New Feedback Profile page. No more Classic View :(

[department28]

I have just seen the new Feedback Profile page, which made my heart sink. Although there is an option to switch back to the Classic Feedback page, presumably this horrible new version will be permanently foisted upon us sooner or later, whether we like it or not.

Perhaps those using a mobile find the 'new look' pages preferable, but as a laptop user, I'm finding everything takes longer, and looks worse. If I could roll back the site to how it looked 10 years ago, I would do it without hesitation.

The new FP page is a nightmare to use, involving pop-ups & sliding boxes, drop-down menus & various filters etc etc. As a buyer, I don't want to have to spend all my time clicking & scrolling & filtering to find the information I could see at a glance on the Classic FP page. 

I was really hoping Ebay would leave the FP page alone, so this feels like the last straw!  No Member quick links, no handy Feedback ratings box, no yellow DSR stars... and it looks like the coloured stars next to each feedback score have been removed, too. Everything that used to make the page easy & pleasant to use has disappeared.

Buying & selling on Ebay used to be pretty straightforward & enjoyable, but all these changes have turned it into a frustrating, time-consuming, headache-inducing chore.

No doubt we will be told 'you will get used to it', but I still miss the Classic pages that have been replaced over the past few years. And why should we have to 'get used' to poorly designed pages that don't look as good, or work as well as the old ones?

[glencora*s]

Exactly - me too! That's the 1st thing I always look at, same as with reviews on films or books on Amazon... Then sometimes I search the positives too, and I search the words packing & packaging through all, neg & poz...

[1956glyn]

Ebay often move the goal posts without warning.

To my knowledge IF a seller wins a case then any negative feedback is usually removed.

You can only try leaving negative feedback and see if it sticks.   Be careful what you say though....do not mention you opened a case on Paypal  or had to go through Ebay for a refund.   

The seller ran you out of time to open an Ebay case and i fear this is what they may often do.   If my suspicions are correct that If a seller wins a case any negative will be removed then this may be why

"This seller's feedback is suspiciously good, like ebay removes all his negatives,"

[department28]

You tried to open an INR case, but were too late, so the seller 'won', even though it was a non-existent case...? Boggles the mind, this sort of thing!  It would be interesting to know on what grounds the seller could ask for a negative to be removed, in those circumstances. 

eBay have listed the 'automatic' feedback removal reasons, but that won't cover all the possibilities if sellers can also request removal 'in cases that are not clear-cut'.

It should be possible for eBay to improve the system so that good sellers can't get stuck with undeserved feedback, & bad sellers can't use loopholes to get negs & neutrals removed. 

[glencora*s]

UPDATES. Good news from contacting ebay to report my fraudulent seller who GETS ALL HIS NEGATIVES REMOVED.

I requested a phone call and got Assistant DANNY, who was excellent.

First, feedback rules change very often as you may know: not long ago, when you returned a bad order & the seller refunded you, you could not place a negative -  it wouldn't even show for a second. Before that, you could not place a negative if the case had been closed in favour of the seller.
All this has changed.
Right now, the rules are these: https://www.ebay.co.uk/help/policies/feedback-policies/feedback-policies?id=4208, and Danny confirmed loosing a case no longer excluded the possibility to post a neg.

He also told me my case was not closed in favour of either the seller (as I thought) or me, because it was opened too late, so there wasn't really a case. (Even though the seller got away with the stolen money).

Danny also let me read my feedback to him & confirmed it to be perfect with NOTHING that could justify removing it, mild & factual only.

YET, as I expected it was removed all the same - a few hours later.

So basically, it's NOT eBay... who wrongly removes negative feedback even though it's is admissible and doesn't violate rules - Instead, it's just some corruptible members of staff who accept to protect a seller (for money?).
Danny himself suggested this without prompting from me.

Danny placed a flag on this seller, so the team could take it into account in future cases and monitor him.

(For those interested, my feedback was: "Item never was physically handed in to courier: tracking only shows "Item PRE-ADVICE received". Seller said it's normal for this courier & also asked me to wait 4 more weeks as 'estimates by ebay are wrong' (he said), and kept stalling until I was outside the protection time limit - no refund by either. Don't get talked into waiting more weeks").

After my feedback was removed, I emailed ebay to ask for the member of staff who removes his negatives to be found & investigated.

I got a VG email reply within 2 days, where he said 1/ he was marking this seller for investigation and forwarding this to the right team, etc, etc;
+ 2/ gave me a link to also report the seller via that link: https://www.ebay.co.uk/help/action?topicid=4022 (I was able to fit in quite a paragraph, 1000 characters). I've just done so, so not received a response to that yet.
+ 3/ gave me the refund I'd been denied after my case was instantly closed (even though I didn't mention money or loss, just the fraudulent removal of feedback), as a one-off.

I will keep the seller anonymous & you wouldn't find him in my feedback anyway, as I am posting this from my other account (I can't seem to post or reply with the concerned account, which is smaller than this one, not sure why).
(I sent ebay some links & quotes from Internet showing him as a regular scammer, with a.o. a Federal Trade Commission lawsuit against him for fraud: banned from selling protective equipment and be required to turn over more than $145,000 to the FTC, to refund the people he defrauded; facing up to 20 years in prison, as well as forfeiture, a fine of up to $250,000 and restitution to his victims, etc.  And more, on different years... And has only awful reviews as a seller outside of ebay too...but 100% positive on ebay! ). So I hope eBay will investigate & do something.

I asked for a revision of their policy that says that once removed, a feedback can never be restored back, even if it was fraudulently removed. EBay must have been asked this many thousands of times, but since their feedback policies change all the time, maybe our persistence will pay in the end. Today I feel rather hopeful.

