Criticism of E Bay - Feedback System

Feedback System

eBay allows buyers to rate any seller using a feedback system that allows both positive and negative comments, however, sellers are prohibited from leaving anything other than positive feedback for buyers. Before eBay's January 29, 2008, policy-change announcement, at the end of every transaction, both the buyer and seller had the option of rating each other. Both parties had the ability to rate each other and the experience as a "positive", "negative", or "neutral" rating and leave a comment no longer than 80 characters. As of CEO's John Donahoe's announcement however, the option for sellers to leave anything other than positive feedback to buyers (in response to an outcry from buyers who received negative feedback in retaliation for leaving the seller a negative) was removed.

According to critics, weaknesses of the feedback system include:

• Small and large transactions carry the same weight in the feedback summary. It is therefore easy for a dishonest user to initially build up a deceptive positive rating by buying or selling a number of very low value items, such as e-books, recipes, etc., then subsequently switch to fraud. eBay has since restricted digitally-delivered items to classified listings, which do not involve feedback.
• Sellers can also attempt to boost their own feedback by buying their own items with alias accounts, and leaving positive feedback for their main selling account.