EBAY: Sellers Will No Longer Be Allowed To Leave Feedback, Fees Go UP As Much as 60%

[Stargazer]

Buyers are going to try to commit fraud like no tomorrow with this new system they are imposing. I can see a lot of blackmail as a result of this. It is going to attract the WRONG kind of buyer. It will only take 1 out of 10 new fraudulent buyers to ruin it for all the other honest ones. A lot of sellers have already closed up shop and going elsewhere. They are better off having no feedback at all and just having a star system for both the buyer and seller.

Buyer Star System:
-Communication
-Shipping Time
-Shipping and Handling Cost
-Packaging
-Item Description
-Willingness to Negotiate to Satisfy

Seller Star System:
-Payment Time
-Communication
-Willingness to Negotiate to Satisfy

 

[Stargazer]

The seller is the one paying Ebay, NOT the buyer. It is true that you cannot sell (as much) if there are fewer buyers but it is also true that you cannot buy (as much) if there are fewer sellers. It goes both ways. They have turned this feedback thing on the Seller far worse than the Buyer. At least before the Buyer had some recourse and a Mutual Withdrawal could be done. Now THERE IS NO RECOURSE FOR THE SELLER. If this gets out of hand then the sellers will quit. The only way something like this might work is if the buyers realize that these sellers feedback is a result of their own actions and can overlook all the feedback and read through it to see why they got neg'ed so much and if the seller can overlook all the neg feedback if the buyer is willing to and still be able to sell the product. The sellers are afraid that nobody will want to buy their product if they get a bunch of negatives and the buyers get strayed off as a result.

As far as I am concerned, I am not willing to take the risk to sell a product without any recourse along with the much higher fees involved. I have not made much money on some of the items I sell, especially since I had to reduce the price significantly lately to get certain things sold. It all of a sudden does not become worth the hassle for that much less of a profit then factoring in the feedback thing it makes absolutely no sense to even consider it.

Buyers can come up with ANY excuse why to leave you a negative feedback if you do not let them have their way. If a lot if not most sellers end up having 50% feedback or less then they will at least look more equal. There are always going to be sellers with additional feedback. Some sellers may end up getting reluctant on selling ANYTHING unless it is more of a top dollar item as to not risk their feedback.

I think a separate site for feedback is an EXCELLENT idea but an even better idea is to have a new alternative site that everyone will go to in order to conduct business for now on.

 

[chadzx11]

EXACTLY. WTF is eBay thinking?

IDK, but they prompted me to dump all my stuff on ebay now, so I can be done with it and leave my guys FB and skip out on the fee increase. I won't sell anymore until after I have an understanding of the new fee structure.

I used to leave FB as soon as I was paid. Now, I do it when I have a fat stack of paid orders, because it is not worth it to me to do one at a time. I'm not 100% but I am not a weenie who worries about that. I have lots of retaliatory negs from pricks who didn't pay. If anybody doesn't bid because I got a neg from some jerk who didn't bother to pay, then they are an @$$hole.

I've been on there since may of 1999, and I have left 3,785 feedbacks. I have been the recipient of 2897, that means a quarter of the people out there do not bother. I have left one on every single transaction ever.

Anyway, there are one hell of a lot more deadbeats on craigslist.

 

[vegassatellite]

EXACTLY. WTF is eBay thinking?

Capital markets usually fair best when governments step aside and let the market work its magic. I guess Ebay lost sight of the laissez-faire concept of free markets. Occasionally I walk into a store and will see pictures of bounced checks that the merchant posted near his cash register. Ebay just took this away from their merchants.

I don't think many merchants will be singled out as a con will still seek out reputable sellers to rip off. So the top rated sellers will get dragged down. What Ebay fails to realize is that this could result in reduced buyer faith and lower the number of successful auctions, which is what Ebay needs to make money. Not to mention the mass exodus of sellers that will drop their auction counts as well.

I say speak with your feet and leave your message walking. If enough people do that, Ebay will get the hint. That's the one good thing about business over governments, businesses will listen to the market.

 

[Stargazer]

You cannot resolve ALL of the problems that ebay has. You can only make it only so good and you can go too far to try to improve things and I think this is where they have went too far, not only too far but insane, and it will have consequences. This may end up costing ebay as they may have to do quite a bit such as lowering fees in order to try to get the sellers back on there. Maybe that is why they raised the final value fees as much as 60+%, so that they can afford to have little cost to no listing fees and still see more profit in case they have a low amount of sales. That still will not make me want to sell with such a miserable feedback system as they are putting in place. ---- Good for Buyers -- HORRIBLE for Sellers----

 

[jayn_j]

I think a separate site for feedback is an EXCELLENT idea but an even better idea is to have a new alternative site that everyone will go to in order to conduct business for now on.

