Negative feedback given but has disappeared

[theoldandthebald]

I gave negative feedback to a seller for what he/she  claimed i have not checked the parts comparrison chart !! I had done a comparrison check and the photo on the listing was what i wanted . I recieved a item that was poor quality and was not the item i ordered . They said i was in the wrong and would have to pay postage . lol.... My issue is how has my feedback dissapeared and if they have managed to get Ebay to remove it and have done this for other neg feedback how does that give a true representation of a company selling **bleep** !! how does that protect buyers or should i say how does it help a buyer to make up their mind whether to buy from them . If ebay has removed it then they should be giving the buyer the oppertunity to have it reinstated for good reason otherwise ebay are covering up bad sales practices. 

[nigel_paul_wright7557]

Ebay sometimes removes a neg if the seller has a previous good reputation.

It happened to me once.

[padanpcparts]

E-bay remove negative feedback all the time. Has happened over and over again. Usually bigger sellers, likely with Concierge service. 

[elitegiftsltd]

They also remove feedback that does not comply with its policies.

Part of the seller protections we do get in certain circumstances is removal of feedback relating to the transaction!

[bobandcharlies]

I can understand your frustration and annoyance 

Without knowing what you wrote it is impossible to pin point the reason or even offer an educated guess - feedback removal is not easy unless ebay policy  has been broken or seller protection policy kicks in.

Briefly 

mention of ebay siding with you is grounds to remove feedback as is bad language, 

Incorrect information is not removable  normally

If a case is closed in the seller's favour your feedback is automatically removed  as can be delivery related comments when proof of delivery is provided 

What I would suggest is search feedback policy, seller and buyer protection, or pop up what you can remember you wrote and you will get as much help understanding as you can handle - you may also get some not so helpful comments

There are lots of very experienced and knowledgeable members who will be able to help you understand why it was removed - why different levels of sellers get different levels of seller protection - it may not make you feel any less indignant but it will give you the knowledge of what feedback is acceptable and what is not and what and why feedback can be removed  

It is a large subject from false negative removal to  defamatory comment removal to comment only removal to restorative removal after a problem.

[padanpcparts]

Honestly, there is nothing you can do about it and the entire feedback system needs scrapping. Get on with the job of selling. 

[awol1968]

I have just had a feedback removed almost instantly!!! No mention of any case against the seller. I just stated the facts without a single expletive or any spurious comments that would give a reason to the "expert community members" to suggest it was removed for any other reason than reducing negatives. A review of this seller on trustpilot also says he saw 16 negatives disappear overnight. Whatever policies ebay has introduced seem to have the ultimate goal to make it harder to leave a negative. Similar to the policy of being able to request a negative changed to a positive but not vice versa if your experience changes. This seller has 100% positive which going by their 1 star reviews on trust pilot, I find very hard to believe. They're a decent drop shipper but if something goes wrong they are narcissistic to the nth degree & nothing is their fault, including their own description!!! I'm sure the "experts" will jump to ebay's defence so good luck with that!

[bobandcharlies]

The problem with negative removal is that the buyer who left it will always disagree

Noone can answer why it was removed - best guesses only as only you and the seller know what happened and what was written.

A lot of negative comments are spiteful and untrue but are an opinion of the buyer's experiance  or are they ?

This is the one and only we received this month 

"Lot smaller than expected"

our response

Even though the listing very clearly and prominently shows all the dimensions of this fantastic toy basket including the volume that it will hold I guess you just missed it and guessed the size it was going to be - I really hope you learn from your experiance and rather than blame the seller or the toy basket reflect on what could have avoided the negative dissatisfaction - I realise you can't leave a negative comment for yourself and I suppose lashing out at the seller is the next best thing.

This what the listing says 

Size
Height 23cm
Diameter 30.5cm
Capacity 16.80 Litres

65% Polyester 35% Cotton.

Having looked at the buyers feedback left  for sellers, it appears that the buyer just loves leaving negative feedback more often than not about the size - strangely most buyers we find who habitually leave negative feedback are also sellers  - read into that what you will !

