New eBay Feedback Verified Purchase tag

Surprisingly, surveys with eBay users showed that half of them didn’t know that feedback can only be left by those involved in a purchase. That’s why eBay have made a change to display a ‘verified purchase’ message on feedback on the site.

eBay say that they have added this text to remove any doubt that the person leaving the feedback was involved in the transaction. Unlike eBay, other sites allow anyone to leave feedback or ratings, not just those involved in a transaction. You’ll currently see the ‘verified purchase’ tag on the eBay mobile app and it will be coming to desktop in a few weeks time.

eBay do say that that experienced buyers and sellers on eBay may view the additional text as unnecessary, but for the half of buyers that don’t know it’s an added reassurance that feedback is tied to a genuine completed transaction.

It’s worth noting that feedback on eBay wasn’t always tied to a purchase, in the very early days anyone could leave feedback for anyone! As you might expect, Pierre, eBay’s founder, had some interesting feedback left on his account in the very early days of the marketplace, totally unrelated to any transactions but referring to how the marketplace was being developed and run!

Feedback was first created on eBay about 6 months after the site launched and Pierre posted this ‘founders letter’ introducing eBay Feedback, which for the Internet was a new concept.

Posted: February 26, 1996,
To: eBay Community

I launched eBay’s AuctionWeb on Labor Day, 1995. Since then, the site has become more popular than I ever expected, and I began to realize that this was indeed a grand experiment in Internet commerce. By creating an open market that encourages honest dealings, I hope to make it easier to conduct business with strangers over the net.

Most people are honest. And they mean well. Some people go out of their way to make things right. I’ve heard great stories about the honesty of people here. But some people are dishonest. Or deceptive. This is true here, in the newsgroups, in the classifieds, and right next door. It’s a fact of life. But here, those people can’t hide. We’ll drive them away. Protect others from them. This grand hope depends on your active participation. Become a registered user. Use our feedback forum. Give praise where it is due; make complaints where appropriate. For the past six months, I’ve been developing this system single-handedly, in my spare time. Along the way, I’ve dealt with complaints among participants. But those complaints have amounted to only a handful. We’ve had close to 10,000 auctions since opening. And only a few dozen complaints.

Now, we have an open forum. Use it. Make your complaints in the open. Better yet, give your praise in the open. Let everyone know what a joy it was to deal with someone. Above all, conduct yourself in a professional manner. Deal with others the way you would have them deal with you. Remember that you are usually dealing with individuals, just like yourself. Subject to making mistakes. Well-meaning, but wrong on occasion. That’s just human. We can live with that. We can deal with that. We can still make deals with that. Thanks for participating. Good luck, and good business!

Regards, Pierre Omidyar