Displaying Feedback Replies

[seller_news_team]

Over the past few months, we’ve been working to improve the feedback experience for both sellers and buyers on eBay by improving relevancy and displaying images. These feedback enhancements give potential buyers better insights into your products, and can add credibility and drive sales by instilling additional confidence while shopping. We’ve now made an additional update based on what the seller community says is a top request for how we display feedback. 

Starting this week, sellers’ replies and buyers’ follow-ups to feedback will be shown on all places feedback is viewable. This update includes showing replies on desktop and mobile web pages, the view item page of eBay’s mobile apps, and the storefront feedback profile page. 

Buyers will be able to see your customer service interactions on all positive, negative, and neutral feedback. You can reply to buyer feedback on your feedback profile page via a desktop computer. 

Responding to buyer feedback is a great way to showcase your knowledge about your products, provide context for the feedback provided by buyers, and demonstrate your commitment to a great buyer experience. 

We encourage sellers to work towards a solution with buyers who had unsatisfactory experience and attempt to rectify the situation. Responding to buyer feedback with additional context about how you followed up can be a key part of this process. 

As always, thank you for selling on eBay.

The eBay Team

[mudshark61369]

@seller_news_team,

If this has been brought up before, sorry for bringing it up again.  I just checked a member's FB profile page to see their selling feedback and this is what I saw with your Default setting

However, the person has been a seller, but has not sold for over a year. When Most Recent is selected, there is feedback.

Can someone explain to me why that information Is Not Relevant?  It might lead an inexperienced member to get the wrong idea about a seller like this one, if they do not switch to Most Recent.

  Things like this lead me to ask if any of the team responsible for the update, knows what the word "Relevant" means, or if they looked up the definition on one of the "Random"  new age, millennial revised, AI produced, Wiki misinformed, sites, instead of from an Actual Dictionary? 

From the Merriam Webster Dictionary,  2022 edition:  Verbatim

 "... the ability (as of an information retrieval system) to retrieve material that satisfies the needs of the user".

[steve_stuff]

How many sellers don't leave any FB for a buyer because that can't leave true FB. Have a friend who had a guy say one seven was missing from deck. She knows it were there as it's in the photo of the hearts. Got them back and it was missing. So no FB and they get away with taking the card.

There needs to be a second 'real feedback for buyers' page that is hidden till a buyer asks a question or bids/buys something. Then the seller can see what other sellers have said about transactions with that person, good or bad.  And the link stays active till the CC charge back period has past so 'six months later' charge backs can be noted. And if a seller leaves good FB the buyer never knows, but - maybe - if it's bad FB, the buyer gets to see the FB for their purchase and reply.

We have said this for years but it will never happen.

[a_c_green]

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@mudshark61369 wrote:

@seller_news_team,

If this has been brought up before, sorry for bringing it up again.  I just checked a member's FB profile page to see their selling feedback and this is what I saw with your Default setting

However, the person has been a seller, but has not sold for over a year. When Most Recent is selected, there is feedback.

Can someone explain to me why that information Is Not Relevant?  It might lead an inexperienced member to get the wrong idea about a seller like this one, if they do not switch to Most Recent.

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@seller_news_team : Given that someone using your login has been logged in as recently as yesterday, can you please tell us why none of you appear willing (or able) to answer questions on the topic that you yourselves posted? Are you not authorized to discuss topics with sellers here?

[brightlightbookseller]

I don't think they ever reply.  It's the "seller_news_team" not "seller_response_team" after all. 😁 You'll get a response more often if you tag a blue (one of the @ebay members).

[1syndicate]

E-bay needs a better team to evaluate feedback and potential loss of money as sellers move away from this platform.

[1syndicate]

You are 100% correct...E-bay has become very one sided with buyers in the last two years and many sellers have left the platform...by the time E-bay figures it out they will become the new Bud Light.

[a_c_green]

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@brightlightbookseller wrote:

I don't think they ever reply.  It's the "seller_news_team" not "seller_response_team" after all. 😁 You'll get a response more often if you tag a blue (one of the @ebay members).

