Automated Feedback by Ebay

[bill.purvis2012]

This will be very welcomed by sellers. 

Automated Feedback

• Currently, only about one in three buyers chooses to leave feedback, even on successful transactions. 
• Beginning in September, when a seller in the U.S. uses a tracked service, delivers on time, and no issues are reported, eBay will automatically leave positive feedback for the seller.

[mr_lincoln]

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@supercharger-parts wrote:

I am not  a fan.  I do not want watered down feedback and I don't want eBay leaving feedback for me.  There are a number of times, like many others, I sometimes do not leave feedback because I don't feel the need to cause an issue for a seller over something that bothered me.   If eBay is going to auto generate feedback for a transaction I would normally not leave feedback for, they are pushing me to leave a neutral or a negative.  I don't want that.

I also don't want to receive eBay generated feedback for my transactions, it will just water it down.  I think it's bad enough that you have to click on multiple things to see feedback, I had not noticed the "sort by" being prepopulated with "most relevant" instead of "most recent" until this week.  

I think if feedback is supposed to mean anything, it should be, immediately viewable when you click on "feedback", sorted in most recent order as the default, and from the people involved, not auto generated.  

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@supercharger-parts 

Yes, MANY agree with you on this point and like most enhancements or alleged improvements the net result has been more clicks, more scrolls and more compensation from less than stellar programming.  

[themaninblack023]

This is a question, not a reply... Ebay has now given me 2-3 automatic feedbacks (There's a little counter at the top of my feedback page) however, I do not "see" any additional feedback posted when I search most recent and/or scroll through my transactions. 

Is it just adding 1 to the positive count per feedback? Meaning, I do not see an AI generated feedback (no comments), just me overall feedback count increasing...?

[jonathanbrightlight]

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@themaninblack023 wrote:

This is a question, not a reply... Ebay has now given me 2-3 automatic feedbacks (There's a little counter at the top of my feedback page) however, I do not "see" any additional feedback posted when I search most recent and/or scroll through my transactions. 

Is it just adding 1 to the positive count per feedback? Meaning, I do not see an AI generated feedback (no comments), just me overall feedback count increasing...?

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Did you check the box for "Show automated feedback"? When you're viewing your own profile, it's unchecked by default. I see them when I view your feedback.

[lu12-deals]

We're also starting to see the automated feedback hitting our account. At this point, I think I'm a fan of this change. About 1 or 2% of buyers cannot be pleased and are prone to leaving negatives. These automated positives will end up drowning out the jerk buyers. 

[randbrestorations]

Unless the feedback is 100% positive, it's a good idea to look at recent feedback if nothing else.

I recently had a 14 month old clothes washer die. There were no repair parts currently available so I had to buy a new washer or go to the local laundromat several times a week.

While shopping for the new machine, I decided to look at the feedback on my dead machine. It was actually 98%. But when I looked at the feedback almost all recent feedback was negative with the same problem I had. That explained no availability of replacement parts and made sure I didn't buy from the same manufacturer.

[ed8108]

In the past a eBay seller worked to earn positive feedback from a buyer.

 Positive feedback has now become a gift from ebay absent a buyer leaving a neutral or neg

 Some buyers who in the past felt  a transaction didn't  merit leaving a neg or neutral & would  thus leave  no feedback, I suspect may feel it unjust for eBay on it's own initiative to gift a transaction to have been a positive experience.

eBay should give a buyer the ability to opt out of it's new feedback gifting program.

Not a good idea to disregard  buyer feelings.

[crosscomponents]

As so many have already stated I'm slightly concerned about where this can go. However I personally think it points to the larger trend of buyers not leaving feedback and Ebay attempting to remedy that issue. I tried to stop caring about who left FB a long time ago as every year it gets worse. I run real businesses and we use to actually track the percentages of FB so I know this to be true. I now control 4 stores although this particular account is newer. All stores have 100% FB. I started on Ebay over 25+ years ago and pride myself with not making mistakes and describing everything perfectly, down to the slightest imperfection. My lowest rated seller details/stars is the shipping cost which I have no control over. Have I made a mistake before, of course. Did I fix it immediately, absolutely. My biggest store, 25 years old, has over 76k items sold but FB is only 16k (21%). In this particular small store, I've delivered 36 orders dating back to June. I only have 5 feedback and 2 were auto-generated, which is a mere 14% if you take out the auto generated. That is terrible and honestly undeserved in my opinion. I don't know why buyers don't leave feedback. One theory is I think they're so use to buying on other platforms like Amazon that it just isn't something they think they need to do here. If they're purposely not leaving any FB because they are unhappy with something they bought from any of my stores I can guarantee you it's buyers remorse because they either 1) didn't read my description, 2) didn't look at all the pictures, 3) thought/assumed the item was something it isn't or fits something it doesn't, or 4) don't like the fact that some stores have a no return policy. I'll take a negative IF I deserve it but I've been doing this a very long time and I take my businesses extremely serious both on and off this platform. I do not like surprises and I do not want any buyer to be surprised either.

[bongos_gallery_boutique]

This may have already been addressed as I haven't read the thread fully and I rarely pop in.

Just in case eBay is reviewing this...

Yes, the concept is good and well needed but the timeline may be off. Just a thought here, but wouldn't it be a wiser decision to let the 60 days pass giving the buyer an opportunity to leave FB? Then after that if no FB has been left, initiate a positive for the seller. That's all I have to add. Please give this new automated FB idea a closer view. Thanks

[gurlcat]

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@bongos_gallery_boutique wrote:

Just a thought here, but wouldn't it be a wiser decision to let the 60 days pass giving the buyer an opportunity to leave FB? 

