It is wrong that buyers cannot have negative feedback.

[oemspecialists]

When  a buyer tries to extort you or leaves a negative feedback for no reason other than they do not take any responsibility for their own actions, a seller cannot rate them to warn other sellers or block them. 

[doroteo-arango]

I was scammed twice in the past few months.  The first seller had zero feedback and claimed the item was scratched and rusted.  Both lies.  I refunded it and she left negative feedback.  Ebay did nothing and allowed this behaviour. 

   However  , I now found a way to possibly  avoid these criminals by screening the feedback they leave to other sellers. 

    Last week , a buyer asked if my item included extras not listed in the description.   I checked his feedback and found he left negative feedback 31% of the time for petty reasons. I told him I dont want to sell to him because he cant be trusted and he asked for items not in the listing. 

[tobaccocardyahoo]

Negative buyer feedback would be useless.

No time to read it before the transaction.

Sellers who left retaliatory negative FB for buyers hurt this site in the past and it has never recovered from the reputation the site got.

Back in the bad old days, you could not tell what buyer with negatives deserved it.

Never had a bad experience with a seller who did not have 100% FB, on any site with FB.

If a message from a buyer makes you feel uncomfortable, block the buyer. At least some of us are not desperate enough to take risks we cannot afford. In my case, there are buyers who are more high maintenance than the item they are interested are worth - whether they are scammers or not.

[pcobra93]

I feel they just need to eliminate ALL feedback for seller and buyer. Instead go to a "rating" system where sellers can see a buyers statistics such as return rate, partial refunds and scam returns. Similar for buyers to see on a seller. This would be way more fair on both sides and would help alleviate the scammers.

[tobaccocardyahoo]

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@pcobra93 wrote:

I feel they just need to eliminate ALL feedback for seller and buyer. Instead go to a "rating" system where sellers can see a buyers statistics such as return rate, partial refunds and scam returns. Similar for buyers to see on a seller. This would be way more fair on both sides and would help alleviate the scammers.

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The problem with applying metrics based on the return rate is that returns are an important customer satisfaction tool. Too many Ebay sellers already discourage returns, and that makes buyers avoid buying on Ebay.

Amazon used returns to evaluate seller performance in the past and eliminated it as a tool, probably about 15 years ago.

Amazon has more recently used return rates to evaluate products, but their catalog system makes it a far more reliable measure of product quality than would be possible on Ebay.

[valleeflowergirl]

That sounds like a useful solution.  As a buyer I have questioned the best way to leave feedback for a seller in certain conditions.  For instance, where the description was wrong, which, in truth, warrants a negative feedback for that segment, but the seller made good by refunding the item either in whole or in part.  In such instances I don't want to negatively impact the seller feedback rating.  Notwithstanding the scammers, the seller who makes good is the one I [and I expect most others] would prefer to deal with. The trick is to be able to distinguish between genuine and scam adjustment and/or return requests.   However, from the sellers' perspectives, having the ability to track which sellers are helpful with returns isn't the answer as that simply opens them up to more scammers.   

But I foresee the possibility of another problem with your suggestion.  With eBay moving to the new International Delivery protocol, wherein the broker absorbs returns rather than returning the item to the seller, how would such returns be incorporated into the statistics?  As I don't sell on eBay, I have no knowledge of whether sellers get some type of chargebacks in such circumstances and, if they don't, how such returns would be reflected.

[lakefor94]

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@oemspecialists wrote:

When  a buyer tries to extort you or leaves a negative feedback for no reason other than they do not take any responsibility for their own actions, a seller cannot rate them to warn other sellers or block them. 

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True

[mr_lincoln]

@oemspecialists 

I think the Feedback system needs a major overhaul.  Friends this week shared a Neg FB experience with me and we are trying to work things out to get it removed.  One issue is inexperienced Buyers who don't really understand how eBay works, especially in the area of returns.  In the case of my friends who offered 30 Day FREE returns the Buyer never messaged them about any issues and simply slapped down Neg FB that included some bizarre accusations.   Now, anyone reading that FB might think the Buyer has some real issues but that is beside the point.  The Buyer's FB count is under (10) with very low buying activity.

