How is a retalitory negative feedback even legal?!? A few months ago I had bid on and won an item from a seller in China. I paid for the item but then was told that they no longer had that item in stock. BUT... they still continued to list the same exact item for sale. I gave the seller a neutral feedback because they couldn't complete the sale but did refund my money.  (The whole purpose with leaving neutral or negative feedback is to let other potential buyers know that something didn't go quite right with the transaction.) Yes... I got my money back BUT the seller also gave me (along with several other buyers) a retaliatory negative feedback saying that we gave him unfair feedback. (Watimin... so you couldn't complete any of the transactions on your end and you're saying that the feedback that you received was "unfair"?!?)  A few weeks ago, I had bid on a dutch auction and won.  The seller had listed ten items for sale.  I bid on one item and won one item. Right after the auction ended, the seller contacted me and said that they were sorry but had listed that they had 10 by mistake and only had one. Any experienced seller here on eBay knows that you can't accidently list ten items when listing an item. This seller had made this same "mistake" on three other auctions. There were a few buyers who left this seller a negative feedback which in this case was well deserved. What does the seller do? He leaves everybody retalitory negative feedback saying that there was no need for a negative feedback that was left for him. The negative feedback he received was well deserved!! If I had sold you something and couldn't complete the transaction on my end, I would definately deserve a negative feedback from you. (That is to warn all potential buyers that you might not get what you paid for.) If you had won something from me and you didn't pay, of course you'll get a negative feedback from me. (That is to warn all of the other sellers that you might not pay for the item that you had purchased.) So my point is that how is it fair for the buyer or seller who got wronged, to leave a negative or neutral feedback to let others know about the experience with the buyer/seller only to get a retalitory negative feedback in return?? I've been here on eBay for over ten years now both as a buyer and a seller. My feedback should still be at 100% positive but it was ruined just because a seller retaliated with a negative feedback because I gave him a neutral feedback. I most certinaly would've given the dutch auction seller a negative feeback as well for him not being able to complete the transaction BUT I've noticed that he left everybody a retalitory negative feedback in this case as well. So now I can't even warn all of the other future bidders of his auctions about my bad experience. Always check the person's feedback!! (The neutral and negatives, then check their "feedback left for others".) If this person always leaves retalitory negative feedbacks, STAY AWAY AND DO NOT BUY ANYTHING FROM THEM!! Like I said before, neutral or negative feedback are left for a reason!! We the wronged should not be retailated against!! Forget about contacting eBay about trying to remove a totally undeserved retalitory negative feedback, they won't do anything about it. So now instead of me having a 100% positive feedback rating, it is now tarnished forever all because I gave the seller a neutral feedback. I know that there are a bunch of you out there that feel the same way that I do. eBay refuses to remove unfair/unjust retalitory negative feedback. If enough of us complain, MAYBE they'll address this serious issue. Our ever so important feedback ratings are being knocked down by the people who wronged us just beacuse we had the courage to warn all other potential bidders/sellers about our experience that we had with them. So not only was the transaction unsatisfactory, we also get a negative feedback as well?!? Now how is that even legal??

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UPDATE!!  Now eBay is making the feedback system even WORSE!!  It is my understanding that a seller is NOT able to leave a negative feedback for a buyer??  So lemme get this straight... IF a buyer wins an auction from me (or you) and they DO NOT PAY either at all or in a timely manner, I'm now UNABLE to leave them a negative feedback to warn others about the deadbeat bidder??  How the hell is that supossed to be better again??  I'm glad that they are going to remove all negative and neutral feedback from members who are "no longer registered users".  (Now my 99.8% positive feedback SHOULD go back to a 100% positive.)  Let's see how many complaints eBay will get before they change the feedback policy again...

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UPDATE!! (04/06/08)  I contacted eBay regarding the removal of negative and neutral feedbacks from suspended members of eBay as stated in an e-mail received from them back in January. Here is their reply:

"significant changes are being made to eBay's Feedback system which states that when a member is suspended, all their negative and neutral Feedback will be removed. However, this change will take place in May. Please be patient with us as we work behind the scenes to prepare for this. Hopefully you'll agree these changes will be an improvement to the eBay Feedback system."

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UPDATE!! (05/25/08)  WHOA!! Waitamin!!  eBay... "YOU'RE KILLING ME!!"  The new "how feedback scores are calculated" are actually making mine/our feedback ratings drop down even worse/lower!!  As you all know, my feedback should still be at 100% positive. ONE retalitory negative feedback left from a seller dropped my feedback score from 100% to 99.8%.  And now being that they've changed how the feedback scores are calculated, somehow that ONE RETALITORY feedback that I unjustly received has made my feedback score drop even further from 99.8% down to 97.9%?!?  Remember when they sent me an e-mail in April 2008 stating that: "Hopefully you'll agree these changes will be an improvement to the eBay Feedback system."  HOW THE HELL IS MY FEEDBACK SCORE DROPPING BECAUSE OF ONE RETALITORY NEGATIVE FEEDBACK THAT I RECEIVED AS A BUYER "AN IMPORVEMENT" TO THE EBAY FEEDBACK SYSTEM?!?"  Has this same thing happened to anybody else?  I know that I'm not the only one who is affected by this!!  This is a bunch of crap!!