[department28]

Yes, well done for persisting with this! It is very frustrating to have a bad experience with a seller, leave appropriate feedback, only to find it has vanished... leaving other buyers with no clue this is a seller to be wary of.

As you were told there was nothing wrong with the feedback you intended to leave, it shouldn't have been 'auto-removed', so presumably the seller must have requested a removal, & been approved. 

It really should not be possible for a seller to get a negative or neutral removed, if it doesn't violate eBay policy. I assume the same rules apply to eBay sellers outside the UK? 

[glencora*s]

Thanks to all who replied.

Indeed, and it was not even 'auto-removed', like when it follows the ebay rules; but removed  5 or 6 hours later, coinciding with people in the US / New York getting up & having breakfast...

If it had been ebay's automatic system, it would have gone right away.

What irritates me is this policy of never ever restoring back feedback that was wrongly removed - it's a strict rule with ebay.

I will keep fighting it on every occasion.

I want to see this huge bad seller who shows a falsely-100% positive feedback (!)  wake up one day to the nightmare of seeing all his bad feedback suddenly all back - all 50% or so of it 😁😊😂🤣!! ...Left with only 50% positive feedback, as due!!... 

[department28]

'What irritates me is this policy of never ever restoring back feedback that was wrongly removed - it's a strict rule with ebay.'

Yes, this seems unfair & illogical... if feedback was wrongly removed, it should be 'auto-replaced'. The AI thingy could be put to good use doing this... 👾

Over 6 months since the start of this thread, so I am very surprised that the 'Classic View' feedback page is still with us... I always 'switch back', and would be interested to know how many do the same.

The new layout is still woefully inadequate imo. On the Classic page, you can see at a glance what a seller is like, without needing sliding-over boxes & fiddly filters etc...

[zoomingmouse]

I too always switch to Classic View straight away & am also surprised it's still an option.

The new design is terrible - no overview of FB & star ratings, registration country, length of membership, not even a link to items for sale. 

And why does the ID name take up a third of the page...  you can only view 4 FB's at a time.

[glencora*s]

Yes, and feedback "Left for others" is also very important to me. 

Only in the classic view too.

That's another thing: this seller has 69K items sold, he left over 52.6K feedback for others, but received only about 22K feedbacks (19.6K as seller) and all positive, with only 7 neutrals too - think of these figures; how unrealistic. How could he really have 100% positive feedback?

In my experience (I'm a seller too with another account), when eBay buyers are fully satisfied, most do leave feedback (all my buyers have left me feedback). When buyers find faults but nothing too drastic happened, many prefer to leave nothing. To me, huge discrepancies in the numbers Received & Left for, like above, tell a lot.

[department28]

The missing 'Feedback left for others' on the new layout is concerning... unless they are going to let us keep the Classic View as well?!

As with all the 'new' pages, the new feedback page looks like it was designed just for smartphone viewing, so if viewing on a pc, it appears 'squashed up' into the middle of the page. The type is smaller & harder to read, too.

@zoomingmouse ...'no overview of FB & star ratings, registration country, length of membership, not even a link to items for sale.'

Yes - they've put that info at the bottom left of the item listing page, under 'About this seller'. It makes no sense to split this information off from the rest of the feedback. On Classic View, it is all on the one page, right where you need it to be! 

It feels like the new eBay pages are the 'economy version' - pared down, bland, & cheap-looking. Perhaps they appeal to the younger users, who won't remember how eBay used to look in the olden days... 😄

@glencora*s  does your dodgy seller have any 'revised' feedback? some sellers have loads of revised feedback, which I assume tends to mean buyers have been offered some sort of incentive...

[glencora*s]

He has 59 revised feedback, which is more than normal but not that much for his 59K sold - or maybe it's only for the past year?

But he probably doesn't need this option much. if he has someone to just remove all his neg feedback.

Another tell-tale sign that his negs are illegally removed, maybe, is that normally, when negs are  removed by eBay for the right reason, they're replaced by this: " - - ".

(Am I right?)

He's got some of these (maybe the 59 'revised' feedback?), but I would expect many more...

I mean, he also doesn't even try to pretend that he's a good seller, like he's not afraid of getting a neg feedback: he's rude & not friendly, soon stops replying, etc.

[glencora*s]

Is there a way to edit my post?

(I wrote 'as' instead of 'has'!)

[department28]

According to the eBay article on Feedback revision etc:-

'You can only request a revision for feedback that is less than 30 days old, and can make 5 feedback revision requests per calendar year.
For every 1,000 feedback ratings you receive during the year, you can make 5 additional feedback revision requests. However, these additional feedback revision requests don't carry over into the following year.'

So, as your dodgy seller is selling 1000s of items, that would probably account for them qualifying for those additional revisions.

Also, just noticed this announcement in the same article:-

'Please note that Seller Help is changing, and you may see a different experience while we roll out these changes to make it easier for you to request the removal of feedback. Please be aware that in this new experience you may find things in a different place, or new functionalities.'

eBay even managed to use the word 'experience' twice in one short paragraph...🙄

[glencora*s]

It's coming to the point where I trust a big seller more when I see GOOD HONEST NEGATIVE FEEDBACK, than no negatives 😊   😂 !...

[glencora*s]

Very interesting.

[glencora*s]

He had a new neutral this morning, which I just see has been removed. It said 'Never received item', something that his court suit on Internet shows as his specialty.

[department28]

I don't know how a 'Never received item' neutral feedback would 'violate eBay policy', although there are many reasons why feedback can qualify for removal - as listed in the Feedback policy page. Your seller seems to be very successful with his feedback removal requests...

Let's hope that the combination of being reported & flagged up will result in some sort of action against him. You would think eBay must've received other complaints about him...?