eBay Inc. says it's changing its user-feedback system to keep buyers from leaving, but the plan has sellers worried they'll no longer be able to weed out untrustworthy shoppers.
Buyers and sellers have been able to rate each other at the online auctioneer since its birth in 1995, when eBay founder Pierre Omidyar envisioned a virtual marketplace built on trust among buyers and sellers.
Come February 20, a full spectrum of feedback is welcome from buyers about sellers, while sellers can no longer give buyers negative star ratings.
The shift was announced Tuesday among a complex series of pricing changes and initiatives that eBay hopes will improve buyers' experiences as it struggles with stagnant user numbers.
It's a fundamental change to create trust and tackle fraud in a marketplace where buyers and sellers never lay eyes on one another. Steve Grossberg, a Florida-based top seller of video games and president of the Internet Merchants Association, said the ban on rating buyers is a good thing.
"When the seller leaves a negative feedback for a buyer, it drives them away from the site," Grossberg said.
But eBay needs to work harder to stop bidders who don't pay up, he said. The site does not require immediate payment,and sellers complain they are just as exposed to fraud as buyers on eBay.
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Company spokesman Usher Lieberman said about 6 percent of auctions end in nonpayment by the winning bidder.
Sellers can require payment upon checkout for fixed-price sales, which account for 40 percent of eBay's business worldwide. But immediate payment is not required on auctions because the buyers are not at their computers when they win an auction, Lieberman said.
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