What's your thoughts on eBay doing away with feedback in place of what the BBB uses?

[oldwestgold]

I believe that eBay needs to adopt a seller rating system like the BBB has in place and drop the feedback game.  The BBB uses a lettering system like A+, A, A-, B, etc. to I believe F. Much simpler and user-friendly for both sides. Just maybe someone at eBay will see this and give it a thought.

[alcoforever]

I don't care one way or another.

[oldwestgold]

Thanks for your valuable input on my post! I don't understand why you would reply "I don't care..........." if you don't care. Otherwise, I would have chosen your reply as Best Answer. Ugh, so close......... 😋 Have a good one!

[carlmarxx]

That feedback   wouldn't  work ,since   a lot buyers don't realize  that majored of ebay sellers aren't B/M  retailers  but second market  dealers.   

[slippinjimmy]

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@oldwestgold wrote:

I believe that eBay needs to adopt a seller rating system like the BBB has in place and drop the feedback game.  The BBB uses a lettering system like A+, A, A-, B, etc. to I believe F. Much simpler and user-friendly for both sides. Just maybe someone at eBay will see this and give it a thought.

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Yeah sure, then we can have sellers whining about only getting an "A" instead of the A+ they feel they are entitled to.

I do not see how this is more "simple" or "user friendly" than just Positive, Neutral, Negative.

For sure ANYTHING emulating BBB is a bad idea.

[oldwestgold]

Strange items you have for sale. All are fake with none of the photos matching your description. I suspect you are selling what you claim your cat is smoking. Nothing surprises me anymore. Either way, "I don't care one way or another."

[oldwestgold]

B&M doesn't have anything to do with the BBB ratings. A lot of businesses that are BBB-approved are not B&M.

[mr_lincoln]

@oldwestgold 

There are numerous systems out there to grade one party or another.  One of the Postal clerks at our local post office ALWAYS circles the survey at the bottom of the receipt, the other clerk tears the receipt off the little printer, hands it over and says have a nice day.

I get a request for a survey when I pay a bill by phone, pay a bill online, purchase something and am asked after delivery to answer a few questions ... and on and on.

Yelp explains how their system works and although it has been a while since I read it and how they don't use every opinion to determine one party's rating (if memory serves).

I am not familiar with the BBB system.

While eBay's system is unbalanced and biased towards Buyers, I as a Seller leave FB for Buyers the day the item ships, thanking them for the business.  Then it's done and I don't have to deal with it down the road.  In 9 years of Selling Buyer FB for my account has consistently been between 50-60%.  I don't ask for it, I don't put notes in packages about it and I make no mention of it on my listings like some Sellers do.  

There is no perfect system out there, perhaps there are some that are better than the one eBay has.  I see a lot based on 5 stars, similar to your suggestion on letter grades.  

I think if there were a way to vet Sellers and Buyers BEFORE they listed items or purchased items a lot of the issues and scams would be greatly reduced and the need for a feedback or grading system would be greatly reduced.  

[golfingaddict]

I think that the scores would be worse if you graded it with a lettering system.   When we first started getting Detailed Seller Ratings, they were pretty bad, I recall buyers were pretty picky about leaving high scores  and (again my opinion) and were grading sellers like they were grading a thesis paper.

 The biggest issue I have at this point is that buyers are using feedback as product reviews and I think eBay likes that. 

I would like them to do away with feedback altogether.

Not likely.

I was at an eBay event the other night and an eBay employee was bragging about all the good changes to feedback that they have recently made.  One of them was the way they sort the feedback.  The most relevant feedback isn't the feedback like "great seller 5 star" or "Awesome ++++"

Rather, they think that feedback that details more things about the item and shipping is relevant.  They "claim" that they are working on getting buyers to leave more feedback.  My feedback rate is as low as it has even been.  I sold nearly 200 items and got 17 feedback in February.   Now a negative would be a huge hit despite having a good number of sales.  

"received fast and item as described"

I also got the impression that they are perfectly happy with buyers leaving product reviews as feedback.  (again, Just my opinion)

I think feedback has worn out it's welcome.  I'd like to see them dump it altogether.  

[mr_lincoln]

@golfingaddict 

I think the "relevant" FB angle is worthless.  A seller's FB history is just that, a history of their performance with their customers, be they repeat of new.

Buyer FB at this point is somewhat useless because they can only get Positive, therefore very subjective.  

I would have asked that eBay person if the changes will increase sales for Sellers and if so by how much?

[mustang707]

Buyers want a simple feedback system-3 choices-positive, negative, neutral. Going to a letter grade system would probably result in less feedback than we are getting now because it would take extra effort to figure out which letter grade to choose. Buyer: Should I give a B, or a B+ or maybe a B-?  In the minds of the buyer it would take longer to leave feedback. Simple and streamlined is the way to go.

[chapeau-noir]

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@alcoforever wrote:

I don't care one way or another.

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Your cat looks a little miffed that its being hawked on eBay.

[bashort]

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@oldwestgold wrote:

I believe that eBay needs to adopt a seller rating system like the BBB has in place and drop the feedback game.  The BBB uses a lettering system like A+, A, A-, B, etc. to I believe F. Much simpler and user-friendly for both sides. Just maybe someone at eBay will see this and give it a thought.

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One thing that does point out the fact that feedback is a mostly meaningless metric is the fact that ebay completely ignores it when evaluating sellers

[chapeau-noir]

I'm not seeing any improvement by switching to a letter grading system like that - it may just confuse the issue since most sites who use grading use a numbering system (1-5 - Posh, Mercari and Etsy do). Agree that, B+, B and B-, etc. gets a little granular and makes it harder on the individual leaving the feedback.

Agree that feedback needs some updating, though.

[the_fancy_fox]

Personally I would like to see an additional number.

Successful transactions / Unsuccessful transactions.   If after 30 /60 / 90 (pick one) days and a buyer does not return the item or leave bad feedback the Successful number goes up. 

This way all transactions are tracked and a true representation of the seller is shown.