Many of my friends now use Ebay.com on a regular basis to purchase items that they can find much cheaper than in a retail outlet such as BestBuy or Circuit City. I have purchased many items on EBay, from laptops to cell phone batteries.

I usually purchase items with the “Buy It Now” and pay the merchant or seller via Paypal.com so that my item will be mailed as soon as possible. I think it is a great system but it has some flaws that really piss me off.

The part that really pisses me off is the feedback system. Power Sellers, who make a living off of EBay, will not leave feedback until you, as the buyer, leave feedback for them. I have always left positive feedback because I want the same in return. It is a necessity if you want continued success to purchase future items on EBay.

I believe that EBay needs to implement a change that would require sellers to automatically leave feedback on the buyers account if the auction is completed with “Buy It Now”. I state this because all the feedback that is left is usually something to the affect of “Great Buyer, Fast Payer, Great Transaction, and Will Do Business Again”. Why do they wait? Because we, as the buyers, may leave negative feedback on their account, it seems to me that this is a one way street. Sure they are worried that we will leave them negative feedback, but it is a two way street! Don’t you agree? What stops them from leaving negative or neutral feedback? Why do we, as buyers, have to wait if we have already paid for the item? Please enlighten me!

I have actually gotten into an email argument with a seller over an item. He would not leave feedback for me until I left it for him. I paid somewhere in the neighborhood of $200.00 for an item and did not receive it for 3 weeks, fast shipping my A$$. I already had paid the seller the money, I mean get a grip.

This is a completely unfair system and EBay needs to correct it, to protect the buyers. It would be a simple code change on their end. Their main goal is to protect the buyer in my opinion, but only if the auction is finished with “Buy It Now”.