OT: Feedback Extortion

The sellers are at a real disadvantage now that the feedback rules have changed. I don't even want to sell on there any more it's gotten so bad.

Give the guy a break.

I assume you're talking about eBay. I get really good deals on fishing gear there.

Thats hardly extortion, they hope you give them positive feedback but aren't demanding it

Yeah, it's great for buyers (always has been). They have been alienating the infrequent sellers like myself more and more. The final insult for me was when they decided to hold my Pay pal funds from the sale proceeds because I don't have 100 feedback yet. I use my Paypal debit card usually to pay for the shipping, now I'm out of pocket for shipping (and the item) until either the buyer leaves positive feedback or I call Pay pal after the item ships and they can confirm it's delivery.

Maybe they don't like people selling hot products...

That's not a whole lot worse than processing credit cards the old way. We pay for the item as soon as it's ordered. Then we wait until we have the tracking number before we can charge the card. Once the charge (called a "ticket") is processed it takes several more days to receive the funds from the CC processor, even though the processing firm is a division of my own bank.

Naah. They'll still handle your account.

LOL. Ebay wants to go Amazon. They could give a darn about independent sellers. I still would sell there from time to time, but when they finally go over the edge a new auction house will emerge. To cover those things not already covered by specialty auction houses. Heck years ago I setup a script to run an auction on one of my sites just to see how hard it is. Not that hard. Its more work keeping the hackers out than setting it up and managing the buying and selling part.

It might be poorly worded, but I have no idea how you can construe this message in any way as extortion. What the f*ck kind of idiot are you? Does your mother know you are using her computer?

-- YOP...

I agree, and I apologize to the OP for not reading the whole thread before I duplicated your same sentiment in a much ruder fashion.

My bad.

-- YOP...

No you had it correct the first time

Your mother lets me use your computer.

It is extortion. A buyer has done their job by paying quickly and asking any necessary questions before buying. They should not be afraid to post negative feedback on a scam artist or just plain dishonest seller for fear of retaliatory feedback. The, "we will leave feedback for you only after you have left feedback for us" approach is against current the TOS and is clearly an attempt to extort positive feedback from buyers. Otherwise honest sellers using this tactic protects dishonest sellers.

Again they are not forcing you to leave feedback and they don't have to leave feedback to you, they also aren't forcing you to leave good feedback either

Ransoming?

That's not true. It's common accepted practice for the buyer to leave feedback *first*.

You wish. That does NOT even make sense. They buyer has done their part when the pay quickly and meets terms of purchase. The seller has not done their part until they have delivered a product with no surprises that meets their claims.

It is not common accepted practice.

The way eBay is setup now, it doesn't matter that much anymore who does what first. After one year, even a seller with 100 negatives will regain a 100 percent feedback rating for the new year. This was done to appease the power sellers that sell AS IS store returns.

Caveat emptor my friend.

Jim Rojas

So what? If the buyer wants feedback from the seller, he asks that the buyer also post something about him. This isn't rocket science (I had to throw that in, just for old time's sake). Either post some feedback or don't. Either way, you (or rather, the idiot who ordered it in the first place) got the product. If he wants the merchant to do something and the merchant says he has to do something else first, that's not extortion. The courts have not established that asking for feedback before getting same is any kind of extortion. How ridiculous can this guy be?

I agree that the above are legal but they're not extortion. Here's how one of the many online dictionaries defines extortion.

1. an act or instance of extorting. 2. Law. the crime of obtaining money or some other thing of value by the abuse of one's office or authority. 3. oppressive or illegal exaction, as of excessive price or interest: the extortions of usurers. 4. anything extorted.

Note to Leuck: There really is a 4 in our numeral system. Note to MM: There is also a 13.

Precisely!