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Buyers still have the opportunity to leave feedback for 60 days.  And if they do, it will replace the auto one.  

[chapeau-noir]

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@gurlcat wrote:

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@bongos_gallery_boutique wrote:

Just a thought here, but wouldn't it be a wiser decision to let the 60 days pass giving the buyer an opportunity to leave FB? 

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Buyers still have the opportunity to leave feedback for 60 days.  And if they do, it will replace the auto one.  

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I'm thinking it's if the buyer just never leaves feedback, then at the 60 day mark the site leaves the auto-feedback. That remedies the direct problem - no feedback left at all - rather than somehow preempting the buyer (even if they can leave other FB later). 

IMHO, it's a good idea. 

[gurlcat]

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@chapeau-noir wrote:

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@gurlcat wrote:

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@bongos_gallery_boutique wrote:

Just a thought here, but wouldn't it be a wiser decision to let the 60 days pass giving the buyer an opportunity to leave FB? 

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Buyers still have the opportunity to leave feedback for 60 days.  And if they do, it will replace the auto one.  

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I'm thinking it's if the buyer just never leaves feedback, then at the 60 day mark the site leaves the auto-feedback. That remedies the direct problem - no feedback left at all - rather than somehow preempting the buyer (even if they can leave other FB later). 

IMHO, it's a good idea. 

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I would agree if the auto feedback indicated anything that might not be true, namely buyer satisfaction.  But it doesn't; it only states the most basic facts: Order completed successfully, tracked and on time.  

As for how many days it "should" generate after delivery, I would suspect that eBay ran numbers and determined the vast majority of buyer feedbacks (and probably return filings)  occur within a week.   And if you picture yourself a small seller with fewer (maybe much fewer) than 100 feedbacks in the past year, and you just got a neg, wouldn't you want those positives coming in as fast as possible, to cushion the blow to your % positive score?  

Can you think of who might be harmed by auto's being generated before the buyer's deadline?
EDIT: The one vague thing I can think of would be a seller with a new multi-quantity listing of some item that takes longer than a week (but under 60 days) to discover that it sucks, like maybe it falls apart the first time it's washed, or I don't know, potentially other scenarios.  Then people shopping for that kind of item might buy it from that seller because he hasn't yet received any neutrals or negs for it, just because previous buyers haven't run into the 'suck' of it yet.  
LOL EDIT #2: But that would be true if those buyers hadn't left any feedback either!  So really the auto's can't possibly misconstrue a seller or an item as good if they're not.  
  

[chapeau-noir]

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@gurlcat wrote:

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@chapeau-noir wrote:

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@gurlcat wrote:

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@bongos_gallery_boutique wrote:

Just a thought here, but wouldn't it be a wiser decision to let the 60 days pass giving the buyer an opportunity to leave FB? 

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Buyers still have the opportunity to leave feedback for 60 days.  And if they do, it will replace the auto one.  

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I'm thinking it's if the buyer just never leaves feedback, then at the 60 day mark the site leaves the auto-feedback. That remedies the direct problem - no feedback left at all - rather than somehow preempting the buyer (even if they can leave other FB later). 

IMHO, it's a good idea. 

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I would agree if the auto feedback indicated anything that might not be true, namely buyer satisfaction.  But it doesn't; it only states the most basic facts: Order completed successfully, tracked and on time.  

As for how many days it "should" generate after delivery, I would suspect that eBay ran numbers and determined the vast majority of buyer feedbacks (and probably return filings)  occur within a week.   And if you picture yourself a small seller with fewer (maybe much fewer) than 100 feedbacks in the past year, and you just got a neg, wouldn't you want those positives coming in as fast as possible, to cushion the blow to your % positive score?  

Can you think of who might be harmed by auto's being generated before the buyer's deadline?
EDIT: The one vague thing I can think of would be a seller with a new multi-quantity listing of some item that takes longer than a week (but under 60 days) to discover that it sucks, like maybe it falls apart the first time it's washed, or I don't know, potentially other scenarios.  Then people shopping for that kind of item might buy it from that seller because he hasn't yet received any neutrals or negs for it, just because previous buyers haven't run into the 'suck' of it yet.  
LOL EDIT #2: But that would be true if those buyers hadn't left any feedback either!  So really the auto's can't possibly misconstrue a seller or an item as good if they're not.  
  

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eBay already pesters buyers for feedback, so if they haven't left any by 60 days, they weren't going to. If the item sucked, they would have left the feedback already. After 60 days, all bets would be off as that's the end-date for leaving buyer feedback. 

IMHO, extrapolating that a neg *might* occur and the seller *might* want the cushion doesn't really weigh into what's essentially an administrative task. It *does* prematurely create interference in what's essentially a seller/buyer action. 

With Mercari - three days is the acceptance range to leave feedback and release funds. After that, the site leaves the auto-feedback. 

But this is all hypothetical as I doubt eBay would implement the 60 day cycle, anyway. 

ETA: But wait...I just got 3 auto-feedback and it didn't change my score ??  What did I miss? 

[gurlcat]

LOL your score is 100% positive.  How could automatic positives change that?  

[chapeau-noir]

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@gurlcat wrote:

LOL your score is 100% positive.  How could automatic positives change that?  

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I mean the number of feedbacks didn't change. I counted the two that I got which brought me to my present number...but then found these other three feedbacks that didn't seem to change the number at all? 

[gurlcat]

Huh that's weird, I don't know.  I have 2 and they definitely raised my number by that many; I know because I haven't gotten a hand-written feedback in forever so I watched that number just sit and sit.