Hot off the presses… eBay to “retract” some of their new feedback policies:

Recalculating Feedback percentages without neutrals: Effective in late August, neutrals will no longer be counted as part of the Feedback percentage. This means we will be recalculating Feedback percentages retroactively for users worldwide. In the interim, no one will lose their PowerSeller status as a result of neutrals being included in their Feedback percentage.

I was a supporter of their feedback changes in May except for a few little issues. This is one of the issues I had a problem with. Neutrals were being counted as negatives. It just didn’t make sense to me. Neutral had always meant neither positive nor negative. I am glad to see this being changed back.

Secondly, eBay announced a plan change for the fall:

Helping you resolve issues and satisfy buyers: By the end of October, we will roll out a new process to help you resolve issues with buyers, even after the buyer has left negative feedback. Everybody makes mistakes – buyers and sellers alike, and buyers should have a mechanism to change feedback if they make a mistake or if the seller rectifies an issue in a timely manner. Unlike with our previous Mutual Feedback Withdrawal system, our new process will enable buyers to change their feedback of the seller, not just withdraw the rating.

This is also another issue I had with their feedback policy and I am glad to see it getting reversed. However, this change does bring eBay another step closer to having the same feedback policy as Amazon (Click Here to see my original post on how eBay’s feedback is becoming more like Amazon’s). I wonder if eBay is intentionally becoming more like Amazon or if Amazon had it right in the first place and eBay is just taking longer to get there.