eBay

silly_rarebit · ‎19-10-2025

First off I had trouble leaving feedback for a few purchases. I got on to eBay live chat & resolved this.

I then left feedback for a seller I had a negative experience with. Basically I bought a new item, they sent a used item & then accused me of lying about it & that I was making a false claim against them.

So in the feedback I put something like - "advertised new but sent used and then said I was lying about what I received. I then had to buy the same item again on eBay".

Now from past experience I know if you say anything like "i had to open a claim" then this ends up getting deleted, so I was careful not to do that.

And since I was still on to eBay on the live chat I told them what I'd left, the representative said they could see it & noted I was correct not to mention a claim & that the feedback I had left was "perfect".

So why then has it disappeared? I assume the seller has applied to have it removed & eBay have said sure no problem we'll remove it for you.

Can you just have any old feedback removed if you say pretty please or did I put something specifically wrong, despite eBay representative telling me it was "perfect"?

porte2425 · ‎19-10-2025

@silly_rarebit wrote:
Can you just have any old feedback removed if you say pretty please or did I put something specifically wrong, despite eBay representative telling me it was "perfect"?

Yes, basically.

Sometimes customer services get a decision wrong (in both directions); but some “power” sellers seem to be able to request feedback removal that other sellers can’t.

I’ve had a recent neutral I left vanish.

I am very careful about my feedback, and I know it was within the rules. I took my time with it, as it was basically a review of the item (as there was nowhere else to do that), pointing out the issues I had, that weren’t obvious from the listing. It was meant to help any potential buyers. But it just vanished. No reason ever given.

Now, I’ve pretty much given up with feedback.

For the past year a lot of people have stopped leaving feedback, even sellers (when it can be automated easily). I couldn't understand this back then, but I understand now.

But I had a similar thing happen to me on Amzon some years back. I left a valid review for a seller, but it was removed stating it was a review for an item (which it 100% wasn’t). I even took the time to contact customer services, but was fobbed off. Out of annoyance I deleted all my product reviews (which was a slow, manual process!); and to this day I haven’t written another review on there. (Not that I shop on there much any more.)

*guinevere* · ‎20-10-2025

Just the very mention of ebay can get your feedback removed.

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porte2425 · ‎20-10-2025

@*guinevere* wrote:
Just the very mention of ebay can get your feedback removed.

That isn’t the full case, really. The feedback policy doesn’t support that statement per se.

The only thing that comes close, is under ‘eBay site or programme issues’:

We remove neutral/negative feedback when:

An eBay Money Back Guarantee case or payment dispute was closed with the seller having met their obligations to the buyer

So just mentioning eBay, or any type of case result, in itself should not be an issue.

In cases of a seller not responding to a request, (and eBay ruling in the buyer’s favour) it would mean they didn’t meet their obligations to the buyer – so that would not be a valid reason for removal for feedback, even when mentioning eBay / the case, such as: “Seller never sent the item, and also ignored me. I had to get eBay involved, and they found in my favour and refunded me”.

In the OP example, if the seller lied about the condition of the item, then they have breached the conditions by not having an accurate description. Therefore, even if they followed the case procedure to the letter, and eBay didn’t have to get involved, they still technically did not meet their obligations to the buyer. So there should be no grounds for the feedback removal.

The problem is that the “dispute was closed with the seller having met their obligations to the buyer” part can be a very grey area, in reality.

silly_rarebit · ‎20-10-2025

Thanks for the replies.

To touch on the product review thing - this was the issue I raised with eBay yesterday, saying I couldn't leave feedback for some purchases but I could for others.

I found if I left product reviews I could THEN leave seller feedback.

I'm about to contact eBay to see if they can explain why it was removed but I suspect they'll not really give an answer & going forward I'll just not bother leaving feedback for people since it appears to be doctored.

This seller has sold 1000s of items so they're not a part timer. Weird though that they've had negatives left which have remained. They seem to respond a bit snotty to them. Bad attitude for sure.

silly_rarebit · ‎20-10-2025

Well I didn't expect that

Contacted eBay & they said it was human error. Apparently all feedback is assessed & the guy who assessed it incorrectly determined that it should be removed.

They're raising a complaint on my behalf & requesting whoever removed it get more training.

Apparently.

porte2425 · ‎20-10-2025

By the sounds of it, I would imagine that seller just tries their luck when they receive unflattering feedback.

Being a power seller (you say they’ve sold thousands), probably means eBay are more likely to just remove feedback to keep them happy. I’m sure there are plenty of buyers who would also never notice the feedback has vanished.

I, like you, do notice. And it erodes my trust in eBay’s feedback system.

As I’ve previously said, I am no longer surprised that a lot of users are no longer bothering with leaving feedback.

porte2425 · ‎20-10-2025

@silly_rarebit wrote:
Well I didn't expect that

Contacted eBay & they said it was human error. Apparently all feedback is assessed & the guy who assessed it incorrectly determined that it should be removed.
They're raising a complaint on my behalf & requesting whoever removed it get more training.

Apparently.

I’m not really surprised. If they couldn’t justify to you the feedback removal, then that is what I would expect them to say. It doesn’t mean anything will change, or even be done in this case.

plpmr · ‎20-10-2025

"Apparently all feedback is assessed"

Sounds like customer service misinformation.

ALL feedback? ALL of the massive number of feedback left. ALL of the how many left close to or over [a fair guess] million?

silly_rarebit · ‎20-10-2025

all - probably meant all negative. Maybe even said that, I can't remember tbh, or maybe they actually did say all. I didn't pay that much attention to that part as it wasn't overly important to me.

I just know they said that someone had looked at it & that it's all down to personal opinion & in the person I was speaking to's opinion, it was incorrectly removed.

Now will I see it re-appear? Who knows. Maybe, maybe not. I've done what I can do now & that's about it.

I only bothered to re-check it was still there because 1) I've had feedback go missing in the past because I mentioned a claim, so I wanted to check my carefully worded feedback was ok this time and 2) just because of how the seller was with me - denying they sent a used item rather than saying ok maybe that one slipped through I'm sorry. More than that though - actually accusing me of a fake claim & saying they were going to report ME. For that one especially I wanted to make sure my feedback stuck. I know in the grand scheme of things 1 little feedback vs so many positives they've got wont make a shining of difference but I don't care, I wanted my feedback to stick after what they did/said.