Workaround to Ebay's New Feedback Policy

Just found an interesting method of "sort of" beating eBay's new policy about sellers being able to only give positive feedbacks.
Start your feedback with the word "Negative" or "Neg", then type your message.

You would think that would only help if you scanned ALL feedback given a buyer (lots of work)
BUT
Toolhaus will improve its feedback search to look for those.
And incorporate them into the feedback rating.

It's not the best solution, but it's much better than no solution at all.

The biggest problem I can think of is that sellers will have to look at ALL of their bidders in order to weed out the undesireables.
And of course that won't help against the snipers.
I wonder if a statement in your TOS about people with feedbacks with the word "negative" in them will be cause to have their bids canceled?

I'm still going to go with not selling until the feedback (and maybe the FVF) changes get rescinded.

 

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Yeah....I figure on shutting down as well after I get bombed by negs due to my unsearched roll auction....auction has been up 20 minutes and I have had 2 neg emails already, 1 from a seller of " truly unsearched" wheat rolls.

 

I've never sold on Ebay so my experience only from the buyer side or reading posts here of Ebay nightmares. This sounds as if the Sellers have as much if not more risk being the seller than the buyers risk .. and you have no way to protect yourself from rotten buyers... is that the case?

 

yes, that is the case.

 

so, are you saying a seller is no longer allowed to leave negative feedback?

 

That IS correct sir

 

YEah, I just read the new policy, looks fair to me. I thought they were just not allowing sellers to leave negative feedback, its a bit more than that...no more retaliation negatives from crappy sellers will be great, now buyers can rate without being bullied by buyers. I like how they are punishing sellers with negative reputations and rewarding sellers with good ones....

Of course if sellers and buyers just act like adults and are honest...then it wont be a problem...I have never given or recieved a negative.

 

If I survive this auction I am taking a wait and see additude, it will def help weed out the bad guys on BOTH sides, a good thing !!!! Other than p'ing off a cpl other sellers, I have never had any problem at all with buyers, and only 1 real rip AS A BUYER that I am waiting on a paypal review from.

More honest feedback would be the ideal result if this new policy works as planned...I hope it does

 

Ebay is good for sellers no matter what the rules. When I sell on ebay, I MAKE MONEY for things that would otherwise sit in the closet or basement and get dumped at a garage sale for a little bit of nothing. Or, I can pay the VERY low ebay/paypal fees, make good money and "complain" all the way to the bank.

When I go to the feedback forums I just laugh any more. I have never seen so many people complain about making money. One seller posted and posted on how bad the fees were, the new rules and all the "evil" buyers then ended by saying how she was making a very good living from ebay and never has to leave the house to do it.

As long as a seller is honest and hasn't had any problems in the past then they shouldn't even notice the transition.

 

why does honesty cause such hatred?

best i can figure is it really is exposing those who are claiming to be selling unsearched rolls and bags when we all know from using common sense that they really did search them most likely.

those who get mad have the most to hide in their own auctions and dont like it when its brought to the surface.

thats why i dont buy off ebay, not for things like coins anyway. the stuff i tend to buy doesnt usually have people trying to rip you off, they're just wanting to get rid of the item.

 

My prediction is that the buyers are going to have a field day.
Negatives given to sellers is going to get out of hand.
There's enough mean spirited people out there to cause a real problem.

 

Sellers have much more exposure than buyers for a number of reasons. For one thing, most of the burden of "ensuring satisfaction" rests on the seller.

I have sold on e-bay and never had a problem. Good honest photos, "no questions asked" return policy, and honest descriptions including any minor flaws / spots... all good.

 

Same here. I used to buy coins on ebay on a regular basis but it's been over 2 years since I bought any more coins. Seems that all you see are stock photos and mis-leading descriptions.

A very good policy that many more should follow.! If more people practiced this, then we wouldn't be seeing all this mess over rules changes and feedback issues.

 

As long as the buyer knows exactly what they're getting, they tend to be happy. Nobody likes bad surprises.

 

Did you invite them here to visit with us? See if they want to come over and play with us.

 

If the buyer is dropping negatives every sell and showing a pattern, ebay said they will take action...that remains to be seen.

I dont know what ebay some people use...but all these horror stories and expectations of evil awful people. Now trust me...I KNOW they are out there...but I think besides the fake sellers and the scammers, most people there are just trying to do honest business. I have never given a negative and no seller has ever given me one...I just dont see the huge numbers of jerks out there trying to ruin every seller they come across...

I have come across some jerks, settled with them and moved on...sometimes I think some people who have all these problems probably just shouldn't be on ebay...they are either jerks to the buyers (or sellers), not completely honest, not fair with returns (often after they have not been honest).

I have seen people run here to complain on a regular basis about some new ebay drama...often times, I can tell by the listing, the way they post, their demeanor, why they have problems...

We have seen just what they are trying to eliminate here recently...a bad buyer with terrible business practice and a liar refuses to honor a sell...gets a negative for it, then retaliates with a negative (and lies in the feedback about the buyer) and bullies the buyer into removing the negative thus his honest feedback doesn't stand unless that honest buyer wants a negative as well. Its abuse of the system.

Of course I think sellers need a bit more reward for being a good honest seller as well, and recourse if they happen to come across a terrible buyer (which I am sure exists) but I deal with some sellers who have sold THOUSANDS of items on ebay with 100% positive feedback. These guys dont have the 'mutually withdrawn' message all over the feedback either so they aren't getting bad feedback then bullying the buyer to remove it...they are just good sellers.

When you do business, you might have to deal with an ass once in awhile, if you aren't prepared for that, IMO, you aren't prepared to do business anywhere, not just ebay.

And think about it...when I go to a restaurant, there are often feedback cards at the table, many different brick and mortar businesses have some way to garner feedback both negative and positive. How many times have you given a business or restaurant a card to fill out to rate you as a customer?

In the end I think this might be a good thing as long as sellers who DO come across real bad buyers have some recourse, or ebay is prepared to take action against buyers with poor transaction history. Its my opinion that they are few and far between anyway for a good seller and a negative will now disappear after awhile so it wont mar your feedback if you just get one here and there. I know there are bad buyers out there, just my opinion but IMO there are far more scum sellers out there looking to scam and not prepared for what it takes to sell on ebay. There are people making money on ebay with stellar reputations.

 

Thats my policy as well, and it works. My problem will be caused by me, lol. These " spoof / fake" auctions that I run on occasion, and exposing the shysters can lead to negs. A shyster uses another account to buy.........negs and you got the neg just by P'ing them off. Keep poking at a dog, the dog will eventually bite you.:loud:

If the new system works, and I think it will, all is good. Both I and a very highly respected " pro" on this forum have both received negatives from a crook we outed, those will soon be gone under the new policy because the other party has been removed from ebay.

Other forums mention leaving a green dot ( pos) but neg feedback in caps?
That is not how it is supposed to work. I will eventually grow up and stop poking the dog, but it sure is fun sometimes. I see no problems...good pics, deliver what you promise, return policy...should be fine. We'll all see soon.

 

I do see the "darn with faint praise" so-called positive coming, at least until eBay figures out how to parse the comment and halt it for containing "bad" words.

I can see it now:

! Your comment appears to contain inappropriate words that don't reflect our committment to being a community (when it suits us).

Please see ebay/buried in fine print/user acceptance of ridiculous terms/section 99 3-4z/paragraph40001 for our clearly obfuscated explanation.

 

You can't please everyone all of the time.
100% pos feedback is gonna be tough to keep.

 

I closed my store as soon as I read the new changes.......after the auctions end that's it for me selling on the site that I will not name.....


It inspired me to create a cost friendly market place......