Trusting e-Bay- The Power of Feedback
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In our last class, I mentioned as if it were an absolute truth that e-Bay is a website we can all trust. It turns out that there is actually a lot of controversy surrounding trust issues with e-Bay’s feedback system and whether users, both buyers and sellers, can trust it.
For those of you unfamiliar with their feedback system, according to e-Bay:
“Feedback is each user’s reputation on eBay. Through positive, negative, and neutral ratings and comments, each eBay member has a Feedback score. All sellers display this score in the Seller Information box of the item listing page. eBay Feedback fosters trust between people by acting as both an incentive to do the right thing and as a mark of distinction for those who conduct transactions with respect, honesty, and fairness.”
Feedback scores go up to a hundred percent. Before a buyer bids on an object, s/he can view the seller’s feedback score and the details of their feedback (for example a if buyer claims the item was never shipped, or that it smelled of cigarette smoke) to help them decide whether or not they want to bid on that object. Some sellers also view a buyer’s feedback, and if it is a zero or a negative number, or contains a great amount of negative feedback, the seller may ask for some confirmation that the bidder will actually buy, or a quick payment before the seller relists the item.
SO WHAT’S WRONG WITH THE FEEDBACK SYSTEM?
It seems, at least to me at first, like a pretty sound system. Negative feedback is the deterrent to wrong doing while positive feedback is the reward for doing right. With this simple rating system, the community, built on trust, essentially manages itself. Tom Friedman in his book The World Is Flat, expressed the common opinion on eBay by calling it a “self-governing nation-state.” So what’s the issue then?
Back to the film, The Trap, self-interest is one issue that spoils this ideal self-regulating community. Specifically, sellers (which were probably not performing up to par with e-bay’s ideals) threaten buyers who might leave them negative feed back, by threatening to leave the buyers negative feedback, even if the buyers haven’t done anything wrong. This may result in the buyer never leaving a negative feedback because they are too scared to receive the same. In this situation, the general public never knows of the struggle between these two and bids and sells to each ignorantly.
If the buyer does decide to post a negative feedback, the seller will return the favor. The exchange is up for the public to see, though only until both decide to mutually withdraw their negative feedback. Even if the issue might have never been resolved, they may opt to do so in order to maintain their feedback percentage at a high amount. In this way, the rest of the e-Bay community is naive to the faults of either the buyer or the seller.
Another issue with feedback, is that because it is so highly valued when making sales, sellers may participate in selling bogus items with their friends in order to raise their feedback scores.
Basically, if e-bay is dependent on a market where truth is exchange to protect the e-bay community as a whole, and the traders are liars and/or coerce other traders to withhold information, how sound is this system really?
E-BAY STEPS IN…
In order to improve “buyer trust in the marketplace,” e-Bay has decided to step in on this self-regulating nation and take away the right of sellers to leave negative feedback on buyers (aside from other changes), so that buyers may leave honest feedback more freely. Sellers then will be unable to protect themselves from crooked/stupid buyers who can now more easily damage sellers’ reputations.
E-BAY STRIKE/ BOYCOTT! FEB 18th- FEB25th
These fuming sellers (as well as supporting bidders) are going on strike, Feb 18th- 25th!
Should we trust ourselves to govern our own e-bay, or should we accept these new regulations that e-bay has decided to put into effect? Maybe we need another alternative altogether?
Comments
Remarkable post!
A real great example of use of writing, titling, formating, everything… I really enjoyed it.
I also think you tied it really well with the Trap, with the prisoner’s dilemma playing between the sellers and buyers in E-bay.
This self-governing nation state is a real controversial issue. It seems like things start to break and then the citizens call for an authoritarian force, they demand policing. When policing comes, the act seems repressive and is being rebelled against. Story sounds pretty familiar… But can online communities really offer this new model for self-governance? Should self interest be the regulating force behind it? What other models maintain self-governance and what are the forces behind them?
You might want to read Clay Shirky’s Against Well-designed Reputation Systems (An Argument for Community Patent). I found it mind provoking and inspiring, and it is has guided me well in leading my own approach for reputation systems. (I will tell you more about it when I talk about ShiftSpace)
I hope the rest of the class marks this one as a fav and we’ll discuss it on Tuesday. Nice job…
I agree with David, I don’t think you can necessarily take all feedback comments to heart. Often, you can see how immature people are when they are writing feedback to each other. One negative thing about removing the feedback power from the seller is if bidder’s don’t pay right away - and they leave a negative comment for the seller. I can understand how that can be an issue because the seller might want to consider their product for resale. I don’t know how it works out in that case, but I guess I should read about it more. Interesting article though!
hmm…if this strike is actually happening its definitely bad for me. I have an item ending on the 19th that I am selling!
I do think that the feedback system is flawed. You can shill bid (bid on your own items to boost the price), use multiple accounts and even withdraw bad feedback so you dont look bad. However, I think that it works pretty well for the most part as long as you dont have complete faith in ebay. As long as you look into what items youre buying and who is selling them carefully, it is pretty easy to spot fakes, scams and other shady things going on. People tend to put too much trust in a simple feedback number and percentage rating.