eBay

seller_news_team · ‎12-18-2023

Over the past few months, we’ve been working to improve the feedback experience for buyers on eBay. We are making these changes in order to give potential buyers better insight into your products.

Starting last month, eBay sellers have been able to preview images on their sold multi-quantity items feedback. With the success of the program thus far, we are starting to make those images available to buyers as well. We will continue to test images on feedback into 2024.

Richer text and images in feedback can add credibility and drive sales by instilling additional confidence for interested buyers as they shop. To date, we've already collected almost a million images and the vast majority are associated with positive feedback and showcase the great products and positive experiences buyers have with our eBay sellers. Existing policies related to feedback and feedback removal will also apply to images.

These updates will help to add trust to reviews, increase buyer confidence and drive conversion for your listings.

As always, thank you for selling on eBay.

The eBay Team

valueaddedresource · ‎01-02-2024

@rosachs wrote:
@valueaddedresource wrote:
@zobal99 wrote:
Sellers are not getting it. Neg. seller feedback gives eBay the reason to tack on extra percentages to your selling fees that they charge you. So it benefits them to leave the neg. feedback and to leave it for 365 days. You can be paying them as high as 25% of your selling price.
@zobal99 feedback is not part of the calculation for Seller Performance or Service Metrics ratings and negative feedback alone will not result in additional fees.
Feedback generates a seller's rating. Ratings are used by buyers to determine which of multiple sellers to consider buying from -- those with higher ratings (a larger percentage of positive feeback) tend to get more views, and view beget sales.

Negative feedback is very often connected to a Return, and Returns ARE used to increase the fees paid by a seller. If your Return Percentage for a given category exceeds a preset level, an additional fee is tacked onto your FVF. So in this way, feedback -does- impact FVF. Might be minor, but 'minor' is still greater than 'does not'.

-Bob.

@rosachs which is exactly what I said in my second reply that you didn't quote here - if you are receiving negative feedback, it is also likely that you are receiving INAD returns and item not received claims, not responding to cases opened against you, not shipping or uploading tracking on time and/or canceling orders for being out of stock.

Those are the things that may impact your Seller Performance rating and Service Metrics, some of which could potentially result in additional fees being charged.

And guess what? Those things would have the exact same impact on Seller Performance and Service Metrics even if the buyer doesn't leave negative feedback!

The point was simply that feedback is not counted by eBay when determining those specific metrics, not even in a "minor" way....period.

Whether or not negative feedback drives buyers away also has nothing to do with that point and does not negate anything I said in my previous posts on this subject.

itsjustasprain · ‎01-02-2024

@itsjustasprain wrote:
@itsjustasprain wrote:
@timelessvintagecollectibles wrote:
I do not know if you are aware, but your Feedback updates have also made previously removed Feedback that was over a year old reappear in violation of eBay’s Feedback Policy. If you have been a eBay seller for over a year, and have any negative or neutral feedback from previous years that had been removed, it now appears in your current feedback status, and can deter potential clients from purchasing. This is also extremely problematic since it is the Christmas season, and sales are at a premium.
@seller_news_team : Any comment on the above?
@seller_news_team : It has now been an ENTIRE additional week without any response from you. Please read this entire thread (that you started) and then give us some responses to the many questions that have been asked of you. Thanks!

@seller_news_team : Happy New Year! Another week has flown by. It is long past time for you to respond to the thread that you started and to actually participate. Please review this thread and post some responses to clarify the many questions that have been raised. Thanks!

mr_lincoln · ‎01-02-2024

@rosachs eBay needs to VET both Buyers and Sellers. We read about plenty of Seller scams here, empty boxes, false tracking scams, etc. The challenge is for a 3rd party, eBay, to develop a system that protects both Buyers and Sellers from bad apples in each of those groups.

I agree the Feedback system should be replaced, it is antiquated, subjective and juvenile on many levels. Seller Metrics are also subjective especially when they rely on the honesty or dishonesty of Buyers.

