eBay to Remove Negative Feedback from Sellers
On eBay, a seller's reputation is just as visible as his or her name. With just a click, any potential bidder can check out how well transactions have gone with a particular auctioneer in the past and determine whether or not he or she wants to bid. The same goes for buyers right now, enabling that same auction host to turn around and check out the bidders fighting to set the right price. And, of course, once the auction is over both sides of the transaction have the opportunity to either enhance or modify that reputation depending on how things went.But this rating system is about to change, with eBay announcing it will remove the ability for sellers to leave negative feedback about buyers.
The site claims that negative feedback in the direction of seller to buyer is not a help to the overall buying process and that, if anything, it just slows things down as complaints are raised by the buyers slapped with a bad review. However, by doing away with that negative feedback, sellers are feeling a bit jilted as the change tilts the entire site in favor of buyers who can now be as negative as they like with their reviews without being subject to retribution.
eBay indicates that any non-paying buyer can and will simply be banned if they are reported, and that few sellers leave negative feedback anyhow. But, if you look at the ratings applied to those sellers, it's clear that few buyers are leaving negative feedback, either. What's unclear is just what the true motives are here, but it's hard to look at a system that allows positive feedback but prevents negative as anything but misleading.
From BBC News
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