eBay's New Feedback Policy - BAD IDEA!!!

You have to wonder what moron thought this one up:

Feedback Changes Going Into Effect

Some highlights:

• "Sellers may only leave positive feedback for buyers"

This is probably the most troubling one for sellers - in other words, if a buyer bids on an item and never pays, the seller cannot leave negative or neutral feedback for the buyer. On the other hand, buyers are free to leave whatever feedback they want, be it positive, negative or neutral. Since only positive feedback can be left for buyers, all buyers will have feedback ratings of 100%, and there will be no way to tell the good buyers from the problem buyers. Sellers need protection from bad buyers as much as buyers need protection from bad sellers.

• "After much consideration, we've made the decision to remove the Mutual Feedback Withdrawal process. The reason is that – under the new rules - it opens sellers up to extortion. As part of this decision, Mutual Agreement from third-party Feedback mediation services, such as SquareTrade, will also no longer be accepted."

So again, the seller has no real recourse against unfair negative feedback. It also leaves the seller open to being victims of feedback extortion by buyers who threaten to leave negative feedback if the seller doesn't give them anything they want. Buyers can now make demands of sellers under threat of negative feedback.

• Neutral feedbacks are now being counted as negatives in the feedback rating percentage calculations, which only include the last 12 months. Sellers who once had a 100% rating, are now finding their ratings dropping because they received a neutral feedback in the last 12 months. It might be just me, but I thought a neutral was just that, neutral, and did not count as either a postive or a negative.

Part of the really stupid part of all this is that it is the sellers who pour money into eBay, through their eBay Stores fees, listing fees, final value fees, etc. Buyers do not pay these fees. Many Power Sellers are getting angry enough to leave, and head over to sites like iOffer.com, which only charges a fee if you actually sell an item, eCrater.com, and BidVille. Does eBay not realize that sellers leaving for other sites = less revenue from seller fees? Can you say "DUHHHH!!!"???

I have been a member of eBay since 1998, and have been both a buyer and a seller. I cannot see how the new policies help anyone - not the good, honest buyers, or the good, honest sellers. There is a petition that has been started to protest the feedback policy changes. You can sign it here.