Nevermind!

[segami_photography]

On Ebay for 23 years, my first and last post.

[heckofagame]

Feedback is worthless and should be removed, not tweaked. It once served a purpose, but no longer does. 

[hartungcards]

Some of my best repeat customers have their feedback hidden.

[ebooksdiva]

eBay won't do that because buyers have the right to hide their feedback. 
eBay isn't going to accept unsolicited ideas from eBay members either, they do have a policy regarding that.  Unsolicited Idea submissions policy 

If you want to cancel transactions simply because a buyer has their feedback private that is your decision to make. 

[hartungcards]

I don't think eBay is going to go for an idea where sellers can arbitrarily decide if a buyer is guilty until proven innocent.

[luckythewinner]

Tell Ebay To Change A Policy

No thanks.

[kensgiftshop]

Looking at the feedback you left, you don't care much for policies.

The buyer should report the feedback.

[whatmorefabric]

No selling site is risk free.

Feedback is useless.

[albertabrightalberta]

@segami_photography 

There are reasons why buyers may have private feedback. 

• they may buy personal items that they don't want others to know about
• they may be sellers on another account and don't want their 'flips' known
• they may not want their friends or family to know how much they're buying
• they just think it's none of anyone's business what their feedback is. 

I know of some sellers who've asked potential buyers to make their feedback public before selling to them. 

Although I do check the feedback left for others from those who make offers on my items, I don't freak if I have a buyer with private feedback. 

I sure hope that ebay doesn't change the policy that allows buyers to have private feedback. 

Per @segami_photography: If you hide your feedback, a seller should be able to cancel the sale WITHOUT getting bad feedback from the person that hides theirs.

You're certainly welcome to cancel any sales from buyers who "hide" their feedback but you'd darned well better choose a reason that's honest, like OOS or item broken or lost. You'll have more issues and possibly lose your right to sell of ebay if you lie and choose "buyer requested." And if you do do that, my opinion is that any negative feedback is deserved.

[broto_64]

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@segami_photography wrote:

On Ebay for 23 years, my first post. I WANT EBAY TO ALLOW SELLERS TO REFUSE TO SELL TO ANYONE WHO HIDES THEIR FEEDBACK (without getting a negative). The feedback system is SUPPOSED to help buyers AND sellers know who they're working with. But when someone hides their FB, the seller is at a disadvantage. Since buyers can only get Positives these days, I ALWAYS check a buyer's "Left For Others" feedback to see if they routinely leave jerk comments. Then I'll proceed with documented caution. But, those that hide their FB, shouldn't be allowed to hide behind Ebay's system. Ask Ebay to make this a rule. If you hide your feedback, a seller should be able to cancel the sale WITHOUT getting bad feedback from the person that hides theirs.

---

Because some sellers abuse that system, in fact it is an abuse to refuse to sell to a buyer after they have paid simply because of their feedback left for others although the abuse I was thinking of has to do with the actual reason for the cancellation. And you will likely disagree but ebay's policy states it is a seller's obligation to ship the item after it is paid. The ability to hide feedback has actually leveled this issue for the buyer since you are not the only seller who seems to believe that the use of certain "research your buyer after the sale" methods can somehow suss out problem buyers.

It would be a better use of time to familiarize oneself with ebay policy and the MBG as it pertains to various return policies, playing by the rules is a seller's most effective defense against problems on ebay.

[dbfolks166mt]

     The change would be pretty much useless anyway. Every buyer is going to have positive feedback since that is all sellers can leave. It doesn't really matter if it is hidden or not. I really don't pay much attention to the buyers feedback these days it is pretty much useless. 

[segami_photography]

Like I mentioned... Their "Left For Others" feedback is often the most telling about a person.

[segami_photography]

What you saw was the FIRST time I used feedback to alert other sellers/buyers. I ALWAYS leave positive feedback on payment (and include the ship date), EXCEPT... to those whose "Left For Others" feedback shows they don't play well with others. But, I can see I've wasted my time here. Thanks. 

[kensgiftshop]

if their feedback is private, how is that going to alert other sellers, they can't see it?

[meme6253]

Why does that work in reverse for sellers?