Some eBay Inc. (Nasdaq:ebay) sellers have customer service track records that would be the envy of most businesses, at least that's the impression you get after looking at their feedback.
The auction site's system of buyers and sellers rating one another was created at the dawn of the Internet age. It helped make eBay what it is today , but as Alice LaPlante points out, it is far from foolproof. It seems like everyone who either buys or sells on eBay gets an "A" rating. Plus, I find it hard to believe that any business can sell to thousands of customers and get no negative feedback. Even the most conscientious seller is going to get a crazy or stupid customer. My wife has run across those when she lists items on the site. Plus, there are people who will give "positive" feedback to a friend trying to build up their reputation. I did that myself before learning better.
eBay, like the rest of life, sometimes reminds me of high school. People gossip like teenagers. LaPlante speaks about "retaliatory" feedback when someone says something nasty about a buyer or seller just because they're having a bad day. "It is this ominous threat of retaliatory feedback that causes everyone to be so very, very nice on eBay, according to some," she writes. "Rather than risk a negative comment on their own account, many members would rather say nothing than too much." She also mentions some suggestions from Brad Templeton about improving the feedback system such as showing the number of transactions that people have done to determine how many times they didn't get a rating. That's a sound idea.
The lesson of the feedback system on eBay and other sites that rely on users to police one another is simple: don't believe everything that you read.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
1-03-2007 @ 10:14AM
Alex said...
One of the BIG problems on Ebay is the abundance of 'feedback farms'. The deal is that scammers buy 1p Ebooks from each other to build up feedback ratings. Thus, you could build up a feedback of 200 from £2! Why is it that Ebay have not banned the sale of Ebooks yet? Alternative auction sites such as Tazbar and Ebid have taken this step. Shouldn't Ebay be following suit?
A guide to spot scams can be found here:
http://www.pheebay.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=48
1-03-2007 @ 10:39AM
Katherine said...
I've seen these 'feedback farms' that Alex speaks of and it often looks like one person has set up dozens, maybe hundreds of accounts just to deal between them and build up large numbers of accounts with what appears to be 100%feedback of thousands.
I recall one late in 2006 who had got himself into powerseller, shooting star and all the trimmings in exactly this way within something like 10 days.
I guess you really have to be careful to check out who you're dealing with and don't rely on the feedback alone. After all, you wouldn't buy an expensive watch from some strange man in a bar would you?
1-03-2007 @ 11:22AM
Biddy said...
The biggest problem with feedback is that people spend so much time worrying about it. So you got a neg - big deal, get over it. You didn't get 10/10 on every test at school, why would you want a perfect row of green plus signs on eBay. If people weren't so obsessed with looking perfect themselves, "retaliatory feedback" wouldn't be an issue.
1-03-2007 @ 3:31PM
Perfecto said...
Ebay needs to change thier feedback system to multiple choice and remove the comment portion. There are only a few reasons why a negative is left for member. Item not recieved, Slow shipping, etc. Its the comment portion that causes all the problems on ebay and keeps ebay in court. A popular comment now by the ebay crazies is to falsely accuse a seller of selling counterfeit mechandise which can hurt a sellers sales and make them slow to list again. Ebay needs a new feedback system where reason is optional and then the buyer or seller has a few mutiple choice reasons to pick from if they wanted to elaborate.
1-14-2007 @ 7:38AM
ripp off on ebay said...
when I got ripped off by techno56 he said he had a higher positive feedback rating than me and so he would leave me negative feedback and so could I.
The implication was that people would beleive him more than me.