Starting in May seller can no longer leave negative feedback for buyers!

[nebrazca78]

I think this is insane, but in May eBay will change the rules. Sellers will no longer be able to leave neutral or negative feedback for buyers. They are supposed to be protecting sellers with some other measures but I don't know if it will be enough. What's really going to stop a buyer from being a jerk or scamming if their feedback can't be affected?

[secretvampire]

Source, please?

[layzee]

It looks like eBay is really showing their contempt for sellers this year.

http://pages.ebay.com/sell/update08/rewards/index.html (applicable to both UK and US eBay sites)


Feedback Changes

The eBay Feedback system was designed to provide a simple, honest, accurate record of member experiences. Focusing on customer service includes doing everything we can to grow customer confidence in our sellers.

Buyers will only be able to receive positive Feedback.

In other news, insertion fees will drop slightly and final value fees will increase significantly (FVF will increase by a few percent). It might be good for very high volume sellers but it sucks for just about everyone else.

eBay USA fee changes (http://pages.ebay.com/sell/update08/basic/index.html)

eBay UK fee changes (http://web.ebay.co.uk/businesshub/index.php?page=price_changes_uk_general)

And finally, to rub salt into the financial wound, all newly registered sellers will be forced to offer PayPal as a payment option. This happened in the Australian eBay site about a year ago; looks like the head honchos felt it was a good policy to implement to the rest.

CORRECTION: The "Safe Payments" (i.e. compulsory offering of PayPal as payment option) only applies to certain situations. I predict eventually all newly registered sellers will be forced to use it though. Hooray for monopoly.


To help ensure more buyers are protected, in some cases we'll require sellers to offer either PayPal or a merchant credit card to customers. PayPal buyer protection covers most qualified transactions up to $2000.00 USD.

Sellers will only be required to provide this safe payment option to customers in certain situations:
For listings in riskier categories, like computers and cell phones
If the seller has 5% or more dissatisfied customers
If the seller has less than 100 Feedback

In a small number of cases (fewer than 5% of all payments on eBay), PayPal will hold payment funds until either the buyer has left positive Feedback or 21 days have passed without a claim.

eBay in 2008 should be a better year for buyers. Not so much for sellers. It seems like eBay wants to get rid of the hobby sellers and keep the power sellers.

[Vroomfunkel]

Ha! Ebay have been trying their best to edge out the hobby sellers for the last few years. Practically every change they have made has been geared that way.

I'm very glad I've pretty much finished selling on Ebay - these changes are pure insanity. Being unable to leave negative or neutral feedback for a buyer is completely ridiculous.

Anyone notice that their "discounts" for Powersellers essentially amount to keeping the FVFs the same for Powersellers and putting them up for everyone else? Of course, they didn't phrase it like that, but that's what it is.

[Starwander]

This really can't be for real! I am sorry, but I really believe Ebay has lost its mind. Not being able to leave negative feedback, allows people to get away with anything they want.

[Vroomfunkel]

eBay in 2008 should be a better year for scammers. Not so much for sellers. It seems like eBay wants to get rid of the hobby sellers and keep the power sellers.

Fixed that for you ...

[jb143]

It seems this discussion is going on in "Off-Topic" as well.

I do like the star system they implemented and that seems to be a boost to the feedback system but come on...If sellers can't leave negative feedback then it's going to be very easy for buyers to back out leave sellers with nothing to protect themselfs. And jacking up the FVF??? It's hard enough to make a profit the way it is.

I think if Ebay really wants to change for the better then they need to stop wasting their time with skype like investments and get back to the basics. They need to lower all their fees and strengthen their feedback system. Lower fees would bring in more sellers and increase their revenue.

Causing sellers to walk on egg shells arround their buyers and then sticking them with even more outrageous fees is going to casue many to leave. How is this a good move for Ebay?

[Vroomfunkel]

Causing sellers to walk on egg shells arround their buyers and then sticking them with even more outrageous fees is going to casue many to leave. How is this a good move for Ebay?

Because the Powersellers will pump up their business - the revised fees cater to a Powerseller business model (i.e. costs less to re-list loads of stuff multiple times, but their FVFs will be the same or less because of the discounts)

The small-time sellers will suck it up because they have nowhere else to go. Ebay has no real competitors in the online auction market, and they know it. SO they're going to screw over everyone they can who still sells things via auction. That's essentially their plan.

