Among the changes Ebay's making in 2008 is this little gem:

"Buyers will only be able to receive positive Feedback."

If their check BOUNCES - you can't leave negative feedback.
If they do a CHARGE-BACK on their credit card payment - you can't leave negative feedback.

NO MATTER WHAT THEY DO -- you can't leave negative feedback, or even NEUTRAL feedback.  It's POSITIVE feedback or NO feedback.

As a seller, you will have NO WAY to counteract UNWARRANTED NEGATIVE FEEDBACK!!!  And yes, it DOES happen sometimes.  Some people are jerks.  Some people are crazy.  Some people get their jollies leaving negative feedback that's completely undeserved. Some people just don't bother to read the listing & think they're getting something they're not. Once we're unable to leave negative feedback we will have NO RECOURSE whatsoever.

OTHER CHANGES include:

In some cases "PayPal will HOLD PAYMENT FUNDS until either the buyer has left positive Feedback or 21 days have passed without a claim."  So just because some slacker doesn't bother to leave feedback, Paypal will KEEP YOUR MONEY FROM YOU for 21 days.  It's not really about keeping the buyers happy, it's about making money -- during that time they will be INVESTING all this money (millions) they're "HOLDING" and making a fortune on it.  It's the same reason banks are always finding reasons to hang on to your money as long as possible.

REQUIRING sellers in what Ebay considers to be "riskier" categories, like COMPUTERS & CELL PHONES, to offer either PAYPAL or CREDIT CARD payments.  So some poor average Joe who bought a new computer and wants to sell his old one on Ebay will be OUT OF LUCK, unless he opens a PAYPAL account -- did you know Ebay OWNS Paypal? -- or he'll have to PAY A FORTUNE for a credit card merchant account.

"Best Match will become the default sort in search[es] to give more buyers the results they want and will:"

    "Increase exposure for sellers with DSRs (Detailed Sales Ratings) 4.6 and above and at least 95% customer satisfaction in the last 30 days."

    "Decrease exposure for sellers with low customer satisfaction or Shipping & Handling DSRs."

Now, I'm all for rewarding good sellers, but actually DECREASING THE OPPORTUNITIES FOR A SALE for sellers who don't have the best ratings in the world seems just a tad bit EXTREME.  The LESS LIKELY you are to sell an item the less likely you are to have an opportunity to satisfy a buyer and INCREASE your customer satisfaction rating!

SEE ALL THESE CHANGES HERE:

http://pages.ebay.com/sell/update08/rewards/index.html#4

LET EBAY KNOW YOUR OPINION ABOUT THEM HERE:

http://contact.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ShowCUPortal