I recently ordered a book off of Half.com and, being both frugal and patient, I opted for the Media Mail shipping method.  I was delighted when the book arrived just a few days later in a flat-rate Priority Mail box.

Value is defined as the difference between what a customer paid and the perceived worth of what a customer receives.  I paid for Media Mail shipping and received Priority Mail service, so, for me, the value of the book increased substantially.  Now, the book I ordered was a 1500 page text, and pretty hefty, so it might not have been a significant difference between the cost to mail it Media or Flat-rate priority.  But that’s not what I focused on…

…My focus was diverted to the value I received by a clever note written by the seller on the packing slip:

half.com packing slip
Click to Enlarge Image

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Researchers from the University of Michigan have identified several common impacts resulting from sellers receiving negative feedback on eBay.  Among them:

Stoning

Stoning refers to the phenomenon that buyers are more apt to give another negative to a seller who has just received an unfavorable rating.

This could occur for one of two reasons.  First, buyers may be willing to forgive a single bad behavior but wat to punish sellers who exhibit a pattern of bad behavior.  Second, a buyer may interpret what happened in his own transaction differently differently depending on suspicions raised by the seller’s previous feedback.  For example, if an item appears to be damaged in shipment, a previous negative feedback suggests that the damage was more likely to have been the sellers fault.

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One of the big changes coming to eBay over the next few weeks involves the feedback system.  Effective in May, Sellers will not be able to leave negative feedback on bidders. 

This was done in attempt to fix the retaliatory feedback problem.  Retaliatory feedback, or the threat of it has crippled eBay’s feedback system.  Many eBay sellers are very upset about this change.  Quite vocally upset.

Given the controversy, it might be useful to remember the purpose of the eBay feedback system.  According to a paper* published by researchers at the University of Michigan, “reputation systems like the Feedback Forum can improve the efficiency of marketplaces in three ways:”
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eBay PunishmentAuctionBytes is reporting that the UK eBay site will be modifying the search results displayed based on detailed seller ratings. Specifically, sellers who rank below a 3.9 average (on a 5.0 scale) for shipping and handling charges will receive “considerably reduced visibility” meaning that their listings will appear much further down in the search results.
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