As a long time, consistently excellent buying customer on eBay but never a seller, my biggest complaint revolves around sellers who do not reciprocate the positive feedback that they receive from a buyer. I have read many posts regarding this, most of which make statements about how feedback is never required, some sellers don’t think it’s worth leaving feedback because they can only leave positive for a buyer, etc. While these statements are true on their face of course, they miss the point I wish to make. As a buyer, when I leave positive feedback for a seller, I have directly benefited them in very important ways, not the least of which is raising their seller score and profile. The minimum a seller should do is to reciprocate that favor, especially since if a buyer leaves positive feedback there could hardly be a good reason for the seller to not feel the transaction was positive as well.
Here I come to the main point of this post. I would like to see a change in eBay feedback policy, that would allow for a person to remove feedback within a certain time, if they so choose for whatever reason. This change would not allow for changing a positive feedback to a negative for example, but would allow a buyer to be able to remove the positive feedback that was left if the seller is not going to reciprocate. Why should a seller benefit so enormously when they can’t be bothered to take the time to reciprocate to the person doing them the positive favor, let alone purchasing from them? There would of course be a time limit to take this action, and as I stated, no ability to change a positive to a negative, but the ability to remove positive feedback that raises a score if this is not reciprocated. This could and should of course work the other way as well. If a seller leaves positive feedback for a buyer, and the buyer doesn’t reciprocate, the seller could choose to remove that positive from the buyer. Obviously these things would be at the discretion of each individual, with no requirement for any such removal, but with the option existing as it is highly offensive to me and I am sure to others that when we benefit someone else and receive nothing in return, it is really a proverbial slap in the face.
A gentle reminder can be left regarding feedback, but in certain cases, these are ignored, and I really think there should be the ability to simply remove the feedback completely so the seller does not benefit from the goodwill if they are not going to reciprocate to the buyer who has benefited them so greatly. I am very much interested in thoughts and comments regarding the specific details of this proposal, especially any downsides to this proposal that I may not be recognizing. Thanks.
