eBay: Seller's feedback 'not given until feedback received'

[D. Bergin]

Well I guess there's just certain things that annoy certain people.

Thinking from a logical standpoint, for any Ebay sellers out there, there is absolutely zero tactical advantage gained by withholding feedback. The only thing it can accomplish is to aggravate the type of buyer who likes to see his feedback score go up, for whatever reason, it doesn't matter.

For those worried about scammers, there is no reason withholding feedback would discourage them. There's nothing left in the feedback tool for sellers to warn others of bad buyers. All you as a seller can do is file a Non Paying Bidder report if a bidder doesn't pay, and send everything with Delivery Confirmation or Signature Confirmation to protect yourself if they say they haven't received the item. If you see somebody who raises a red flag in your mind, then block them from bidding/buying your listings.

For buyers, all I can say is there is not a seller out there who can hold your feedback "hostage". It doesn't matter. He can't hurt you with feedback. He can't lower your score. He can't leave you a negative. He can't ding your stars, because there are no stars to ding. He can't hurt your percentages by NOT giving you feedback. He can't even post a positive feedback and write a negative message within that feedback without raising the ire of Ebay.

The buyer CAN conceivably hold the sellers feedback "hostage", and even attempt to extort a seller in exchange for positive (or NOT negative) feedback. A buyer CAN leave a negative, a buyer CAN ding a sellers stars. A buyer CAN post a positive AND write a negative message within that feedback and Ebay will likely not do anything about it (citing it as an opinion).

As a means of feeling like they have some sort of control over the issues, many sellers feeling somewhat helpless over the matter, may try to make themselves feel less helpless by instituting policies like: "When you leave feedback, I'll leave feedback". Blocking buyers who they think can hurt their business. Blocking buyers who leave negative comments within their feedback (whether it's a positive or negative), blocking buyers they think have dinged their stars.

Personally I've already thought too much about this. I just try to post positive feedback fairly quickly after somebody has paid for their items and don't worry about if I get it in return, even though it is directly beneficial to me (as a seller) in my overall stats with Ebay, if my positive is reciprocated by the buyer.