eBay has announced last week changes in its feedback system, more precisely the banning of negative feedback by sellers on buyers. The company argued that this measure was taken to prevent buyers from being the subject of retaliation from sellers after they rated negatively a certain seller following an eBay transaction.

"The No. 1 reason buyers cited for decreasing or ceasing their activity on eBay was negative unwarranted retaliatory feedback they received from sellers," said eBay spokesman Usher Lieberman. "There has been a four-fold increase in this over the last several years. It's cited as a bigger problem than even not receiving shipment."

John Donahoe, President and CEO-elect, has unveiled in late January solutions to fix the problems eBay is currently having. In one such move, which John Donahoe hopes that it will attract more sellers and it will improve the buying experience, the said that the biggest online auction site will lower its fees for listing items. The announcement was made during his speech in front of more than 200 top North American sellers at eBay's eCommerce Forum.

Another welcomed measure to increase activity on eBay through an increase in buyer confidence is that the company will make its minimum standards more stringent for anyone who sells on the site, primarily to discourage behavior that causes buyer dissatisfaction, such as charging excessive shipping fees or not describing items accurately. Also, the company will begin requiring a safe payment option, such as PayPal or a major credit card, for sellers who have lower rates of customer satisfaction or who sell in categories that have a high number of buyer complaints.

Finally, the modifications to the rating system were announced. However, the sellers aren't happy. They feel they have been denied an important tool to increase seriousness in transactions which take place on eBay. Either way, it seems that retaliation for justified negative comments from buyers has become indeed a real problem.

"[O]verall, the current feedback system isn't where it should be," Bill Cobb, president of eBay North America, wrote on Jan. 29 on a company blog.

"Today, the biggest issue with the system is that buyers are more afraid than ever to leave honest, accurate feedback because of the threat of retaliation. In fact, when buyers have a bad experience on eBay, the final straw for many of them is getting a negative feedback, especially of a retaliatory nature."

Cobb listed a 11-points package to boost customer experience on eBay:

   1. Reducing insertion fees
   2. Free Gallery … on all listings!
   3. Reduced Feature Plus and Pro Pack fees
   4. Increased listing exposure for sellers with great DSRs
   5. Pricing discounts for PowerSellers with great DSRs
   6. Protection from chargebacks for PowerSellers
   7. All addresses are confirmed addresses for PowerSellers on their eBay listings that are paid with PayPal
   8. Unlimited PayPal protection for PowerSellers
   9. Repeat Feedback credit
  10. Rolling 12-month Feedback Percentage
  11. Personalized Seller Dashboard

Meg Whitman, president and CEO of eBay, announced in January she will step down in March. The announcement came as the company posted a 53 percent surge in its fourth-quarter net profit that was far ahead of forecasts. Net income jumped to $531 million from $346.5 million a year ago.

eBay was originally founded in 1995 by French-born Iranian computer programmer Pierre Omidyar as AuctionWeb.