Ebay - buyers no longer get feedback?

[ChadTower]

Not sure if this is old news or what... but I just got this pop up when leaving a seller feedback:

Buyers, you can no longer receive negative or neutral Feedback from sellers.

That changes the whole way Ebay feedback works... now maybe people will actually leave feedback instead of both holding it hostage in case the other party is a twonk.

[shardian]

Sellers can still leave positive feedback.

[ChadTower]

Sellers can still leave positive feedback.

Can but likely won't... the only reason they ever left it before was so they would get their own in return.

[Dartful Dodger]

I'm confused.

Is it the seller or buyer that's leaving feedback?


When I'm buying off ebay why would I care what the other seller think of him?

[Grasshopper]

Ebay has come in for a lot of flack recently (mostly justified). But I totally agree with them on this particular change. Frankly sellers brough it upon themselves with their obnoxious habit of leaving retaliatory feedback. The feedback system had lost all credibility. What's the point when everyone is getting 99%+ positive feedback?

[ChadTower]

I wonder if this will open the gates to a flood of buyer scams.  Now you can't leave negative feedback to a buyer who rips you off by doing a paypal chargeback.

[ChadTower]

Really, it wasn't the system that was broken before.  It was the people using it.  This won't fix the problem, it was just stabilize it until the loopholes are found by the userbase.

I remember when Ebay first opened up and you didn't even have to have a transaction to leave feedback.  Everyone was trading feedback at random to boost their ratings.

[Hemi]

This is much better, now the actual feedback we see on these sellers might actually mean something instead of two idiots trading good or bad feedback for nothing. As it was before, when you bought something you almost had to buy good feedback by leaving good feedback even if you were not happy with the transaction. The way it was, the feedback system was a joke and pointless.

[SavannahLion]

Looking at completed auctions still works?

Completed auctions lost a lot of usefulness about four or five years ago. They chopped so much ---Cleveland steamer--- out of it that it made it impossible to scan completed auctions to get an idea of how the market was going. The best use out of completed auctions was to get an idea on just how rare something really was. How may times has a seller attached. RARE to an auction when the same item was sold in forty prior auctions?

Oh well. I guess I'll look at it today and see how useful it still is (or isn't). 

[WunderCade]

I think this new system puts the seller in the hot seat....and now good customer service becomes essential in the feedback process - as it should be.

"The customer is always right." concept of sales had all but died out, hopefully this brings it back a bit....at least to eBay.

[SavannahLion]

"The customer is always right." concept of sales had all but died out, hopefully this brings it back a bit....at least to eBay.

Not to defend all sellers but....

That whole concept of the customer is always right died out when too many people ripped off too many stores. Now places (like Home Depot) actually pay a tracking company to keep track of good and bad customers by using a ranking system.

Fat lot of good it does. It punishes those who just have bad luck, filters out only the exceedingly poor or stupid crooks and the fat bastard ---smurfs--- who drive around in a full blown Humvee with a thirty foot trailer triple parked in the handicap zone or right in front of the front door still get away with robbing a store blind despite spending sprees of $15K+ a visit.

Last ---smurf--- parked his gas guzzler so close to the entrance that other customers had to use the other entrance, spent $25K and the idiot ---smurfing--- boss gave him... not sell him, gave him a $5K riding lawnmower. Guess where that $5K came from to pay for it? The employee's year end Christmas bonus.

---smurfing--- ---punks---.

 

Sorry. Had to get that off my chest. Carry on.

[ClubNinja]

I absolutely hate the new feedback system.  I sell rarely on eBay - maybe average one auction per month.  I'm no power seller, just a guy making a few bucks on some stuff sometimes.  A couple of months ago, I sold an item, packed it well, included a few extras, and shipped it quickly.  It took the buyer over a month to finally contact me about receiving it, and they had many questions about how it worked.  I directed them to the included users' guides and they threw a fit.  I was told that I would receive negative feedback if I didn't jump through customer service hoops for them and that they knew I couldn't do anything about it because sellers can't leave negative feedback. 

Maybe the new system works for the vast majority of cases; but for me, it was used as torment by a scumbag buyer.

