eBay Bans Sellers From Leaving Negative or Neutral Feedback For Buyers

[amy]

Well it happened.

A brand new, zero feedback, buyer left me a neutral and dinged me for "not as described" AND "shipping charges", because I charged him all of $2. Shipping and Handling.  (My competition charges $6, nevermind.)

She must have been one of my off-eBay buyers.  I've had a couple of buyers leave us bad ratings recently because they paid for flat rate shipping (or in one case received free shipping) and were pissed that I wouldn't give them a free upgrade to FedEx 2-day or UPS overnight shipping because they needed the item right away for a gift, child's birthday, etc.

Buyer #1 left us a 1-star rating on Google Checkout and left a comment that our shipping costs were more than the item cost.  Her order was $36.  We charged her a flat rate $5.95 (actual shipping was $10, the FedEx 2-day she wanted a free upgrade to was $48).  The ratings left through Google Checkout do effect your item's position in Google Product Search when the buyer sorts by seller rating.

Buyer #2's  order was over $100 so she qualified for our free shipping and didn't pay a shipping charge but left us negative marks in all categories on BizRate, including shipping (she wrote that our shipping charges were high) because we couldn't give her a free upgrade to UPS overnight (actual overnight charges would have been $76).  She ordered the item late Friday night and left the BizRate rating at 6 am Monday morning because the item hadn't shipped yet and she hadn't received a response when she called our 800 number--never mind that the after hours message on our phone system states that our hours of operation are M-F 9am-6pm PT.

[PowerSeller]

I received negative feedback this week from a buyer.  Their beef?  They purchased the item on Friday.  I took their package to the post office first thing on Monday morning and sent it via Priority Mail.  That is their beef.  I'm not joking.  Mr. Buyer did neglect to mention to me that he expected instant shipping.

[mandy]

Related:

The controversial new feedback policy eBay announced in January is slated to start taking effect on Monday, removing sellers' ability to leave neutral or negative feedback for their buyers.

While eBay officials hope the change will benefit both buyers and sellers by creating a more reliable marketplace, some small merchants see this as another reason to move their wares elsewhere...

full article: http://money.cnn.com/2008/05/14/smbusine...2008051418

[amy]

the effect of the changes for me:  my feedback rating jumped from 5046 to 6080 and my feedback percentage dropped from 99.9% to 0%.

other changes:
Pompous Jay 388K to 711K
Pugster888 178K to 336K
Bargainland 234K to 451K
Grapevinehill 328K to 521K

other news:
gameliquidations, FB 283K, was NARU'd 2 days ago

[maggie777]

my feedback rating jumped from 5046 to 6080

I gained an extra 8500.

and my feedback percentage dropped from 99.9% to 0%.

0% here too. Assholes.