New feedback policy - ebay is acting against the sellers even when buyer is openly lying.

[postpack]

Hi,   Buyer openned INR case saying that the item didn't turned up, as "customer is always right" we offered option of shipping the order again, or full refund.  Buyer opted for this first option, so we shipped the order again.  On the very same day when we shipped the replacement the original order delayed by RM was delivered (tracking showing exact delivery location which matching buyers house).  Two days later replacement was also delivered (fully tracked delivery).  Ebay closed INR case in our favour, but buyer decided to leave negative feedback saying that neither original order turned up and that the replacement didn't turned up.  We requested feedback removal providing the tracking numbers confirming delivery to buyers address and screenshots from RM C&D showing that order was shipped on the very same day and also based on the fact that ebay closed the INR case in our favour, but ebay declined feedback removal saying that feedback is buyers opinion.  So even if you provide plenty of evidence that buyer is clearly lying and abusing the platform, you can forget it, ebay will not remove the negative feedback.  I spoke with the CS and even they was saying that this new policy is unfair for the sellers and buyer can put any false information against the saller in the feedback and they will not remove it.  After 7 years trading on ebay and paying thousends in fees, they will treat good honest seller like don't really care to put it mildly.  Does anybody else had similar experience recently ?

[marcoe70]

Hi, the exact same thing happened to me. Had tracking number, proof of posting (Post Office Receipt) and before the item was even delivered the buyer had opened a INR case and left negative feedback saying i hadnt even posted item! Got in touch with ebay support and soon found out they would not remove the false feedback as it was the buyers 'opinion'. Being a liar is not an 'opinion' it is a fact so looks like ebay are openly allowing buyers to lie without retribution...........some system hey!

[samnight7772010]

yes This sort of thing happens all the time. It is getting that it is not worthwhiole to sell on ebay . The fees are 17% off the top . This is the worst kind of capatilismk and is robbing millions of an otherwise good income and kleeping people on government benefits. Teh goevrnemnt willnot interfere with what they regard as market capatilism and we now have the worst kind of captilism in a captive market!

[pemberleybluevelvet]

Hi I just had a guy buy eggs, tell me after three days there 3 are cracked & no live, he uses a self turning table plastic on plastic used no mat to take impact, and I had given him 6 free eggs, also I have unsold older eggs in my incubator with 90% ready to hatch in 7 days, I test my eggs monthly, they take 21 days but he insisted three days in he wanted more, I said you can have new eggs, on day 22 show me the eggs cracked with my writing, I reported him to eBay 4/6/24 I knew where it was going using negative feedback as bribery, eBay has gotten awful as a seller you can't defend yourself , I'm thinking of taking our 2,000 vinyl and CD sales to disgogs, I also have used eBay for 15 years and spend a fortune, things need to change 

[samnight7772010]

Yes Indeed. Same here.

[pemberleybluevelvet]

They just don’t give a *bleep* TBH with out sellers there can’t be buyers!

[allseven-supplies]

This is crazy, how this buyer hasn't been banned is ridiculous. They're clearly scamming people. Can you share the buyer username so that I can block them from buying from me. Thanks.

[allseven-supplies]

I'll do that next time, thanks

[sleepflower70]

I discovered today that a buyer has left me PROVABLY false feedback. They paid for an item I had listed as collection only but within seconds they sent me a private message saying they wanted a refund because it was collection only and too far away. I immediately refunded as I have done every time someone hasn't read the listing properly. I had 100% feedback over the 7 years I have sold on Ebay, now this person has claimed they never received the item and that's knocked my feedback down. I requested Ebay remove it but they won't because it "doesn't violate any of our feedback policies". Ebay have access to all the information and messages between myself and the buyer and yet they see nothing wrong with that buyer telling a blatant lie! I'm furious! 

[4_bathrooms]

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@sleepflower70 wrote:

They paid for an item I had listed as collection only but within seconds they sent me a private message saying they wanted a refund because it was collection only and too far away. I immediately refunded...

...now this person has claimed they never received the item and that's knocked my feedback down. I requested Ebay remove it but they won't because it "doesn't violate any of our feedback policies". 

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Whoever you spoke to at eBay was wrong. eBay recently updated their feedback policy including the following grounds for neutral/negative feedback removal:

"Buyer-related transaction issues

We remove neutral/negative feedback when we can see that:

• The buyer asked to cancel after placing their order"

You might want to try contacting eBay again pointing their own policy out to them. This might be easier via "live chat" where you can copy & paste the above link to the policy and the relevant part of the policy itself.

