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eBay Automated Positive Feedback --- A Very Bad Policy Destructive of Buyer Confidence
I am posting this to let eBay and the community know how I feel about this terrible policy.
I am not sure how long ago they began doing this, but eBay has copied another site and has been giving automated positive feedbacks to sellers if buyers do not leave feedbacks for the sellers. I feel this is a very, very bad, not to mention STUPID, policy that FURTHER erodes and destroys buyers's faith in sellers.
I recently came across a pretty good deal on an item in the Health and Beauty section. Normally, I am very skeptical of prices that are simply too good to be true, but this seller had 7 pages of excellent feedback with only a couple of negative feedbacks. Then, I took a closer look at the seller's feedback. Fully 4 of the 7 pages were eBay automated positive feedbacks. WHOA!!!! NO WAY!!!! I cancelled the order.
Sometimes I leave an enthusiastic feedback if I am very pleased with the transaction. Sometimes I leave a negative feedback if it has been a bad transaction (sellers usually get those removed, so I distrust feedbacks based on this fact alone). However, sometimes I leave no feedback if I am neither very happy nor just okay about a transaction. This is my prerogative as a buyer.
I do not know how many other buyers feel the same way, but I imagine many feel exactly as I do. I do not want eBay leaving an automatic positive feedback for me if I decline to leave a feedback, and I will NEVER trust eBay automated feedbacks. I have little trust in eBay feedbacks as it is given how often they remove negative feedbacks and protect bad sellers.
eBay seems to copy everything that other sites do, and that in and of itself shows how stupid (and greedy) eBay is. This policy of copying other sites is tantamount to your mum saying to you as a kid "if so-and-so jumped off a cliff, would you do it, too?" In other words, blindly following and copying what others do is often a very bad and stupid thing to do, and that is exactly what eBay is doing. (SMH)
eastlaneave
Mentor5 months ago@alamo.heigh-93
That sounds frustrating.
I am a buyer and a seller on eBay.
Automated feedback is only left it
- The item is shipped on time and delivered on time
- the buyer didn't open a case or report a problem
A buyer still has 60 days to leave feedback, any manual feedback left by the buyer will override the automated feedback.
About 25% of my buyers leave manual feedback. Automated feedback is to help resolve the issue of buyers who don't respond, but got their item on time.
The feedback page allows you to see automated feedback or not.
I know it's a change.
alamo.heigh-93
OP5 months agoHi,
Thank you. At least I understand at what point it occurs, but I still think it is a bad idea. Sometimes, for whatever reason, I am not interested in leaving a positive feedback, but I am also not interested in leaving a neutral or a negative. I may just want to let it go without feedback, and that should be my prerogative. Just because a transaction was shipped on time (and that is questionable---how many times have I received a tracking number within 24-48 hours of the transaction but the purchase does not ship for several more days?) and I did not feel I needed to open a case, it does not mean I was so pleased with the transaction that I want to leave a positive feedback. In fact, on a couple of transactions some months back, I purposely left negative feedback with a positive content simply because of this automated feedback claptrap.
I am AGAINST it. If it were such a bloody good idea, then why has not eBay been doing it for the last few DECADES?
Aside from the automated feedback issue, however, is the general issue of negative feedbacks regularly removed. I have seen times where I reported negative feedback removed, and it was reinstated because it was WRONGLY removed, and the seller managed to get it removed again---it violated no eBay policy. This is one reason why I often do not even bother to leave feedback on a "neutral" transaction. What is the point? If sellers routine get negative feedback removed, then positive feedback really does not say much anymore does it? You cannot have ying without yang so to speak. Now, the other shoe has dropped. eBay wants sellers to have positive feedback because it boosts eBay profits. First, sellers routinely get negative feedback removed, and now, if the buyer does not leave feedback at all, then eBay leaves positive feedback. Put 2 and 2 together, and the result is undeniable.
There used to be a fabulous non-profit site that recorded eBay buyer and seller feedback BEFORE anyone could get feedback removed. I TRUSTED THAT SITE FAR MORE THAN I TRUSTED VISIBLE FEEDBACK ON EBAY. Sadly, it closed a few years ago, and since then, insofar as I know, no one else records the REAL feedbacks left.
Buyers are screwed in this regard. In the end, if you leave a negative feedback, there is a high chance it will be removed, and if you do not leave any feedback, eBay will leave a positive one for you. Anyone else see how destructive this is of buyer trust and confidence? I buy on eBay still because either is one of a few sites where I find items I want, but if there were another eBay type site that did not make feedback useless for buyers and offered the same products, believe me, I would leave eBay in a heartbeat. This most recent transaction with a seller with more than 200 mostly positive feedbacks that turned out to be almost all eBay automated positive feedbacks cinches my views on this. I am sure I can get this item sent back, but I would rather not have to take the time and trouble to do it, and I would not passed by this seller if only I had taken a closer look at the seller's feedback first. It was negligent on my side of it, but on the other hand, I should to have to scrutinise pages and pages of feedbacks to be sure positive feedbacks are REAL.
