No! That is not what I am saying. As in the shop scenario, once the item has reached the buyers hands and he has checked that it is what he ordered - THEN he leaves feedback. If something goes wrong in the transaction ie you sent the wrong item - of course it's STILL YOUR obligation. If you sent the right thing and AP broke it then the obligation is for one of you to fill in a lost item claim - probably best for that to be you - BUT it's STILL not time for the buyer to leave feedback, unless you want a NEG of course which would be a little unfair. If  feedback is NOT given by buyers until / unless the buyer leaves a positive for the seller - it is quite feasible for an excellent buyer, who has diligently purchased MANY items over a number of years - to still have zero feedback. If that buyer then tries to buy an item which a seller has defined as 'no zero feedback bids accepted' - BOTH the seller and the buyer LOSE OUT on what could have been a straight forward transaction on the parts of both members. As a few have said, it's eBay's site - they introduced the theory of feedback and it being a guide to a member's selling / buying reputation - eBay made feedback voluntary - if people are not going to use it as it should be then why not delete it altogether?

You missed my point - the one about the fact that there are a lot of things that can happen in a transaction from payment to completion, therefore just because a buyer has fulfilled their one official obligation, it doesn't mean there aren't a bunch of things that the buyer can do afterwards that make the transaction non-positive for a seller. As a seller, I have an obligation to deal with anything that may arise after I posted the item in a calm and professional manner and I personally feel buyers have the same obligation, so in my eyes a buyer's "obligation" absolutely does not end once they have paid.

The fact that an item has been paid for does not immediately mean the transaction is a positive experience for the seller, so why do buyers think they deserve it for paying, to the extent of demanding it? If payment was all there was to the buyer's part of things, then no one would have a problem with buyers having some kind of auto-feedback for each transaction. (1000 generic "buyer paid, woot!" for everyone). Frankly, the second a buyer tells me to give them feedback, the transaction is soured. (Being told I should do something that I have no obligation to do just rubs me up the wrong way).

Sellers don't have the ability to leave negs, but they have the right to choose the (positive) comments they leave and when; if they choose to do it at all. It's as simple as that.

I also think people need to stop comparing buying online and the feedback system to a B&M retail situation - the only similarity is the retail part. If I was a checkout chick, do you think a buyer would refuse to leave with their groceries until I'd given them a badge that said "A+++ Buyer, so fast payment!!!"