May 3rd, 2007 by Skip McGrath

Well, we all knew it had to happen. Feedback 2.0 has finally arrived on eBay.com. Most buyers think it is great, but many eBay sellers are less than enthusiastic. The main concern lies in Detailed Seller Ratings, an anonymous rating based on each of four criteria: shipping and handling, communication, item as described and shipping time as decribed. The problem is the seller has no recourse on this. Any buyer can leave any rating they want and there is no dispute process for the seller as there is for feedback. This, of course, is one of the reasons buyers love it. They can be honest without the fear of negative feedback in return.

Wired recently ran an article about internet safety in which it mentioned feedback farming and how many eBay sellers used $0.01 items to “buy” feedback to get a better rating. Feedback 2.0 helps prevent that by showing the item the person leaving feedback purchased/sold and how much was paid for it. This only goes back 90 days but this should help prevent some of the short-term scammers at least.

I expect there will be many evolutions of Feedback 2.0, as there have been with other new additions to eBay, and my best advice to those who sell on eBay is to be honest in your descriptions, fair in your shipping prices and quick on your shipping (and communication). This will give buyers no reason to give you bad feedback.

For buyers reading this, when you leave Detailed Seller Ratings, start at 5 stars and only deduct if there are issues with that area. Don’t start at 3 and add/subtract from there.

See Also

• How to Create and Sell Information Products on eBay
  Written by an eBay PowerSeller who has been doing this for 7 years!