I do not consider eBay automated positive feedbacks to be REAL, to be ETHICAL, to be TRUSTWORTHY.
alamo.heigh-93
OP5 months agoWhilst I am at it, I will add one other thing about the M site which makes me loathe to shop there, and that is the "buyer protection fee." Why should a buyer have to pay M a buyer protection fee against bad sellers??? Buyers can lose significant amounts of money over time paying to hedge their bets against bad sellers. This is outrageous! It is just as outrageous and unethical as the automated positive feedback policy there which is where eBay picked up this mutant germ of an idea that has contaminated eBay transactions.
These sorts of polices are made to (1) increase buyer confidence in sellers whether or not they deserve it, and (2) in the case of the "buyer protection fee" to shift the cost of bad transactions from the site to the buyer. And, insofar as I know, even if a transaction went smoothly and the buyer was totally happy, s/he does not get back that "buyer protection fee."
At the time the M site began, I thought it was a great alternative to eBay. I was so wrong. I very, very rarely buy there. If I buy there, it has to be because I found a truly rare item that I need or want, and I shoulder the misery, but shopping should not be a misery.
alamo.heigh-93
OP5 months agoOut of 219 feedbacks, only 60 were left by buyers, and 10 of those were neutral or negative, so that means out of 219 feedbacks for this particular seller, only 50 were truly positive feedbacks. These figures do not include neutral and negative feedbacks that seller was able to get removed.
See what I mean about this automated positive feedback being corrosive of buyer trust? Now, I feel like before I buy from a seller, I have to take a fairly close look at his feedback, much closer than before, because most of it, even all of it, could be eBay automated feedback.
I just made a purchase 3 days ago for a small item. Seller provided a tracking number on day one. The item still has not shipped. This is another problem with the tracking numbers. Sellers should not be able to list the tracking number unless the item was shipped THAT DAY.
alamo.heigh-93
OP5 months agoWell, the perfume arrived today, and just as I feared, it is a fake. Not only that, but the package came from Ohio! That makes FOUR different addresses this seller is supposed to be operating from. I NEVER would have purchased from this seller if eBay automated positive feedback had not padded his account with fully four pages of positive feedback.
Oh, and one other thing, the seller has NO NAME. Every honest seller I have ever dealt with had a name. This seller used "eBay seller" as his name. "eBay seller" and four different addresses. USPS showed the package was accepted in New Jersey, but the label has an address in Ohio, and the seller is supposed to be both in California AND the UK. Sure, sounds like a legit seller to me.... THANK YOU EBAY!!!! I HATE YOU!!!! Now you have made a lot of work for me to get this piece of crap back to someone who is obviously a scammer.
Just so anyone who ever ends up with fake perfu
alamo.heigh-93
OP5 months agoIt just gets better and better. The address in Ohio is on Loma Vista Dr. I did an extensive search, and guess what? There is no such address.
THANK YOU EBAY!!!!!!! THANK YOU SO VLOOD
eastlaneave
Mentor5 months ago@alamo.heigh-93
If the item did not ship from the location shown on the listing itself, you can report the seller for that, in addition to filing a return request for item not as described.
Misrepresentation of item location.
You can report the seller here
https://www.ebay.com/help/buying/resolving-issues-sellers/report-issue-seller?id=4022
Select:
1) Suspicious seller activity
2) Other
Title: Misrepresentation of item location.
Explain in the box that the seller showed xx,xx USA as the item location and later uploading tracking from xxx.
Return Request
You should open a Return Request. The reason could be "Different from what I ordered > Didn't Match Description" if the item you got was not what was shown and described.
You can open your return request here. Just click the photo and follow the instructions.
https://www.ebay.com/help/buying/returns-refunds/return-item-refund?id=4041
You will be able to print a label from here https://www.ebay.com/help/buying/returns-refunds/returning-item/return-shipping?id=4066
-- You can check the status of your case here:
https://www.ebay.com/help/ip?topicId=4667
-- Here is a help page where you can learn more:
https://www.ebay.com/help/buying/resolving-issues-sellers/checking-status-request?id=4667
Do not close your return request until you either have your refund in hand or you have the replacement item. Do not close it because the seller promises you something.
alamo.heigh-93
OP5 months agoThank you, eastlaneave. I now have 5 possible locations for this seller. It has been a nightmare. So sorry I ever purchased from him/her. Seller is now trying to get me to use a return label that actually ships the item to a new buyer in Melrose Park, IL. Still have no idea of seller's name, and seller is still using a non-existent physical address in Youngstown, OH. He cannot even spell.
Wear House
3943 Loma Vista DR
Youngstown, OH 44511
Unbelievable....