Back in January eBay announced some bold changes to the way Feedback will work.

The changes will take effect the week of 12 May on eBay.com.au. They include:

• Sellers may only leave positive feedback for buyers.
• Negative and neutral Feedback left by a member will be removed if that member is suspended.
• Feedback can be given for up to 60 days after a transaction (down from 90)
• Feedback will be removed when a buyer fails to respond to the unpaid item process.
• Members have been able to receive credit for weekly repeat Feedback (going back to 1996) since March.
• The Positive Feedback Percentage will be based 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 PowerSeller Program for the Positive Feedback percentage requirement of 98% positive.

Since January, a few refinements to these changes have been developed to further enhance the Feedback system:

• 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.
• The Mutual Feedback Withdrawal process will be removed to avoid any prospect of its use to manipulate or extort sellers. As part of this change, Mutual Agreement from third-party Feedback mediation services, such as SquareTrade, will also no longer be accepted.
• Messaging to buyers in the leave Feedback flow will be increased when they are in a cross-border transaction that reminds them that international transactions usually take longer to complete.
• A checklist that all buyers must complete before leaving negative or neutral Feedback will be added. This checklist informs buyers of the need to communicate with the seller, to allow enough time for the transaction to complete, and to keep Feedback factual.

We will watch all aspects of the new Feedback system very carefully, monitoring the marketplace’s response and make any adjustments if necessary.

eBay also plans further modifications to Feedback that will come later this month:

• In addition to expanding the 3-day block to 7 days, we are introducing a new Buyer Requirements option to protect sellers against 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 Requirements for unpaid items so that it supports more comprehensive blocking of buyers who have a history of non-payment.
• We’re reviewing the process that sellers use to report buyers for policy violations.

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:

• increase trust and transparency and improve the buying experience; and
• at the same time offer checks and balances that ensure our great sellers benefit.

Further information will be available Monday 12 May.

Regards,

The eBay Team