So should feedback made in this manner be removed or is it a real experiance or just a buyer's inability to be honest with themselves and simply decide that because they could not be bothered to read the listing that any error in their own judgement must be the seller's fault !

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[awol1968]

If that was your experience, then I think that negative should be removed. My removed feedback was also about sizing but I sent pics showing it didn't match the description & the seller refused to accept responsibility for their own listing & blamed their supplier instead & keeping me hanging. The feedback I left just reflected this & didn't mention ant cases against them or the outcome. I agree with someone else on the forum that said, the bigger the seller, the more negs removed

[bobandcharlies]

We don't ask for feedback to be removed unless it is particularly obnoxious, 

The point you made where a size is incorrect - not talking about a mm or two  and you drew this to the seller's attention.

The seller's response blaming the supplier ?   the seller  by this response was agreeing the size was incorrect (if I am reading you correctly)

Surely the seller should have been grateful for being made aware of the problem - the seller may not have been aware 

If this had happened to one of our products - this is what we would do 

1) check and double check manually the stock  and in particular the batch that your order came from

2) If the measurements on the advert were incorrect - immediately change them 

3) Respond to you showing what we had found and either thank you and refund your purchase  and offer a replacement FOC -(reason you have just saved us a heap of trouble) 

4) If it is a manufacturing error or labelling error - contact manufacturer for a credit against the item incorrectly sold and or a replacement of stock or return of stock - depends on what was found

The other alternative would be that the sizes are correct  and we would have offered an explanation and photos showing where the measurements are taken from - to with a calibrated measure next to the appropriate parts of the item 

If the second scenario happened and you left neg feedback I would expect it to be removed - If it was the first scenario I would hope that you would feel negative feedback would not be necessary

Unfortunately it is difficult to comment on why the feedback was removed - on the face of it it seems strange 

[awol1968]

I agree with your comments wholeheartedly. What surprises me about this seller is that it seems to be a huge problem for this supplier to accept responsibility for anything. I kept telling them that where they got their sizes from was none of my, or ebay's concern, the size was on their listing. I measured the item at it's very highest point, which was a tiny point of resin & said it was 45mm not 65. I have seen other shops list the correct sizes off ebay & they had it as 40mm.

Back to ebay's new feedback manipulation, this 100% positive feedback seller has received another negative today after mine was removed yesterday. 36618 transaction in 12 months & only 3 negatives but they actually got 2 negatives on 2 consecutive days??? That's either a hell of a coinidence or it's getting way more negatives than are shown. I'm just curous about this now & I'm going to check this shop occasionally.

The other thing I noticed was star ratings. Their 5 star ratings are listed as being 31 to 32 thousand 5 star for all 4 reasons. I find it hard to believe that out of the 4 to 5 thousand that didn't leave 5 stars, they all still left a positive, apart from myself, the other person today & the 2 negatives that were already there?  I mentioned someone on trustpilot said he saw 16 negatives removed overnight & I now believe him completely. 

[bobandcharlies]

It does seem odd - no matter how good your products and service are - postal delays, damaged goods, manufacturing faults - buyers who do not read the description etc etc will for sure occur and with that number of sales in a year it is bound to attract a few negative comments - some will be removed automatically by ebay with no reference to either buyer or seller because of seller protection and wording against policy but some genuine feedback negatives should remain.

I remember one feedback which was negative and ebay offered to remove it but the customer was right - the comment and feedback were 100% correct .

it was a misunderstanding on our part so we insisted that it was not removed on the basis that it was a great reminder not to make the same mistake again.

We totally misunderstood the customer's complaint by not stepping back and taking the time to understand the problem the customer had drawn to our attention.

ebay capitulated and did not remove the feedback - it served it's purpose well and the same mistake has not been repeated.

The customer received an apology, an explanation, a refund and a replacement item for our error in judgement, they were very happy and offered to change the feedback, we declined but the customer off their own back added a complimentary follow up which sat below our apology made public on the feedback response  which we were very grateful for.

