Good news for frequent buyers on eBay — buyers will not need to fear negative feedback on their own ratings if an auction goes sour. EBay plans to revamp their feedback system, of which has gained the trust from millions of users over the years, specifically eliminating abusive feedback that sellers issue to buyers. [Link via Techmeme]
This is one step eBay has effectively empowered their users who purchase items from poor sellers. It is well known that if you leave bad feedback on a seller (or even a deadbeat one), they are likely to return fire and damage your online reputation on eBay — with no recourse available from eBay. This change absolves the problem from surreptitious sellers who penalize buyers for their own inadequacies.
As I’ve said this is good news; however, this can leave legitimate sellers powerless in the event of a deadbeat bidder. There’s already some buzz among power sellers to boycott eBay in response to these changes. I believe eBay should step up their services they provide sellers in addressing non-paying bidders (NPBs) as a means to make reasonable resolution. Could this mean eBay will offer “auction insurance” which provides collection services against NPBs? I’m not sure, but it would be interesting as these changes are executed.
What do you think? Could these changes backfire or improve the user experience on eBay? Share you thoughts in the comments below.
