Sellers Give Negative Feedback On EBay Changes

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By Saul Hansell

EBay’s highly touted cut in sellers’ fees announced this morning is not so clearly a boon for sellers as it may appear at first look. AuctionBytes, a newsletter and blog for EBay sellers, calculated that for some scenarios, sellers actually will end up paying more than they did before. In one comparison, the fees increased by 33 percent. What is more, eBay’s changes to its feedback system have many sellers up in arms.

As always, the devil is in the details. EBay is now allowing all sellers to display photographs on search results; previously they had to pay extra for what are called gallery photos. For sellers who paid for those photos, the changes are more likely to be for the better, but some sellers will still pay more.

“This is clearly not a straight fee decrease,” said Ina Steiner, the editor of AuctionBytes,

The fee changes are part of a series of initiatives by John Donahoe, who takes over as chief executive in a few months. He wants to revive eBay by rewarding sellers who have high satisfaction and lower shipping fees. Mr. Donahoe spoke to a group of top eBay sellers this morning at eBay’s E-commerce Forum in Washington, D.C. EBay is lowering the fees it charges to list an item for sale and raising the percentage it takes from the final sale price. The fee changes are meant to make eBay more competitive with Amazon.com, which does not charge independent sellers anything to list items.

Ms. Steiner said that Amazon is still more attractive these days even for sellers who find their eBay fees do go down.

“It’s much easier to sell on Amazon,” she said. “The overhead is lower because you spend much less time on customer service than on eBay.”

Ms. Steiner said that in many sellers’ minds the changes to the feedback system are even worse. Feedback, of course, has been the center of the self-policing aspect of eBay through which buyers and sellers rate each other. Now, for the first time, sellers will not be able to leave negative or neutral feedback about buyers. (They are welcome to continue to leave positive feedback.)

Ms. Steiner suggested that one of the few weapons that sellers have to protect themselves against malicious buyers.

“A buyer could get an item, then turn around and say to the seller, “Give me $10 back. I’m not happy and I’ll leave you negative feedback.” She said that eBay had allowed sellers to turn the tables, in such a situation and leave negative feedback for the buyer. “Now if you deal with bad buyers you have no leverage.”

Some of the feedback changes are actually beneficial to sellers, she said. For example, negative feedback left by buyers who were suspended for violating eBay rules will now be removed from the system.

Going through all the stories of vindictive abuse and retribution (just look through the comments to any posting about eBay on this blog for taste of the vituperation) is a reminder of how much eBay is still like the Wild West with disputes settled by duels on Main Street rather than by the circuit court judge. It is a sharp contrast to the Amazon marketplace, which is much more heavily regulated, seemingly to the satisfaction of both buyers and sellers.

“Amazon is used to dictating its rules to buyers and sellers, so people toe the line there,” she said.

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