I've never seen that as a problem. I know its there and goes on, but I don't think it occurs frequently enough to require a change. The bigger problem was that for sellers, morons would purchase an item and select the cheapest shipping option, like USPS Media Mail or Parcel Post to save money, then slap the seller with a neg because it didn't ship fast enough (note the buyer willingly chose the shipping option thats usually 5-10 days). So the sellers said screw it, everything is USPS Priority now, and when that became common place the buyers started slapping the sellers with negs because the shipping charges were too high.
Having lots experience as both a buyer and seller and doing hundreds and hundreds of eBay transactions, eBays biggest problem isn't with seller scams or non paying bidders (those show up at incidents of maybe 1:100), its with buyers that are terminally fucking stupid (1:10).
They deserve to be negged. Some people just should not be allowed on the Interwebs.
But really, the bigger issue is that the playing field now is not level. You say 'feedback is bullshit if that's the case' ... but the reality was that feedback always was bullshit anyway. It was a bogus confidence indicator. At least under the previous scheme the buyer and seller could just flame away and neg each other, or write it off as a bad experience and not rep each other at all, or both put on a false smile and post positive, even if the transaction hadn't gone well. Whatever. It didn't really matter, because in the end, it was only feedback, and the system was hollow. Now, though, feedback actually determines how much the seller will have to pay in fees, and whether their listing can be seen at all. The 5-star, 4-category DSR system, which penalizes the seller REAL WORLD MONEY for any rating that isn't a perfect 5.0, while simultaneously telling the buyer that anything over a 3-star rating is an average transaction or above-average, hurts sellers.
If I sell you something on eBay, and you think it was a good transaction and give me a 4-star seller rating (remember, you're told at checkout that 3 is average and 5 is awesome) I am hurt by that. You could legitimately think the transaction was fine, maybe I live 3000 miles from you and the package took three days to get there instead of two. Maybe my shipping charge was $1.00 more than someone else. Doesn't matter. You, as the buyer, could leave me all four stars thinking it was great, just not 5-star perfect. As a seller, if I get 4-star ratings, that HURTS my business and costs me money. My insertion fees go up. My final value fees go up. My listing visibility is reduced.
Buyers now have ALL the leverage, while the sellers have to pay all the bills.
The old feedback system was shit, but at least it policed itself.
The new feedback system is even worse, and the sellers have no mechanism to see how or why their buyers are rating them the way they are, no opportunity to correct the problem, and no recourse to at least hate the bad, deadbeat moronic buyers out of the community.
