The feedback system is not fit for purpose, I need to rant about Ebay

[lee1980wolves]

I've sold 1000 of this item, loads of positive feedback and it works fine.

I get a neutral feedback saying "Not sure if it will.work . But for the money worth a try" 

Customer is an idiot, that's fine and expected but when I try to get this nonesense removed, Ebay say "Unfortunately we won’t be able to remove this comment because it doesn’t violate any of our Feedback policies."

The likely reason for the customer leaving this premuture feedback is Ebay sending out them "leave feedback for this recent purchase" emails that they send out and idiots will respond with thier 2 brain cells even if they havent used the product. 

As Ebay itself.....no excuses, they just got lucky, right time and place with thier website back in the early 2000s, the actual company has no concept of how to make money or run a business, it is a circus at best. In fact I would say they try to make less money. I could go all day about things like this, how they make it so hard to do simple things like combine postage. The truth is, the people running the siute and making the rules have never hard to run a real business in thier pathetic lives, they can only work for other people as part of team and do small basic tasks themselves following every spefic orders with no ability to think or even act if they could. 

The sooner I can leave this platform, the better and they are forcing me out anyway.

[4_bathrooms]

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@theanonymousgrouch wrote:

There have been several times at least in the past where I've offered legitimate criticism after being stung by some dodgy seller, only to find it miraculously gone within 24 hours; no revision request, no explaination given - just gone.

It's probably no great coincidence that, more often than not, this tends to occur most often with those sellers who already have a significant foothold upon the platform; i.e. those who bring in the most revenue for ebay themselves... which, to me, shows rather firmly where their priorities lay... And, trust me - it AIN'T with customer satifaction! 🙄

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eBay's practice of removing justified negative feedback left for mega-sellers should come to an end soon if it hasn't already. The Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act is expected to become law later this year; removing justified negative consumer reviews whilst publishing positive ones will be a specific offence under the Act. The act defines a consumer review thus:

""consumer review” means a review of a product, a trader or any other matter relevant to a transactional decision""

Which would include eBay feedback. The following is a specific offence:

"Publishing consumer reviews, or consumer review information, in a misleading way."

"publishing in a “misleading way” includes (for example)—

(i)failing to publish, or removing from publication, negative consumer reviews whilst publishing positive ones (or vice versa)" 

I suspect this is why eBay have lately been very reluctant to remove any negative feedback including feedback that breaches one of eBay's many feedback policies.

[missdollydaydream]

Had a very recent problem with a seller. I purched an item and within hours I received a notification from eBay saying I had been refunded because the seller cancelled saying there was a problem with buyers address. Now, I've round the block a few times and of course knew what was going on.

I have been at my present address for over 45 years. The address has been registered with eBay for over 25 years with well over 15,000 transactions from this address so eBay obviously didn't check.

The factual negative feedback I left was removed in the blink of an eye. Yes, the seller was not honest but neither are eBay who aid and encourage dishonesty from both buyers and sellers and in my opinion this is far worse than a buyers/sellers dishonesty.

[4_bathrooms]

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@missdollydaydream wrote:

The factual negative feedback I left was removed in the blink of an eye. Yes, the seller was not honest but neither are eBay who aid and encourage dishonesty from both buyers and sellers and in my opinion this is far worse than a buyers/sellers dishonesty.

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There are currently two circumstances I'm aware of where negative feedback is removed in it's entirety. The first is where eBay decides an MBG case in the seller's favour although another recent thread suggests this doesn't always happen even when the seller is told the feedback will be removed. The other circumstance - which has always bothered me - is Anchor-store subscribing mega-sellers who can seemingly contact the concierge service to get perfectly justified negative feedback removed on a whim. I suspect in your case it was the latter scenario.

However, I've just noticed the DMCCA is indeed now an Act; this means it received Royal Assent and is now law. This happened on 24th May (before Parliament was dissolved); was the negative feedback you left removed before that date?

[dch2112011]

The quarterly quota for courtesy removal of feedback for concierge has ended  and all levels of account are apparently now being treated in the same way-

If buyers do contain themselves to either product review or factual experiance rather than personal insult then sellers will not be able to get feedback removed - this does mean buyers refraining from describing sellers as conmen, idiots, avoid etc etc -

As long as buyers keep using feedback to try and fulfill a personal vendetta then they run the risk of feedback removal - 

Which personally I believe is a change for the better

[4_bathrooms]

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@dch2112011 wrote:

The quarterly quota for courtesy removal of feedback for concierge has ended  and all levels of account are apparently now being treated in the same way-

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This might explain why such seller's quarterly quotas have been removed.

[dch2112011]

I am sure you are right, spot on in fact -  the quarterly quotas were given to major concierge members and started to be removed in 2021 -  courtesy feedback removal case by case - without guaranteed quota carried on until quite recently that apparently has now ceased -

Your observation and conclusion seem perfectly in line with the changes to the perks and  make an awful lot of sense - of course ebay never speak about confirm or deny any of this - such is life in the corporate world !

[missdollydaydream]

was the negative feedback you left removed before that date?

Yes, it was. The most sensible thing eBay can do is scrap feedback. Or at the very least scrap the neg/pos punishment aspect and let buyers & sellers leave an honest opinion of their experience.

[theanonymousgrouch]

Assuming that's true, then, quite frankly, it can't come soon enough..!

Why, just the other day there, these rip-off merchants removed yet another of my feedbacks - without informing me, I might add - and, surprise, surprise... it was for yet another one of these 'mega-sellers'...

