I’ve always thought eBay’s marketplace did not have any flaws. Its system is designed to help facilitate commerce transactions and in return they are able to monitor the transactions and effectively control the feedback system…further encouraging more transactions.
And it’s pretty apparent that having a high eBay reputation can illicit a higher premium on products. And not only that, you gain more trust in the buyer/seller.
Now what if I told you there was a way to raise your eBay ratings 10+ points within a matter of 200 seconds? What about 150 seconds? What about 100 seconds? And for only $0.10…would you be up for it?
I would hope you would say “no”! This system called “feedback farming” or “ballot stuffing” (depending on how you look at it) is highly unethical and not at all accurate of one’s reputation in buying or selling. By allowing sellers to sell eBooks for less than nothing, eBay has opened up a way for fraudsters to cheat the system.
I, by all means, do not encourage this behavior (that’s the risk you take in exposing issues like this - people are now aware and they commit the same acts). I am however encouraging you to carefully examine the buyers and sellers on eBay and fully look into their ratings, comments, and feedback. Do not accept their ratings at face value.
When it comes down to it, what does it mean for you? As I mentioned before, sellers with higher ratings garner more trust as well as more business. If these “feedback farmers” raised their reputation value unethically you could get screwed by:
1.) being frauded
2.) paying more for someone with a “higher” reputation
3.) having your trust taken advantage of
Fully utilize a rating system (especially ours) and be on the look out for this type of activity!
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October 10th, 2006 at 11:14 am
[…] Getting people to leave eBay when they’ve established a high feedback rating is going to be nigh on impossible. eBay will never open up their user rating data as that’s their most valuable data even though it’s open to fraud. An alternative is to use Rapleaf’s recommendation system for any transaction, on or offline. There seems to be a slow but steady uptake of Rapleaf integration into e-commerce websites. Google Checkout also has its own seller rating system. […]
October 25th, 2006 at 5:02 am
“And it’s pretty apparent that having a high eBay reputation can illicit a higher premium on products. And not only that, you gain more trust in the buyer/seller.”
I believe the word should be “elicit”, though “illicit” nearly works in this context.