Comments on: Neutrals will be neutral again from next week

By: Uncle Sam

Uncle Sam — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 10:33:36 +0000

As long as I don’t get any negs from paying buyers in the meantime, then as soon as this is implemented, my feedback % will increase to 100!

‘Get in’, as they say. Not to mention ‘wahey!’ (comin’ atcha in the da Cheggers style-ee, no less).

Given that we had 98.7ish% before the new changes came in, I think some of the feedback changes have indeed been positive. Conversely, both my neuts read ‘smooth transaction’ & ‘thanks +++++’ so I really think eBay dropped the ball when they counted neuts as ‘semi-negs’ score-wise. But at least they picked it up again.

By: Steve

Steve — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 21:49:06 +0000

# 30.
….. and I thought it was only small sellers who were suffering, what on earth are Ebay trying to do?
I am a small hobby seller and have been an Ebay user since 1999. During that time I received over 3000 positives and 2 negs, until this week!
Two days ago a Neg arrived from an NPB and although Ebay subsequently informed me that this individual had ‘Faked a payment confirmation’ on the item I was selling they declined to remove the Neg. Another example of Ebay allowing rogue buyers to abuse the system to the detriment of honest sellers.
Today a Neutral appeared from someone who clearly had not read the extensive description within my listing and decided to ‘shoot first and ask questions’ later. There was a time when Ebay went to great lengths to emphasise the importance of ‘communication’ between buyer and seller to try to resolve problems without recourse to unfavourable feedback.
Since I only sell about 20 items a month I am now in serious danger of being suspended!
It is easy to understand how many sellers subscribe to the so called ‘conspiracy theory’ that Ebay want rid of all small sellers by 2010!
What used to be an enjoyable buying and selling experience has been replaced with a ‘climate of fear’ generated by hurriedly implemented, ill thought out schemes that ultimately benefit no one!
Sorry but I just had to find somewhere to get this off my chest. Ebay are only interested in ‘policy’ , not common sense or common decency.
I just hate the injustice of it all. Perhaps its time to give up until a viable and sane alternative appears, if ever.

By: Andrea Hackney

Andrea Hackney — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 21:20:06 +0000

Since the changes were implemented we have witnessed a huge increase in timewasters, aborted sales, deliberate sabotage and blackmail. The eBay community of decent honest folk has been contaminated by individuals ranging from the deluded to the downright malicious.

We are cautious and principled traders, yet today we find ourselves deregistered by eBay because of feedback from individuals with whom we would not wish to trade. We have received 16 negatives in last 30 days (our highest ever – normally 2-3) against 466 positives and ebay decide that we should not trade on ebay any longer. We have recently undergone a massive warehouse move and our delivery time slipped for a couple of weeks which we have received a few negatives for even though we e-mailed buyers to let them know. A lot were understanding and left a positive as the goods were still what they ordered but delivery slow whereas others decided to leave a negative that delivery slow, but goods as described. How is it fair that we are removed from ebay. They should base their decision on the overall picture. We did not have any prior warning from ebay just a phone call to say “Hi, this is Bert from ebay. I am ringing to let you know that your account has been restricted so you will not be able to buy or sell for 30 days”. Were we meant to say “Thanks for letting us know, goodbye”. After an hour of discussions with Bert and him stating that it was his decision prior to speaking with us with no chance of a defence from us. He did not even know that we had 748 items listed/removed until we told him.

By: Steve

Steve — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 20:10:40 +0000

Yesâ€¦..but the percentage is only part of it. How about the buyer dissatisfaction rating? Are neutrals still going to count here? What is the point of having a 100% rating if 1 or 2 neutrals can get you suspended. Why the hell does Ebay always leave the real questions unanswered?

Good point if SNP rating is not going to be adjusted then it’s pointless!

By: implog

implog — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 16:09:02 +0000

An addition -

In my post I said that eBayINK Blog has no Search feature. It should have read no FUNCTIONING search feature.

There is a Search box but it does not return accurate results. If you search on a topic you might get a blog entry IF it includes the tag on which you searched.

Individual posts and their content does not appear in the search results. Several eBay reps have made appearances yet you can not find their posts with the Search feature.

I believe eBayINK blogger Richard has been trying to get this fixed for months.

By: Sue Bailey

Sue Bailey — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 15:54:55 +0000

Thanks Implog – I did go and try and find the link, but – as you know – it was not easy to track down!

By: implog

implog — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 15:53:26 +0000

Hi Sue:

You are right, most of my post was copied and pasted from eBayInk. The thread is at the link below.

I would have included the link in the post but eBayINK has no search feature and the thread I am referencing has 370 posts. Gets a bit messy without search capability.

The point I awkwardly tried to make was in reference to the past neutrals=negative fiasco. Not only were/are sellers damaged by this poorly thought out error on eBay’s part but possibly eBayINK’s blogger Richard Brewer-Hay.

In my post, I identified Richard as “collateral damage” of the “neutral=negative because it is not a positive” policy because it seemed he was trying to defend the indefensible. He tried to make “black is white” sound sensible.

His “neutral=negative because it is not a positive” stance was worrisome.

Some us who were active on the blog saw that as a shift; that Richard was now spouting eBay’s party line, that he had “drunk the San Jose Kool-Aid” as many feared would happen and that he was threatened with becoming as delusional as some of eBay’s “Brain Trust” (execs).

Prior to that Richard seemed genuinely honest and fresh and was well liked. He seemed open to eBay members ideas and suggestions, often asking those in power our posted questions.

Unfortunately, we didn’t always get an answer or sometimes got answers unrelated to our questions.

The corporate world can be nasty and words and associations can haunt you. I was trying to say to Richard that he might want to keep his distance from eBay’s current crop of San Jose crazies and their “neutral=negative because it is not a positive” logic.

Hopefully this will be an eBay “trust walk” for Richard.

Sorry for the confusion, convolution and request absolution.

Thanks Sue and others here for your work, words and wisdom.

Link below, all 370 posts.

http://ebayinkblog.com/2008/05/19/knowing-where-you-stand/

By: Sue Bailey

Sue Bailey — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 10:34:25 +0000

BS, I think that’s the danger of cutting and pasting out of context… I’ll edit the mark-up a little so it’s perhaps clearer that Implog is quoting almost entirely from comments on eBay Ink. Perhaps if commenters want to include material from elsewhere, a link might be easier? Or shorter quotes?

By: Board_Surfer

Board_Surfer — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 10:32:36 +0000

Hands up anyone that understands any of post #19 ?

By: Sue Bailey

Sue Bailey — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 10:20:40 +0000

Mr P., “next week”, and more specifically “before PowerSeller eligibility is recalculated for this month”, so you should be okay.