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That's true... although that hasn't been working too well recently either...

[stacy_pme]

I think..... IF a seller is top-rated, and offers FREE RETURNS, that if a buyer does not initiate a return on an item that they are claiming as "Not as Described" the seller should be eligible to have the negative feedback removed.  This is ridiculous!!!  WHO in their right mind, would buy something and be so disappointed that they leave a negative review, and they don't even try and do a FREE RETURN?  UNLESS they are doing it as retaliation?!  They are literally paying for an item, just to leave a negative review??.... OR they are hoping for a refund and to keep the item, in exchange for removing their review - they can't outright ask for it, but they can manipulate the system... There is just no other reason in my mind that someone would do such a thing.  I certainly wouldn't pay over $100.00 for a gold ring, and it arrives, and I'm dissatisfied with it.... if it had "Free Returns" - I'd return it.... OF Course if I had returned too much already and my ability to return was turned off or revoked.... would I just start leaving negative feedbacks on any items that I had buyer's remorse on, since I no longer can return anything?  

Too much of the time the sellers are taking the brunt of this.  It's sad.  It is costing eBay money.  I have stopped promoting my listings because between the final value fees of 15%, the promoted listings of up to 15%, the returns, the scams, and everything else it's harder and harder to make selling stuff on eBay worth my while... when I can SCRAP used gold items and get as much in scrap as I can selling them on eBay (after all the fees!)....    I used to stick up for eBay.... Sad.  

Sellers should have the same ability and right to leave negative feedback as buyers do.

[l.i.blob_82]

        There are bigger problems than adding photos to feedback, I stopped selling the majority of my items here because of the constantly rising costs, poor customer support and bad experiences with buyers who abuse the rules here. There are a ton of options to sell all kinds of items online and I’ve found other places to sell most items. eBay still rules for collectibles and certain things, but they’ve certainly lost a large share of my sales. Adding photos to feedback isn’t going to make me list more here, and I’m certainly not going to pay extra to advertise my items on a website that I’m already overpaying. 
      eBay can do whatever they want with feedback, or baseball card refrigerators. My clothes, sneakers, stereo equipment, vintage items and many other things are being sold elsewhere and I’m happy with that. I’ll never promote a listing or send a valuable collectible in for them to hold.
       Issues are to be expected, especially with such a large site like eBay, but having my concerns answered by a $12/day support agent in a foreign country who can’t and won’t help me isn’t good enough. Especially when your policies are creating the issues I’m calling about. This gave me reason to search for other options and find some good ones, so in a way I’m thankful for being forced to change. 

[quicksilverdiecast]

