Must Rate Products Before Leaving Feedback for eBay Sellers?

We've seen three reports in April from eBay buyers who said that in order to leave feedback for sellers, they must first rate the product they purchased. One person discussing the issue speculated it could be part of a test - and possibly isolated to the media category.

On April 14, an eBay buyer said they were forced to "rate the product" before being able to leave feedback for the seller. "Unfortunately, it seems to be mandatory. I have no issue with rating the seller, but do not appreciate being forced to rate the product." The buyer pointed out in their post on the eBay discussion boards that they might not even have used the product before being forced to rate it, which could lead to "useless" product ratings. The buyer also said that they would stop leaving feedback if there were no workarounds.

eBay "mentor" ShipScript sought more information from the buyer and said they'd forward the information to eBay employees: "This may be one of eBay's tests. It may not be visible to everyone. It is certainly not operating the way it should if you have to pretend you have already evaluated the item before you can evaluate the seller. I'll send this along to staff."

Another buyer reported the same issue the following day, writing in a separate forum thread: "I wanted to leave a positive review for a seller, but am unable unless I give a product review as well. I don't want to review the product. Did this just change recently? I used to be able to make remarks about the fast shipping, good communication, etc. I can still leave that kind of review for buyers, so why not sellers?"

One week later, another eBay buyer reported the same situation in a third thread: "Am I correct in understanding that you can no longer leave feedback for a (seller) without rating the merits of the item you purchased? In other words, if you buy, say, a book, you have to read it and decide how much you liked it before you can assess the quality of the transaction? For one, I may not get around to reading that book for months. For another, whether that book is good or bad has no bearing on the seller. I'm not sure why item and seller ratings would be mingled other than to artificially inflate product ratings."

Two of the three buyers experiencing the issue posted screenshots of the page, and both of the screenshots included a new line that other buyers said they weren't seeing: "How would you rate this item?*" next to 5 blank stars for the buyer to fill in accordingly.

What consequences do you foresee if eBay forces buyers to rate products in order to leave seller feedback?

Update 4/23/2024: eBay confirmed today that it is making the change seen by the buyers above, though Jessica Vayo, Product Manager for the eBay Feedback Team, did not say if eBay would require buyers to rate the product as part of leaving feedback for sellers. See more in this Newsflash article.