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"Most people are honest. And they mean well. Some people go out of their way to make things right. I've heard great stories about the honesty of people here. But some people are dishonest. Or deceptive. This is true here, in the newsgroups, in the classifieds, and right next door. It's a fact of life. But here, those people can't hide. We'll drive them away. Protect others from them. This grand hope depends on your active participation."
- eBay Founder Pierre Omidyar in a message posted to the eBay Community, February 26, 1996*
Six months after eBay (then AuctionWeb) launched, Pierre announced the creation of a new Feedback Forum, where users could publicly post their experiences with other eBay users. The feedback system has gone through many changes since Pierre first implemented it - including becoming a transaction-only based system in early 2000. But has eBay lived up to the founder's vision of a self-governing, open market?
AuctionBytes asked readers what they thought about the present state of eBay's feedback system. Over 950 people responded. We ran our first Feedback Survey in January 2003 with approximately the same number of respondents. The difference in results between the two surveys, however, was surprising.
In 2003:
29% of the respondents thought eBay's feedback system was fair or poor;
35% thought it was adequate;
29% felt the system was very good;
7% rated it excellent.
In our latest survey:
39% of the respondents thought eBay's feedback system was fair or poor;
39% thought it was adequate;
19% felt the system was very good;
3% rated it excellent.
The latest results represent a sizable shift - down 14% in the number of respondents who felt that eBay's feedback system was either very good or excellent. But what has caused this negative trend in the 22 months separating the two surveys?
One explanation might be found in the number of respondents who reported experiencing retaliatory negatives and feedback extortion on eBay.
In 2003, 27% of the total respondents stated that they had received retaliatory feedback within the prior 6 months, had been victimized by feedback extortion, or both. In our latest survey, that number jumped to 38%.
Other interesting results include information about what point in a transaction buyers and sellers leave feedback, and tools that people use to leave and view feedback.
The entire survey results can be found at http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/pages/feedbacksurvey1105
To see the comments that users made on questions 2, 4, 7, 10 and 12, click on the hyperlinks included in each question.
Question 12 - "How would you improve eBay's feedback system?" - has over 600 comments alone, so make sure you don't have to be anywhere before you start reading - it's good stuff!
You can also read comments on the discussion forum at
http://www.auctionbytes.com/forum/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=12238
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