Seller seems to get ALL negative feedback removed. How is that possible?

[galloping_pony]

I bought a cell phone battery on eBay about a month ago and still haven't received it. I opened a case 9 days ago and requested a refund. The seller instead told me to close the case if I wanted him to send another one. I responded that I would keep the case open until the matter is resolved but it would be acceptable to send another one if it is sent with tracking and the tracking number is provided to me. He then sent me a vague replay saying he "noted" my response and asked me to let him know when I receive it. I waited a few days and responded by asking if he has sent another one and if he had a tracking number. That was a few days ago, and I have not heard back.

This seller has over 9,700 feedback comments with a 99.8% positive rating. Oddly, all of the negative comments are less than a month old. And the really strange thing is he seems to get new negative feedback almost daily, but it all seems to disappear after a short time. In the image I attached, I marked the four negative feedback comments that were removed just since yesterday. You can see that his 12-month negative feedback went down from 11 to 7.

I've been watching his feedback profile for a few days now and witnessing negative feedback disappear almost daily. A lot of the negative feedback is identical to my experience with him. I feel like I got duped into buying from a seller with an artificially inflated feedback score. I thought I was buying from a reputable seller with a legitimate 99.8% positive feedback rating.

My question is how can anyone have a 100% success rate at eliminating their negative feedback without hacking eBay or having someone on the inside? I've read about the various ways sellers can attempt to get negative feedback removed, but none of those methods have a 100% success rate.

[titipeo]

When is the estimated delivery date? By the looks of the delays and previous feedback I think your seller is in China, hence the delay in transit time. Did you submitted you case within 30 days after the expected delivery date? If so, and if you submitted a ITEM NOT RECEIVED claim, then just ask eBay to step in and get your refund. 

You purchased a battery because you had an immediate need, its been about a month or so, and you still have that need, correct? Then just buy local and solve the problem same day. If you want to save $, accept what comes with it. 

[membersinceaug2001]

It's been a routine thing for larger sellers to have negs removed for years now.

[glasser]

You might want to bring this to a community chat on Wednesdays. Be curious what the eBay folks say, if anything, about this.

[galloping_pony]

I ordered the battery on 8/27/2021, and it had an estimated arrival of 9/4/2021 to 9/9/2021. I was willing to wait that long and even waited until 9/21/2021 to open the item-not-received case to give it extra time to arrive in case it was just delayed. I don't know of a local source for such a battery, and I understand problems sometimes arise when ordering online. The item's location was listed as Lawrence, New York, and the seller's profile says he is based in the United States. Perhaps those locations are inaccurate, though.

I plan to ask eBay to step in soon if the seller doesn't come through. However, I am trying to give the seller ample opportunity to resolve the matter without eBay's help.

My question for now is just how a seller can do this seemingly magical feat. I'm more curious than anything.

[iart]

Big sellers, like stores, get a break. But so do Anchor Store subscribers. If the seller can make any good case, the feedback will probably be removed.

Other reasons too. It can be removed if it is a personal attack, is an attempt to bypass the Block List, is provably untrue and probably more.

eBay has been even more generous with this since the pandemic. Like everyone else, eBay sellers have had a hard time adjusting to the pandemic.

[galloping_pony]

I think someone at eBay needs to sit down and examine the evolution of this seller's feedback profile closely and figure out what's going on. I'm rather shocked by it. I thought negative feedback was permanent except in cases where it was demonstrably unjustified. I'm wondering now if I can trust feedback scores at all on eBay.

[gwzcomps]

My first guess would be they were Top Rated, and using seller protections, but that clearly isn't the case.

[galloping_pony]

Wow, I didn't know that.

