eBay is making another change to its feedback system. Last month, it began requiring members with 10 or fewer feedback ratings to complete a tutorial before leaving their first neutral or negative feedback. eBay announced on Thursday it has rolled out another change, previously announced, that removes feedback ratings left by buyers who don't respond to the Unpaid Item claim process on eBay. On Thursday eBay began automatically removing feedback ratings left by buyers who did not respond to the Unpaid Item process on eBay (previously called Non Paying Bidder process).

This means ratings left by "deadbeat" buyers, whether positive, neutral or negative, will no longer affect the recipient's feedback score, although the feedback comment itself will remain. An administrative note from eBay will be added to the comment, indicating that the feedback rating was removed because the member did not participate in the Unpaid Item process on eBay. eBay said this is a global change and will affect all eBay sites.

eBay's feedback system is a way for users to build a reputation on the site. Trading partners can give each other a positive, negative or neutral rating. Sellers have often complained that winning bidders and buyers who don't pay them should not be allowed to leave negative ratings in retaliation for the sellers filing of Unpaid Item report against them. eBay rarely changes its feedback system and announced during last June's eBay Live it would make a few changes, such as this one.

Details from the announcement read, "The new policy only applies to unpaid item claims filed on or after Monday, December 5th (except for those that were filed on or after December 5th and were closed before the change was fully implemented on December 8th). Eligibility is based on the Unpaid Item filing date, not when the feedback was left."

http://www2.ebay.com/aw/core/200512081511172.html