What good is the 'feedback' stystem on eBay when bad sellers can just leave "revenge feedback??"

If you don't sell, then your feedback is basically irrelevant.

It's a much crappier deal for sellers.
I had a woman buy a Sony PSP, didn't pay for it, didn't respond to e-mails, etc. - and finally just laughed it off when Ebay contacted her. But I couldn't leave her negative feedback for being a cunt, as she'd just give me a negative in return - and since all I do is sell on there, I don't want any negative feedback.

This is but one of many reasons eBay sucks.

wow. sounds like if assholes could fly ebay would be an airport!!!!

I've been ripped off twice on fairly small purchases and not left feedback at all, just written it off, because I have feedback in the 30s and they had thousands, so I wouldn't even make a dent in their feedback but they would mine.

Bad feedback may not matter as much for buyers, but I had been meaning to start selling. Maybe the new seller ratings system helps a bit in that revenge feedback from sellers to buyers won't show up on that if you do start selling.

(This is half an xpost because I told the first paragraph before on ILX and milo told me what he said just there and probably the thing about the new seller ratings too. Sorry, milo.)

I'm in the same situation right now. I don't understand why you're allowed to see the other party's feedback before you've left yours. Keep them in escrow till they're both left.

The one time I was ripped off on a larger purchase I did actually get a refund thanks to Paypal buyer protection, except I only won by default because the guy never replied to Paypal's emails about it. If he'd just said it was lost in the post, the buyer protection terms+conditions suggested there'd be no comeback. (Pretty sure it wasn't lost in the post because the guy sold the exact same item with buy-it-now just as the one I'd already bid on was due to finish.)

Oh, and I had a "mint condition" CD arrive looking like boars had eaten gravel off it, but I let that go since it was cheap and out of print and played OK.

When things screw up you realise just how amazing it is that most ebay transactions work out fine (well, most of mine have), because there doesn't seem to be much recourse.

milo, did you send her the PSP before she paid for it?

oh wait you probably just never sent it

i had a guy buy an underworld 12" from me and he completely disappeared. i left negative feedback for him, and he left negative feedback for me claiming i actually sent him the record and he paid. i don't know what the hell is wrong with some people.

Sellers should be made to leave feedback within 24 hours of payment. There's many ebay sellers who do revenge feedback to put people off doing so. I once was shown this guy who called everyone who left negative feedback for him as a "pinhead". These guys need to be stopped, but ebay doesn't give a fuck.

x-post
I've had to do paypal complaints a few times, got money back both times. Wasn't anything expensive but it was a point of principle. Luckily I didn't have an expensive item go wrong in the next 6 months afterwards otherwise i wouldn't have been able to claim.

I buy and sell in equal measure. It's like a damn barter system for me.

So, basically, what it comes down to is that we're at the mercy of flakes and deadbeats. This sort of defeats the purpose of a merit-based feedback system, no?

Still, one bad apple doesn't spoil the bunch, I guess - I've had hundreds (maybe thousands if you count a previous account) of transactions on eBay and been screwed maybe ten times.

This last one really pissed me off though, because it wasn't so much an actual two-way dispute as it was the seller going 'nyah nyah nyah, sucker' and eBay not getting my back at all despite me being a member in good standing.

One of the reasons I quit selling on Amazon (once I was no longer as desperate for the money) was the revenge-feedback thing, and Amazon's inflexibility in dealing with it. I never got stung, but the anecdotes piling up at the sellers' message boards started to rattle me. One guy reportedly bought cheap items and left bad feedback to make some sellers look bad in comparison to his girlfriend, who sold the same type of merchandise.

It's getting to where ebay and Amazon Marketplace are just made up of predators and prey, and if you don't want to be either one, you get shook out eventually.

I knew they'd be a thread like this the minute I put something up for sale.

http://img230.imageshack.us/img230/8039/autauxue8.gif

It's funny 'cuz it's true

So, basically, what it comes down to is that we're at the mercy of flakes and deadbeats. This sort of defeats the purpose of a merit-based feedback system, no?

Pretty much. Ebay has no incentive to improve the system - they don't want to chance angering potential bidders with a harsher feedback system (or giving sellers more control over who they sell to), and sellers have nowhere else to go.

The ones that anger me lately are US accounts (evading the 'sell only to X' setting) that want you to mail their shit to Turkey/Uzbekistan/Mars, then get mad when I give them a shipping quote for the fastest service with insurance and tracking.

so glad I've almost run out of things to sell on Ebay

Sellers should be made to leave feedback within 24 hours of payment.

Uh I sell CDs on eBay pretty regularly but I can't guarantee being able to get on it every day, given this isn't my living and I have a life. People who hassle me for feedback two seconds after they've bought the thing piss me off

yeah like "please leave me positive feedback soon, thanks!!!!!!!" stfu.

i prefer the simple "buyer pays me, i send item, i never hear anything from them again".

Well, the thing is, if you're a good seller, your good feedback outweights the bad ones, and since everyone knows that negative feedback is the product of assholes much of the time, then why fret over occasionally negative-feedback from assholery, especially if it's a 1 in a 100 type thing?

Unless you're selling things to people who ALL happen to be flakes, which would invalidate and destroy the whole eBay/Amazon business model, and that obviously hasn't happened yet.

That said, Amazon Marketplace is awesome and eBay can suck it.

can't you leave rebuttals under your negatives now anyway, like "dude is a psycho, never paid, wtf"

if you have one neg and the guy who put it on you has 20 I think people know who to believe

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7689553.stm