It's unfortunate the feedback system has become what it has, imo.
It started out as a way you could review your trading partner, by the green dots, grey dots, red dots and comments. Any person of average intelligence could make an educated decision on these alone.
Now it's no longer simple, as behind the scenes us sellers know ebay marks our stars, negatives and neutrals as bad, very bad, and will therefore interfere and place limitations on our business. This has happened to sellers who have above 99% rating!!! The anonymous star ratings, and ebay's imposed restrictions based on it, are the biggest threat to a seller imo.
In terms of leaving buyers feedback - they don't need it. It's nothing more than a pat on the back for paying.
I have had my share of horror buyers who have been so rude.
, I've had false item not received disputes a couple of times (sneaky buyers who waited for over a month on the hope I'd thrown away the tracking number) and a number of other little things that has made the transaction a negative experience for me, as a seller. If buyers value the green dots, then perhaps they should be prepared to also receive red and grey dots.
Ebay should have either kept the system as it was, or taken buyer feedback away altogether. It's now just another reason a buyer might be unhappy with a seller "he didn't give me a positive straight away, oh no, I'll neg him for that".
They could easily have set the system up to prevent retaliatory unfair negatives (sellers negging buyers for negging sellers), and otherwise kept it as it is. The star ratings should stay, but ebay shouldn't restrict a seller because they've received a couple of low ratings. If the overall stars are good the buyers should be able to judge for themselves.
