eBay declined to remove feedback after case was closed in my favour

[goodwin1789]

So apparently eBay won't remove feedback anymore, when case was closed in seller's favour.

I was somehow shocked to receive negative feedback from a very abusive buyer, who opened a case, received item next day, still escalated the case to eBay and lost it. Then they left me massive feedback claiming for some harrassment etc., which I have no idea what they even talk about.

What is super frustrating, is that this is one of the cases where feedback shall be automatically removed, but talking to CS had been an extremenly frustrating experiece.

First I submitted automatic feedback removal request, which was denied "due to the nature of messages exchanged with buyer" - no idea what that means.

Then I called eBay and spent 2 hours on the line.

From the beginning of the call, a CS asked me to show him the policy which states that feedback shall be removed, then CS took some time reading it, then started giving me BS excuses why feedback cannot be removed:

 - it's not within Feedback Violation policy - which is irrelevant

 - it's because buyer mentioned word "harrassment"

 - it's because case was closed and feedback was received only after

 - it's because case was closed not in my favour, but decided "neutrally" (no refund was given to the buyer) - this last one was from Susan, aka from Leadership Team, after I asked previous CS to escalate it

This is just extremely frustrating and I still do not understand why eBay will not act on it's own very clearly written policy.

Has anyone else's experience trying to remove feedback was similar?

[*knight-rider*]

i gave up trying to figure out how Ebay operates years ago. Over the last month or so, i`ve reported 5 listings for having their phone numbers in the description, all of which were removed. Last week, i reported another two and suddenly, they aren`t breaking any rules, so figuring it was an operative not knowing the rules, i reported them again and got the same result, so go figure.

As far as feedback goes, they seem to be happy to remove justified feedback, but not unjustified feedback, but i do have a theory and i`m sure i read about it years ago, but can`t remember where or how. Apparently, if someone leaves you a neg, there`s a chance you can get it removed if it`s unjustified, but if you leave a followup comment to it, they won`t.

Personally, negatives can often say more about the buyer than the seller and given 90% of people don`t even bother to read most of them, i`d ignore it and you`ll find it will soon disappear of the page and be gone after 12 months. You`ve done the only thing you can do, leave a calm followup 🙂

[cke786]

It's often very frustrating, especially when the feedback is simply just a lie and even when eBay confirms it's all lies, they still don't remove it.

100-1 shot, but if you have a Twitter account (say NO to X), give @askebay a go, they might remove it where phoning Customer Support fails! I find I have more of a success rate getting stuff sorted via that team than I do any other method, though of course it's not 100% guaranteed your situation will get sorted, but it's worth a try!

[goodwin1789]

Thank you! I only left a follow up after spending hours on the phone with CS. It was complete bullocks why they wouldn't remove it, it's within their own policy to remove feedback left when case was closed in seller's favour.

[goodwin1789]

Thanks, I'll give it a try!

[onlineflowerseeds]

3 years on ebay and i get first neutral and it says "excellent price and service"

Rep said "cannot be removed as we cannot be sure what the buyer means"

I fell off my chair laughing 

He claims neutrals do not affect accounts.

If that is true , 

Then why have a button to see only neutrals.

Why can revision requests be sent for neutrals.

If i had 400 neutrals and 1 positve instead of 400 positives and 1 neutral , would you buy off me ?

And we all know , ebay changes goal posts and back dates rules.

They like to let everyone drive 70 mph then change limit to 60 mph and fine everyone for the past year.......

[dch2112011]

I think you are reading far too much into the very worthy neutral feedback left for you :

'I will know if the seeds grow in the spring. Excellent Price and Service'

The buyer simply chose to leave a neutral rating for the product because he felt unable to comment one way or the other on the seeds themselves because they have not germinated yet  but left very positive feedback concerning the transaction.

Unfortunately the buyer had to make a choice of only one rating for the position he found himself in and was torn between positive and neutral rating - in this case the flip of the coin landed on neutral 

A neutral has no impact on your account either way and the feedback will be viewed positively by anyone looking at it - that is until you left  a rather cryptic response which may seem a little bizzare and sour to potential buyers reading it.

