The eBays... (...plus Andy46477)

Getting a new project started has meant resorting to eBay for 40 year old electronic manuals. I am not a power seller, as I only had 2 transactions before this month - spread over a 5 year period! In case you are interested, it was a fishing reel (Abu) and a CD (Village Stompers).

This was before PayPal was as big as it now is. But I do remember that the feedback system of eBay seemed much simpler. As soon as a money order cleared, I got positive feedback and I was excited about what the mail brought me. Then, when I was happy I left positive feedback.

I haven't been keeping up with eBay, and I am sad to see that sellers no longer leave feedback when payment clears. Surely this is a problem. I am dealing with 5 sellers right now, so this is more than a trend - it appears to be the rule now. For each transaction, I paid immediately (PayPal), within 5 minutes actually. As a buyer, I fulfilled my obligation (payment) so I deserve feedback (he paid, duh!). What are they waiting for? They are waiting for me to leave a positive comment -THEN they leave a positive reply, hopefully.

I read up on this and it is an active discussion off-site. The seller is holding the positive feedback as some kind of ransom, and will retaliate if they even get a neutral. This is a crap way to do a transaction.

My solution is for a PayPal/eBay feature that says average time for payment. If I was a seller, I would be very impressed with someone who always pays in less than a day (or within the hour). As a buyer, it is frustrating that they don't feel pressured to get the item into shipping as soon as possible. (This wouldn't be the case if they were more worried about feedback.)

Clearly, the system doesn't work right now. I am tempted to not leave feedback for any of these five sellers. None at all. But, I probably will. Then I will hope and pray that they also leave positive feedback. Stupid, simply stupid. How can something as big as eBay screw something like this up.

Speaking of which, meet Andy46477. Somehow, he leaves comments on other people's feedback area. Since it is all positive, he doesn't have any negatives. But, a few people are confused (and a few get it and leave funny replies). Most of them are plays on the member's name, but some are completely random. Here are some of my favorites:

• When I open boxes of cereal, you should be inside. Yes, you're THAT GOOD! (membername is "toy")
  
• Has INTEGRITY! Refuses to live on the MOON! Retains his SANITY! (membername is "earthbaby")
  
• I have cancer so I bid low. I cry when I'm outbid. My dog died yesterday. (a little dark, but the membername is "happy")
  
• I would like to shake your hand. I do not have any arms, though. I'm sad now.
  
• Wow! This has to be the ROUNDEST coin I've EVER seen! Quite impressed. Thanks.
  
• Great seller! Who cared for me when I was sick? You got it - jazztime did.
  
• Has intestinal FORTITUDE!!! Eats PORTIONED meals!!! Enjoys NOURISHMENT!!!
  
• Fast shipping. Polite responses. Has all his teeth. Doesn't beat his wife.

Nice. It shows how meaningful the feedback system on eBay is.

--gh