Regards,
Mr. Lincoln - Community Mentor

shantynas · ‎01-04-2024

Slightly off topic, but a question I can never serm to get answered. How many hundreds of positives needed to negate, balance out 1 negative feedback? And why cant sellers give honest feedback to buyers? Only option is positive, which a few are not... just wondering again about the integrity &

value of feedbac

mr_lincoln · ‎01-04-2024

@shantynas wrote:
Slightly off topic, but a question I can never serm to get answered. How many hundreds of positives needed to negate, balance out 1 negative feedback? And why cant sellers give honest feedback to buyers? Only option is positive, which a few are not... just wondering again about the integrity &
value of feedbac

@shantynas Feedback % is calculated for the last 12 consecutive months. So there is no magic number of Positive you need because it can change based on your previous monthly Feedback volume. Suffice it to say that more Positive FB one receives will help offset a Neg FB.

In 2008 eBay stopped letting Sellers leave Neutral or Negative FB for Buyers. So Buyer % is always 100 although you can see the less than Positive FB Buyers leave for Sellers on their FB history.

You wrote: " ... just wondering about the integrity & value of feedback." You are not alone, obviously it is not a balanced system and I will leave it at that for this post ...

Regards,
Mr. Lincoln - Community Mentor

monster-deals · ‎01-04-2024

@seller_news_team wrote:
Over the past few months, we’ve been working to improve the feedback experience for buyers on eBay.

How about for sellers?

ebay has desperately needed a feedback overhaul since 2008 and this new removal process I have ZERO confindence in.

autotechlighting · ‎01-05-2024

You shouldn't have any confidence in it. We've dealt with it a few times and it's absolutely a joke. They said they started requiring feedback to now go through Seller Help first to "save sellers time" from having to call in to get a feedback reviewed for removal. That's dishonest, at best. If they had an issue with reps removing feedback they should not have....they should have dealt with that at the rep level. If the rep is not following policy for feedback removal, they likely aren't following policy for anything they are dealing with. However, now....the sellers just lose.

In the past, if we received a negative feedback that qualified for removal (meaning there was proof that it qualified), I felt reassured Ebay had our back. I knew I could call in (we have an anchor store) and speak with a US-rep who would get it removed in seconds if it indeed qualified. Most of the anchor support reps are actually really awesome at their jobs. However, now, I feel that again Ebay doesn't have our back. Simple as that.

In regards to trying to get feedback removed now, you have to wait several hours for a reply and they basically don't remove anything anymore....even obvious ones that qualify. Thus, you have to try to call in after and even if the rep you get agrees it should have been removed, they have no power to remove it and instead they have to send it back to the feedback removal team again (and most times they still won't remove it even if a rep agrees it should have qualified). We've had ones we put in through Seller Help at like midnight EST and gotten replies 2-3 hours later.....so you do the math, who REALLY is reading and acting on these feedback removal requests at 3am in the morning? Definitely not US-based reps.

It's 2023 and people leave negs or neutrals for the dumbest things.....sometimes valid, most times not. The bigger issue is buyers leaving it without any prior contact....and I get it, it might be unrealistic to require a buyer to first contact a seller before being able to share their experience. Regardless, Ebay should be promoting resolution. They should make feedback revision requests unlimited again....5 requests for every 1,000 transactions is NOT enough. I don't know why any site would want to put a cap on the number of times a seller resolves an issue with a buyer. No other e-commerce site has a limit on how many times you can resolve something with someone feedback-wise. It used to be unlimited way back when (mid to late 2000s if I remember) and then they did away with that for some stupid reason.

buytodayshipnextday · ‎01-06-2024

ebay is the only platform on the planet where every buyer has 100% feedback. doesn't matter if they scam, bait n' switch, attempt to extort, i.e. i want "x" money off or a full refund or i'll leave negative feedback. or, they regularly blame sellers for shipments that arrive late (when the sellers shipped on time) or....when you enable people to do what they want with no fear of penalty they will further walk all over you. the customer is not always right & if they are unfair or provide false feedback sellers should have the ability to leave feedback on a buyers page.

quicksilverdiecast · ‎01-08-2024

maybe you should leave things alone that work, apparently you have not figured out when you shoot from the hip and decide to change things because some ones light bulb went on and everyone setting around the table agreed that it causes a cascading effect where it screws other stuff that has strings attached to it...so what are you going to do about the feedback that have been removed? You going to remove them again without hassle......There is only 2 things you can do to improve feedback system...1. level the playing field like it used to be where buyers are eligible for neg feedbacks or 2. dump the system entirely. You are starting to earn you name fleebay...I see etsy has commercials on TV.....interesting

b86fiero · ‎01-11-2024

I recently received a positive feedback with photo of the merchandise.

