First off, I'm a Powerseller on eBay and I have 100% Positive Feedback.

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When we're talking about feedback at eBay, we're talking about the little score that's associated with every eBay username. When you click on an eBay username you typically get the user's profile page (which shows their feedback stats and history). The statistics chart shows us the user's "feedback score", the number of postive/neutral/negative feedbacks received, a brief hostory, and the percentage of feedbacks that were designated to be "positive feedback".

On eBay, buyers and sellers alike look at your feedback to determine if you're someone who can be trusted or if they even want to deal with you at all. It's sort of like a credit rating.

I'm going to make a broad, generic statement.... we all want 100% Positive Feedback.

That said, we need to understand how the system works and how people use the system in order to ensure that all the feedback we receive is, in fact, "positive". There are some things we need to understand first:

(UPDATE -Nov 09, 2007: since I originally wrote this guide, eBay actually took some of my advice and the advice of others. The system still has flaws, so I'm leaving my original comments (#1 below) about the old feedback system for historical purposes)

1. The current eBay feedback system is flawed.
I make this statement not to bash eBay, but just to inform you of how it is. eBay actually has the "ability" to make the feedback system more accurate, but the current system is really just a comprimise between accuracy & usability. If eBay were to increase the system's accuracy it would probably double the overhead (which is already very high). So instead, we have this middle ground and we all have to just accept it for what it is. It's a rough guage for how well a buyer/seller's transactions have gone from the perspective of the other party. A more accurate feedback system would not allow the user to choose positive or negative, but would be a sort of survey (like: Did you receive your item? Did the seller notify you of any shipping delays? Was the item listing innacurate? etc.. with at least 10-20 questions). Then the system would score the survey and automatically determine whether the experience was positive or negative. In addition, the system would be double-blind (meaning neither the buyer nor the seller could retaliate for negative feedback, since neither would know the results until they posted their response). After a certain period of time, the feedback would post whether each party had provided feedback or not. You can see how this would create an overwhelming amount of overhead for eBay, the buyer, and the seller, but I believe it would be the fairest, most comprehensive system.

2. People don't use the existing system fairly.
Again, I'm not bashing people here, it's just a fact. The fact is, given the current system, you should really only leave negative feedback if you didn't receive the product you purchased and, after MANY attempts to contact the seller through various channels, you were unable to receive your money back OR if you just outright got conned. In the event of a con, you should contact eBay and eventually the user will get banned. A seller should never leave negative feedback. HOWEVER, people typically abuse the existing system and leave negatives for things like slow shipping or a missing screw (without ever contacting the seller) ... YOU SHOULD NEVER LEAVE NEGATIVE FEEDBACK without trying to contact the seller by email, through eBay's "contact the seller" link, and telephone many times. It's just not fair to tarnish a seller's reputation for something petty (even if you think it's a big deal). You should always allow the seller many opportunities to make it right.

3. The ticket to a high success rate with feedbacks is being overly fair.
Follow these simple steps and you can acheive 100% positive feedback very easily.

• When selling, only leave positive feedback when you receive it.
• When buying, always leave positive feedback unless you've been robbed (never leave neutral).
• SELLING: Don't retaliate for negative feedback left by buyers & only followup with facts. If someone gives you negative feedback, just don't leave any feedback for them (or possibly a neutral). Follow-up with a tracking number and date shipped, but don't flame the user or try to bash him/her (this usually comes across as unprofessional behavior to other eBayer's).
• BUYING: If a seller gives you negative feedback first, by all means leave negative feedback in return, but don't be childish. Just state the facts without any extra nonsense.
• Proactive approach: Let buyers know on your 'About ME' page and your 'Winning Bidder Email' they should contact you before they result to leaving negative feedback. This way, if a buyer tries to extort goods or services from you by using feedback as leverage they can be banned from eBay (Feedback Extortion is against eBay rules).
• COMMUNICATION is the KEY!
  If you stay in touch with your buyers, they will be much less likely to feel abandoned (which is the primary reason for negative feedback). Be prompt, courteous, and helpful and the user will not leave negative feedback even if they aren't 100% satisfied.

Here are some working examples of the rules above ....

EXAMPLE #1:
user: boogl3yb00glieb00 buys a magical butcher knife from user: scr4mack1etime
The knife turns out to be 1/2 inch shorter than described and it's not magical. User: boogl3yb00glieb00 should just leave no feedback and let the seller know he's unhappy and try to negotiate a solution. Under no circumstances should he leave negative feedback.

EXAMPLE #2:
user: jiggybonezeeeb00p6 sells a cheese grater to user: billfattensigsauer7
billfattensigsauer7 leaves negative feedback that reads:
[This guy is a major scam artist and cannot be trusted. Stole my money. Item never received.]
The seller should simply follow-up with:
[Follow-up: Item shipped Priority Mail Tues 06/06/2006; Tracking # 1567458986543245]
Nothing the seller does will change the negative feedback received, so I recommend simply leaving a neutral feedback for the buyer with something like:
[Your item shipped on time track#:  1567458986543245. Sry you felt it necessary to leave neg feedback]

EXAMPLE #3:
user: xapdiggytimtom contacts seller: jimbopbeloobopp12 and says:
'I received my item the other day, but I don't really like it. I want a $10 credit to my PayPal account or else I will have to leave negative feedback.'
The seller should save this email and let the buyer know that it's against the rules to use feedback for extortion (and direct the user to the help page on 'Feedback Extortion'). If the buyer persists, the seller should report the buyer to eBay.

UPDATED 01/31/2007 !!
Something I failed to mention in this article originally is that eBay allows for "Mutual Feedback Withdrawal". In the event that you receive negative feedback, try to negotiate with the other party to reach a happy place where you can achieve "Mutual Feedback Withdrawal". This is basically the only way to have feedback reversed.

You can actually have this process mediated by a company called SquareTrade. For $29.95 (as of Nov 9, 2007) they will initiate the dispute resolution process they affectionately call ODR (Online Dispute Resolution). I think you only pay if the feedback is actually removed. You can visit their site if you're interested, we have tested the service and can attest that it does work (although the actual feedback may remain visible without penalty to your feedback score):

SquareTrade ODR (Online Dispute Resolution) Website:
Just Google "squaretrade" and click on Dispute Resolution

And finally, If you are a seller and a buyer leaves feedback that is untruthful, you may be able to pursuade the buyer to agree to the mutual withdrawal to avoid being sued (as you would have every right to do if the user made false public statements about your business that costed you money and damaged your businesses reputation). If the buyer still refuses, consult with an attorney and try to have your local court issue an order to have the feedback removed. eBay has a policy in which in must comply with all court orders to remove feedback (or anything else for that matter). Once the court issues the removal order, you will have the decision of the court in your corner to file for real damages ($$$) against the buyer.

eBay rewards us for our achievements every so often. You'll see yellow stars and red stars, purple stars and blue stars all over the place. Be a nice eBayer, be positive and courteous and you'll be a shooting star in no time at all!

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The information contained in this guide is from my own personal experience and should in
no way be considered to be rules of eBay. The above approach is simply a known / tested
approach to giving and receiving feedback on eBay.
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