[shardian]

I absolutely hate the new feedback system.  I sell rarely on eBay - maybe average one auction per month.  I'm no power seller, just a guy making a few bucks on some stuff sometimes.  A couple of months ago, I sold an item, packed it well, included a few extras, and shipped it quickly.  It took the buyer over a month to finally contact me about receiving it, and they had many questions about how it worked.  I directed them to the included users' guides and they threw a fit.  I was told that I would receive negative feedback if I didn't jump through customer service hoops for them and that they knew I couldn't do anything about it because sellers can't leave negative feedback. 

Maybe the new system works for the vast majority of cases; but for me, it was used as torment by a scumbag buyer.

You see, in that case you should be able to submit the buyers email correspondence as evidence in a feedback dispute.

[ChadTower]

You see, in that case you should be able to submit the buyers email correspondence as evidence in a feedback dispute.

Ebay isn't interested in feedback disputes.  They were already paid for that auction.  There no longer any revenue in it for them.

[Hemi]

They still need to keep their customers happy or they will loose future revenue. It may not seem like very much if you look at a few people not being happy with deals and not using the site anymore, but it can add up pretty quickly if the site does not look after the members.

[ChadTower]

They still need to keep their customers happy or they will loose future revenue.

No they won't.  There is no viable alternative.  People will ---smurfette--- but they won't leave.  For the most part the days of people going elsewhere due to bad service are over. 

[Hemi]

I don't agree. Being able to buy stuff online is a luxury I can live without if I feel I'm getting screwed. I can just find another site or show up in person at a real store or swap shop.

[ChadTower]

I don't agree. Being able to buy stuff online is a luxury I can live without if I feel I'm getting screwed. I can just find another site or show up in person at a real store or swap shop.

Most of Ebay's business is things you can't get in person or at a pawn shop.

For the most part the days of people taking action is over.  People don't change anymore.  They just call customer service, if they even bother with that, and expect to be given free stuff to make them feel better.  Ebay doesn't care about user happiness so they don't even have customer service contacts.

[missioncontrol]

the only action you can take is to try, support, and spread the word about other auction sites. Unfortunately it's hard for these sites to get ahead because buyers say there's not enough sellers and sellers complain that there's not enough buyers. I mentioned this site a while back, it's primarily for the console gamers market, but with enough support it could expand.

http://www.chasethechuckwagon.com/

[ChadTower]

Has some potential, needs work.  Here's a good one:

http://www.chasethechuckwagon.com/item.cgi?show_item=0000007539

Says both "No local pickup available" and "This item must be picked up in Stanton, ca 90680".

[SavannahLion]

The IRS just passed some new regulations saying that companies had to report individuals that conducted more than 200 private party credit card transactions.

The days of E-bay being the '#2 employer in the United States' (heck, they may be #1 by now) are numbered now that the IRS wants their slice of all that off the books income.

Um... The IRS was always involved. Legally speaking all persons are required to report any income earned, regardless of source (exceptions always exist to any rule, eBay is not one of them). The problem here is the sheer volume of sellers involved, location of these sellers (anyone in the UK?) and the IRS lack of ability to reliably track these sales. That is why the IRS is forcing companies to report individuals with more than 200 credit card transactions. It's not some new law that's suddenly kicking in, it's a modification to an existing set of laws to force sellers (and to some extent) buyers to pay up and pay their share to Uncle Sam. Something they're supposed to be doing anyways.

Technically speaking, even garage sales are reportable. 

I don't necessarily agree with how much the government taxes us and how they tax. By my calculations, I lose a little over a third of my paycheck to some kind of tax or forced dues before I ever get my money. Then I get taxed to death at 8% on all my purchases. Then there's a pile of hidden taxes that chew away at my money. Look at your itemized phone bill lately? Mine actually has a line, "misc taxes."  ---punks---.

[SavannahLion]

Technically speaking, even garage sales are reportable. 

Not unless you sell the items for more than you paid for them.  At that point, you're no longer a garage sale and you're a business.  You already paid income tax on the money the first time you had it.

Nice of you to nitpick. My point still stands however.

The IRS thing will be have a major impact on E-bay, IMO.  Regardless of what people are SUPPOSED to be doing, they aren't. 

