PM EDT Report Abuse

    As a seller, I leave feed back as soon as they payment is clear and legitimate. The last several purchases I have made on ebay, I have never received feedback as a buyer until I left the seller feed back about the product. I can see ebays reason for doing this. Too many sellers are waiting to see what type of feedback they receive about there shipping/product, and basing the feedback their buyer on that. In my mind, a seller should receive feed back when payment is received and cleared, because that is when the buyer held up to their end of the deal.

  • 33 Posted by borax_lil on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:11PM EDT Report Abuse

    I am a frequent buyer and seller on E-bay. My rating is 100% positive. And I welcome this change! Too many times, I have been held hostage by some seller who doesn't provide feedback on me until they see my positive feedback on them. In fact, I'm going through this forced-positive-feedback-for the-seller extortion right now. I purchased a small cell phone accessory on January 23. I purposely chose a seller that was close geographically (maybe 80 miles away). I paid with PayPal immediately. And the seller didn't ship it for 8 days. Packing the item involved dropping it in small padded envelope. I received it on February 4. I've gotten to the point that if I'm annoyed by something like shipping time, I don't provide any feedback at all. Which defeats the purpose of seller feedback altogether. Thanks for the change, E-Bay!

  • 34 Posted by suzeis on Thu Sep 3, 2009 9:50PM EDT Report Abuse

    As a seller on eBay for many years, I know this to be arrant nonsense. We have had negatives left against us from buyers who never paid, a guy who left a negative on the wrong item, you name, we have seen it. All we get from eBay is 'learn to live with it', which is quite wrong when one's reputation is at stake.

  • 35 Posted by rwhayes1229 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 8:57PM EDT Report Abuse

    so everything is just sweet and nice and kind?i don't think thats the way it is at least in real life. another good reason NOT to shop at E-Bay.

  • 36 Posted by kanyapeampoonpon on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:46PM EDT Report Abuse

    After reading the various comments, I am more concerned that ever that seller’s will not be in a position to leave neutral or negative feedback for the buyer. It is quite obvious from the comments made that there are some very vindictive people out there who can’t wait for the new rules to take place. SELLERS’S PLEASE TAKE NOTE OF THE FOLLOWING: Now there is a website where you can leave neutral or negative feedback for those buyer’s who warrant it. WWW.VOX-POPULI-ONLINE.COM is a site where you can list your feedback about the buyer. It’s a very clean looking site, easy to navigate and it is a free service. So stop worrying about buyer’s holding you to ransom and take a look. We are currently looking for moderators who would like and help and monitor the site to keep it fresh and to stop abuse. If you are interested, login and contact us through the contact us link.

  • 37 Posted by thenut4u on Thu Sep 3, 2009 10:04PM EDT Report Abuse

    In 1998 I signed on with Ebay so I could bid and buy Office 97. I ended up winning the bid and mailed the seller a M.O.( We didn't put bank acct or credit card info on line back then)Two weeks went by nothing came, i sent the seller an email he sends me an email saying he mailed it, so I wait another week, nothing came.I emailed the seller again. He ignores my emails. So I leave a negative feedback saying it's been 24 days since i mailed payment to him.It was his first negative feedback he had a few neutrals complaining about shipping time. He retaliated with leaving me a negative but I was able to cancel it out by leaving myself a positive.Unfortunately it was the only way to get his attention cuz ebay was NO HELP. He claimed he had mailed it and sent me a refund too but I never received anything but his check.That seller ended up getting booted off ebay because people started complaining more about shipping times. I bought the item from another seller. I have been buyer and seller on ebay. I have had several bad experiences with sellers over the years who either send nothing or they misrepresented the item as working. For a very long time Ebay was on the sellers side but with paypal and the times things have changed.Many Never leave feedback. I do understand where a seller is coming from with dead beat buyers who never pay (or they claim they never received the item but tracking numbers fixed that) and they have the gall to leave feedback for a transaction they never completed. It's a catch 22. We need a balance because it is based on trust.Before I bid on ebay I read the whole ad and check all the negative and neutral feedback and sometimes the positive too cuz people do tell the truth about their experience. A little over a year ago I got another negative from a seller because I refused to pay sales tax on Shipping and Handling (which was outrageously high already) in my state,they did not list that on their Ad and it was the principal of the matter with me I didn't care if ebay kicked me off.I wasn't going to pay more for something that I did not know ahead of time (that seller has it in their ad now). So now I have 2 negatives in ten years. Whoo Hoo ! I will not be intimidated, my money spends any where i want it to.

