Taking eBay Feedback Ratings Personally

Many people who buy and sell on eBay take feedback ratings personally - comments can be stinging with often no way to get them removed. But it isn't just the ratings and comments themselves - some get upset over etiquette, as demonstrated by a recent post on the eBay discussion boards. 

A buyer described her disgust at sellers who don't leave reciprocal feedback and proposed the eBay feedback policy be changed so that in such cases, buyers would be able to remove their feedback within a certain amount of time. An excerpt of the post explains their thinking:

"I would like to see a change in eBay feedback policy, that would allow for a person to remove feedback within a certain time, if they so choose for whatever reason. This change would not allow for changing a positive feedback to a negative for example, but would allow a buyer to be able to remove the positive feedback that was left if the seller is not going to reciprocate. 

"Why should a seller benefit so enormously when they can't be bothered to take the time to reciprocate to the person doing them the positive favor, let alone purchasing from them?  

"There would of course be a time limit to take this action, and as I stated, no ability to change a positive to a negative, but the ability to remove positive feedback that raises a score if this is not reciprocated."

Many people responded, and most if not all of them disagreed with the buyer's suggestion that eBay should add the feature.

The buyer said they believed that the time they take to leave a positive feedback comment benefits sellers enormously - but that premise was questioned by some of those responding. One said positive feedback from a buyer was a "trivial benefit" to sellers.

But the buyer said they often receive messages from sellers encouraging them to leave positive feedback if satisfied with the transaction, indicating that feedback left by buyers for sellers is valuable.

The original poster also wrote, "Since feedback is all voluntary, and as several have stated, not a big deal, okay, then taking it away is no big deal either right?"

A self-described buyer responded by saying the main purpose of leaving feedback was to describe the transaction for other buyers. Another poster agreed: "I don't consider leaving feedback a favor that should be reciprocated. I leave feedback to help the buyers who come after me."

One poster pointed out that eBay doesn't allow sellers to leave negative or neutral feedback ratings - "If a seller could leave true feedback, I'm sure more sellers would leave it," they wrote.

The buyer's proposal is a reminder to sellers that at least some buyers expect reciprocal feedback, but it comes at a time when eBay is trying to get buyers to leave product reviews, and it's not clear if eBay has changed how it thinks about feedback.

What do you think is the biggest change eBay could make to feedback that would benefit buyers?