I have been a member of several groups that have attempted this. It never works because in spite of its shortcomings, ebay is the go-to place, and nobody except the inner circle ever learns of the 'other' site.

A good example is Movie Poster Auctions at MoviePosterBid.com. I am a collector of old movie paper. A few years ago, people got fed up with ebay practices and founded this site. In spite of heavy advertising, it never really caught on, and is generally used these days for wholesale transactions on niche stuff. Good deals here, as ebay auctions will go for severasl times these amounts on popular items.

 

[Claude Greiner]

I have had it with ebay!

I used to sell $50,000 worth of DISH merchandise on there per month, but not anymore!

5 Issues...

1) If you do an auction listing, im tired of everyone waiting till the very last day to bid on my item. Then once there is a winner it sometimes takes forever for them to pay you.

2) Ebay and Paypal fees usually equal 10%

3) Im tired of getting ripped off from sellers on ebay, either not shipping like they promise or sending me junk. I can't leave them a negative, because they will leave me a negative and it will hurt my rating when I go to sell something!

4) Im tired of feeling like im being held hostage when it comes to feedback!

5) Im tied of Paypals policies that are setup to work agenst me when buying and selling, for example...

As a buyer if you have a dispute with Paypal and win, you do not get your money back unless Paypal can recover the money from the sellers account. Many times I have won a dispute, only to be told that I will be getting pennies back on the dollar because the seller has no money

As a seller, the second someone files a dispute im pretty much screwed everytime because im a ligitiment business person and am considered collectable.

As a rule, I no longer keep any money in my paypal account anymore! The second I get it, im off to the ATM To withdraw it in CASH

Perfect example of all of this crap is you go to sell a receiver with an access card on ebay, the idiot tries to hack it and screws something up and then tries to return it and get their money back expecting you to eat their loss, or they come back and try to say that you never shipped them the access card!

 

[visiter555]

As a seller & a buyer I disagree with the fees. BUT where we differ is that I (as a buyer) have a problem with the sellers and feedback.

When I sell, I give the buyer his feedback as soon as the item is paid for and shipped.

When I buy I am frequently held "hostage" by the buyer who will not leave feedback until he gets it. Many times I have gone ahead and left feedback after receiving & checking my purchase and have NEVER gotten feedback from the seller.

I would rather see e-bay force the seller to leave feedback first.

 

[SatelliteAV]

Sellers must have recourse against buyers who use feedback as a tool to extort. With the ability to give a buyer feedback and reply to feedback, there would be no way to address issues like these examples:

1. Buyer purchases a satellite receiver, emails our customer support demanding files and technical support to use the receiver for theft of service or they will leave negative feedback. We replied that we do not provide support for theft of service. Buyer then disputes the sale through PayPal stating that the item was used, missing the remotes, shipping cost too high ...... The dispute is dismissed when we supply the initial email demands and response, but the buyer left negative feedback. We replied with negative with a summary of the event, which resulted in the mutual withdrawal of the feedback.

2. Buyer is not available to sign for a FedEx delivery of a satellite dish and does not arrange for the item to be redelivered or picked up at the FedEx office. Item is returned to seller. Buyer states that item was not delivered and threatens bad feedback if we do not reship for free (which would have resulted in a loss for the transaction). We reply that we will post negative feedback with the tracking number showing the item was not claimed and returned. The buyer pays the additional shipping to reship the item.

Without the ability to post information against the occasional flake buyer, it would be very difficult to hold them accountable. Negative feedback should only be allowed after a dispute resolution service can verify the validity of the claim.

 

[jayelem]

As a Seller and Buyer I can say that the extortion goes both ways , thankfully I have kept my 100 % feedback. My Feedback score is 112

Here are my numbers.
As a seller I have received 105 Feedback
As a Buyer I have received 61 Feedback
For a total of 166 Feedback

I have given out 201 Feedback

The difference is 35 , since some were multiple sales I can estimate that my current feedback score would be around 130 if everyone left feedback.