'Feedback system helps us improve , Difficult to see how we can improve from this comment.'

A positive response if you wanted to respond would have endorsed your buyers  positive comments and addressed the neutrality of not being able to endorse the ability of the seeds to produce what they should when germinated in the spring.

something like

Thankyou for your positive feedback, we are pleased that you are happy with the service you received, our wild flower seeds are harvested from strong healthy plants to ensure that they are top quality when you receive them, if you store them correctly and follow the advice on the package you will have an amazing display of wild flowers. If you need any help or advice please do not hesitate to contact us

[dch2112011]

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@goodwin1789 wrote:

So apparently eBay won't remove feedback anymore, when case was closed in seller's favour.

I was somehow shocked to receive negative feedback from a very abusive buyer, who opened a case, received item next day, still escalated the case to eBay and lost it. Then they left me massive feedback claiming for some harrassment etc., which I have no idea what they even talk about.

ebay can close a case neutrally finding neither in the seller or buyer's favour - you can usually tell from the email you receive from ebay telling you the result of the case - it is ambiguous but it can be worked out from the wording.

If it was a neutral closure the buyer can leave feedback.

A thought on what you have divulged - it seems from the buyers feedback that they were very happy with the purchase and besides a hiccup in delivery  time was very positive about the transaction.

It seems that the dialogue between you and the buyer when an INR case was opened correctly is the crux of the problem - The item arrived after the case was opened - a simple apology to the buyer on behalf of the carrier  and asking him to close the case would probably have resulted in positive feedback.

Did you really accuse the buyer of trying to get a feebie !  The buyer in temper probaly did retort that they wanted a refund anyway !

I think you let your emotions get the best of you and the conversation deteriated to stupidity on both sides.

The buyer took offence to your accusations and complained to ebay - ebay saw both sides and could not decide either way so closed the case with neither party at fault

The feedback team read the messages and informed you of their findings when you tried to initially get the feedback removed

Perhaps it could have been handled better by both you and the buyer initially to avoid such a situation getting out of hand . 

[onlineflowerseeds]

To be fair buyers no longer check feedback otherwise one of my rivals with 500 negatives would not get any sales . Seeing as he sells 1kg with 10g seed and 990 g sand , when it arrives his buyers leave negs , 500 of them this year but he still gets lots of sales. 

To be top rated you just have to post when you say you will...

As for your reply , he failed to grow grass from another seller so i doubt he will follow the advice . 

Fortunately these seeds will grow anywhere , even on stone . Our workshops are surrounded by granite and some escaping seeds grow on it.

[onlineflowerseeds]

My sales are 150% up since the neutral . 

[dch2112011]

Maybe the reason for mentioning that he will not know whether the seeds grow until the spring is because he had a bad experiance with his grass seed which has made him a little reluctant when leaving feedback for the unknown  and if you knew this you might be just a little more understanding as to his reasoning !

If you do not care about feedback why post in the manner you have done ? 

Buyers certainly read feedback and base buying decisions on what is written amongst other things - maybe your sales are up because of the other sellers negative feedback ?  

Or maybe because you are ticking all the right boxes and getting seen more often -

I would think it is the latter glancing at your listings and feedback -  don't spoil it - grow it !

There are many aspects to seller levels on ebay but that is another discussion for another day !

Just to give you the heads up my comments are based on years of experiance, mistakes, learning and understanding on how to receive and respond to feedback which helps your business grow  which for us is in excess of 200 orders a day.

[onlineflowerseeds]

You are reading too much into it 

Far too much into it.

Its a simple case of everyone gets a neutral from him.

Sometimes a buy will give everyone a negative .

I got the buyer that leaves all neutrals this time. Hence the good comment but neutral...........

It happens.

The OPs negative is unfair . It should be removed.

The buyer is complaining about a third party , the time of his item being delivered.

