eBay Hiding Negative Feedback
I bid on and won and item this week, that I NEVER would have bid on if eBay "feedback" was not designed to hide negatives. Before buying from someone, I used to check their feedback (in what is now called "classic" view)... I would weigh the recent positives against any negative (or neutrals) and decide if this is someone I wanted to buy from.
eBay now shows a few "relative" feedbacks, (Relative to what? Who knows!)... and makes you go through 3-4 screens to sort back the old "Recent First", "Show All", "Feedback Received as Seller"... etc...
It seems like eBay wants buyers to think all eBay sellers are 100% positive, (so eBay seller fees keep rolling into their account). High volume sellers seem to be able to have negative removed completely.
I stopped selling on eBay three years ago. The new default of "Automatic Payment" ruins many sales where you want to get combined shipping, (making the sale harder on the buyer, seller and ebay trying to get shipping rate adjusted AFTER auto-pay)... Seems eBay just keeps shooting itself in the feet... Young people DO NOT use eBay -- you can get all the same cheap imported crap on Amazon for less and faster... eBay should have stood buy the people that helped build the site into what it was; collectors, antique buyers and sellers, mom & pop "eBay Store owners", etc.
With so many other places to sell and buy, (Etsy, Facebook Marketplace, Craigslist, etc), you'd think eBay would want to promote themselves as an online auction site. (now less than 10% of items in nearly every category are "auctions" -- and most other them are no great deal since sells starts price at retail value.
Oh, well... I don't sell here anymore (stopped 3 years ago after 15+ years)... soon enough I'll stop buying here too.
I could keep writing negatives, (e.g. --- customer support is non existent, fees are up, good shipping options are gone, tax charged on items that should be tax free (e.g. in MA no tax on clothes, food, Residential Solar Systems, but Ebay charges anyway), "AI generated descriptions" are a joke, etc....
Most people under 50 years old don't use eBay --- it a dying dinosaur.
fern*wood
·2 years agoAlways sort "most recent" and/or click on the numbers if you want to read the negs/neutrals.
gone.c-33
·2 years agoeBay still showcases neutral and negative feedback more prominently than 15 years ago. I still remember having to use toolhaus to see a seller’s negatives without having to scroll through pages and pages of feedback.
tobaccocardyahoo
·2 years agoEbay wants to be where the mass of buyers are on every issue.
Auctions are not what draws buyers today.
Fast and easy purchases of as described merchandise, delivered promptly is what they want.
Feedback has never been useful. When I have had bad experiences on marketplace sites, they have always been with sellers with 100% positive FB. When I got my money back, they usually still had 100% FB unless they ripped off a large number of customers. If they ripped off a large number of customers on Ebay they were NARU'ed.
Other than during the Pierre years on Ebay where there was no one policing the site, I always got my money back.
The Pierre years gave Ebay a negative reputation which the CEOs who followed fought to leave behind. They have made progress but it may be too late to matter to Ebay's growth,
If you don't like Ebay, no need to do business here.
Knowing that Ebay will provides a Money Back Guarantee makes many buyers confident, until they discover that the guarantee requires them to behave in an intelligent manner to collect. Some people have no clue how to deal with any set procedure and refuse to learn.
Since fewer and fewer buyers care about FB, they never see the revised FB pages.
If you don't want to do business here, you do not have to. This is America and we have choices.
I buy a limited type of merchandise on Ebay. There are many types of merchandise that are too high risk to buy here. If people choose to buy that merchandise, they will be disappointed.
I sell here and have repeat customers. I sell here because it is the best place on the internet to sell what I sell. If there was a better place to sell it, I would sell there.
bonanza125
·2 years agoIt's all about making money. As a buyer if negative or neutral feedback is important to you then click those extra times and view what the feedback is. Just because several people had a bad experience with a particular seller doesn't mean you won't have that same experience. You might have a great experience. Fact is Ebay gives you a 30 day return. So if anything does go wrong you have that in your back pocket.
