Comments on: eBay sellers to be banned from criticizing buyers

Online auction giant's move to ban seller feedback on customers is praised by buyers but criticized by sellers.

[CalifGrl]

Buyers - Did you even TRY ?

I have a question for all you buyers who are upset and shocked to be on the receiving end of a retaliatory negative feedback.

Before you gave your Seller a Negative did you even try to send them an email letting them know there was a problem? Or was the very first clue they had when they got a glaring red dot from you?

If you bought something at a retail store and something was wrong with it would you go to customer service and calmly explain the problem and ask if they can fix it or would you stand outside their store for a year (that's how long that red mark stays) with a big red sign and tell to everyone there this seller is a fraud - don't buy here?

Buyers - send an email first - give that seller a chance before you brand them as evil. Once you have lashed out without warning, they have the right to be upset with you - you have slapped them in the face, perhaps unjustly -- how would you react?

Sellers are people. Errors are made, but most of the sellers on eBay will work with you to make you happy. Be nice first - see if you are treated nicely in return. If they ignore you or get nasty - fine, hit them with a big red negative, give the rest the benefit of the doubt - what will it cost you, a few typed words in an email?

[edickins]

Re: Buyers - did you even TRY ?

I've only had this distasteful experience one time, but yes, I did send the seller a nice e-mail after I received his invoice asking him if he didn't think his handling charges were a little excessive -- I received a rude reply telling me I should have read the fine print type of message. I admit I didn't read the entire message on his description -- but there was so much typing on the page it would have taken a long time to read everything. I DID read his shipping and handling policy, which referred to the invoice I would be sent. So I didn't actually see the shipping and handling until I received the invoice. I didn't argue with him and paid, I figured "let the buyer beware", but I did leave a comment on his feedback that he had excessive shipping and handling charges, for which I was slammed and untrue things were said about me by the seller, among which that I paid late and was a bad ebayer. I just replied to his feedback with the date I paid, which was within reasonable limits considering it was Thanksgiving week when the auction ended. No further argument from me and I'll not visit this person's store again. But I didn't deserve his negative feedback.

[perfectblue97]

Strips sellers of vital protection

As an eBay seller I ALWAYS check out the feedback given to my buyers. In the past I've had a number of suspicious customers and I've checked their feedback to see if they have had a history of ripping off sellers. Without this tool I'd feel naked.

Without feedback how would I know if somebody had a history of making fraudulent bids or of late payments, etc?

[sidvicious1020]

giving a negative to sellers who sell junk

I think if a buyer pays for his item in the time frame given there should be no way he should get a negative period i've bought things ie silver eagles and the seller says nxxx ms69 perfect beautiful coin look at picks and the pics are fuzzy or small or the object is 10 feet away or they say coin not perfect only ms69 and when you buy from a seller using the above tricks 9 out of 10 your going to get a spotted scratched finger printed toned coin that's not a ms69 anymore and ebay revolves around feedback you want to give the guy a negative (and he deserves it!)but you know he will give you a unwarranted retaliatory feedback so you give him a positive even tho your pissed because the sneaky sob pushed his spotted / scratched garbage on you and got away with it because it's more trouble than it's worth to return it and most of the time these sneaky sobs have it all worked out small fuzzy picture or a coin picture taken from atop a six foot step ladder and you can't really see what the coin looks like that your buying.you also have to pay return shipping and the inconvenience of going out and returning it. this happened to me at least 15 times out of 40 eagles where i got stuck with a crap coins and afraid to give him a dissevered negative for pulling a fast one because i want to keep my feedback at 100%. i think this will help weed out the @ssholes selling $hit but i also do see @sshole buyers abusing it. but look at that sg guy he has 200,000 positive feedbacks read them some day there is 1,000's positive saying not a ms70 can't grade got stuck with worthless coin scratched spotted coin a finger printed ms70 ect they are afraid to leave a dissevering negative. like 900+ gave him the negative if this system was in place 5 years ago he would have 100,000+ negatives and would be selling no more. he has ripped 100,000 or more innocent not knowing coins people (out of millions i've heard). he may be the worst i know of but there are 1,000's of rip-off artists out there that this will remove or make honest people out of them. IT'S ABOUT TIME!

[jns16977]

eBay caters only to the buyers though. It's extremely unfair. I get buyers who won't read my listing, then basically use feedback extortion on me if I don't meet their demands, when their demands would have been met by READING. It only makes tension between buyers and sellers to take away our option for negative or even NEUTRAL feedback. Buyers can rip sellers off easily, but we can't do anything about it in return. And so many buyers just refuse to READ.

I guess that's not too surprising though seeing as how your post is the largest run-on sentence I've ever seen.

[Bushudo]

Hooray for E-Bay Finally

I'm glad to see this happen. I've seen more and more abuse of the feedback system by both sides, but usually by the sellers. I've been a casual member for a long time and upon noticing the feedback 'wars', I started e-mailing sellers abut their policy. Why is it that they invariably responded with, "when we get your cleared payment, we'll send the goods. When you receive your item please leave me/us positive feedback and then I will leave same for you". Now, just why is it that way. I asked a few that since I used PayPal and your payment was with you almost immediately, that's my only part in the transaction and should be judged that was! The answer I invariably got was that they were protecting themselves against bad feedback. I stopped using any dealer/seller who thought that way..

[pldoolittle]

"that's my only part in the transaction..."

>> I used PayPal ... immediately, that's my only
>> part in the transaction and should be judged
>> that was!

As I said in an earlier post:

No problem. You just need to waive all rights to returns, complaints, etc the minute a seller posts feedback. You say that's not fair? Of course it's not fair. The transaction is not completed yet. To be fair, both parties must reserve the right to post feedback until after the transaction is completed.

Positive feedback from a seller is not part of the deal you made, so it is unreasonable to expect the seller to give up a right simply based on payment. Under the old system, both parties were free to post (or not post) whenever they wanted to. You may not like how it worked out for you, but it was fair and equitable.

[jim603]

EBAY-helps them self

Ebay should start focusing on the real problems , they do not stand behind the buyer. they have some merchants that sell 60,000 items if you the little guy have a problem they blow you off , sure they go through the steps but that just cost you time and money, if the merchant does not even reply to Ebays emails in a dispute they should loose end of case , and the buyer should not have to pay shipping twice for something they don?t even have . it is easier just to go to amazon.com and buy form a real place and know they will back you up if you have a problem . ebay and pay pal suck.

[CalifGrl]

Hidden Bad News in the New FeedBack System

There is another aspect to the new feedback rules no one seems to be mentioning. It won't start biting buyers for a year, but once it starts - WATCH OUT.

Quote from announcement: "Feedback more than 12-months old won't count towards your Feedback percentage "

What this means is that feedback negatives roll off after a year. You keep your Feedback number, but the % positive changes when the negatives are older than a year. No negatives for 12 months = 100% positive.

Picture this. Rip-off seller has high feedback numbers, but only 90% positive. Time to start a new ID . Sell, sell, sell. Rack up lots of feedback, but lots of negs again. Get a new ID...etc. Repeat as needed. Twelve months after the beginning of the cycle start using the first ID again. All the negs have rolled off, the high number is still there, now 100% positive. Great - Everyone will trust that high feedback all shiny and green with the negs all gone and they will buy, buy, buy.

This is not complicated at all for any unscrupulous person to do. It is very easy to have multiple user IDs. I have 4. Not for any nefarious reason. I have one that's business selling, one that's personal buying, one that I use for buying things I intend to re-sell on eBay, and one that I use for selling things for a charity group I belong to. All you need are unique email addresses. You can link several eBay IDs to one Paypal account.

Before everyone wholeheartedly embraces this new eBay feedback policy I think you should realize just how bad it could be for all of us, buyers and sellers alike. I'm an honest Power Seller with over 1100 feedback (only 2 negs in 8 years) - I am appalled at the prospect of scamming sellers taking advantage of this loophole. It's bad enough when they come in now, but at least they have to start from scratch with 0 feedback when they start a new ID -- this new way is much worse, more people will get hurt. eBay really needs to re-think the whole feedback process. This new version is not the answer!

[Jim Hubbard]

Liar.

You plainly stated "eBay policy states you cannot make a profit on S/H." in your original post.

This is a lie. To wit...you are a liar - as evidenced by the copy you posted of ebay's policy.

[trackie4u2]

geez Jim

I also expounded by stating it was considered circumventing fees.

"to make the item appear artificially inexpensive" and "for any other
purposes" would include this.

Something does not have to be verbatum to be true.

[mvpcarl]

DISCOUNT CARBON BLACK ARROWS TECHNOFIBRE

I have recently purchased some arrows with the above description. This seller ( goldencarbon ) is a crook and uses the negative feedback as a way to keep their feedback a float. Do not purchase arrows from the member goldencarbon. You will receive junk arrows that are not carbon fiber but fiberglass. I can't want until they put this new feature into the works! Thanks for letting me vent!

[shyann990]

Look out sellers

I am an ebay seller and as one I have to put up with alot.I received a neg feedback without any attempt to try and resolve the issue.Buyer picture this,your item sells and the buyer pays right away.The buyer is new to ebay which makes me nervouse but he seems be know what he is doing.I package his item and ship it out in the morning.Two days later there is a neg feedback.Why?Because my auction said that all items will be shipped within 2 days of cleared payment and the buyer thought this ment will arrive from Canada,at his doorstep in the USA in 2 days.If he had read more of the listing he would have seen aprox how long it would take to arrive.So now my customers think I don't ship.He never did answer my emails.This policy is going to open the way for buyers who who scam and there are many.How long are sellers going to put up with this before they leave ebay and open a web store taking their known customers with them.Sellers have to be able to leave feedback!There are so many buyer scammers now,what will it be like when the coast is clear?Think about it buyers who think this is a good idea,no sellers,nothing to buy,or very little.There are other solutions for these bad sellers that are hurting the rest of us.I need to know who I am selling to so I say goodbye in may along with many others.Thanks for reading.

[SL-INC.]

No Longer a two way Street...

eBay announced changes in the coming months, one of them ELIMINATES the ability for a seller to leave Negative Feedback on a Deadbeat buyers account. You might think, what the big deal, but it's a one way street. As a Seller will not be able to leave this Negative Feedback on a Deadbeat Buyer, if the Buyer feels they have had a Negative experience, they can still leave Negative Feedback on the Sellers account.

How is this fair?

If you are not on eBay, it would be the equivalent of being a Manager of a Retail Store and if you have a bad customer that their Credit Card keeps getting declined, and as much as you would want too, you would not be allowed to alert other stores / branches about them.

I myself have a 326+ Rating on eBay. I have two (2) total Negative Feedback in almost 10 Years on the site and both of them because the Buyer did not read the description totally thought they were getting a different item then they did, not my issue. Most of my Feedback is from selling, but on the occasion I do come across a Deadbeat Buyer who never communicates or Pays me for the item. I should be allowed to leave bad feedback on their account about my experience with them and also to warn others on eBay about this person?s inability to pay. Why can they leave bad feedback on my account because they did not take the time to read the auction or contact me beforehand? I am an Honest Seller / Buyer and because of a small group of bad Sellers and Buyers, the Honest Sellers (Not Buyers) have to pay for it.

eBay's overall system relies on Trust between Buyers and Sellers and the Feedback System is an excellent way to see this. Sure it needs work and tweaks, but nothing is perfect.

eBay can't exist without Sellers or Buyers. It is more important for them to have the seller. Simply put, a Buyer pay nothing except the price of the auction and shipping (Nothing goes to eBay). The seller (Even if the item does not sell) has to pay the listing fee regardless. Sure there are ways to get your $$$ back if the item does not sell, but as far as eBay is concerned as soon as it get s a bid (Good or Bad) they charge the seller. Like Sellers are required on signup, buyers should also have to put a Valid Credit Card in their account to help protect the seller. I can image some of you buyers out there now are saying ?You have to put a Credit Card number in if you are a seller?. Yes, because like I said, even if the item does not sell, eBay still charges us. Bogus Buyers need to be head accountable!

If you want to make it fair then either eliminate the Feedback system totally or revamp it. eBay is doing nothing more than enforcing the ?Customer is always right? view, even if that customer is dishonest. Don?t get me wrong, there are dishonest Sellers too, but the larger percentage of us are good.

A Feedback System on any Retail / Online Store is the best way to drum up Business, but if I can?t tell my patrons that ?X_BUYER? never paid for this item, then how am I supposed to protect myself?

Also, eBay and PayPal need to get on the same page. They seem to have two sets of Rules. I remember when PayPal was owned by Band of America (Late 90?s when they first started and I was in the first 700,000 users), you had standardized rules and Policies what were all FDIC backed. eBay needs to also open up to how someone can Pay, there are more options than just PayPal. Google Checkout is safe and many others. They don?t want you to pay for anything except what makes them Money. I never understood why PayPal charged to send money from one PayPal account to another. I mean, I could understand if you were not a PayPal member and paid a processing fee on your Credit / Debit Card, but in an account to account transaction, the money never leaves their possession, it simply moves down the block.

Also, you those who still use PayPal, they can suspend / cancel your account based on ?Suspicion?. You can send me $20 jus as Quasi Cash, maybe you owed it to me for lending it to you. If they suspect you sent me that $20 for anything that violates their policy, they lock your account. Take it from someone who went through it. I sent someone $25 and sent a note that said ?Thanks for the Crack? as a Joke, guess who?s account got suspended and cancelled!?

Here are other alternative to PayPal for those interested: http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2008/fsb/0802/gallery.paypal_alternatives.fsb/index.html

Please feel free to contact me with more ePAY / $ay$al Rantings!

Scott Sliwinski ? [e-mail]
Homepage: http://mysite.verizon.net/slinkys_delsol/
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=ScottSliwinski

[calford]

Ebay Finally Cares, albeit for their own Profit

I have been so abused on ebay as a buyer my purchases on ebay dropped more then 50%. I choose to look elsewhere on the net first, or buy locally. The worse abuse is by sellers that leave negative feedback, giving me NEGATIVE feeling for 12 months about even logging into ebay. In addition sellers who never ship product or sell obvious trash has made ebay a expensive shopping place over the last 5 years for me. I estimate that buying on ebay cost me 25% more then buying from a store due to junk purchases, over billing on shipping, and scams.

And regarding the whining Sellers who do not like the new changes - Sellers, ebay is a profit center for you, your comments are biased and self serving. Us buyers make ebay, not you. There are always someone out there who would like to make a business out of working at home by selling on ebay.

However buyers with hard earned cash are sincere in their comments (mostly) and are the true asset to ebay.

[SL-INC.]

Buyers are not what make eBay tick!

eBay can't exist without Sellers or Buyers. It is more important for them to have the seller.

Simply put, a Buyer pays nothing except the price of the auction and shipping (Nothing goes to eBay). The seller (Even if the item does not sell) has to pay the listing fee(s) regardless. Sure there are ways to get your $$$ back if the item does not sell, but as far as eBay is concerned as soon as it get s a bid (Good or Bad) they charge the seller.

If you Bid on an Item and do not win, how much does eBay charge you... Oh that's right, NOTHING! If I am selling an item and a buyer does not pay me, guess what I owe eBay: ALL LISTING FEES!

Like when The Banking / Credit Info on the sellers side is used to pay Listing fees. On the Buyers Side it should be used to protect the seller against Bogus Bidders. he Fees should be deducted from the Buyers account in the event of a Non-Paying Bidder. Sellers are required on signup, buyers should also have to put a Valid Credit Card / Bank Information in their account to help protect the seller. I can image some of you buyers out there now are saying ?You have to put a Credit Card number in if you are a seller?. Yes, because like I said, even if the item does not sell, eBay still charges us.

Bogus Buyers need to be head accountable!

I am not saying that there are not Bad Sellers out there, but they are by far outnumbered by Bogus buyers.

If you got screwed that sucks, but like I tell my friend who lives on eBay, always ask the Seller a question if you are not sure. If the seller never responds, then you have your answer. If you on the other hand get an honest seller who is prompt and answers your questions, then there is no reason not to bid. If you (Buyers) don't read the auction fully or Ask a Question and the item you get is not what you expected, but it is as described, then that is YOUR FAULT!

Overall remember, eBay is nothing more then an international I.O.U. Site.

[calford]

Let me guess....

Let me guess buddy, your a seller. Buyers have the cash, sellers have the trash. Ebay is ZERO with out buyers with cash. The world is full of trash to sell and millions of people would love to sell it.

I am preparing to sell lamps on ebay and I am appreciative of having a forum to do so. It is my honor, not my right. And the buyers will make my business work. And there are 100's of people selling what I sell and 1000's more that would like to sell what I sell. But buyers who give me their hard earned money are few.

[gtrvic]

"Ebay sees growing risks to business in coming year"

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080229/wr_nm/ebay_risks_dc_1

Unbelievable article. They won't even admit that the sellers are impacting 2008 as much as we are. I hate Ebay. They just had the nerve to send me a stupid research poll about how they fee me to death. I sent a reply that why not ask what I think of your new policies in 2008. After 12 yrs using ebay I have one word. CRAP!

