Finally, starting in May 2008, eBay will remove a seller's option to leave negative or neutral feedback for buyers.

This is eBay's official reason for this:

This is a great idea.  And you will probably notice the fierce opposition by big sellers who thrive on keeping their 100% positive feedback rating.  They have claimed that buyers deserve negative feedback as much as sellers do.  This is incorrect!


If they don't, the seller can still report the buyer with the "Unpaid Item" system.  If the buyer doesn't respond, the buyer's feedback gets deleted and the account can be suspended.


The seller has to have an accurate description, selling terms must be reasonable and clear, item must be shipped in a timely manner (third-party carriers can delay of course), item must arrive in the condition promised, and the seller must communicate clearly if there are any issues.

Lets face it.  If it is going to go wrong, the seller is probably going to be the cause.  "The customer is always right" used to be the cornerstone of any good shop.

I have seen countless auction where it said right there in the description:

and

But even if the description doesn't blatantly extort a positive feedback rating, it is implied that if the seller doesn't think that a negative or neutral rating is warranted, a negative feedback will be reciprocated.  If you buy something from an online store, pay for it, and are unhappy for any reason.  You should be protected.

Yes, some buyers will be tough to please and you may take a hit as a seller even though you did everything reasonable to try and appease the buyer. But lets look at reality. If a store sells an item to a buyer and the buyer is unreasonable. The store doesn't go around to other stores saying how bad the customer was. It is unnecessary. But if the store is unreasonable, they have to have a reputation to uphold. Because it is reputation that matters more for a seller than a buyer.

A buyer has only money to give.  Not much that goes wrong there.  The buyer either pays or doesn't.  Non-payers are dealt with by direct action and not by hurting reputation.

A seller has so much more to do.  And the quality of items and the consistency of service makes up the sellers reputation.

Okay, so your thinking, if all the buyers were not afraid of leaving more negative feedback it would bring the feedback scores of even good power-sellers down, right?  Since most buyers will avoid sellers with less than a 98% score, that will take business away.

Wrong, since this doesn't not discriminate amongst sellers, ALL seller feedback scores will gradually go down together.  This will change the way we consider reputations.  Instead of 98% being the lowest acceptable score, a more reasonable percentage will be created.  Perhaps 90% which is fairly accurate for online sales.  1 out of 10 items I get online have something wrong with it.

This also allows the truly great sellers to shine if they can maintain their 98% or even 100% scores.  Right now, a seller with a 100% score still has a good chance of selling you crap.  Mostly because they pad their feedback.

Time will show how eBay will be a safer place to shop.

I agree with the new system.  WHY?  because your claims that "there are as many bad buyers as bad sellers" is ridiculous. 

Since the buyer's ONLY responsibility is to pay on time the only thing that can happen is that the buyer doesn't pay.  Negative feedback won't help that.  Only a Unpaid Item Claim will.

All the risk is taken by the buyer.  They must put up money.

All the responsibility is taken by the seller.  That is what feedback is supposed to be.

In real life, customers don't get reputations.  ONLY stores have reputations.

All of the sellers in this forum are getting whiny because they will lose there 98% or higher rating scores.  That is unrealistic.  In a few months, buyers will see that sellers will have a more realistic rating score and won't mind buying from a seller that has a 87% positive.

The only way a buyer can be bad is to not pay or leave a neg.  If they don't pay, submit a claim.  If they leave a neg, then you put too much stake in having a 100% score.

Some people here thing that a bunch of scammers will hit ebay in May as buyers.  There is NOTHING to scam.  No profit to be made as a ebay buyer scammer.  Either they send money or they don't get the items.  SIMPLE!  Only sellers are successful scammers.

We buyers will no longer be afraid of retaliatory feedback and will let you know if you aren't a "perfect 100% ebay seller".

And don't claim that most negatives left for sellers is unreasonable.  A store or a eBay seller has no right to leave a retaliatory negative if the feel like their negative was unjust.

Every seller thinks that every negative they had was unfair  The buyer shouldn't be forced to leave a positive just because they may upset the seller.

Ebay should just make the Unpaid Item claims easier and more harsh for the deadbeat buyers.  Then you sellers would have no excuse.