is feedback finished?

[the-kazbar]

Each month less and less people bother to leave feedback.

ebay is more willing to remove feedback now than ever before. 

Buyers can only receive positive.

Sellers with terrible feedback still get purchased from.

etc etc etc

It just doesn't seem to be as important as it once was and millions of people happily shop on websites, that have no feedback system, every day.

Has the usefulness of feedback, in its present state, had its run?

Personally I would like it changed to a transaction count for both buyers and sellers.

Buyers would rate a transaction (possibly with a rank out of 10) and the seller would receive an overall satisfaction rating garnered from an average of all rankings.

It would be quick and should be compulsory.

Buyers pages would show the average satisfaction rating left for others.

Buyers could opt out of seeing items in searches from sellers whose rankings fall below a set level and sellers could block buyers who left rankings below their desired level.

The comments can go altogether. Sellers would not rate buyers at all.

What do you think? Has feedback had its run? How would you change it?

[1sweetap6v8]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r84zVatNF3s

[***super_nova***]

 as well as a count for the number of disputes showing for both buyers and sellers.

The problem is that there is no way to judge who is in fault.  Sellers that sell items attractive to teenagers will be opening heaps of disputes for non payment, and will also be targeted by the little scammers claiming INR or SNAD (hoping to get refund or partial refund).  Some buyers can have a bad luck of striking bad sellers.  Some buyers are just too naive and continue to bid on things that are just too good a deal to be true, and never learn their lesson.  But sometimes it is just matter of bad luck; I do not have too many problems, but every now and then I get several within very short time.  Just because somebody is lodging disputes means absolutely nothing; especially as sometimes scammer may claim INR and the seller just refunds because they know that if they cannot prove postage they would lose anyway, so there would not be a dispute showing.  BUT nobody knows if the person is a scammer or if it is their postie or somebody in the street who is stealing their parcels.

[thecatspjs]

Think it is easy to identify the exceptions - but I don't think a system should be premised on the exceptions.

In anycase IMO most decent sellers don't have dozens and dozens of disputes opened against them, they put in place plans to manage the risks - such as writing clear and accurate descriptions, using photos of actual item, packaging well, prompt post and sending via post method appropriate to value etc etc  

How the competition stacks up, within those areas where there is a higher risk of disputes, would serve as a benchmark for a discerning buyers comparison in any case, as it does now with stars and feedback.

[annettebetstar]

.

[annettebetstar]

I would like to no that as well, I am sick and tired of time wasters who bid on items but have no intention of paying, they ignore all communication and even when you open a dispute against them nothing happens they just move on to do it again and again, I don't see why they cant have NEGATIVE feedback left so as to warn other sellers, these serial pests should be banned from bidding or made to pay from there paypal accounts. 

[foxette-in-sox]

When sellers leave rubbish like this

SERIAL NON PAYER! BAD BAD EBAYER,STUPID WOMAN GET OFF EBAY U TIMEWASTER

I'm not surprised ebay did away with negs for buyers-how unprofessional does the above make a seller look ? And who would want to buy from a so called top rated seller with such anger management issues-very scary.

[***super_nova***]

, these serial pests should be banned from bidding or made to pay from there paypal accounts. 

You have the option to block them from bidding on your items already.  As long as sellers go through the NPB dispute the NPB is issued with strike, and if you have your blocks in place anybody with 2 or more strikes gets blocked.

[thecatspjs]

SERIAL NON PAYER! BAD BAD EBAYER,STUPID WOMAN GET OFF EBAY U TIMEWASTER

Just serves to demonstrate the system is not working and needs improvement.

[davewil1964]

I would like to no that as well, I am sick and tired of time wasters who bid on items but have no intention of paying, they ignore all communication and even when you open a dispute against them nothing happens they just move on to do it again and again, I don't see why they cant have NEGATIVE feedback left so as to warn other sellers, these serial pests should be banned from bidding or made to pay from there paypal accounts. 

As has been stated numerous times -

A NPB case leaves the buyer with a strike.

Sellers can block buyers with 2 or more strikes.

False positives can impact adversely on sellers silly enough to leave them.

"Warnings" in feedback don't help sellers who sell BIN, nor prevent last minute snipes.

Just open the case, close it, get your FVF back, relist, Annette. It's, at worst, a couple of minutes total. I'm about to double my number of real non-payers over the last 18 months. Opened 4 cases, closed 2 as non-paying. About to add another 2 in the week. That's life and statistics. Do I fret over it? No, I don't consider something to be sold until I get paid. And it probably takes me less time all up to open and close a case than it takes your local supermarket to replace goods on the shelf when a customer decides they don't want it. Should said customer get a tattoo on their forehead to that effect?

I will admit the current system isn't perfect, but as I can't think of any alternative which doesn't contain as many flaws, I suspect the current one is the go.

[thecatspjs]

What about adding the number of unpaid strikes next to number of bid retractions on buyers feedback page Dave ???