> In any case I am out the money I paid for the item. Until > the change in the feedback system, the seller even had control > of feedback. They would just wait until feedback is left from > the buyer, before posting feedback...
I do not purchase that many iems on eBay, and have only sold a couple. But my view as a seller was that I didn't leave feedback until the item was received and examined by the purchaser. Delaying in this manner was based on seeing feedback in auctions from buyers who were clearly not in their right minds.
In fact, my most recent sale (of an expensive, unused sewing machine) did result in having the buyer damage the goods after a couple of weeks and then try to extort a refund. In the end, it all worked out OK, but it was touchy for a while.
I didn't leave feedback for the buyer until everything was resolved, which made sense to me. It was certainly not due to my trying to extort undeserved positive feedback from the buyer. And I don't think this was that unusual a situation.
Fred Rednor - Arlington, Virginia (USA)