So, I’m selling a few items on eBay this week, and I remember that eBay implemented a few changes this month. The one that affects me the most is the fact that I can no longer give negative feedback to buyers. You live and die by your feedback on eBay.

I’m not going to lie to you. eBay has long been seller-friendly. Most sellers would not provide positive feedback unless the buyer did the same thing. In the good old days, the seller would provide feedback immediately after a person paid for their item. However, this became stupid when eBay went mainstream. There were far too many idiot buyers who would complain about inane problems with their items and retaliate with negative feedback. The system evolved and people only provided mutually negative or positive feedback after they discussed their issues. Sellers would not provide positive feedback unless the buyer had done the same.

Starting this month, sellers can no longer provide negative feedback to buyers. Moreover, only the last twelve months of feedback are counted in your rating. Suddenly, the sellers are screwed. I’ve got 200 positive transactions on eBay and no negatives. However, this does not mean that I wasn’t threatened by a number of douchebags who wanted to slander me. Without the threat of negative feedback, buyers can walk all over sellers. Our feedback is no longer sacred.

I wonder why they are trying to break a working system? My only assumption is that they found a new criteria to indicate that there was a problem. I think the criteria is the buyer growth of eBay. eBay is a healthy community when everyone has positive feedback, but negative feedback would destroy a new buyer. While sellers are an important part of the eBay community, the buyers are what drives growth. . After all, if sellers feel screwed, where else can they go to sell? eBay is a monopoly. There’s no doubt that I could get a higher price on my goods there than anywhere else.

If only a site like craigslist would implement an auction/feedback system. I suddenly feel very afraid for my perfect feedback rating on eBay and I shouldn’t 🙁