Also he says the seller is harrasing him , another reason to remove it

He goes on to say about a free item ,  yet another reason to remove it.

And he mentions at the end of the comment "anyone would" so he is mentioning others not to do with the transaction.

It should be removed

[dch2112011]

I can only read  what you write and make public not what you perceive to know which you withhold from public view - that is all any of us can do.

Had you stated that the customer only left neutral comments -  the observations made to you would stand as he had left you good feedback and substantiated the reason for doing so under the neutral umbrella - 

Reading what the OP states and the Buyer states in feedback - the problem appears to be the tiff between them when the buyer's delivery hadn't arrived by the estimated delivery date - not the actual transaction or product which the buyer compliments.

The third party is the sellers representative - If a seller employs a carrier who does not perform it is 100% the sellers responsibility 

The culmination of the slanging match between the two is the seller accusing the buyer of trying to get a freebie,  this resulted with the buyer complaining to ebay about the sellers accusations and harrasment.

After checking the buyers claims (messages)  it resulted in ebay closing the INR in neither buyer or seller's favour -  in this circumstance seller protection is not given.

The seller feels the case was closed in his favour - when it was explained that it wasn't by ebay and he was refused removal of the feedback based on the contents of the messages which ebay reviewed during the feedback review process he mistakenly remonstrated quoting ebay policy.

My observation was merely that  the seller could have handled the situation better  during corresponding  to avoid the negative feedback  which is a fair observation and if that is reading far too much into it then that is what it is.

[dch2112011]

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@goodwin1789 wrote:

This is just extremely frustrating and I still do not understand why eBay will not act on it's own very clearly written policy.

Has anyone else's experience trying to remove feedback was similar?

Just to offer an answer to this question, yes in the past similar situations have happened to ourselves,

If the case was automatically closed then the finding would be in the seller's favour - however a buyer can appeal after it has automatically closed or reach out to CS before it is closed.

In both these instances a manual appraisal or review is carried out and if based on the buyer's evidence the case can be reversed to found in buyer's favour or in rare circumstances closed in neither buyer or sellers favour which appears to be the situation. 

If the case is not found in the sellers favour sellers protection does not apply and feedback can be left by the buyer.

We learnt all of this a few years ago going through a similar scenario - the most common application of this decision is where a seller makes a reduction in refund on a return and the buyer appeals - the case result then changes to a neutral or even a buyer win but with no financial penalty but a strike on metrics !

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[vintagechinashop]

I recently had a conversation with a buyer removed by eBay bots

the reason stated was that someone had used threatening language  not sure who they meant as neither of us had done that in our exchange 

so this is what actually happened. The buyer said she had received an item not as the picture. The item is question was a milk jug and was exactly as pictured and described even down to the size. However there is a larger jug which looks exactly the same but obviously the dimensions are different and the buyer did not read the description. So after telling me to send the right item I politely explained the difference and asked her to return it   There then followed a few messages where the buyer kept insisting that the picture showed the large jug and where I explained that they looked the same but dimensions were different. Anyway eventually the buyer decided to return and at no stage in this conversation was the buyer or myself rude. It ended very amicably the buyer thanked me for explaining returned the jug and got her refund. 
I have no idea why this conversation got removed but this just goes to show how easy it is for the bots if that's what they are called to misread things. Maybe it was because our conversation went back and forth a few times. Sometimes or in fact most times we just need human beings to do things and not robots or AI etc. artificial intelligence is not common sense based imho 

[dch2112011]

That is most bizzare and once the thread is deleted - the evidence of a conversation is gone - never heard of that one before, it just leaves you wondering why !

[iposters]

Here's a funny one! Had a email from eBay today that my funds was Frozen until I closed all open cases.  Had a case I needed to escalte today anyway to close (As they left Negative Feedback) Case closed in my favour, Feedback not removed.....Anyway, 3 had left Positive Feedbacks so I was told by eBay to escalate them to Customer Support to get closed and get my funds back, anyway they have closed in my favor and eBay have removed the Positive Feedbacks and are not removing the Negative! Ridiculous