I think Buyers should have a rating system like Sellers have on their Seller levels, if they fall below a certain amount of purchasing in "X" amount of time they should be limited to the type of FB they can leave if any at all.  I mean why should an infrequent inexperienced Buyer be allowed to have a negative impact on a Selling account?  In my view they shouldn't and they need to earn the right to be that critical.

The other thing that I think that has come in to play today compared to say 10 - 15 years ago is the impersonal nature of communication from behind screens ... be that on a desk top computer or handheld device.  People can be pretty nasty online but face to face it may be a different story.

Here is a screen shot from the Help pages on Feedback ... 7 dedicated pages on this search ... I think a system that needs THAT much time and energy has issues ... 

  

[mybrandoutlet*]

Returns are widely misused by customers. 
In stores and even more so online where the transaction is faceless.

Both eBay and Amazon DTC Marketplaces have out of date returns polices and unreasonable expectations of sellers. When compared to ecom sites and retailers themselves. Amazon and eBay automatically accept returns at a cost to the brand/ store. Taking the decision out of the sellers hands.

1. Feedback system needs to be abolished all together, there are more bad buyers who intentionally scam the eBay system, there ever are bad sellers.  A seller cannot afford to loose sales from a business perspective and hence try the best to have a good store or they don’t have a business.

2. eBay have a get out of jail free card in respect to constantly claiming as they don’t see the item etc etc when there is a problem. Generally new items are sold as new and it is glaringly obvious when a sellers store sells new items and then has great feedback when a buyer is a scammer trying it in with a return or and item. Ebay need to step up and earn their commission that they get by supporting sellers.

3.  A deterrent to scammers would be for eBay to ensure that the customer pays for the return postage unless the item is deemed faulty by the seller upon return. Most ecom retailers ensure that the customer pays for the return postage now.

4. Most items are sold at a discount on eBay,  therefore the money back and returns policy should be up to the seller and not eBay. So that allows the seller to take into account returns when calculating price and margin. As legally you don’t have to give a refund for non faulty goods, exchange only.

[assorted-things]

I think the problem is deeper.  There is a buyer and a seller and ebay.  The seller makes claims about an item.  There are sellers that scam.  The buyer gets the item and leaves feedback.  There are buyers that scam.  Ebay never has the item or inspects it.  It is a he said/she said situation.  What proof does Ebay have that the pictures and claims are true on the seller or the buyer side.  Money enters via the buyer.  A system that works for all 3 parties would have to deal with this fundamental issue.

A buyer is unhappy with the seller so leaves negative feedback.  So the seller leaves negative feedback for the buyer.  The only parameters that are not hearsay are:

1) it was paid

2) it was shipped (time date etc)

The feedback system on sellers does encourage sellers to strive to keep good ratings.  It also allows entitled buyers to extort sellers with the threat of a bad review if it was deserved or not.  As sellers strive to have 100% reviews they are willing to allow some buyers to get away with it because it isn't worth the negative review.  So a feedback on buyers doesn't have much value (you can set it to be automatic).  If you left a negative review as a seller, likely the buyer would retaliate.  The information value becomes worthless.

What stats on buyers and or sellers would give feedback but would minimize abuse?

If a buyer does not get the item for free only the truly intentional would gain from abuse.  Ebay should require the buyer to return the item or not be able to leave negative feedback.  This would stop the casual "it wasn't right I hope they just give it to me so I don't leave negative review".
Intentional scams would just ship back a rock.

Buyer stats that would be useful.

1) number of returns in the last month(s) vs number of purchases.

2) Total purchases and value.

3) Returned items total value.

These are easy numbers to collect, and would flag buyers that habitually abuse the system.  There is already a pretty strong system to note seller issues.

[texmex611]

Ive been scammed by several buyers. They make up stories and Ebay not only lets them get away with it , they also punish me for their schemes with "not as described " and higher return rates.

   I have found some buyers leave more than 50% negative feedback and ask odd questions or make strange comments.

