eBay feedback calculation

I was proud of my 100% feedback

[palain]

eBay calculation has changed. I gave a seller a neutral for selling me some simili brand name item and got a neutral back. Furthermore the seller is no longer registered.

I have a 500+ feedback so a neutral in my history would matter very little but they only count the feedback for the past 12 months..... this docks me from 100% to 97.5

What are you trying to do to honest sellers eBay? Are you Mental or something?

[vincevincevince]

That's your buyer rating which got knocked, not your seller rating. Don't worry about it!

[palain]

You are right Vince - I just looked at an item I had sold and rating is still 100.

[PCInk]

The feedback system has gone stupid. They are counting neutrals as the same as negatives and only count the last 12 months. I saw one seller had sold a few items in the last 12 months but one buyer had bought 4 of their items and left neutral feeback (with the comment OK), putting their feedback to under 80%. On the other hand, I have seen some who have had streams of negatives, suddenly jump to 100%. There is plenty of info on the eBay forums and people are not happy. In the meantime, the % figures do not reflect the quality of the eBayer.

[vincevincevince]

There's two sides to every story when it comes to the ratings. Many users will give a neutral rating for a poor seller (as palain did when he was given knock-off goods). This means that for many transactions, neutral means negative. Other buyers write negative for negative, neutral for as-expected and positive only for above-average - these are in the minority.

Personally I leave neutral feedback for every seller unless they're above or below average in terms of service and product. That means that under the new system, many buyers will be disappointed with my rating - which under the previous system would not have caused a problem to them.

I suspect that a more intelligent system would look at the rating patterns of each buyer and use that to weight their decisions. If 90% of the ratings I give are positive, my positive should be treated as neutral, my neutral as single-negative and my negative as double-negative. If 90% of the ratings I give are neutral, my positive is positive, neutral is neutral and negative is negative. If 90% of the rating I give are negative, my negative should be interpreted as neutral, my neutral as positive, and my positive as double positive.

[gpilling]

The feedback system has gone stupid.

No truer statement could have been said. I have at any given time a few hundred auctions going, and I would love to get off of the eBay train. The feedback system has been gamed for years, with buyers and sellers alike blackmailing each other for a good feedback rating. I have about 1200 feedback, with a dozen or so negatives. The negatives usually come when a customer orders the wrong item (auto parts) and then blames us because they can't tell that they own a Chevy and ordered parts for a Ford.

And then they want free return shipping to fix their mistake.....

I would like to see eBay go to a public user system, where the seller is a public entity, with a verified phone and address. I have nothing to hide, and the method would cut down on the fraud by sellers. But the best plan (for me) is to move the cash flow off of eBay and direct to my site.... How does that SEO stuff work again?

[Turbosho]

Can we get google to make a GoogleBay?