I realise it's pretty much an open secret at this point that the only thing ebay truly cares about is their bottom line; &, as customers, the only value we have is their ability to milk money out of us... even so, it truly grinds my gears that they can still get away with what basically amounts to false advertising - if sellers can deliberately mislead potential customers by doctoring the feedback scores in their favour, then, truly, at that point, you'd be just as well throwing out the whole system, for all the good it actually does..! 😑

Again, all I can say is, if that new legislation DOES come to pass, reckon a lot of dodgy sellers - and, indeed, ebay themselves(!) - are gonna get a rather nasty wake-up call...

[4_bathrooms]

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@theanonymousgrouch wrote:

Again, all I can say is, if that new legislation DOES come to pass...

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It did; it became law when it received Royal Assent on 24th May.

According to your feedback profile you have your feedback set to private. That means any feedback comments you receive as a buyer are not visible and neither is any feedback you leave for sellers. Are you sure that isn't the problem; i.e. the feedback you left isn't visible?

[theanonymousgrouch]

Nah, like I say, with certain feedbacks, both the comment + score is just flatout gone - as in, there's no longer any record of it, either on my profile OR the seller's... Again, usually doesn't happen with any smaller businesses/retailers; only the ones with at least 10,000+ overall feedback... Sure, seeing it happen once or twice can still be dismissed as coinicidence - after a while, though, it starts to become a pattern..! 🤔

[4_bathrooms]

Are we talking about feedback that was left before 24th May or feedback that was left on or after that date?

With your feedback set to private there will be no record of feedback that you have left on your profile; the "Feedback left for others" tab simply isn't there. I believe any seller you leave feedback for will show the rating in their feedback received but not the comment. Is there a reason you are having to leave so much negative feedback; i.e. are sellers simply cancelling orders you place because you have your feedback set to private?

If you believe eBay have acted unlawfully in removing any feedback you will need to take the matter up with the relevant consumer advice service. You can't complain directly to the CMA - the authority responsible for policing the new Act - as they don't deal with individual complaints (they only listen to whistleblowers). You're going to have a very difficult time proving anything as long as your feedback is set to private, though. You can't take a screenshot of the comment you left from your own profile and even if you had screenshots proving the feedback was removed from the seller's profile the feedback would have no comment (just a rating) and would only show your obfuscated eBay User ID. 

[theanonymousgrouch]

Odd... dunno if you're using a different version of ebay to me or something, but, from my end, the "Left for others" tab is there plain as day - that's how I know there's been some kind of shenanigans going on for quite a while now, cos stuff keeps disappearing... one day it's there, then, literally overnight in some cases, boomf - gone.

Note - this type of thing happened even before I went private, so it's not as if it's even a recent phenomenon...

What I personally can't figure out is, do ebay really think folk are so stupid that we won't even notice... Or - more likely - it's one of those "They know We know They know" situations, but, frankly, they just don't care... Take your pick! 🤔

[theanonymousgrouch]

BeforeAfter

Not that this will likely make the blindest bit of difference, but, just as an experiment, I thought I would try taking a screen clipping using the snip tool after my last unpleasant transaction - the above pics are the before/after images... Please note, these were taken roughly only 24 hours apart - take a look & try to tell me ebay are not up to 'shenanigans' behind the scenes..!

[ajt1]

I just sold something and the buyer has not paid or even got in contact !!! I have relisted it now, but the time it took means I could not really offer a second chance - Also, I think its wrong that sellers cannot leave negative feedback to warn others of a possible non payer time waster !!!!

[dch2112011]

So much for the 'new' feedback removal rules - seems that they just want some sellers to appear perfect - I assume based on the revenue ebay earn.

We all know this goes on on sellers own sites and other platforms but ebay who take the righteous high ground  on so many issues pay lip service to anything that might just possibly, perhaps, maybe,  affect income.

Yet to change to the site where buyers can purchase with confidence they need to try transparency, honesty and clean house where needed .

[adr19331]

Ironic

see my video...

https://www.tiktok.com/@adrianfoster663/video/7448340694718057761?lang=en

and of course this type of file is not supported so I cannot attach it to this comment!

[nike-01]

The feedback system has always been unfair. Back last year I purchased an item from U.K. seller and waited two weeks for it to arrive, when it didn’t I complained to the seller. The seller then accused me of receiving the item but trying to scam them in order to get a refund. I have been using eBay for 24 years, same account and thousands of positive feedback, naturally this accusation made me angry so I left the seller a genuinely warranted negative feedback reflecting my experience with them.  The next day EBay removed my negative comment! How is the whole feedback system supposed to represent accuracy and honesty if they will not allow you to tell the tell the truth?? 

[eastern-lights]

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@nike-01 wrote:

The feedback system has always been unfair. Back last year I purchased an item from U.K. seller and waited two weeks for it to arrive, when it didn’t I complained to the seller. The seller then accused me of receiving the item but trying to scam them in order to get a refund. I have been using eBay for 24 years, same account and thousands of positive feedback, naturally this accusation made me angry so I left the seller a genuinely warranted negative feedback reflecting my experience with them.  The next day EBay removed my negative comment! How is the whole feedback system supposed to represent accuracy and honesty if they will not allow you to tell the tell the truth?? 

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Did you raise an "Item Not Received" case with Ebay?

[dch2112011]

I think you have to ask yourself  whether ebay view feedback as an honest opinion or a tool to promote buying on ebay and gather new members in awe at the excellent service provided ! 

Cynical I know !

[adr19331]

Ebay always puts the seller first! I managed to fine the feedback that I left which they removed!


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