As far as automatic pay well to correct that is just refund the buyer any added shipping cost which was charged extra. I refund as a seller and receive refunds as a buyer and have no issue with it.
As far as what seller charge and retail value will yeah this is a marketplace. Sellers can ask whatever they want. If the price is too high the item doesn't sell. Keep in mind there are fees as well so prices are sometimes higher now to cover cost. Items in general cost more to get. So that also reflects the price hike. Yes you can probably find items cheaper at the store now. Welcome to 2024. More people are using online so you will have more competition, higher fees, and higher shipping cost as well as state tax. Don't want to handle it then continue to do what you are doing which is stop selling on Ebay.
bonjourami
·2 years agoI havent had that problem at all. Just click on See All Feedback.
chevymontecarlo88
·2 years agoYes, it may be a little more difficult to see the glaring negative reviews one seller may have on their account, but you can still see their feedback percentage. Since you once sold here on eBay, this should of given you pause (sellers you purchased from) once you noticed the lower than acceptable feedback percentage.
slippinjimmy
·2 years agoThe "classic" view that you want is still available, you need to click on "see all feedback"
eBay doesn't want to promote themselves as an "auction" site because most buyers have no interest in auctions and that also applies to most sellers.
gurlcat
·2 years agoI think most of us agree that the new "relevant" sorting is silly, especially that it is the DEFAULT view. -This seems to be the new trend on the internet; even comments/replies on things like Youtube videos and Facebook posts now do this, and I for one hate it.
BUT, the way it is designed on eBay, it's not to hide negatives. The algorithm is programmed to weigh "relevance" according to how detailed the feedback is, and it's not just length, like a long rambling paragraph doesn't necessarily increase relevance. -The AI looks for keywords relating to buyers' critiques of the sellers item description accuracy, shipping speed, packing skills, communication, and maybe more like reasonable pricing, good selection in their store, etc.
On that same point, a NEGATIVE that is highly-detailed with those criteria can put ITS' relevancy up. So if a buyer had an experience that was negative in numerous ways and they described it well in their feedback, it won't just "roll off" of page 1 after the seller gets 25 positives, the way it would if sorted by 'recent.'
But one thing hasn't changed. If the seller has had any negatives or neutrals in the past year, you can still see that count in the box at the top, and click on those numbers to go straight to those buyers' comments.
movieman630
·2 years agoWhat's really awful is that there's no blocking people from leaving negatives before they reach out to the seller to resolve the problem. We need mediation. To go right to a negative FB without contact first is just unfair. Twice I've had to ask for revisions because the buyer never tried to contact me first and I was willing to solve their problem.
slippinjimmy
·2 years agoSolving a problem is not the solution.....AVOIDING the problem in the first place is the solution.....
robbie31415
·2 years agoThis is the way i look at.
Just because you supply a resolution doesn't mean it's not a negative experience.
People talking about mediation in order to leave feedback. What ?
movieman630
·2 years agoCall it "mediation" all I'm saying is that how hard is it for ebay to prompt them and ask to reach out to the seller first before they are allowed to leave a negative. The system could be programmed to recognize that they buyer has an issue and instead of letting them leave a negative FB it allows them to open a case and try to resolve the problem with the seller first. There's no reason not to implement an automated system like that.
movieman630
·2 years agoYes, but nobody is perfect. We all have those days where we make a mistake. I'm saying that ebay should have our backs and not allow a buyer to leave a negative FB until they've reached out to the seller to solve the problem. Now we have "guest" buyers who don't have any care about FB. They leave these hasty FB's for us and while we do this for a living and actually care about our reputation, they don't care at all about the entire platform so they just leave FB without thinking.
This year has been terrible for negative FB for me. I try my best to solve problems. The last 2 times I got a negative it was because of an honest mistake that I was willing to solve. The buyer never bothered to email me first. I asked for a revision and solved the problem for the first one. They obliged. The second on is willing to revise but can't figure out how to do it. It's a problem.