[favescraft]

Give them a call and insist politely that you have not defaulted but the
buyer
They would have it removed

[sleepflower70]

Thanks for your reply. I opted for Twitter message and actually communicated with a human being! 

They agreed to take down the false feedback. Hooray. I did point out that it shouldn't have taken an appeal to the request for it to be removed. 

Selling on Ebay is no fun anymore. 

Thanks though. 😁

[sleepflower70]

I got it resolved by message on Twitter. 

It's appalling that people can leave blatantly false feedback, and Ebay just seems to shrug and say, "Well, It's subjective." 

My situation was not at all subjective. It was provably false! They make me so mad. Non wonder people are going to other platforms. 🙄

[nigel_paul_wright7557]

Ebay doesnt know who is lying.

Ebay is mostly automated anyway.

[cookienabber]

The problem now is that even if the buyer is in the wrong, customer services are now only wiping feedback, not removing it. I've had several cases where buyers have been in direct breach of eBay policy or the transaction met the criteria for removal; external factors outside control (ie courier), demanding a refund, abusive messaging. Even if the feedback is abusive, in all these scenarios, eBay customer service might admit the feedback is wrong, but they only wipe the text and don't remove it, so you end up with a negative feedback nonetheless, but without any comments to provide context.

I tried debating with them on this and what I found out is their stance is that they only review the negative feedback comment by itself. Even if you have a string of messages, or evidence of external factors etc, customer services won't review the evidence. All those options when requesting feedback removal are irrelevant. Their wilful ignorance of the facts of the case now makes it impossible to remove negative feedback, even if the buyer is in the wrong.

eBay customer service have become a bunch of admin monkeys who can't be bothered to review the evidence. They just cross their arms and state their own policy as law, regardless of the facts and how unfair this stance is to sellers. It's shocking how easily a customer service department can turn to fascism.

[sleepflower70]

I completely agree. That's why after 7 years of selling on eBay I closed my seller account in the summer and donated all my stock to charity. It had become too difficult to deal with all their pettiness and was really rather tiresome. They're not a patch on the platform they once were and I don't miss the stress of dealing with morons anymore, so it's a win. 

[cookienabber]

That is a shame. I've been on eBay for 22 years and my business is generating substantial revenue for eBay, so I'm justifiably sickened by the arrogance of their customer service department. As much as eBay provide great market exposure, I'm very protective of my brand, and I'm not going to allow eBay to decide whether or not my business reputation gets to be tarnished by abusive buyers.

Their own policy is very clear on negative feedback, that it damages a seller's reputation and business. Then  they have the audacity to say it's OK that my feedback is 99.9%, that it's OK that the comment was wiped and it's just a negative score. You can tell these idiots spend their time sat around their desk taking calls, as they have no idea how important reputation is in building a brand and how seriously companies take any negative feedback in any form. Business sellers that generate the amount of revenue I am should be given a specialist team of competent account managers who can properly deal with problems like this. You would have that with banks, courier services etc, so it's about time eBay work up to the fact that they need to be provide a much better level of service than this before more sellers leave their service.

[santlache_sales]

Oh yes, I got a Neutral the other day....

Buyer in Switzerland, International Tracked and Signed-For Delivery and within four days of paying he filed a claim for an item not arrived. The tracking had been supplied, I checked the tracking, he hadn't, and it said it was out for delivery that very day.

It arrived an hour later, the buyer never thanked me, he didn't remove the 'item not arrived' claim and eBay closed it the other day. He followed up with a Neutral Feedback saying "Accurate"  🙄

[teap0t42]

I've just had one where the feedback says 'Good Value', yet it is a negative.

I've emailed the buyer to ask for feedback on how I can improve the product but no reply.

Do eBay still removed feedback if the message contradicts the feedback?

No sales at all today despite it being the busiest time of year for me, almost certainly due to being pushed down the visibility as a result.

[tressygirl]

Looks like the buyer pressed the wrong ' button' for positive and it ended on a negative, so nothing for you to improve on, but what you could do is to ask them to please complete a feedback revision you can send to them.

Explain the mistaken negative left,  has impacted your sales.

@teap0t42 

[teap0t42]

I don't like wasting feedback revision requests without messaging the buyer first to see if they are amenable. As this buyer hasn't replied to that message I suspect they'd also ignore a revision request.