Can also positive feedback be removed?

[classical-lps]

I have one very unusual situation where inexperienced buyer used feedback to ask us a question. This is surely not what  feedback was meant for, so is it possible to remove it? Buyer from Vietnam did not receive his item yet, which is not unusual, takes very long time and I now sent him all the tracking details using message system, but I fear he left us very bad DSR along with feedback, which could ruin our ratings (and misguide other buyers). Because this was not feedback at all, but message/question, can it be removed?

[ebooksdiva]

Buyers have been confusing feedback for communication for as long as I can remember. Since it is positive feedback it doesn’t qualify for removal and probably won’t be noticed by anyone.  
DSRs are not counted towards your seller metrics or performance. 

[aeparts1]

Look on the bright side, there is now no way for the buyer to leave negative feedback for you.

[nobody*s_perfect]

You might be able to get the text removed because the message includes the buyer's real name.

As noted in the other post, now he cannot leave you another feedback, so no matter how upset or confused he gets, he won't be able to leave you a neutral or negative rating. Your DSR for shipping time is still a 4.9, and nobody looks at them anyway, so IMHO it's nothing to worry about.

[classical-lps]

Thanks all, let me follow up quickly, with items we sell (used LPs) majority of buyers take DSRs seriously, especially for item condition. Because we don't sell tens of thousands items one bad DSR (say one star) can seriously hurt our DSR and impact our sales, while in reality it has nothing to do with real situation or facts. How do I request eBay to remove it? Even if on the ground of personal name, if not on the fact that it's not a feedback at all?

[ebooksdiva]

eBay doesn’t remove DSRs. Because they are based solely on buyers opinions.

DSRs are pretty much meaningless. IMO 

[bashort]

I would not worry about it, very unlikely that anyone will ever read it

[fab_finds4u]

The listing shows 12 days for International shipping from Croatia and they bought it 2 months ago.  

[classical-lps]

Whoever sells a lot internationally knows the state of mail services around the world, especially to exotic destinations. It didn't recover since Covid and some specific destination can take up to 3 months! Regardless of the fact that it's shipped priority/airmail. Buyers there know this already, same is with this guy who ordered from us twice before and received LPs 2 months later.

We do have lost item once per two years or so, don't remember when it was the last time, but in such cases we don't just prove with the tracking that we shipped it and that it's somewhere, dragging buyer into eBay case or whatever, we simply refund it in full without questions asked. Even when tracking shows it's in the destination country and then stalled.

I don't know why am I explaining this when question asked (in the first place) has nothing to do with it.

Question is if there is a way (and how?) to request feedback removal when it's not a feedback at all. One could use feedback to advertise something, or write political statements or like here ask a question, none of this has anything to do with the feedback and I believe there should be a way to remove it.

[bennotbill]

It's a greeny so why worry.

Many have feedback mistakes which are usually something like "lovely book thanks" when you sold them a trumpet. But as long as they are green..................

[nobody*s_perfect]

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@bennotbill wrote:

It's a greeny so why worry. ........

---

OP is concerned about his DSR's showing as 4.9.  

Even if eBay removed the text, they wouldn't change the DSRs.  Basically, a seller is stuck with almost any positive feedback comment; the removal policy is very narrow.  eBay's policy pages about feedback removal don't even have a link for complaining -- they just explain why eBay might choose to remove an entire feedback comment.

https://www.ebay.ca/help/policies/rules-policies-buyers/buying-practices-policy?id=4374

https://www.ebay.ca/help/buying/leaving-feedback-sellers/leaving-feedback-sellers?id=4007 

[classical-lps]

Sadly as I feared 3 of my DSR 30 day ratings dropped seriously. Even though we have valid tracking showing items is on the way, even though if buyer contacted us through messages we would have refunded the money no questions asked, crazy situation. We care a lot about our DSR, and we maintain it by doing everything possible to have happy customers and providing best service possible in all aspects.

And one such issue can ruin everything? This is so wrong.

To my knowledge there are 2 types of FB removal, one is by deleting inappropriate text and everything else remains as it was and the other type is technical removal of the entire feedback from the system, when also a DSR values are removed (and their impact on ratings)

I believe eBay should protect us sellers from such situations, what did we do wrong? As said if buyer contacted us by any other means we would have solved the issue immediately, but this is not right. Can someone from eBay jump in, I checked available options under seller protection but none seem to cover it?

[classical-lps]

OK, I see I will have to live with it, I don't want to report buyer on any ground because I don't believe he is ill minded or exactly guilty, he just made a mistake on how to deal with the issue. And system obviously does not allow me to correct it. Pity.

But while we are at it, does somebody know where and how to post suggestions on functionality improvement(s). Because I believe the math behind the DSR calculation can be improved with very simple addition, which is to cut off top and bottom 5% of rates. In many areas where such statistical math is used and "dirty" data needs to be eliminated it is done exactly this way. And end-result/rate would be much more credible and less mater of luck

This would eliminate all accidental mistakes, mistakes of leaving feedback for wrong seller, occasional malicious competition mischief etc

And buyers would have much more credible information, less influenced by unrelated und/or irrelevant circumstances (like here, what has item condition to do with the fact that item is late in arrival and buyer still didn't get it?)

Let me just show how can DSR be easily manipulated. You have 20 real buyers who leave you 5.0 for everything. Then you have one ill-minded fake/competition buyer who leaves positive feedback BUT 1.0 for DSRs. Or buyer who leaves it by mistake, like here. Your end result is 4.8 DSR. Not only is this wrong in a way, it is also misleading to the buyers. As I mentioned earlier, DSR is very important with what we sell and 5.0 or 4.8 makes a huge difference.

So, is there a way/mean to post this as a functionality improvement suggestion somewhere?

[fm2000]

Getting negative feedback removed, even negative feedback that is explicitly removable according to eBay policy, can be very stressful and time consuming and it is still not always successful. It just isn't worth the potential stress and wasted time to remove a positive feedback that no one will notice or care about. The DSRs will never be changed by eBay, and no one really looks at those anyway. Best to let it go, just not worth stressing over.

[annadryl]

You have three 4.9's and a 5 for communication, that's outstanding! Your feedback looks great and your listings are well done. You still ship worldwide and seem to be doing a great service to collectors. I agree with the above, don't stress it too much. It was never a perfect system by a long shot.