The weirdest thing is that, whilst almost everyone thinks eBay’s feedback system is in some way flawed, almost everyone seems to invest a huge degree of faith in it.
I for one am not in the least surprised that people are weary of the whole 'review culture'. Once, in response to a similar thread, I did a spot check and found I’d been asked to feedback/review goods and services over 30 times in a single day. One transaction can often result in over a dozen such requests, reminders included.
Worth listening to Tom Shakespeare's recent Radio 4 talk: 'A Point of View - the ratings game'. He covers the problem very well. In particular he highlights the fact that none of this 'ratings culture' actually achieves what is claims to set out to do. That is, it doesn’t result in better service.
The same holds true on eBay. If you neg/neut a seller and suggest they might do something better next time, they are extremely unlikely to take it on board and seek to make improvements. They will usually take it as a personal slight, block the buyer, and try to get the feedback removed (or at least attach a snotty, defensive reply) before jumping onto the discussion boards to complain about how unfair the whole thing is.
