eBay sellers were outraged at the idea that eBay might force them to leave positive feedback under certain circumstances. Discussion began heating up over the weekend after sellers reported having received a survey from eBay on the topic of feedback. eBay often conducts surveys, but a few users posted online that they believed the controversial question indicated eBay had already made a decision to change the feedback system.

eBay asked survey recipients, "As a buyer, how would you prefer to receive Feedback?" They were given a choice of three responses: "I want sellers to leave me Feedback rating and comments as they do today"; "When I have quickly paid for my item, sellers can only leave me positive Feedback"; and "When I have quickly paid for my items, eBay will automatically leave me positive Feedback."

Speculation was rife on the eBay boards. "What do you think the reasoning is for this survey?" asked one user. "To remove the sellers option to leave NEGs for a buyer just because they paid for a transaction? Thats what appears to be in the minds them from the looks of this survey."

A reader wrote to AuctionBytes after taking the survey. She said it was her policy to leave positive feedback for buyers who pay immediately, but said she did not want eBay to make that decision for her.

The etiquette of leaving feedback has been debated for years, such as the question of who should leave feedback first - buyer or seller - and when. Those who leave feedback first often feel their trading partner then has the upper hand and can wield the threat of negative feedback as a weapon unless their demands - reasonable or not - are satisfied.

On a thread in eBay's Feedback board unrelated to the survey, sellers discussed the challenges of leaving feedback upon receipt of payment. One seller posted that she delays leaving feedback due to buyers who file chargebacks after a transaction (http://forums.ebay.com/db2/thread.jspa?threadID=2000469603&tstart=0&mod=1195428634289).

Another seller posted that it was not fear of chargebacks that made her change her feedback policy, but rather, "it was buyers realizing they already had their positive feedback and using that against me that made me start leaving it last."

Sellers pointed out that the only way eBay would know if buyers had paid for their items was if the buyers used PayPal. eBay offers an "Immediate Payment" option on fixed-price listings that requires payment through PayPal before a listing will officially end. eBay has been increasing its incentives to buyers to use PayPal, including limiting buyer protection to PayPal-funded transactions. A guarantee of a positive feedback rating would be another powerful incentive to using eBay's own payment service.

eBay has made very few adjustments to its feedback system over the years because it is such an important - and controversial - aspect of trading on the site. But 6 months ago, eBay rolled out a major change called "Feedback 2.0" (http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y07/m05/i02/s02). The new system allows buyers to leave detailed ratings for sellers (DSRs) anonymously.

Interestingly, users were able to take the recent Feedback survey multiple times, making it susceptible to rigging and bringing into question the usefulness of its results (http://survey.ebay.com/survey/ebay/eby07030/us).

Discussion about the Feedback survey on eBay Stores board:
http://forums.ebay.com/db2/thread.jspa?messageID=1010938940&forumID=21

Update 11/19/07: eBay provided a response to AuctionBytes' inquiry, see the AuctionBytes blog post at http://blog.auctionbytes.com for the update.