How effective is the five star rating system?

Question

I'm all for rating buyers and sellers on eBay so that one can distinguish the good buyers and sellers from those that are perhaps a little less professional.  However, I've had sellers ask me to leave a 5 star rating across the board, as they claim anything less is considered a negative rating.  Most sellers write thank you on the items they send but in many cases that's the only communication that you've had with them.  What does that warrant on the rating system to provide honest feedback?  When the description on an item doesn't really tell you anything other than say "old stamp".  How do you rate that?  It is an old stamp; so looked at one way the description is very accurate but it's not really telling you anything about the item..   I may be a bit naive here but I've never seen a list of the criteria used to determine "very accurate", "very fast", "very satisfied" or "very quickly".  For the rating system to accurately reflect how good or poor the buyers and sellers are it needs to be objective.  That is to say that buyers and sellers must have a generally agreed upon statement of what constitutes the categories from 1 to 5.  After all one person's "very fast" (it shipped within a week) could be another person's "very slow".  Subjective ratings are open to interpretation and all one sees is the feedback comment and the ratings not how the person determined the ratings.  I think this is a discussion that would help to improve the feedback system and make it a more accurate reflection of how both buyers and sellers do business in this arena.

Answer 1

It seems now that Ebay let now the sellers decide when it is ok to receive an item  Not exactly. EBay removes Seller Protection if the seller does not ship within seven days. Which has been the policy for many years. The delivery time is mostly due to the shipping service (China Post, USPS, Canada Post) although if an overseas seller uses Surface Shipping, he should understand that it will be on the high seas for six weeks to three months.The 'expected delivery time' is given by the shipping service not by the seller. Paypal is now allowing buyers to open disputes for up to 180 days**, in part as a reaction to unhappy buyers who have been hornswoggled into waiting past the former 45 day deadline for delivery. So really, there is now more power in the hands of the buyer. In my opinion, and I have lots of opinions. no buyer should wait more than 30 days for a delivery.Normal delivery from Europe* is 10 to 15 days.From Canada or the USA 15 to 20 days.From Asia 20 to 30 days. After that contact the seller and if neither tracking information nor a refund arrives within 24 hours, open a Dispute.    *European sellers use Air Mail as default. Asian sellers, especially those using Free Shipping, use Surface as a default. **(Or just don't ship at all and then promise a replacement which never arrives, but by then the Dispute period of 45 days has passed.)