In all I have only left one Negative feedback and that was 1 month ago , a buyer wanted me to wait 3 weeks for him to get his S.S. Check , and I refused and was upset because they were buying without having money , they were leaving feedback to other sellers like OOPS I bought this from another seller so I wont be purchasing your item , they were guilty of being irresponsible.

I gave the buyer an opportunity to get out of the transaction by agreeing to cancel , but the fool said he wanted to complete the transaction so I had to pay Ebay the fees , now I issue unpaid strikes and wait to see what happens .

I've only been extorted once ( well it felt like it ) , I sold a DVD and the DVD arrived loose inside the sealed case , it had some scuff marks from the movements during transit , it was well packed but I know this can happen no matter how well you pack one , the problem is the client explained that the case was severely damaged and the DVD unplayable , the client told me here's what you're going to do for me " you're going to send me another one , only this time you're gonna send the disc in a separate case so it doesn't get scratched and you're gonna send me another case also " when I got the damaged DVD back it looked like someone had purposely damaged it , I'm thinking the client made it look worse to justify getting everything new again . I didn't like him telling me what to do but I was afraid of getting my first negative feedback.

Another time a International buyer decided to send a charged gift card as payment without consulting with me first , it never arrived so I waited for the mail for months and it never came , I also paid Ebay all fees on that item but at least I never sent the item out.

Sellers have nightmares stories too , honestly I like the old way better .

 

[Jim S.]

3) Im tired of getting ripped off from sellers on ebay, either not shipping like they promise or sending me junk. I can't leave them a negative, because they will leave me a negative and it will hurt my rating when I go to sell something!

I think ebay's new policies are stupid, but this I just don't get, and you're not the first person to mention it. So what if someone leaves you a negative? That's one negative out of how many positives? If a prospective buyer can't look and see what the negative was about and consider it in context, that's his loss, not yours.

I'd even like to see weighted feedback. That is to say, if a seller has hundreds or thousands of positives and suddenly starts accruing a string of negatives, it doesn't seem right that his positive percentage could still be 99% or better. I once bought something from a guy who ignored me after the item arrived broken. Over the next few months, everyone else who bought from him slowly started leaving negatives as they realized their items were never going to arrive. I don't know whether he went on a bender with everyone's money, or died and had no computer-literate heirs, or what the hell was going on because nobody ever heard from him in any way again, but by the time ebay suspended his account (he had dozens of items still listed when he stopped communicating) he still has a nearly 99% positive record!

 

[dantheman77]

whats another good auction site to sell on other then ebay???

 

[Stargazer]

Feedback MUST be able to go BOTH ways in order for things to be in the best balance that it can be. I do not think that the system can be improved much than what it is right now and this is just screwing it up by trying to make it better.

 

[Claude Greiner]

I have got over 2300 Positive feedbacks on ebay without 1 Negative feedback...

eBay Feedback Profile for metrodish

Out of all the years I have been on ebay, I got one Neutral feedback from this guy..

eBay Feedback Profile for alanludlow

Should have left a neutral, but he got me pist off and I decided to leave him a negative which was well deserved. He bought the receiver, had a problem with it and shipped it back and disputed it with paypal without giving me a chance to replace it or work with him.

But I had to put up with alot of sh*t from people to keep my rating 100% positive!

 

[Stargazer]

It will be near impossible to get 100% feedback unless your a new buyer starting out on ebay once the new feedback policy is in place.

 

[Ramy]

whats another good auction site to sell on other then ebay???

Doesn't Amazon have one?

 

[dantheman77]

Doesn't Amazon have one?

do they? i will check it out. i buy from them alot, never tried to sell on it. been selling on ebay for a few years ( frontpage77) but this and the new fees will make me look elsewhere

anybody sell on amazon?? anywhere else??

 

[Stargazer]

I have also thought about selling on Amazon. I wonder if you can see a history of what has sold and how much the stuff has gone for? That is something I could do on ebay and want to do at another auction site that I would also want to use instead of ebay to sell my stuff. If I do not know the history of how well a particular item has been selling and what it has been bringing in price then it will be harder to get things sold. I do not see any other site even come close to having as many buyers or sellings as ebay but hope that changes.

 

[spell123wizard]

I do graigslist///// its easy and fast and local or a far...

 

[jayn_j]

I do graigslist///// its easy and fast and local or a far...

and partially owned by ebay. (resistance is futile)
craigslist fact sheet

Q: Is there a connection between craigslist and eBay?
A: eBay acquired 25% of the equity in craigslist from a former shareholder in august of 2004.