[grolt]

Wow, big changes for sure. The higher FVF is a kick in the pants for sure, especially since they spin it like they are doing everyone a favor by making insertion fees cheaper. "We listened!" I'd have no problem paying that increased FVF if the Paypal bottom-end was included as well, but as it is now, that's a big piece of pie they are getting from multiple resources.

The Feedback changes scare me a bit, since I've always been an honest seller, and would hate to lose my 100% feedback because of some deadbeat. What worries me most about the new changes though, is this:


All Feedback must be left within 60 days (compared to 90 days today) of listing end to encourage timely Feedback and discourage abuse.

International shipments can often take that long after payment is received, so if there is any problems, then both parties are out of luck. Even local issues I've had, it's taken that full 90 days to sort everything out with the sellers. Forcing me to instead give up and leave a negative doesn't get me my money back. The 45 day window for Paypal protection is an even bigger joke.

I generally like the star addition, although the two fields, "Shipping Time" and "Shipping Cost" basically contradict the other. If a buyer wants cheap shipping, it's going to take longer, and vice versa, so really, one or the other is going to suffer in the end.

I'm surprised they didn't do the Free Gallery sooner, but really it's not much of a benefit, since if everyone has it then it doesn't make it unique, does it?

[Kitsune Sniper]

Well, I think this means I'm out of eBay.

Time for me to get a real job. :P

[RadiantSvgun]

Well, this means I'll have to do more buying/selling here.

[Poofta!]

i think this is great for buyers... and eliminates people who are on ebay to make a profit, instead of selling extra stuff around the house for whatever they can.


you can no longer go to gamestop find a cheap rare game and make a killing on ebay, and i say good riddance. there are plenty of other options for you to rape buyers: craigslist, facebook marketplace, amazon.

as far as scamming goes, how will this help? if its a non paying bidder, he cannot leave a negative (reading is fundamental here boys). and he cant claim he didnt receive an item if you put delivery confirmation and/or tracking. charge the buyer for it.

FVF i agree are ridiculous, im glad i just sold my dads expensive video equipment last week.

also there is a big thread about this in off-topic.

[Kitsune Sniper]

you can no longer go to gamestop find a cheap rare game and make a killing on ebay, and i say good riddance. there are plenty of other options for you to rape buyers: craigslist, facebook marketplace, amazon.

Have you ever tried to sell anything on Amazon? Their commission fees are insane, and their "shipping credit" is a big joke.

[rik1138]

In other news, insertion fees will drop slightly and final value fees will increase significantly (FVF will increase by a few percent). It might be good for very high volume sellers but it sucks for just about everyone else.

This is not entirely true... FVF fees are increasing by 2.50% for the first $25 ONLY. That's a maximum increase of 65 cents. They were lowing insertion fees by 15 cents and removing the charge for a gallery picture (35 cents). So, there's a 15 cent increase in the total amount it would cost you to sell an item for $25 if you list it under 9.99 with a gallery picture.

FVF for anything over $25 is going a quarter of a percent (.25%). Sure, it's an increase, but it's not an outrageous one...

I have to admit, I mis-read that originally too thinking they were raising the FVF 2.50% across the board... But that's not the case. They are basically moving 50 cents of the the listing fee to the FVF (and then a tiny increase).

Other interesting things:
Multiple feedback from a single user WILL count now (1 per week)
Neg/Neu feedback over 12 months no longer counts to your percentage.
Neg/Neu feedback from suspended accounts will be removed (this used to be how that worked years ago, they've brought it back)

And "Buyers will be held more accountable when sellers report an unpaid item or commit other policy violations." This is how I'm guessing they are off-setting the 'can't leave a buyer a neg' thing... Which I think is also stupid unless they are planning on OFFICIALLY announcing their ties to organize crime and plan on having a team of people to go out and 'whack' scum bags that don't pay... :) (They've already made it easy for Phising scammers thanks to the 'Big Yellow Button' in every Email they send out...)

Ebay is definitely run by complete idiots, and is definitely turning corporate. Someone needs to start up a new auction site 'for the little person'. Something where things like 'eBay companies' aren't selling 10,000 items every 24 hours... Enough people like us are being alienated by eBay that we might actually be able to make it work now...

Rik

[rik1138]

as far as scamming goes, how will this help? if its a non paying bidder, he cannot leave a negative (reading is fundamental here boys).

Wait, who can't leave a negative? The buyer will be able to, it's the SELLER that can not leave a neg for a buyer that's a non-paying bidder. A seller can only leave a positive regardless of what happens in the transaction...