For years there has been the debate over eBay’s feedback system, some say it favors the buyer, and others say it favors the seller. I have been involved in several heated discussions about eBay’s feedback system over the past ten years and I have always sided with those who viewed eBay’s feedback as favoring the seller.

Well that has changed, and boy do I ever have a fight on my hands now as I’m sure I will receive a lot of hate mail from my comments here.

There is NOTHING beneficial about eBay’s feedback system, it doesn’t give a bidder any REAL indication as to how well the seller has done at serving his/her customers. The only purpose the feedback system has is to see who can get the highest feedback score.

As a buyer I used to think it sucked that I couldn’t leave a negative comment as to how a transaction went from a seller without fear of getting anegative comment back from the seller. In my opinion, if the sellers deserved it, then it shouldn’t matter right. Well for that reason I buy and sell on different ID’s .

Well now the roles have changed, I have been very active in selling digital information on eBay, in fact Nov marks the third month I have qualified for Powerseller status and I’m now waiting my invite from eBay. With that has come some real heartaches, from customers I wish I could tell to leap into the deepest body of water.

You see … 50% of my customers purchase or bid on my auctions with out ever reading the description, I know this for a fact because many of them have admitted to it. Then I get customers who allow their children to bid on their accounts and give me the excuse that their son bid on my auction and didn’t realize what he was bidding on.

Well … if it weren’t for my fear of getting negative feedback, I would stick my ground and side with the seller protection offered to me by eBay. Afterall, eBay’s own claim at the moment a buyer goes to click the “commit to buy” buttons states that the bidder is entering into a legal contract and is responisbile for reading and understanding the auction. I also have protection under PayPal because PayPal does not offer refund on digital information. So I could very well tell these bidders who presume they can just bid on what ever they want without consequence.

Don’t get me wrong, I bend over backwards to treat my customers with respect and I’m always respecful in the fact that I know mistakes happen. However, some of them need to learn a lesson or two and understand their actions could get them into trouble, and why should I be the one to pay the fees on their mistakes.

Anyway … I have rambled long enough about this, my point is ….

eBay’s feedback system SUCKS ……