Personally I think that there was a LOT of damage done years ago in the "golden age" of 'tit-for-tat' feedback (ie: pre 2008), but more importantly what happened when eBay charged the feedback policies.
Pre 2008 buyers were scared witless of sellers leaving them negs, but the threat of copping a neg did actually help to force buyers to at least COMMUNICATE. I used to have a clause in my TOS that said something like this (not word for word):
Our 100% feedback is extremely important to us! If you have any problems whatsoever, please communicate with us prior to leaving feedback. We always want to help you, but if you leave bad feedback then we will deem that you don't want the matter resolved - therefore will consider the transaction completed, and will leave corresponding feedback in return.
Kind of a veiled threat (I worded it better than that, but you get the underlying message nevertheless). But it worked - buyers were scared of getting a neg, so they actually communicated! Many sellers now days would probably love to write something like that in their listings, and/or give a big fat retaliatory neg to the mongrel buyer who negged them because the colour was not as expected or some other trivial or non-problem.
But whilst this was OK when dealing with good sellers (who just wanted communication), this system meant that bad sellers rode roughshot. And many buyers left in disgust after they were bullied by sellers who'd ripped them off or refused to service them. It was like the wild west, romantic and all in the movies, but it could be deadly if your were in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Heaps of good members (the good, honest ones) left the site in disgust, vowing never to return. This was silly because buyer feedback doesn't mean anything anyway, but for those casual sellers who only had one ID, copping a few negs as a buyer (for doing nothing except negging a bad seller) would seriously affect selling credibility because the feedback is shared.
Then in 2008 eBay blocked sellers from leaving negs, and the tide turned - Buyers had THE POWER. And boy oh boy, didn't they retaliate... all the sellers were gunna PAY for the crimes of a few bad eggs over the years!
Now we have sellers cringing in fear... which improves service elevels considerably, but definitely doesn't help moral or trust. And many of the good buyers are gone elsewhere where they wouldn't have their account trashed if they dare to complain about a seller's performance.
And new, clueless buyers come instead, and they don't pay and sellers don't think there is anything they can do to stop it. Sellers get negged for the most ridiculous reasons, and the DSR stars get trashed on whims rather than real reasons. Sellers don't TRUST the buyers any more!
Thus breeds the angst... the lack of trust festers, and people start acting and responding based on those anxieties and fears. And those reactions cause a knock-on effect, and it's like a war.
I've been selling here more than 12 years now, and I've never been so scared of buyers. My service levels haven't changed, but I absolutely live in fear... it only takes FOUR low DSR scores, and my selling career is ended. And I can cop those low DSRs without the buyer ever even telling me what i did to deserve it, let alone be given an opportunity to "make good".
Angst... YEAP :^O