I had included a Free Gift with the order that had a note attached stating free gift and of course that is front and center on the feedback photo.

Not a problem for me as I always include a free gift with that particular item.

However, I can see where it could be an issue for other sellers who include a free gift for a repeat buyer, that buyer includes it in a feedback photo, and future buyers see it and want to know why they didn't deserve a free gift or file a NAD because they didn't get a free gift.

vintage_sterling_spoon_rings · ‎01-11-2024

You need better tools. I click once to bring up a list of orders where the customer has left positive feedback but I have not yet left my feedback.

Ah the good old days... I remember them well.

Unfortunately, now when you bring up a list of orders eBay's Feedback options have been replaced by... Zip Code.

feedback now.jpg

mr_lincoln · ‎01-11-2024

@b86fiero wrote:
I recently received a positive feedback with photo of the merchandise.

I had included a Free Gift with the order that had a note attached stating free gift and of course that is front and center on the feedback photo.

Not a problem for me as I always include a free gift with that particular item.

However, I can see where it could be an issue for other sellers who include a free gift for a repeat buyer, that buyer includes it in a feedback photo, and future buyers see it and want to know why they didn't deserve a free gift or file a NAD because they didn't get a free gift.

@b86fiero

-Pictures are NOT necessary on the Feedback flow, period.

-Waste of space and programming

-Members will find a way to abuse it or misuse it

-The Feedback system is not a social media platform

Regards,
Mr. Lincoln - Community Mentor

buytodayshipnextday · ‎01-12-2024

ebay back in the ebay day did allow buyers to get smacked if they were scammers liars etc. you COULD leave negative feed back on their page. when they disabled that feature it was brutal. you mean i can do as a i please without retribution? IT WAS OUT OF CONTRIOL. sellers were getting whacked &there was nothing you could do. if you replied to their feedback on your page but it wasn't positive you risked getting suspended. if you replied negatively on the buyers page you were almost guaranteed suspension. the buyer could rip you off without penalty but the seller defending themselves against those accusations or slander could be penalized losing income for days or weeks. ah! but now a seller CAN reply in a long wordy response especially to buyers but....it is only visible on the sellers page. no negative feedback is allowed on the buyers page. as a seller i (sometimes) i would like the opportunity to view the honest feedback left on a buyers page. instead i have no clue the buyer has scammed (or whatever they've done or attempted to do) & they buy from me only to repeat the same offense. so in the over 1/4 century what has ebay done to improve & safeguard sellers against buyers bad practices? NOTHING!

910ryans · ‎01-12-2024

Is there any way that you would consider an automatic positive feedback feature so that if a seller makes a good sale, and a buyer doesn't or refuses to leave any feedback, that it gives the sale an automatic positive feedback rating?

itsjustasprain · ‎01-12-2024

@vintage_sterling_spoon_rings wrote:
You need better tools. I click once to bring up a list of orders where the customer has left positive feedback but I have not yet left my feedback.
Ah the good old days... I remember them well.

Unfortunately, now when you bring up a list of orders eBay's Feedback options have been replaced by... Zip Code.

Those feedback indicators have not been REPLACED by Zip code but the column they are in has been pushed offscreen to the right due to Zip code being added. If you go to the bottom of your page you will find a horizontal slidebar that will let you drag the feedback indicators into view.

This is of course ridiculous. Why would anyone care about having the buyer ZIP code on that particular page?

I notice that if the page has no actual entries on it (such as looking at the Awaiting Shipment page after you have shipped all the items that were pending) the empty columns are narrow enough to allow the Feedback column to come on-screen from the right. But if there are items listed on the page for which some of the intermediate columns must expand to fit then the Feedback column will be pushed offscreen. The only slidebar to retrieve it into view seems to be all the way down at the bottom.

This is yet another dumb thing that could have been avoided by proper testing.