Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Negative Feedback on eBay
I was reading Jordan's blog post about online reputations and it mentioned eBay and the fear to leave negative feedback. This is a valid point and a problem with eBay's feedback system. It seems to limit the course of action a buyer has to tell others that the seller is not a good seller. However, it also prevents buyers from leaving frivolous negative feedback because the item they purchased did not meet their standards. While sometimes a product will arrive to a buyer in a condition that is significantly worse than it was described in the auction listing, however, if the buyer has a standard higher than what the seller is describing and it doesn't meet that standard, it's not the fault of the seller. The way eBay's feedback system works does favor sellers but it serves to limit frivolous complaints. And as a strictly business decision, it makes sense for eBay to favor the sellers--they're the ones paying the listing fees!
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3 comments:
yea geroge i really agree with your point..Ebay is a smart business but you need to look at it another way ebay sellers can cancel any bid based on negative feeback so if a buyer has bad feedback a seller might not want to sell them a product in the end hurting ebay by not gettting a commisison..i think it all goes who has the guts to post the truth good or bad
But the fear of negative feedback is a pretty strong reason to keep from doing something bad on eBay. If a new buyer on eBay already has negative feedback, they are a valid risk to the seller because they may not carry through with the sale and may cause the seller to lose their listing fees. If a seller doesn't have a large number of positive feedbacks and has even a few negative, it can be a risky transaction for the buyer because there isn't a strong enough history.
One of the major faults in the eBay feedback system is that there's no restrictions or constraints on creating new accounts and buying items. I managed to buy a PS3 back in November and was going to sell it on eBay but wound up not selling it because of too many new buyers with zero feedback who were ending hundreds of auctions and obviously had no intentions of buying. Because of the lack of restraint offered to low feedback users, eBay becomes much more risky for the sellers. I think that justifies the seller's right to cancel bids based on negative or low feedback. I guess this is just an incentive for buyers to build up their eBay feedback credibility. It takes time to do this and I guess that's why it's not always liked.
George I def aggree with you its a major problem that Ebay has to deal with and they need to finds ways to control people bidding without buying it...ITs a major problem for sellers and yes negative feedback in that case doesnt matter to them
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