eBay prevents sellers from leaving negative feedback
Posted by: in Companies Competitive StrategyFiled under: Consumer experience, Competitive strategy, eBay (EBAY)
In one of the largest customer-oriented changes I’ve seen on eBay, Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY) in quite some time, the world’s largest online auction house will no longer grant negative or neutral” customer feedback” ratings to be left by auction sellers on the accounts of auction buyers.
The thinking goes like this: a buyer may be afraid of leaving negative feedback on an auction for fear of the seller retaliating by leaving negative feedback themselves.
Envision this: you buy an item from an eBay seller and that package arrives with a product significantly different than what was advertised. You fulfilled your end of the bargain; the seller has not. If you leave negative feedback for the transaction, the seller may come back at you with an inappropriate feedback rating. Thus, both parties might not leave feedback at all — and that’s not what builds trust in the eBay community, right?
The changes won’t happen until this coming Might, and current feedback ratings for both buyers and sellers will be based on a 12-month rolling average instead of a “lifetime” rating, which seems more appropriate. Perhaps changes like these — which seem to come as a response to customer demand — will help stem the tide of nastiness some eBay customers have had recently about the auction company.
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