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Listed below is a actual message with regards to Ebay's new feedback policy. This one is sure going to be interesting.

May 07, 2008 | 09:03AM PST/PT


Brian Burke
Hello everyone...as we announced back in January, we're making some bold changes to how Feedback on eBay works. As we get closer to our launch, I wanted to review the changes we've discussed and provide some additional detail and updates.
As a recap, here's what we announced in January that is scheduled to launch the week of May 19th in North America (which includes eBay.com in the US, as well as eBay.ca and eBay.cafr in Canada):


Sellers may only leave positive feedback for buyers
We will remove negative and neutral Feedback if a member becomes suspended
Members can leave Feedback up to 60 days after a transaction (down from 90)
We will remove Feedback when a buyer fails to respond to the unpaid item process.
Members will receive credit for weekly repeat Feedback (going back to 1996)
We will base the Positive Feedback Percentage on the past 12 months of activity (and include neutral Feedback in the calculation)
The PowerSeller Program will use the same calculation method described above to determine eligibility for the PS Program for the Positive Feedback percentage requirement of 98% positive.
Next I'd like to share some additional detail beyond what we discussed in the original post:


In January we mentioned that we'd block buyers from leaving negative or neutral Feedback for 3 days for sellers "with a track record." Since January, we've made the decision to increase the wait period to 7 days and define "track record" as active PowerSellers who have been on eBay for at least 12 months.
We studied the factors that increased risk to buyers the most and found there are three: a) a seller's Positive Feedback percentage and DSRs, b) the volume of a seller's Feedback – both in total and on an ongoing basis and c) length of time a seller has been on site.

We selected PowerSellers who have been on eBay at least 12 months in order to minimize risk to buyers, because:


a. PowerSellers have to meet quality thresholds for both conventional Feedback and, starting in July, for Detailed Seller Ratings


b. PowerSellers have to meet volume requirements – both in total and on an ongoing basis


c. One year on-site proved to be an important predictor of lower risk
All three factors prove important to predicting the risk to buyers – removing any one of them would increase risk to a level we are not currently comfortable with at this time.

We will watch all aspects of the new Feedback system very carefully, studying how the marketplace responds and we will make changes as we see appropriate.


We mentioned that we'd be aligning the Mutual Feedback Withdrawal process with the new system. After much consideration, we've made the decision to remove the Mutual Feedback Withdrawal process. The reason is that – under the new rules - it opens sellers up to extortion. As part of this decision, Mutual Agreement from third-party Feedback mediation services, such as SquareTrade, will also no longer be accepted.

Over the last several months, we've had many conversations with our customers – both buyers and sellers – and we've had the opportunity to consider ways we can address some of the top concerns we've heard. Based on the input we've received from you, I want to share some additional modifications we're making:

We are adding language in the leave Feedback flow for buyers who are in a cross-border transaction that reminds them that international transactions usually take longer to complete.

We've improved the interstitial page that all buyers see before leaving negative or neutral Feedback; the updated page offers a stronger message to buyers about the need to communicate with the seller, to allow enough time for the transaction to complete, and to keep Feedback factual.

And later this month...

In addition to expanding the 3-day block to 7 days, we are introducing a new Buyer Requirement that will allow sellers to block buyers who have been reported by other sellers for eBay buying policy violations (such as Feedback abuse, or email threats).

We're expanding the scope of the existing Buyer Requirement for unpaid items, so that it supports more comprehensive blocking of buyers who have a history of non-payment.

We've improved the process that sellers use to report buyers for policy violations.

Detailed Seller Ratings will be coming to Half in the next couple months. Watch for more information on this via email and on the Half discussion forum in the next couple of weeks.
As you can see, these changes represent a huge investment in transforming the way Feedback works, so that it better serves today's marketplace. Ultimately, the goal is to restore trust and transparency and improve the buying experience, while offering needed checks and balances that ensure our sellers who provide excellent service benefit.

Sincerely,

Brian Burke
Director, Global Feedback Policy

Yup,
Their move to further squeeze out small sellers
in order to only deal with large 1000+ listing sellers.

Gordon,
I am, I guess a small time seller on ebay. Could you explain your comment since I am interested in your take since you, to me, are a Big Time seller. I guess I just take ebay like I used to take racing.....I just read the rule books and enhanced my position by doing what I could to win. I will have to admit I am some what confused with the new feedback rules. It reminds me of people sitting in a office trying to come u p with something new to justify their position.

"justify their position" is what's up with 90% of eBay's changes in the past year or so

Hell, I am small fry when it comes to my main business - car parts.
There are sellers up there with Thousands of items listed every week.
Most of it from china.........

Much of it, identical items with just one different car name thrown in
every 10 auctions in order to keep within eBays some what
lax selling restrictions.

There is possibly 2 things going on here,
either eBay gives a tremendas discount to people who list 2500 items every week,
or the mark up is so tremendus on that crap, that they can afford to list an item 20 times (at $2-$6 a pop) before selling it, and not have the auction fees cut into profits.

This mass listing by the chinese sellers has so plugged up their system,
that it it is hard to find items that are listed by small sellers like me.
The most I have ever listed at one time is like 80 items,
and that was durring one of their reduced listing cost days.

I have had parts listed for 8 weeks strait, at $5 a pop.
Only to finally sell it to a person who tells me
"Wow, I have been looking for one of these for months!"
The trouble is that eBay has become so overrun
by these mass listing sellers, that they are plugging up the site.
You look at their feedback, and they have dozens of negatives every week.
Mostley for slow delivery.......

Anyway, eBay is justifying this move to give the buyer freedom of leaving neg. feedback with out fear of getting revenge feedback from the seller.
BULL Sheite !!
Many of those sellers already have lousy feedback !
That makes no sense !

It is more like to drive little sellers out.
A negative hurts a seller like me way more than it does someone that lists thousands a week.
I now withhold feedback to a buyer until I received it first.
I had to start doing that to keep people honest.
In the early days I would leave feedback as soon as an item was paid for.
Bad move !
I had repeat hits from people waiting for me to give them a tracking number, or feedback,
then they would pull their Paypal payment......
I was then SOL on getting the item back, or payment.
I can't tell you how many times I had to call someone every half hour,
all night long, for weeks, to finally get them to pay up !
Then they would go their merry way, without a red spot on their record.

Damn Ron,
I could write a book on getting screwed by/on eBay !
The next time your in town, let's hit Jims over a cup of joe.....

Gordon,
Thanks for the input. Coffee is fine, but the last time I went to your side of town I got a new truck(someone plowed into on the feeder road a IH35). Thanks again. Thanks for introducing me to Aaron. He is great to visit with his many projects and a good guy.

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