The Professional eBay Sellers Alliance (PESA) said a survey of its members showed overwhelming support for forthcoming changes to eBay's feedback system, with 95.7% responding that the overall changes were favorable or highly favorable for marketplace integrity. The changes include neutralizing feedback left by members who don't participate in issue resolution processes; removing feedback from users who are indefinitely suspended within 90 days of registration; and requiring new members to complete a tutorial before leaving neutral or negative feedback.

PESA is a nonprofit trade association comprised of over 800 high-volume eBay sellers representing over seventy million eBay transactions and $1 billion in eBay sales annually. A link to the Web-survey was emailed to all 800+ registered users in July, and 139 members responded to the survey.

The survey also asked PESA members what other steps eBay should take "in order to build trust and safety in the marketplace." The most highly recommended steps were:

• Create a Trusted Seller program more stringent than the current PowerSeller program, with trusted sellers noted in search results
• Improve ID verification of buyers and sellers, such as verifying credit card information
• Allow buyers to search only for sellers with 98% or higher positive feedback
• Show seller User ID in search results

PESA also announced the dates of its next Summit meeting, which will be held in Austin, Texas, on October 13-15, 2005.

http://www.gopesa.org