eBay

stonezone · ‎10-14-2020

Why are sellers NOT allowed the option to leave NEGATIVE feedback On occasions ? only option I was allowed was a positive feedback(was allowed to type whatever but only option was positive feedback?) for what I felt strongly about a dishonest buyer!

kensgiftshop · ‎10-14-2020

@stonezone

Buyers haven't been able to receive negative feedback for awhile now.

And it's a policy violation to leave negative remarks in the buyers positive feedback.

Have a great day.

glorybells · ‎10-14-2020

That comment you left was a policy violation. If the buyer complains, eBay will remove your comment, allow the buyer to keep the “green donut” and give you a mark against your account.

GloryBells •
eBay Mentor Since 2008

eburtonlab · ‎10-14-2020

eBay's reasoning is spelled out here:

https://pages.ebay.com/services/forum/changes.html#o4

"Why are sellers allowed to leave only positive Feedback for buyers?
Sellers used to be able to leave negative Feedback for buyers. Unfortunately, we found that when buyers had bad experiences with sellers, they were often reluctant to leave neutral or negative Feedback out of fear that the seller would retaliate by leaving negative Feedback for them. And when buyers did receive unfair negative Feedback, they usually decreased their shopping on eBay. Overall, it became clear that the fear of retaliatory negative Feedback made it more difficult for good sellers to distinguish themselves from not-so-good sellers, and made the Feedback system as a whole less reliable."

2manygadgets · ‎12-01-2020

I agree strongly, this policy is unfair to sellers and bad for the eBay user community. It means if a buyer is a time waster, there's is no way for a seller to warn others about that person. To make matters worse, I assumed after entering comments I would get an option to select positive or negative, but the comments just posted as positive. As such the buyer appears to have an additional positive feedback incorrectly.

Of course there's no way to contact a human to correct the situation either, so this person goes on to waste others time and money.

Pathetic.

eburtonlab · ‎12-02-2020

@2manygadgets

It means if a buyer is a time waster, there's is no way for a seller to warn others about that person.

Leaving feedback for a buyer does not warn sellers of anything. In most cases a seller has no chance to review buyer feedback prior to a purchase because buyers are the ones that initiate bids and purchases, not sellers.

Set your buyer requirements to block bids and purchases by users with two or more unpaid item strikes in the last twelve months, and then make sure that non-paying bidders receive those strikes by opening unpaid item cases and following through to get your fees back. If you do that, neither party can leave feedback, and those time-wasting "buyers" will not be able to bid on or buy your items.

Alternatively, list your items as fixed price items with Immediate Payment Required, and do not accept best offers. Then the only way a transaction can proceed is if the buyer actually pays; otherwise the item remains listed and no time is wasted.

davethedad1216 · ‎12-02-2020

leaving warranted negative feedback for a bad buyer would hurt ebay's business model. if a seller doesnt something wrong well that's on the seller but if the buyer does something wrong, that's a reflection on what ebay lets in.

davethedad1216 · ‎12-02-2020

these polices do not work.

There are NO CONSEQUENCES for being a bad buyer and wasting a seller's time and effort. Even if you do set up the things you mentioned, bad buyers find a way around it.

eburtonlab · ‎12-02-2020

@davethedad1216

Even if you do set up the things you mentioned, bad buyers find a way around it.

Obviously there are some ways to get around a seller's buying requirements -- by registering a new account, for instance -- but I am curious to know why you think highly motivated "bad buyers" who are willing to go to such lengths would be deterred by the threat of receiving negative feedback.

Negative feedback is not in any way a deterrent to the worst of the "bad buyers".

Also curious to learn how those "bad buyers" are getting around the Immediate Payment Requirement.

johnwhiplash · ‎12-02-2020

Because sellers were abusing the system. They wouldn't leave feedback for a buyer unless the buyer left feedback first and if the buyer left negative feedback, the seller would also leave negative for the buyer. There's no reason why ebay should even provide a way for the buyer to receive feedback now.

monroe67 · ‎12-02-2020

About the only consequence to being a bad buyer is being placed on sellers' Blocked Buyers Lists (BBL). I find that I add buyers to my blocked list about once every couple of years. Out of 60-70 buyers (from my selling ID), I have maybe five or six names on my BBL. One was a super-fast paying buyer who bought four of my listed items, then gave me neutral feedback on one of them with comments that showed he really didn't understand the "feature" (not a "bug") that he was complaining about. I just don't want to deal with him ever again, so to the BBL he went!

fmwsells · ‎12-02-2020

"There's no reason why ebay should even provide a way for the buyer to receive feedback now"

Good point

pburn · ‎12-02-2020

@stonezone

Speaking strictly for myself, I will not buy from a seller who has violated eBay's feedback policy the way you have. After all, if you're willing to violate that policy, what other policies are you willing to violate?