As usual on Ebay I leave feedback, and in the vast majority of cases it is positive, so that is straightforward. A few weeks ago I ordered a car charger for a laptop. It hadn’t turned up a week beyond the expected delivery date, despite the delivery address being a work address where there is always people about. So I got in touch with the supplier, who said they would send another unit, which turned up a few days later.
When it came to leaving feedback I ticked the neutral box. After all it wasn’t a bad experience, since I got the charger. But it wasn’t good either; I could have done with it the previous week, and had to contact the seller to chase the order, so neutral feedback seemed appropriate.
But you go through a “you aren’t leaving positive feedback – have you been in touch with the vendor?” and then a “are you sure you don’t want to leave positive feedback?”. The pressure was definitely on to leave positive feedback irrespective of the quality of the transaction. It’s similar to 25% of students getting a first, and, in one of my previous incarnations as a civil servant, 60% of people being rated as suitable for promotion at their annual review.
The snag is that if everything is good, then nothing is good. So everyone’s a loser.