[gurlcat]

I've seen this stated numerous time here in the forums (big sellers get negs removed more easily than smaller sellers).   What I don't understand is WHY.  If anything, the more sales means a bigger cushion for percent-positive, assuming the seller's customers are just as likely to bother leaving positive feedback (and if they're not, well maybe there's a reason for THAT).  I know when I don't leave (any) feedback, it's because I'm slightly unhappy with some aspect of the transaction, but not angry enough to neg, and would rather just move on.  
Then there's 'neutrals' and to this day I don't think there's anything close to a consensus on when they're appropriate, nor do I know how they calculate into the seller's percent pos (maybe neither adding to it nor deducting from it???).  
Speaking of neutrals, look how many of THOSE this guy has!  And note that none of them were removed in the same timeframe that he managed to get 4 negs removed.  It makes me wonder if neutrals even CAN be removed, if they don't harm the overall percent score.  If they cannot be removed, that may be the best way to air grievance about a bad seller, and warn others, without having your words just erased. 
Now it's interesting to compare the NATURE of the comments that this guy got removed, compared to those he didn't.  All the removed ones were about not receiving the item, whereas all the extant ones are about the item's quality, OR the comment is too vague to discern the reason, OR it's a non-English comment.  However, the one in Spanish is clearly a non-receipt complaint, as it has a date.  

My guess is that his offer to send another if the buyer will close the ticket is just a straight up lie, and all he has to tell a CSR is that it's not fair to have a negative for an item where the buyer chose to close the ticket.  If that's the case, the only way ebay will be alerted to this guy's trick is if someone actually REPORTS him.  

Another interesting bit of info on that page is that about a third of his business has been just in the past year, out of 10 years (he's been a member since 2011).  

[titipeo]

Big sellers have volume business, volume = sales, which in turn = $$$$

[gurlcat]

What does the obvious have to do with anything? 

[galloping_pony]

I sincerely hope eBay isn't compromising the integrity of its feedback system in an ill-conceived attempt to boost revenue, which is what I think you are implying. I've never sold anything on eBay, but I've been a buyer for the better part of two decades. I've always held eBay in high esteem as a company, and I think that's saying something pretty profound given the length and frequency of my eBay use.

If I end up leaving negative feedback for this seller and it mysteriously disappears, I'm not sure how I will feel about eBay from that point on. If it happens, I'll probably at least stop wasting my time leaving feedback—positive, neutral, or negative—at all. My comments would only increase the artificial positive skew anyway if in general the positive ones are more likely count than the negative ones, and I don't want to be a part of that kind of manipulation.

The bottom line is if I have a negative experience and take the time to provide feedback, having that feedback discarded makes the already-negative experience even more negative.

[titipeo]

Feedback is such a subjective matter, and it has to be cherry picked when reviewing a potential seller/buyer. Too many negatives in a recent period, and if all have a similar tone; ie late shipping, bad packaging, are indications of potential problems. 

Sometimes there are problematic transactions, that indeed require a neutral or negative. Sometimes a negative or neutral is given even though the seller/buyer didn't do anything wrong. The larger the seller, the odds of a negative/neutral are greater. Larger sellers have more voice/support all around and yes, more sales. If a negative is given and the tone of the feedback appears to be retaliatory, or untruthful, then the feedback is really not warranted and should be removed.   

I'm a small seller, I don't think eBay will remove a negative/neutral if I asked for it, however, I do read and learn from them in case I need to improve on something to minimize potential problems. Do I think eBay is treating me differently, no, after all, my volume is so minimal, it wont make a dent.

Big volume sellers should have some advantages, however, I do hope that eBay does their own internal auditing in order to keep a leveled seller platform, and weed out the bad ones, which will eventually hurt every one's bottom line. 

[gurlcat]

You won't have an honest neg removed, if it just states what actually happened and you waited until the seller had ample opportunity (notice plus time) to remedy the problem, but didn't.  Like I said about the negs that got removed in this situation, I strongly suspect the seller used trickery in order to not remedy his problems BUT make it look like the buyers didn't want him to remedy it.  This is getting into some fairly complicated strategy and I could be full of sh, probably am.  But suffice it to say, it is really a good thing that sellers CAN get negs removed, because sometimes buyers do use them instead of seeking any resolution, use them for situations the seller had no control over, and scam buyers use them for revenge when the seller won't play their game.  That was the case with all my removed negs, only a few over the years, but all of them.  Then recently I got one from a scammer (tried to demand a $25 partial refund rather than do a return), and it dawned on me, what if having 100% positive makes me a TARGET for scammers?  Like if they see my perfect score and think I'd probably do whatever it takes to keep it perfect, even cave to crooked bulIsh?  So instead of calling up ebay, I replied this: