The feedback system is the core of what makes ebay run.

feedback –> trust –> business

—  vs.  —

no feedback –> no trust –> no business

Hence it´s in ebay´s own interest to keep fraud low and overall feedback positive. However, in their quest to achieve this, ebay overshots the mark:

How does the feedback-system work today?

• member 1 (consumer) buys stuff from member 2 (vendor)
• both consumer and vendor can then give their feedback

What´s the problem?

Whoever replies first loses out: The second party can base their opinion on the first party´s feedback.

As long as both are positive about the transaction, this is not a problem. But once you want to complain about someone… Will you really do it? Or will you refrain from giving negative feedback, because you are afraid that the other party might retaliate? Gotcha!

Many vendors turn this into a virtue: Check ebay for phrases such as “We only give feedback after we receive your feedback”. Most intriguing.

What could a solution be?

Once one party gives feedback, the other party should simply see a flag “feedback for transaction available” – but it shouldn´t reveal what the feedback is. Once the second party entered their feedback, both replies should irrevocably appear. No retaliation possible.

Of course, you say, most vendors know when a consumer isn´t happy. Such things usually have a “story” – thus the vendor can block “potentially” negative feedback by just not providing feedback. That´s where the second element comes into play:

After a specific deadline, all feedback given by any party should appear, but exactly from the same second it should no longer be possible to provide counter-feedback. Again: retaliation impossible.

Why doesn´t ebay want this?

At present, practically all ebayers have positive percentages between 99.0 and 99.9%. Everything below 99 is deemed unacceptable by consumers, so ebay needs to keep these values up. Otherwise, they fear, overall sales (and thus commissions) would go down.

However, if this suggestion changes the feedback culture towards a new scenario where 90% positive is deemed “good” and 95% “excellent”, consumers would finally have a real and reliable number to base their purchasing decision on. Rotten apples are filtered early on, as consumers can finally say what they really think. Replacing the current “friendly crap”.