dafter than a quarter pound bag of daft things

[sixlostmonkeys]

Ebay have made some bad changes over the past year or so, but the proposed change (In May) has to be the daftest of the lot: sellers will no longer be able to leave neutral or negative feedback.

Sellers have very little choice as it is as to who to sell to, but at least if a bid comes in early enough we can check the feedback and decide whether to cancel the bid or not. Now we won't even have that luxury.

This is going to be buyer paradise for the likes of tortoise's buyer www.mumsnet.com/Talk/2673/464950
I have no doubt in my mind that sellers will receive umpteen messages "Right, I have bought your item and now I want you to send it for FREE or I will leave you a negative" - how is a seller supposed to warn others of this?
Total blackmail and then when the feedback drops, restrictions placed (and there are more and more of them too)

I have 100% pos FB after many years of selling. I don't cling to my 100% like a trophy but, I can think of 2 buyers from the past who would have left a negative if they had had the balls to do so. Both complained unbelievably, one because she paid 40p more than the price of the stamp and the other because I didn't post on a bank holiday.
Now, how many other buyers would be the same as these? Considering some buyers don't leave full stars when the P&P is free, there must be loads who would love to complain at paying more than the cost of the stamp and only hold back from leaving the neg because of the fear of retaliation.

So, what does a seller do if a buyer blackmails, or damages goods and demands a refund, or returns a different item and demands a refund, or threatens a seller with violence, or simply doesn't pay etc etc etc etc?

Sure, there are flaws in the feedback system. Unfortunately many buyers do find themself in a situation where they have had shoddy service and are too scared to leave factual feedback for fear of ruining their own FB. This is why I have always said - don't fear the feedback. If is was bad then say so, and when you get a retaliatory simply reply to it with "this is a retaliatory"
the number of times this happens though falls into insignificance compared to the inevitable blackmailing that will occur. Buyers will now be free to act atrociously and get away with it time and time again.

What do you all think?

I need another strong coffee now [grin

[nappyaddict]

this is why if i have a prob i always try to email them about it first and then if i can't sort it out leave a neg. i've had a couple of retaliatory ones in the passed and it's annoying. a lot of people just look at your perecentage and don't read the comments so would just assume you were a bad seller/buyer.