Question
(On Ebay...)
Hi… I'm Brian Burke, Senior Marketplace Policy Manager for Feedback.
eBay's feedback system is a powerful way for perfect strangers to have the confidence and trust to trade with each other on eBay. Like other areas of the eBay marketplace, the feedback system has continually evolved to keep up with the changing needs of the Community.
Today, at eBay Live! 2005, Bill Cobb, President of eBay North America, announced a number of changes we will be making to the feedback system later this year.
These changes include:
Neutralizing feedback left by members who don't participate in issue resolution processes. We believe that members unwilling to participate in processes designed to help resolve issues, such as the Unpaid Item process or the Item Not Received process, shouldn't be able to impact another member's reputation. After this change is implemented, if a member leaves feedback for a transaction and does not participate in these processes, eBay will neutralize their feedback. This means the rating (whether positive or negative) will not affect the recipient's feedback score. While the feedback comment itself will remain, it will include an administrative note from eBay indicating that the feedback doesn't count towards the member's total score.
Removing feedback from users who are indefinitely suspended within 90 days of registration. We believe that members who are indefinitely suspended within 90 days of registering on eBay were never truly members of the Community, and so their feedback comments and ratings should not count. We will automatically remove feedback (positive, neutral, and negative) left by such users.
Requiring new members to complete a tutorial before leaving neutral or negative feedback. This change will require all new users (members with a feedback score of less than 10) to complete a short tutorial before leaving neutral or negative feedback. We hope that the tutorial will educate new members about the feedback system as well as ensure that they are aware of the various communication tools available to them prior to leaving feedback for their trading partner.
Since we will now be addressing member non participation within the eBay issue resolution system, we will align eBay-approved certified dispute resolution services' feedback withdrawal systems with eBay's and only accept mutual feedback withdrawal when both members agree to the withdrawal. This will take affect when we introduce the process for neutralizing feedback from members unwilling to participate in issue resolution processes.
I've written an article in the July issue of eBay online newsletter, The Chatter, detailing these upcoming changes and the philosophy and history behind the feedback system. I invite you to read an Advance Copy of July's Marketplace Safety article to learn more. Please stay tuned to the General Announcement board for more updates on these upcoming changes as we get closer to launching.
Sincerely,
Brian Burke
Senior Marketplace Policy Manager
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Thoughts? I'm already ticked about the Dispute Console -- is the Pay Your Ebay Seller Reminder a thing of the past? Used to be, it was under the FVF Credit Process thing... used to be handy to get past spam filters.
I've used it twice and I HATE Ebays LIE... I click Buyer Has Not Paid/ Have Not Received Payment, they send Buyer Has Refused to Pay. Is the reminder somewhere I've missed? Dispute sounds harsh enough.
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I got this message in my eBay mailbox yesterday.
The first thing I do like is if I do a UPI to get FVF back and they refuse to cooperate, eBay will retract the negative if left by those kind of people.
WHat I don't like is, they can also neutralize positive feedbacks.
But then again, I only leave positive when they leave me a positive first.
And I leave a negative if they leave me a negative or sometimes even a neutral
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Brian Burke, Senior Marketplace Policy Manager for Feedback.
has ebay got a policy manager for cleaning the latrines and emptying the wastebaskets too......
I have never seen a corporation so focused on the bottom line with so many dispensable positions....and this looks like another one of them
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I'm hungry...
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... shouldn't be able to impact another member's reputation. After this change is implemented, if a member leaves feedback for a transaction and does not participate in these processes, eBay will neutralize their feedback. This means the rating (whether positive or negative) will not affect the recipient's feedback score. While the feedback comment itself will remain, it will include an administrative note from eBay indicating that the feedback doesn't count towards the member's total score.
Bolding mine. If eBay really cared about this, they would realize leaving the comment at all impacts a member's reputation. My guess is removing the comment instead of 'neutralizing' it would incur free speech issues.
Any bets on how long the UPI process will remain free to particpate?
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there is no perfect way to do a feedback stystem, so make it numbers only, positive, negs and neutrals, no comments and dispose of this whole department, save all those wages directly to the bottom line
and yep, me thinks ebay is going to start charging ten bucks to remove a neg, that will put ST right out of the picture.
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Since we will now be addressing member non participation within the eBay issue resolution system, we will align eBay-approved certified dispute resolution services' feedback withdrawal systems with eBay's and only accept mutual feedback withdrawal when both members agree to the withdrawal. This will take affect when we introduce the process for neutralizing feedback from members unwilling to participate in issue resolution processes.
This should darn well be retroactive!!
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Another take on this is that if any sellers don't like their unpaid item process or delays or buyer centric focus to the exclusion of the sellers, and refuse to follow it and instead institute their own seller procedures, then eBay will happily retaliate by using their new program.
No wonder the sellers at eBay Live were reported as discontented in the media. This exclusively buyer centric stuff while focusing on eBay's bottom line and treating sellers as disposable commodities is very irritating.
And as with all other things, anyone with a complaint, please step through these 20 menus, keeping on topic, and write your complaint here []. And since your complaint will be off-topic, we will send the customary off-topic canned reply, not read your note, and do nothing.
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The one thing they didn't address in feedback was only allowing one feedback from each unique user. It stands to reason that now that feedback is attached to specific transactions, each should merit it's own feedback.
I'm glad they didn't go with search out only the negatives.