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Feedback. eBayers live and die by it. It inspires fear, loathing and heated discussions on message boards. Could affable "billionerd" Pierre Omidyar have foreseen the vituperative online diatribes that the eBay feedback system would inspire when he created it?
In the past, feedback has been difficult to remove, unless you used eBay's recommended online dispute-resolution service, SquareTrade (http://www.squaretrade.com). SquareTrade costs $20, but made it possible for you to remove feedback - both the feedback rating number and the comment - in many cases.
Now with the introduction of eBay's Mutual Feedback Withdrawal policy, there's another way to get feedback removed. Some eBayers who have been clamoring for a change to the feedback system are happy with the new policy, some hate it, and some see it as a step in the right direction.
eBay recently implemented a policy to allow members to mutually withdraw negative feedback when both parties involved in a transaction agree on a resolution. (One member playfully dubbed it "Feedbackus Interruptus."). If the "mutual feedback withdrawal" (aka "MFW") goes through on someone's feedback record, the effect is that a negative feedback is removed, but the corresponding feedback comments do remain visible in each member's list of feedback comments.
MFW is free, although eBayers may still wish to pay the $20 for the SquareTrade service, presumably if MFW does not work out for some reason (such as if both parties do not agree on the withdrawal). However, even with the use of SquareTrade, the feedback comment that corresponds to the feedback rating can no longer be removed, as it could in the past.
One seller said he sees MFW as "at least a step in the right direction" by eBay. Another eBayer expressed his dislike for the limits placed on MFW, such as the restriction that a member may only request five MFWs every 30 days.
Some eBayers see the changes to the feedback system as a step backward, not forward. They are upset, for example, that you can no longer remove both the comment and the rating via SquareTrade. "Personally, I find it discriminatory, and at the very least, the option via SquareTrade to have it removed for $20 should still be available," wrote one eBayer on the eBay Feedback board.
eBay spokesperson Hani Durzy confirmed that although eBayers used to be able to use SquareTrade to remove the comments along with the feedback scores, "with the introduction of mutual feedback withdrawal, you can no longer do that."
But Durzy also explained eBay's thinking behind instituting MFW, and the tighter restrictions on removing the actual feedback comments. "If two people are willing to remove a feedback score, that's great, and we're OK with doing that," he said. "We will also put a comment on the feedback comment that says this issue was resolved, and the score was removed. In the interest of transparency, and making sure people know the history of the people they're dealing with, we want to make sure that people can see what happened. So let's say a person goes through a lot of feedback withdrawals - that might tell you something about that person," he said. "It's the integrity of the feedback system we're talking about here, which is important to everybody."
Another reason eBay made the change the way they did has to do with "maintaining a level playing field," said Durzy. "When we introduced MFW, all the sudden there were two paths you could go down to get feedback withdrawn: one was free, and one cost $20. We didn't want to make it possible for someone who was willing to pay $20 to have the ability to get something that someone else couldn't," he said.
So how has the role of SquareTrade in all this changed? According to SquareTrade's President and CEO Steve Abernethy, not much. "Most disputes that involve negative feedback have other issues involved with them, and that's where SquareTrade is very helpful, in getting parties to come to resolution. And whether or not eBay chooses to remove the feedback or withdraw the feedback has nothing to do with how people use SquareTrade. People continue to use SquareTrade to resolve the broad range of transaction types that occur on eBay and outside eBay. Feedback is one component of what fits into what parties care about," he said.
SquareTrade also can help in instances with "contingent" or "one-sided" feedback withdrawals, explained Abernethy. "One person may have had a positive, one may have had a negative, so you don't necessarily remove a positive just because someone got a negative."
So, in many cases, eBayers will first try to use the free MFW solution to solve a feedback problem. If either member in a transaction does not agree to MFW, however, one member may still initiate a SquareTrade resolution. If the other member does not then respond to the SquareTrade mediation, then the filing member may qualify to get the feedback (though no longer the feedback comment) removed.
Although they would most likely be rare, there are still situations where you can get a feedback comment removed: if there exists what eBay calls "feedback abuse."
"If it's dangerous or violates one of our existing policies, such as [using] bad language, or using contact language, we'll remove it anyway," said Durzy.
MFW will probably satisfy many eBay users who have been victims of feedback left mistakenly, in haste, or both. It does not address the issues that some eBayers have raised with "retaliatory" feedback, or with unfair feedback that does not represent what actually happened with a transaction - although there may be no perfect solution for these problems.
Whether eBay makes further changes to the feedback system remains to be seen. In the meantime, here are some tips on helping avoid negative feedback.
Turning the Other Cheek: Five Steps to Better Feedback
- 1) Keep Your Communications Light in Tone and Positive.
I believe the seeds of bad feedback are often sown early on, in buyer-seller communications. Email is notorious for mis-conveying nuance and intention, due to its cryptic nature. As a seller, I believe you need to keep the tone of your emails light and positive, and always give the buyer the benefit of the doubt. Similarly, I have found that, even when someone is being flaky and angering you, it's very important to "turn the other cheek" and try not to let your anger show through in your communication.
- 2) Offer a Guarantee.
I have a 100% satisfaction guarantee in my auctions. Most of my buyers are happy with my items, but if they're not, I'll suck up the cost and refund the money. I'd rather lose a little money occasionally than get a bad piece of feedback that's there for all my customers to see.
- 3) Under-promise and Over-deliver.
Make sure you are completely up-front about an item's condition or flaws. It's better to have a buyer open up a package and find an item that's better than what they expected than worse than what they expected. You want to avoid their disappointment (or worse, shock). If it's not what they expected, then in all likelihood you're going to hear about it, and so might your feedback rating.
- 4) Time is of the Essence.
We live in a fast-paced world. Speed of payment and delivery are mentioned often in feedback comments. I've found it's best to try to ship (not to mention pay for, if you're a buyer) all items within 48 hours. But, if that's not possible, at least email and let the other person know. If you're polite and contrite, I've found most eBayers are very understanding.
- 5) Use the Removal Tools Available to You.
If something goes wrong, consider using eBay's mutual feedback withdrawal, or spring for SquareTrade's mediation and feedback removal if you think it's worth it.
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