"EBay has also been suffering one of its periodic seller revolts in response to the recent round of price changes

But Squali said the impact of the latest "sellers' strike" has yet to be reflected in any dramatic fall-off in auction listings. "The buyers don't go on strike," he said, but added: "Now sellers are looking for new options off of eBay."

[Mwill75]

This is a very good thing

I'm tired of being threatened with bad feedback from sellers because I want to leave negative feedback. If I have to pay 8 dollars to ship a video game I would expect it to be in my mail box relatively fast.

Face it...sellers have abused the power of negative feedback, now they face the consequences

[fleamall]

FEEDBACK EXTORTION BY BUYERS ON EBAY

As a long time seller on ebay i can tell you that there are many buyers who abuse ebay sellers. I have just received three -feedback from one buyer. The buyer only has a p.o.box number and won't give out address but demands in a rude way to come to my home to pick up item's in order to save s&h even though that is not part of the listing. Seller calls the buyer on the phone, buyer uses foul words and email's. Buyer post 3 -FB and the seller does the same. In such cases ebay will remove the feedback but a seller has to wait 72 hours to get the thumbs up or down. Seller has other item's for sale which take big hit because of the FB.
The point being, sellers are no longer able to warn other sellers about a bad buyer so the extortion will go through the roof!

[jon7988]

Rottenbidders

I have created Rottenbidders.com to help sellers to avoid transactions with such buyers. This is a site where you can share your bidder blacklist with other sellers. Since we can no longer leave negative feedback, I think the best way to combat the bad bidder problem is to avoid them. So if you guys run into really nasty bidders, please submit their user id's to the site so other sellers can add the id's to their blacklist.

Please be fair and only submit buyers that are truly bad. Please don't abuse the site, it has abuse detection in place.

If you have any questions or suggestions, please let me know at [e-mail]

[Dr.EpSUN]

Why not scrap Ebay NEGATIVE Feedback completely = What is it´s purpose now?
With the recent introduction of DSRs (Detailed Seller Ratings every buyer has 4 options to leave a score or 1-5 for each purchace made) So why should 1 buyer have the option of scoring a GOLDEN GOAL? In reality it is now a PENALTY without a goal keeper. Its like promising the Iranian President (Mahmoud Ahmadinejad) that Israel would not retaliate if attacked. Surely if Russia and the US hadn´t both had a deterent would we would not have peace now? Negatives are unjust for sellers and buyers its time to SCRAP them or Ebay is going to loose its best sellers = Wake up Ebay before it is too late!

[parker886]

THIS IS AN EMAIL I SENT TO EBAY!
Someone won one of my auctions and I stated in my auction that I accepted PayPal only on any plant auctions and they sent a money order anyway. Well I accepted that. Auction ended on April 21st and they didn?t contact me until May 7th (2 weeks and 2 days later)! In this email they stated ? One died this early this morning. I don't think the other one is going to make it either. Can you send me 2 new ones?? One died
this morning? What did it do, Just stop breathing? Plants die gradually not all of a sudden fall over dead. But I didn?t say this. This is just proof that the plants arrived alive and they were alive for over two weeks after the person got them! So I sent them an email back the same day stating that If they would like I would be willing to either ship some new ones or give them their money back - even though I knew they were lying. Anyhow this person left me Negative Feedback and said - Plants arrived dead and were not replaced and no resolution was offered. - So the entire feedback left was a lie. The plants arrived ALIVE and I did offer to ship new ones even though she waited over two weeks to even contact me about a problem. I also have emails to prove all of this! Is there anything I can do about this?
THIS IS THE RESPONSE I GOT BACK!
John, Thank you for writing eBay in regard to the Feedback you received from eBay member **********. I understand your concern and I am sorry for the inconvenience this transaction has caused. John, on occasion, members will receive Feedback that they believe is inaccurate, untruthful, false, or just plain unfair. If you trade long enough on eBay, you will likely come across someone who can't be pleased
or who leaves you Feedback that you believe is unjust. We understand that this situation can be frustrating.
What you can do is to withdraw the Feedback rating using our Mutual Feedback Rating Withdrawal process or to use a dispute resolution service such as SquareTrade since we can no longer change or remove the
Feedback. We reviewed the Feedback that you asked about but we can only remove Feedback only if the comment meets the requirements for removal under our Feedback Abuse, Withdrawal and Removal policy.
You can learn more about this policy by going to: http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/feedback-abuse-withdrawal.html I have seen the reply you posted and posting a reply to the feedback comment will allow other members to see how you felt about the transaction. Please do consider the options I've mentioned. You can learn more about these and other suggestions for resolving Feedback disputes through:
http://pages.ebay.com/help/feedback/feedback-disputes.html It is my pleasure to assist you. Thank you for choosing eBay. Sincerely, Reilly eBay Safe Harbor ---
MORE??..
They also told me that they couldn?t change the feedback because it would then be eBay?s opinion not the buyers!!! But now they say that a seller can only leave positive feedback for buyers no matter what!!! To give eBay their own words back, ain?t this ?eBay?s opinion not the sellers?? And now I have another auction that just ended just before this new LAW went into affect about the feedback?.the buyer waited for this I believe, and decided to wait 9 days to send payment then sent a personal check, witch I do not accept, never have and is stated clearly that I only accept paypal and postal money orders! The auction was for $24.50 this includes shipping! So think about this for a second, I can either cash the personal check and if it bounces back then I will have to pay a fee to my bank and be out more money or if the check clears I will have to wait at least two weeks to ship or I can send it back and tell them I don?t accept personal checks and either way the buyer will more than likely give me a Neg. feedback, But this is all ok with eBay because in their opinion these people still deserve a positive feedback!

