I don't understand some of the changes ebay is making to feedback.
#1 If they are removing the ability to leave buyers negative and neutral, why have the ability to leave them positive?
#2 If sellers can no longer report buyer issues, how will future sellers know if there is a problem? Doesn't this just open us up to fraud?
There are several good examples of this.
A. Habitual check bouncers. If someone has been bouncing checks, and sellers can not notify the community of the issue, other sellers will continue shipping items to that buyer and run the risk of getting the bounced check notice afterward. Also, currently sellers who do not accept checks may choose to do so on a case by case basis. How can they make that decision without accurate information available on the buyers history?
B. Fraudulent claims. What is to stop someone form placing orders on ebay with the intention of claiming they didn't receive the order or received it damaged? Someone could be pulling that scam 50 times a week, and we as sellers would have no way of knowing!
C. False sob stories. I remember a couple years ago someone begged me not to file the NPB strike. They said their mother had died the week before. Upon inspection of their feedback I discovered the mother had died 2 previous times.
D. Identifying poor sellers. Last year I wrote an ebay guide on how to use feedback to make buying decisions. One of my key suggestions was to look at the seller's feedback left for others section. If a seller uses profanity or is deragatory in their negative feedback comments it goes a long way to showing you what kind of person they are. This change removes a very valuable tool we had in indentifying poor sellers during the buying process.
E. Feedback padding. Doesn't this make it a whole lot easier for sellers trying to pad their positive feedback to do so?
I think this leaves a huge potential for fraud, and makes ebay a criminal Candyland. Why not allow the comments and just not count it into their feedback score? Then both buyers and sellers are protected.
And as a side note, I have what I think are 3 very good suggestions for changes.
a. Why not create a system for buyers much like the seller Detailed Seller Ratings? Rate a buyer on speed of payment and communication. Maybe even be able to rate them on things like payment clearance.
b. Allow negative comments, but do not count them into the score. Then sellers will have full access to information on potential problems to look for.
c. Have buyer and seller feedback calculate seperately. You'd have 2 numbers, one for buying and one for selling.
) 
) 
) 
) 