Being a 27 year seller here on ebay with a constant 99.9-100% pos feedback on over 100,000 transaction alone shows my commitment to good customer service....with that being said, I disagree with the "buyers can do no wrong" halo ebay casts upon them. 1st with a level playing field it maintains a level of respect between both buyer and seller, which both act in a normal fashion as one would expect to be treated...it worked quite well in the past without creating any issues. It also displayed those, both buyer and seller to the world who was good or bad risk to deal with, if a buyer's feedback showed a consistent negative aspect it would alert seller to avoid potential issues, as well as having trust in the 3 strikes and you are out rule...as it was transparent....ebay has played games with this from the beginning with buyers leaving untrue inaccurate neg feedbacks and blamed the gov't that it was illegal to remove the feedback, which obviously was a line of bovine dirt, as later things changed to calling in presenting your side and hoping the one on the other end of the phone had a reasonable amount of common sense. In most cases common sense prevailed and feedback was removed....but ebay would state it was a "one time courtesy" which is another line of bovine....what it actually is being fair to both sides....yes absolutely bad sellers should be flushed from the system as should problematic/scammer/abusive buyers. What also plays into this is shipping, when a buyer feels shipping was unreasonable and beyond he is more inclined to leave a negative aspect. This can easily be achieved simply due to ebay's cockeyed non working shopping cart where it blocks both buyers from requesting Combined shipping and sellers from generating a combined shipping invoice! Which can leave some very abrasive shipping totals. And whom do you think the buyers blame for both the excessive shipping overcharge....NOT ebay I can tell you...the seller catches all the heat, and also loses a possible return buyer.....which can and does lead to being left an unjust neg feedback....This aspect also leads to another advantage for ebay(besides collecting the fees from the excess shipping, which ranges anywhere from at least .50 per issue in fees gained) It also will affect the sellers "Performance" where they can ding your account (due to neg feedbacks whether just or unjust) and knock a seller off his "performance" discount....Now we change "Policy" again, as we are lead to believe, another change in policy of no feedback removal eh? I scratch my head and wonder why something so simple and basic as sellers and buyers being on the same playing field and being respectful to one another VS especially in the current environment where people are already pre-heated and is real easy to just flip out a neg feedback, just because someone slammed the screen door in his house...THEN we have the issue where ebay did rightfully remove neg feedback(s) that were untrue or due to ebays international shipping mess, ONLY to have them show back up (keep in mind how it affects your "performance" discount) and then do nothing more about it which misleads anyone who views a sellers feedback who then decides if doing business with this seller is a good risk or bad...again due to inaccurate feedback given...again ebay you just cannot weave back and forth on policies to suit which way the winds blow....there has been a number of occasions where a buyer has tried to use(threaten) to leave a neg feedback to get what they wanted(this is also against ebay policy) so the buyers are well aware that they can leave a neg feedback because the moon is not the color they like or to leverage against a seller....Ebay also cried because buyers(bad) complained they won't buy on ebay anymore because of getting neg feedbacks....well I cannot think of too many sellers who would shoot themselves in the foot by leaving a neg feedback to a good buyer only to have them never return(lacks common sense reasoning). all in all a feedback system is designed to evaluate BOTH buyers and sellers performance in conducting a transaction...what is sorely needed is a "performance" feedback rating chart for ebay at where sellers get a chance to evaluate ebay in a public forum....so what is the status of reremoving the the feedbacks you agreed were inaccurate/unjust/untrue/shipping issues for everyone of the platform? We would like to know. Respectfully

[nola_sports1]

yes that is true but what happens when you get that one buyer who is never happy or satisfied, "the guy/girl who always sends his food back' THAT GUY   so he leaves untrue feedback when you have 200 positives you know there lying and it gets to stay there for a year.  way to long to have to keep seeing that negative feedback. (that needs to change)  

also while were on improvements   Why do good sellers only have a few times they can cancel an item before losing top rated status when we constantly have buyers who either dont pay or cancel the sell with no repercussions. and were stuck holding the loss of a sale 

[my_boston_baked_beans]

eBay will never return to allowing sellers to leave negative or neutral feeback because eBay wants to create an environment for buyers where they feel in control and can do no wrong. eBay thinks by creating a venue where buyers are in charge sales will increase hence eBay getting more $$.

Everything is about money, and nothing is about what fair or just! After all look at the political arena in America talking about one-sided!

[north-by-northeast-finds]

The seller considering to accept or decline an  offer should have the benefit of a transparent rating for buyers . The analogy between Google reviews is not really accurate.  Most ebay sellers are sole proprietors. And since most transactions are best offers now, the decision to accept or decline is a voluntary one. Lyft and Uber drivers are similarly asked to make a voluntary decision to accept or decline a ride request.  Riders understand that persistent abusive behavior can make it more difficult to have their ride request accepted. 

Sadly Ebay sellers end up accepting low offers from buyers who later reveal themselves to be unbalanced as the transaction progresses.  Ebay should do more to limit direct communications between buyer and sellers when it is not absolutely required.  Buyers requests for post sale discounts for items not lost or damaged should be discouraged 

[subversionstyle]

"We encourage sellers to work towards a solution with buyers who had unsatisfactory experience and attempt to rectify the situation".

If this is the policy from now on, then buyers should not be able to leave negative feedback until they have first contacted the seller.

[north-by-northeast-finds]

When someone approaches you after the sale for a partial refund but doesn't want to return the item.  Even if they don't overtly mention leaving a negative feedback,  the potential for them to do so is obvious.