Buyers are entitled to an opinion and constructive critisicm should always be welcomed by a seller - it is surprising sometimes how a seller understands what they wrote knowing what they meant but a buyer can read it in a totally different way - it is surely up to the seller to make information sizes etc transparent and clear to avoid misunderstandings

Not all negatives are unwelcome although we prefer to be given the opportunity to rectify a mistake or problem before feedback is left or a case opened, even if after resolving the problem the customer still feels compelled to record a negative buying experiance, at least we had the opportunity to change the experiance for the buyer.

[awol1968]

That was a great comment. You seem like an honest seller that wants to do
their best and takes responsibility when things go wrong if that
responsibility does lie with you.
The problem with negative feedbacks being removed for any reason, is that
sellers that are nothing like you are helped just to be seen as being like
you when they are not!!!
Even if someone does use inappropriate language or mentions cases, that
person should be given the opportunity to amend that comment and not the
feedback just disappearing. As I've said before, eBay will allow a negative
be changed to a positive but not vice versa. eBay "community experts" can
dance around that all they want but it's obvious why. Good luck with your
business

[bobandcharlies]

You are right of course - I suppose ebay view it that you can always leave a follow up comment to any feedback rather than change it 

I agree negative experiances should be recorded - although some malicious buyers take pleasure in writing the most obnoxious untruths that they can think of - I often wonder if the bottom of a glass has something to do with it.

Nearly all messages and feedback are from very valued and pleasant customers with or without a problem who we really want to shop with us again  which means resolving any issue or question raised within a very short time period usually within an hour and acting immediately on the resolution accepted or agreed, keeping the customer informed and involved every step of the way. 

Hopefully your next buying opinion will be recorded  for the public to enjoy and be a pleasant buying experiance for you.

It is always interesting and informative to hear from buyer's and their experiances - this really allows sellers to see it from a customer's eyes and the more we can do that the more we can improve and retain customer loyalty

[awol1968]

The seller I've been following has now had 3 negatives in 3 days, but prior to that only 2 in 12 months!!!??? Will be interesting to see if they build up & then disappear as the trustpilot reviewer said he'd seen

[awol1968]

The 4th negative this particular shop received yesterday has now been removed!!! This how bad sellers keep a 100% positive!!!!

[awol1968]

The seller I've been talking about now has 0 negatives. The 3 that had stayed on their after mine & another 3 were taken down have also disappeared!!!!! I'm beginning to think ebay isn't doing this, somehow, the seller is!!!!

[bobandcharlies]

It certainly pongs a bit - It makes you wonder  - of course as the negs are removed the star ratings disappear as well

It seems ebay break their own rules for certain sellers - fees obviously overide ebay policy which makes a complete mockery of 'trust and safety' 

This is not good for anyone - especially as ebay quote the moral high ground that buyers are entitled to voice an opinion

Although on the light side we got a neutral yesterday for a very small wooden hamster toy from a buyer saying that her Labrador dog destroyed it in seconds but thought it might be suitable for a small dog 

It takes all sorts but it is an opinion which will not be removed even though it could be if we asked

[awol1968]

Next time send her a stick!!! Ive contacted watchdog to see if they're interested. Their star rating hasn't changed. It still says 5000 people didn't leave them 5 stars for item description & now, not a single person left them a negative. That's 7 negatives gone from this shop in less than a week!!! I did notice when I checked this morning that neutrals go back 12 months but the 3 negs when they were still there were only past month.  Now they're gone!!!! I'll check once a day to see if any more negs are added & then removed. Screenshot maybe

[awol1968]

I'm still waiting for an ebay bod to poke their nose into this & try an explanation for all this! I have been keeping an eye on this shop & taking screenshots. It's had 5 negative feedbacks & 3 so far have been removed. Ebay warriors have chimed in on other threads with "reasons" but they won't wash with my screenshots!!! The negative removed today simply said, not wrth the money broke within 4 days. This also removes the feedback when you actually view this item so other customers will be unaware that this is a possibility. Ebay feed back is now as useful as stlletto's on a horse!!!!