[DemonI81]

In this post I lump all power sellers together because this doesn't seem to happen with the "lesser" sellers. To you power sellers that are upstanding, I deeply apologize.
If you're a "power seller" no need to worry about how you talk to buyers through ebay messeges, if you send them their product or not, or anything else for that matter.
I bought a video game from a seller and was sent the case with only the "bonus disc" in it. The disc not being labeled in a very noticable manner, I left positive feedback. Then I went to play my new game. After finding out there was no game I sent a message to the seller. 3 days and 3 messages later (the last one threatened paypal claim) I got a response. For the next week I was strung along, the seller refusing to refund me, (I believe he was trying to string out the paypal time you have to file), I finally called paypal and asked them what to do. I sent one final message to the seller informing him what was going to happen. I had my refund an hour later followed by severl harrassing messages sent through the ebay message system. I filed a complaint with ebay about these messages, only to be told they had no control over their own messege system.
Now I began sending messeges to ebay requesting the positive feedback I left be removed. No response for weeks. Sent another email. This time I got a response, in which I was told "our company policy doesn't allow us to accept suggestions unless we specifically request them." I didn't realize I was offering suggestions. I thought I was filing complaints about a seller.
Buyers: Avoid the "power sellers". There's no way to know if the feedback is proper or not. Go to amazon.com and try their "trusted sellers". You'll get your stuff, for a lot of times, cheaper than you will on ebay, in better condition, with no worries since it's through a company that does things properly.
Why use a site that doesn't even read the complaints filed by its members... that does nothing to protect its buyers, only its power sellers? I for one will never use ebay again.
Just to be clear... the problem here is ebay's refusal to remove the feedback and also their refusal to do anything about harrassing messages, which I still have all of, that are sent through their site. This sends the messege that it's ok to harrass people as long as you send it through ebay's messege system. The feedback problem, I contacted ebay about 5 mins after leaving the feedback when I realized what happened.
The seller to avoid... fantasysportsnut. Unless you like abuse and giving away money to someone you have never met.

[Majestic_Lizard8]

Their is no logic in completely removing a seller's ability to leave criticism. Most sellers on eBay are actually honest and you don't punish them for what a minority do. Dishonest sellers often win competing sellers auctions (as buyers) and then leave that seller negative feedback without even paying. Many buyers are compulsive online buyers and simply will not pay for an item if they know they stand to lose nothing. This costs sellers time and money; the same sellers that put eBay on the map.

This decision by eBay is highly unethical and I am having a problem with it myself. I just had a serious problem with a buyer who has false contact information, an unconfirmed address, does not respond to emails and he waited over three weeks to pay. Then asked for his money back, and then decided he wanted the item after all. Then, after he had his refund he lied to eBay and told them I stole his money. He didn't know that eBay owns Paypal and that eBay knew he had received a refund.

Its sort of magical thinking on this executives part. He's obviously not very well educated or intelligent. Anyone who has read anything about business ethics or marketing knows that there have to be a threat of negative consequence on both sides of a transaction in order for that transaction to be valid.