This is intended for buyers and, unfortunately, my fellow sellers are already aware of the pitfalls of the new five-star rating system.  First of all, eBay has not made a serious effort to inform buyers as to the true meaning, for the seller, of these ratings.  Anything less than five stars penalizes the seller - simple as that.  Now if a seller has grossly failed in one of the four areas then he deserves to be penalized.  However, apparently that is not always the case.  As an example, I pride myself in charging only the exact postage cost for shipping -0 nothing for packing etc.  And unlike many of my fellow sellers when I print my shipping labels I always also print the postage cost.  Yet, despite this of the four categories on which sellers are rated, that of shipping cost is my lowest score.  I also pride myself in shipping items within one day, usually same day, as payment is made, yet my rating on this, speed of shipping, is just above that of cost of shipping.  What this means is that some buyers are either penalizing me for something other than the actual category or they are neglecting to mark that category in which case eBay scores it at the lowest level.  And now, since sellers cannot leave negative feedback for buyers, and I am not totally opposed to this change, it is even more incumbent on the buyer to leave honest and fair feedback.  I recently had a customer who in a few short days first purchased a single photograph, paid, and I shipped.  later this buyer bought three photographs the same evening, paid for and I shipped.  Now the buyer got the first order but did not receive the second.  And as soon as she informed me that the second package had not arrived I made a full refund, including shipping.  She then, all at the same time, left me positive feedback for the first order and then left me two negatives and a neutral (why the difference who can fathom) on the others - thus making me fully responsible for the postal service's loss of the item and disregarded her full refund.  Later she did email me that perhaps she was hasty.  Now if anyone has ever left negative feedback eBay attempts to allow the person leaving feedback to fully consider their action.  Her ratings alone made the difference in my overall rating, from 100 per cent to 99.9 percent, and that will not change until after a year of her feedback has elapsed.  One of the things eBay advises those leaving negative feedback is that they contact the seller as to any problem.  She ignored this.  Keep in mind that I am not advocating any buyer to leave less than honest feedback for the seller but it is equally important that the buyer be totally fair with the seller.