Sellers strike against new E-Bay Feedback Rules Buyer Biased

To: E-Bay Worldwide

Dear Administrators of E-Bay Worldwide

We, the undersigned, through this letter, protest your new feedback rules which seem to us Buyer biased.

It has now become an unfair system whereby E-Bay buyers can leave Negative and Neutral feedback ratings and E-Bay sellers can only leave a positive one No matter what the outcome of the transaction.

How, as an E-Bay seller can we now recognise a good buyer from a bad one?

As such, we the undersigned are forgoing a seller strike to be held on the 4th July 2008 whereby none of us shall be selling any item on this day.

Please try to resolve this issue that has many people up in arms, we are not only Sellers on E-Bay but Buyers also and although we do not have the true figures I would estimate that 40\% of E-Bay sellers are also E-Bay buyers.

The feedback forum was set up to make it clear to all what your trading experiences are, from your own viewpoint, good or bad!

Each and every person, buying or selling on E-Bay can make their own judgement based on reading the feedback comments made. People arent stupid!

This new buyer biased system will make it impossible for people to see if a buyer is a non-payer/a fraudster/a chancer/an illiterate/someone under aged who shouldnt have been bidding in the first place etc(This list is not exhaustive!) as only positive feedback for E-Bay buyers will be seen in the future.

The feedback forum in its originality was meant to reflect honesty in dealing with individuals, Please see the founders letter below:

Posted: 26th February, 1996
To: The eBay Community

I launched eBay's AuctionWeb on Labor Day, 1995. Since then, the site has become more popular than I ever expected, and I began to realize that this was indeed a grand experiment in Internet commerce. By creating an open market that encourages honest dealings, I hope to make it easier to conduct business with strangers over the net.

Most people are honest. And they mean well. Some people go out of their way to make things right. I've heard great stories about the honesty of people here. But some people are dishonest. Or deceptive. This is true here, in the newsgroups, in the classifieds, and right next door. It's a fact of life. But here, those people can't hide. We'll drive them away. Protect others from them. This grand hope depends on your active participation. Become a registered user. Use our feedback forum. Give praise where it is due; make complaints where appropriate. For the past six months, I've been developing this system single-handedly, in my spare time. Along the way, I've dealt with complaints among participants. But those complaints have amounted to only a handful. We've had close to 10,000 auctions since opening andhad only a few dozen complaints.

Now, we have an open forum. Use it. Make your complaints in the open. Better yet, give your praise in the open. Let everyone know what a joy it was to deal with someone. Above all, conduct yourself in a professional manner. Deal with others the way you would have them deal with you. Remember that you are usually dealing with individuals, just like yourself. Subject to making mistakes. Well-meaning, but wrong on occasion. That's just human. We can live with that. We can deal with that. We can still make deals with that. Thanks for participating. Good luck, and good business!

Regards,
Pierre Omidyar


If you feel as I do , along with many other E-Bay sellers do, Please sign this protest and please do NOT buy or SELL anything on E-Bay on the 4th July 2008.

Many thanks