I recently bought a new mobile phone battery through eBay. (The phone's battery life has dropped significantly in recent weeks, and now only lasts about 8 hours between charges - even less if I actually use it.) I can count the number of times I've used eBay on one hand, so I'm not exactly an expert, but the experience raised a couple of issues for me. At the heart of it, I don't like the feedback system. When a transaction occurs, the buyer and seller each rate the other as either positive, neutral or negative, based on the overall transaction experience. It is completely up to the person how they decide to rate, and can be totally arbitrary. One man's positive might be another's neutral. You could give someone a negative rating just because you don't like the sound of their name. So really, the rating can't be taken as an absolute measure of the integrity of a buyer or seller (which seems to be its purpose).

Sellers pride themselves on their positive feedback rating, since it's basically the only way for buyers to communicate to each other any problems that they have. If a buyer happens to leave neutral or negative feedback, the seller can contact them in an attempt to explain the situation. If both parties agree, the feedback can be withdrawn. This is preferable for the seller, since it helps them maintain a mostly positive reputation.

After my phone battery arrived, I decided to rate the transaction as neutral. There was really nothing that bad about it, but nothing particularly good either. To me that pretty much defines neutral. However, because an eBay seller's rating is based on positive feedback only, a neutral rating is effectively not much different from a negative rating. To me that is a flaw in the system. Neutral feedback shouldn't be a bad thing.

The twist to the tale: the seller contacted me to ask me to withdraw the feedback, and said "we have already refunded AUD2.00 as compensation". The battery cost me $2.70 plus postage. Now $2 isn't exactly a fortune, but the idea of the seller paying me to withdraw the feedback seemed a bit off. I contacted eBay and asked if the situation was against their policy, since they were essentially trying to buy a positive, but apparently it's not. They have already refunded the amount into my account, so I can't say I'm not going to accept it. But I don't really want to withdraw the feedback, because I think it's valid. So I think I'll give $2 to someone who needs it and leave it at that.