  • 38 Posted by dt2000ta on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:49PM EDT Report Abuse

    I sell and buy on eBay. Other than non-payment or very slow payment what else is there to give a buyer bad feedback for? I support eBay in doing stopping sellers from leaving negative fedback for any other reason. I have had bad sellers and am always afraid to be honest and leave bad feedback. I know sellers who mess up, are just lazy or cheaters leave bad feedback in retaliation. I am more apt to stop using eBay as a buyer and welcome this move by eBay. Dirtbag sellers beware!

  • 39 Posted by joyceanne3 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:41PM EDT Report Abuse

    I agree with mwbudd. I will only buy from a sellar with a high rating. I learned that lesson the hard way.I ordered my son a game for his birthday,Almost a year ago and guess what we are still waiting. Ebay don't know what to do. So I'm out $45 and all i got to do was give a negative feedback. If this person does this alot now without the negative feed back he'll make alot of money!!!

  • 40 Posted by gaugemogul on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:06PM EDT Report Abuse

    I am a buyer only on ebay, and have shopped the world, France Belgem ,Great Briton . Negative feed back has it's place , It has the power to change the world ! Ebay has done a great job of mis derecting your anger over the feedback issue as they slip in the back door with a 2% hike in fees, 10% is outrages with the volume they do. ( 16 million listings last week ) I know who pays in the end, the buyer. BOYCOTT EBAY..... I will for 30 days ( well mabey )it's hard to get millions of people pointed in the same direction. We have the power Just do it.

  • 41 Posted by wrk0650 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 10:51PM EDT Report Abuse

    Recently, I made my very first-ever 2 purchases on ebay. Both failed to arrive quickly, even though I paid immediately. Seller #1 told me two different times he'd mailed the item. When it finally arrived after 3+ weeks, it was postmarked well after the last time he'd told me it was mailed (so he lied about having mailed it earlier). I'd initiated a PayPal dispute, but dropped it when the item finally arrived. Seller #2's item never did arrive. Turns out he'd misaddressed it. That resulted in a PayPal dispute, which I finally won after much acrimony. Both sellers dinged me with negative feedback, #1 claiming that I dinged him even though the item arrived (true, but it was because the item was late & because he lied). #2 dinged me, claiming that I'd kept the item and then demanded reimbursement from him (a monumental lie, since he'd simply misaddressed the item). Bottom line: My very first experience with ebay was a disaster--all because of retributive seller feedback. I now have a rating of -2 and therefore cannot bid on anything substantial. So, take this for what it's worth--but mine was a situation that leaves me no alternative but to close my ebay account and buy elsewhere--all because of retributive seller feedback.

  • 42 Posted by ofhisclay on Thu Sep 3, 2009 7:43PM EDT Report Abuse

    Ebay complained that sellers left negatives in retaliation. That is because every seller I know does NOT leave a negative when they SHOULD. We swallow the negatives. But if the unreliable buyer has the audacity or nerve to leave a very undeserved negative on top of not paying, or 'deciding' not to purchase AFTER the purchase is made, then leaves a negative, then the seller finally gives in and leaves a negative. This negative for the buyer was deserved in the first place, but often avoided. So, the poor seller now will have no way to warn other sellers of the negative attributes of a given buyer. This truly is not equitable and makes no sense what-so-ever. It is VERY sad.

  • 43 Posted by ironslynn on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:25PM EDT Report Abuse

    Feedback should be forced to be left for the buyer after the buyer has paid for the item. Sellers use the f/b system as a reliation for not having f/b left for them. That is not the way the system is to be used. Ebay should force the seller to leave feedback wen they are mailing the package and printing the shipping label. I have just about given up on Ebay. With their high fees and frustrating processes, it's easier for me to donate to charity now than to try to make a dollar selling something. I used to go to Ebay first for any purchase I was making, but I am tired of the criminals getting away with theft and making me look like the bad guy.

  • 44 Posted by wantfulthings on Thu Sep 3, 2009 10:40PM EDT Report Abuse

    I am a long time ebay seller (11 years) and more times than not, before a buyer tries to solve an issue (usually an issue THEY create) they will start sending nasty emails and leave negative feedback for the seller. Once a negative is left when an issue can be resolved, I no longer care to make things better myself. I am an honest hard working seller so these types of buyers are a nuisance. This new policy will now allow bidders to come out of the woodwork and mess with seller auctions, with no recourse for the seller. And the whole having to use paypal is a joke as well. They make paypal a fee based system, then make us use it. Why not give the seller the option to choose whoi pays the PP fees, the buyer or the seller? If the buyer doesn't want to pay the fees, then DON'T BID or pay another way.

  • 45 Posted by rzcharania on Thu Sep 3, 2009 8:57PM EDT Report Abuse

    So now buyers can go around bidding then ask for free shipping, goods etc or threaten to leave negative feedback??

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