What percentage of eBay sellers/buyers are doing more than 200 CC transactions a year? The worst I expect to happen would be a slight reduction in the number of so-called Power Sellers (or whatever eBay calls them now) and a big increase in sellers handing all or at least part of the taxes off to the buyer.

In any case, I tracked down the bill and took a peek at it. Looks interesting, but my initial impression seems to be more than a simple taxing. My first impression seems to be that they're looking for money launderers as well?

Fixed broken tags

[ChadTower]

Doesn't matter what percentage of users are doing that much business... the people doing that much business are the ones bringing in the most revenue and thus generating the largest tax liabilities.  Ebay may be 85% little fish but the big fish are the ones making all the money.

[ChadTower]

I'm sure all of us have met people that go around buying up stuff solely to resell it on e-bay.  I doubt, highly, that most of these people are paying taxes on this income.  If e-bay starts turning over transaction records to the IRS, these people are going to lose their margin and will find other ways to make money. 

And those people are going to lose their homes when the IRS eventually goes through historical records and computes back liabilities.

[shardian]

I wanna know how much Use Tax SavannahLion has paid his state government to cover all that crap he's bought over the internet from out of state.

 

I saw that extra screen when doing my taxes this past spring. I laughed ---my bottom--- off real good on that one. I also noted that it was stated to be 'voluntary'. 

[ChadTower]

MA charges 5% for income tax... and has a "voluntary rax rate" of 5.3%.  Who the eff is going to voluntarily up their tax rate with no tradeoff benefit?     Still, it is very prominent on the forms, and in the tax prep programs... "Do you want to pay the voluntary tax rate of 5.3%?"  Yeah, I'll do that, and please say hello to my colon while you're up there. 

[ahofle]

 

[SavannahLion]

I suppose the simplest thing to do would be to set up multiple accounts and switch between them before you hit the magic number.

If eBay absorbed anything from PayPal, it's the tying all those accounts together. Given PayPals reported ability to flag multiple accounts from one user, it isn't a far stretch to think eBay could, and would, do the same.

But then again, eBay can't get their billing ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- straight, so who knows? They're still hounding me to update my checking account but won't let me fix existing account information.

I wanna know how much Use Tax SavannahLion has paid his state government to cover all that crap he's bought over the internet from out of state.

 

Probably more than you've paid in your entire life time. 

[Ed_McCarron]

This oughta be interesting...

# Driving more sales with a more consistent buyer experience
We're taking other steps to ensure buyers keep coming back to eBay:

    * Limits on shipping and handling charges
    * Big seller rewards for free shipping, including free subtitle, a boost in search results, and double PowerSeller fee discounts
    * No more checks and money orders
    * New seller standards: Minimum 4.3 on all DSRs

[HaRuMaN]

I thought the min 4.3 DSR was interesting. 

[SavannahLion]

This oughta be interesting...

# Driving more sales with a more consistent buyer experience
We're taking other steps to ensure buyers keep coming back to eBay:

    * Limits on shipping and handling charges
    * Big seller rewards for free shipping, including free subtitle, a boost in search results, and double PowerSeller fee discounts
    * No more checks and money orders
    * New seller standards: Minimum 4.3 on all DSRs

About freaking time. I was getting tired of getting gouged on S&H. First time I encountered it, the jackass charged me $15 for S&H. I fully expected a nice padded box, lots of peanuts, next day shipping etc. I didn't get the item for over a week and when it finally arrived it came in a plain manilla envelope with a $1 worth of postage. At least it wasn't damaged.

No checks and money orders makes sense, but I doubt it's an entirely altruistic reason they're not allowing it anymore. They're probably just trying to bump up PayPal's business.

What's DSR?

[ChadTower]

I was just googling DSR and came back with the Dirty South Rydaz.  That can't be it.

[HaRuMaN]

Ha...

DSR is Detailed Seller Ratings

Its the categories included in feedback now, where you have the option of giving 1 - 5 stars.

[ChadTower]

Well, at least I'm back up to 100%.  I had been sitting around 98 for years because of some unreasonable dillhole years ago.

[Ummon]

Didn't this go around about a month or so ago when the feedback amendment started? Yes, I know it did.