

Uber vs. Laws - aceperry
http://www.politico.com/agenda/story/2015/07/uber-vs-laws-000172?hp=b1_c1

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DrScump
In giving only a partial account of eBay's rating system, this author learned
exactly the wrong lesson.

The original two-way eBay rating system _did_ work well. However, ratings
became meaningless (except to see in aggregate a long history of transactions
by a party, which gives a veneer of stability).

The modern failure is twofold:

1) several years back, eBay made it _impossible to leave negative or even
neutral feedback for any buyer_ under any circumstances. Never paid? Try to
extort a lower price? Phony claim of non-receipt? Damaged the item and then
blamed it on the seller? NO PROBLEM, says eBay, and future sellers are none
the wiser and cannot protect themselves.

2) A dishonest eBay _seller_ can void any transaction simply by refunding the
payment. So, if she didn't like the winning price on an auction, she gets a
do-over, and the buyer gets hosed. Or, the seller can try to change terms (I
experienced this just last week, where the seller tried to extort 250% of the
winning bid price, then cancelled when I balked).

Policies like these have made eBay no longer a safe place to sell, and their
squeezing of sellers for every possible fee became relentless, to the point
that you _cannot even say the word "cash" in a listing_ any more.

So, modern eBay is a _joke_ , and much of that commerce has moved to Amazon
and elsewhere.

