@sylviebee wrote:
IF eBay no longer allowed us to view FB left for others a number of things would likely follow:
1) There would be more NFB. Buyers are aware that sellers vet the FB they leave and sophisticated buyers with self-control don't leave NFB for that reason. That doesn't mean they're not problem buyers. It means that they're smart buyers.
Even so, NFB would likely not be left for the posters to this board who tend to be pretty darned good at what they do. It would be for your competition. (Good for you.)
2) You'd spend less time vetting buyers and stress levels would go down a little. (Good for you.)
3) Sales would increase. (Good for you/eBay).
Yes, it's true that occasionally viewing FB left for others is helpful, but most of the time it just hinders the process and makes it more stressful. (One less thing to worry about.)
In fact, at this point in the game FB in general no longer serves a purpose. In the past it allowed buyers to avoid problem sellers. However, we now have so many powerful protections in place that the importance of FB has waned to the point of pointlessness.
Etsy is way ahead of eBay in this regard.
I think unhappy buyers would still want to vent and leave negative FB, even if they knew that only the seller could see it. Which doesn't help other buyers wondering if they are safe to purchase from that seller. It cuts both ways, in other words, FB is not just a tool for sellers to vet buyers. In fact I don't think eBay's FB system was ever intended primarily to serve sellers. FB works more usefully for buyers vetting sellers, although that in turn benefits sellers who maintain good overall FB.
Although it's certainly true that there are more buyer protections now in place, it isn't always simple for buyers to navigate through those processes, especially if there is a truculent seller involved.
Personally I don't agonize over a buyer's FB if they make an offer on a Best Offer item. It doesn't cause me any stress at all. I simply take a quick look through the last 2 or 3 pages of FB left by that buyer for others, and if it's peppered with a lot of clearly nasty or irrational comments, I'd decline the offer. I might or might not block them, depending on how frequent and how ugly their negative FB was. That actually has never happened so far (declining an offer for that reason), so either I've been fortunate to have nothing but good buyers, or my Best Offers are working as they should. However, I wouldn't decline an offer simply because a buyer left a few negative FB comments -- it's the tone and subject that counts.
On the other hand, to respond to 'recped's' example, I don't think a buyer who leaves nothing but negative FB, even if only 1% of the time, is a buyer you'd necessarily want if you have a choice. If I saw that the first 2 or 3 pages of a buyer's "FB Left for Others" pages contained little or no positive FB, but only negative remarks, I'd conclude that this was a person who is very motivated to complain when unhappy, but apparently can never be bothered to go to the FB page and leave praise when the item or service is good. That too is a reasonable analysis.
Etsy is in an easier position because they've never had the cumbersome and problematic FB system that eBay has had since the beginning. They also have a completely different set of buyers and sellers, in products that are arguably less prone to nastiness than many categories on eBay, which I think accounts for a lot of the more relaxed atmosphere there.
EBay, with its extensive item mix and huge user base, keeps trying to tweak the FB concept to make it fairer to both sides but still keep it somewhat meaningful for everybody. They haven't completely succeeded, but I also don't think that layering "product reviews" on top of the FB system was a good idea. Reviews of seller service, in one form or another, is still important for buyers making choices.