  These are the only way we can screen some of the fraud buyers.  Someone tried to scam me for $500 last week . Ebay held my funds but the buyer gave up on the scam.  However , its still possible he can try to put a chargeback on his credit card

[musicjack999]

WORD TO THE WISE!  I’ve been an eBay seller for 21 years with 2000+ positivity feedbacks and 0 negative or neutral. I only sell musical instruments. I recently had a buyer text me that he had to speak to me directly ASAP. He called and I answered the phone. HUGE MISTAKE! He gave me a story that he’d be out of town and couldn’t accept delivery that day. When I told him that it’d probably be safe until he returned he said that hw didn’t actually live at that address anymore and forgot to change it with eBay. He wanted me to have it held at FedEx for his pickup. I called FedEx and they said ebay puts a restriction on each shipment that it has to be delivered to the shipping label address. I confirmed this with eBay. It took me all morning to find this out. He called me back and I explained to him that there was nothing more I could do. He demanded his money back and said he would open a case with eBay which he did. The reason he gave eBay that the instrument was not delivered. This was two days after the sale, the day I shipped it and the day before it actually arrived! In his complaint he lied extensively and said I told him it wasn’t my problem and did nothing to help him.

Moral of story: ONLY COMMUNICATE WITH BUYERS THRU EBAY. NEVER TALK TO THEM DIRECTLY ON THE PHONE OR THRU TEXTS. EBAY KEEPS A RECORD OF EVERY COMMUNICATION BETWEEN BUYERS AND SELLERS. Fortunately I took screen shots of our texts and was able to give to eBay to debunk his case.

[seedbankers]

I agree. Some grumpy buyer placed an order on 2 and made noise with CAPITAL LETTER that my SERVICE NOT GOOD. I posted the letter on 4th with a tracking number. The blessed post office didn't scan the number and the tracking was useless. BUT IT'S not my fault. I was supposed to have sent the letter on 9th the latest and Royal Mail 10th the latest. He said in feedback the seeds FINALLY ARRIVED.  Some of these buyers are ridiculous and they sure know the power of feedback. One sent me a picture of seeds exposed to elements with a huge weed growing in it. I had to bite my bullet and sent another lot. Another complained that there was only one packet of seeds.

[robb_dj]

I have an item now that a buyer started a return, and a week later has done nothing.  I sent them a message last week and they haven't replied.   It's pretty disgusting ebay gives them 3 weeks now to decide if they are actually going to return it. I wish I could have blocked him before he bought it. 

[yo_baby_sup]

major problem with feedback is most sellers have hundreds of transactions a year where the buyer never bothers to leave feedback. In 99% of those situations there was no problem or you would hear about it. Of course a few people might not want to be bothered but that is a very small amount. So those hundreds of positive interactions with no feedback skew your rating if someone leaves a negative. 1 negative actually hurts your score more because of this. I even include a little note in with the purchase asking buyers to leave feedback and feedback being left is below 15% at this point, It used to be around 20-30% 10-15 years ago.

there needs to be a major overhaul and it should go to an automatic metrics based system. Anyone who wants to leave a negative should be required to message the seller first if that option remains. Some people just don't read, some dont even look at the photos anymore. I think it has a lot to do with most people using their phones and ebay burying the item description on their mobile platform.  Buyers refuse to take responsibility if they make a mistake.  If there is a a disagreement or questions about condition and the seller makes it right, negative feedback should be disabled. This could easily be a metric, % of transactions where there was an issue and seller issued a refund/accepted a return.

In my opinion leaving a buyer positive feedback is useless these days. In the early days people had to send a money order or get payment to you, it required some effort. I don't think you deserve a positive review for buying and paying for something you want. Ive tried leaving positives for every transaction and it makes no difference in the return feedback. I only leave a positive now for buyers who leave a positive for me first. Unpaid items are stored in a metric and can be used to block buyers in your settings. There should be more of these metrics for sellers to use, number of returns in X time period, number of negatives left in x time period, etc etc. Some people want to shop online like they are in a store then return items when their mood changes. This may be fine for huge multi-million dollar retailers but can be a big problem for small sellers who are 1 or 2 people.