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Saturday, May 08, 2004

The Value of Feedback on eBay for PowerSellers

On May 7th, 2004 -Richard @ Bizmart wrote to eBay PowerSellers Help saying:

Original Message: How can one enter negative feedback on a transaction that
warrants it, without being subject to an undeserved retributory posting?
It says 90 days is the end of the feedback 'cycle', so I waited until 3
minutes before the end of 90 days to post negative feedback on a
dishonest Seller. Lo and behold, 90 days and one hour later the listing
is still accessible, and they can probably still flame me in
retribution. How can one honestly enter negative feedback without being
subject to retribution? Does the 90 day expiration mean midnight PST? or
what? Without this being an option, what Seller in their right mind
would post negative feedback about a Buyer? Especially if they are a
PowerSeller? 99.x% of my transactions are excellent; but there is always
that 0.x% that causes the problem. I will leave N/FB but only if I don't
have to be concerned about that Yo-Yo saying negative things about me,
especially when they are not warranted.
<------------------------------------->

At 05:11 AM 05/08/2004, eBay PowerSellers Help wrote back saying:
Thank you for writing. I will be happy to help.
...

This reply was useful for new users and for general purposes; however it does not offer any solution to the problem, nor provide a good reason why feedback cannot, and does not end after a certain, definite time. Again, no reasonable PowerSeller will post negative feedback about a Buyer because of the time, effort, cost involved and the probability of retaliatory responses.

Of what use then is the mention of a 90 day time frame? An approximation? Bidding, Buying, Paying eBay fees, etc, are all not approximations...they are definite, precise, limited. Why not do the same thing with Feedback?

If a transaction ended more than 90 days ago, it may be possible to leave feedback through our "Leave feedback for a single transaction" feature in the Feedback Forum.

Again, stating that the time frame for close of feedback functions on an auction are not definite.

When a potential trading partner sees that you have a large number of positive comments mixed in with a negative comment or two, the positive comments you have received will always outweigh a negative comment.

 Yes, but for PowerSellers, a negative feedback response is several orders of magnitude more damaging than for a Buyer...or novice Seller!

Another option is to use our SquareTrade service. SquareTrade offers online dispute resolution services to eBay members. SquareTrade helps you work together with the other party and with a trained mediator to resolve disputes quickly and fairly. For more detailed information about SquareTrade and to file a complaint, please go to this link:
http://pages.ebay.com/help/confidence/problems-dispute-resolution.html

Square Trade has proven to be helpful only if the other party is willing to be rational or abide by neutral arbitration, and it costs $10-$20 directly, plus about an hour of time to file a claim. Many sales are not worth the effort it requires to file such claims, nor do I suspect that SquareTrade has achieved a high order of satisfactory arbitrations, whereby the PowerSeller chooses to repeat the effort on a later case.

Please pass this up the chain of command to suggest valid reasons for making the feedback timeline definite.

Thanks,
Richard @ Bizmarts
<------------------------------------->

posted by Richard at Saturday, May 08, 2004

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