The “Break it Down” Blog

I saw this today when I was directed to the feedback page to leave feedback on the seller that I just bought a Herman Miller Aeron from (great experience). At first it caught me off guard, my gut reaction being something like “Feedback has been limited?! WHAT?!”

but then I thought about it, and remembered a few other Aeron auctions I had seen where the poster of the auction had actually had the (IMO) audacity to add something equivalent to:

All auctions are final. Positive feedback is expected. No feedback will be given to buyers until positive feedback is received.

and it dawned on me why this change is so good… it weeds out the shit-bag-sellers on eBay that bully buyers into leaving positive feedback even when they don’t want to, for fear of ruining their own reputation.

I know I had a perfect feedback record, but not that many feedbacks… so if I leave negative feedback for some asshole vendor that has 10k+ feedbacks, it won’t do anything to him, but his negative feedback to me as retaliation would wreck my reputation.

When I originally heard the news that eBay was going to make this change I thought it was a bad idea, but now after seeing it in action I think it’s a great change.

So for buyers that are prompt with their payment and good customers, you can expect them to have a high score. As is typical with eBay, you should always be wary of people that have less than 10 feedbacks because they are either brand new or suck balls, and that still applies here.