eBay is in trouble, just about everyone knows that, as signs of disaffection are showing up everywhere. eBay relies on its sellers as representatives of eBay, but when the seller sues the buyer for neutral feedback, we start getting into more signs of the apocalypse, with one of the best comments ever in a standard news press article ever, worthy of Fark in its just blatant directness.
We took the lawsuit to University of Washington law professor Jane Winn. The seller “is a few cards short of a deck,” she said. Source: King 5 News Seattle
The deal on this one is a guy buys two coins, they arrive with the packaging in bad shape, so the buyer leaves neutral feedback, only to be slapped with a 10,000 dollar lawsuit by the seller for leaving neutral feedback.
Here is how everyone looses on this one.
eBay just lost a buyer, no one is ever going to go buy something anywhere where the simple act of leaving feedback can lead to a lawsuit.
The seller who started the lawsuit just lost a buyer because no one is ever going to buy something from anyone where the threat of litigation is there for leaving anything other than a happy wonderful feedback score.
The eBay feedback system is dead, if people are leaving happy wonderful feedback when the experience was crap, you can no longer tell good sellers who care, from bad sellers who will rip you off or deliver damaged goods.
The Public Relations Nightmare begins, as bloggers, news sources, techmeme, Google, the consumerist, and other folks pick up on this meme and start slamming eBay, because the seller was an eBay seller, wondering why there is not any kind of quality control over the sellers on eBay.
eBay will point back to its broken feedback system, and wash their hands of the matter saying it was a local dispute, rather than deal with the tricky and complex issue that is feedback, good or bad.
This was just too tempting not to comment on, as we have all had good and bad experiences in buying on line. But to get a lawsuit and be out a couple hundred dollars for purchasing a couple of coins? This is worthy of being noted as another check mark against on line commerce at eBay.
Keywords: ebay, lawsuit, buy, sell, e commerce, money
2 comments come on, say more stuff ↓
Every time I had an issue with buying something on ebay that I couldn’t get resolved, the seller just appealed the feedback and got it removed, even though there was evidence of the fraud or overcharge or whatever else the issue was.
Ebay has become a real tough place to sell . ebay feedback policy has left sellers to just take the beating from buyers. A buyer buys 10 items and then decides he doesnt want o pay shipping .seller tells buyer he must follow store policy and pay shipping ..nuer decides he doesnt like that answer and gives 10 negative feedbacks ina a row …Ebay is contacted for malicious negative feedback and Ebay says THAT THEY DO NOT CONSIDER THIS TO BE MALICIOUS…WOW…..get me a lawyer please …I totlly respect that buyer and it is worth $500 to teach buyers that they will have to answer to a higher authority than ebay (A JUDGE) & incur legal fees themselves if they decide to not be reasonable
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