I don't want to rate the item I want to leave feedback for the seller as I have always done.

The only hope is that as sellers realise they are not receiving feedback anymore they may apply their combined pressure to try and force a change by ebay .... but I'm not holding my breath.

How would you rate this item? is complete nonsense as it relates to the item purchased. As someone who buys the occasional toner cartridge as a spare when I put a replacement one in my printer I will put it on the shelf until required. How can I rate something that is in its packing sitting unused on a shelf?

As has been said this is of no relevance to the seller/transaction feedback for the purchase itself.

I am no fan of the star ratings and will not fill them in; I feel that Positive/Neutral/Negative and a quick one line of text is all that is needed.

I am sorry for the sellers but, while this question remains mandatory on the feedback forms, I shall not be completing them. Quite how this otious question made its way from initial bright idea through development and user testing to implementation without anyone saying "this is a really daft idea" says a lot about ebay's distain for users.

I have used the Summary feedback page (best as I could find) to complain about this idiotic demand by eBay suggesting that they either remove it entirely or (like other parts of the feedback form) make it optional. Otherwise I would either stop leaving feedback or provide ratings of 1 star for every single form completed - possibly after contacting the seller and letting them choose wether to have feedback with a 1 star product rating or no feedback until eBay change this.

Just my two cents

Agree that this should be changed.

How are you supposed to rate an item that you may have not yet used.

As it's compulsary I finish up saying, I'm just giving it 3 stars as otherwise I can't leave a rating  for the purchase.

Agreed, the old system was much better.  In many cases I just want to review the sale, not the item.

I have also just raised this with Ebay and have been fobbed off by a representative. I have responded to say it is unacceptable to be asked for a subjective opinion on an item as this is clearly Ebay attempting to harvest more information from it's users. I also wonder if this is GDPR compliant if your username is associated with a "product review" and whether one is protected from a potential libel lawsuit. 

I have requested that this issue is escalated to management. I certainly won't be leaving any feedback whilst it is mandatory to "rate this item".

I'm either not leaving any transaction feedback now. The alternative its giving the item the lowest product rating (a "1"). I REFUSE to review items I've not used yet as to whether they're good, bad or something in between. HOW can someone be expected to review a book they've not read or a movie they've not watched? Who thought this was a good idea should be immediately sacked.

i'm now seeing the Rating section as optional, and am able to leave feedback without rating the item (which i was never prepared to do). Sanity has evidently prevailed - but shame on eBay for trying to foist this on us in the first place.

Although my most recent transaction has an optional star rating for the item, it still requires me to type something in the "tell us more about the item" field in order to leave feedback. No transaction rating, nothing about speed of delivery.

As far as I can see, they've fixed nothing. 

Maybe it's not been fully rolled out yet. But all i know is, for me, that section about rating the item, is now completely optional, and i've been able to leave feedback on all the outstanding purchases that i've been leaving until now. Hopefully everyone will get it soon.

Here's what i actually see:

i've bought a mixture of new and used items, and i have the same options for everything. That "Rate the Item" nonsense is optional on everything for me now.