Ebay formatting it to ask buyer to leave feedback comment about "item" not "seller"

[sapphire_studio]

I have seen references on this forum to having to rate products now when you leave feedback. Today is the first time I have left feedback for buying something. I'm really surprised to see the way eBay has decided to word it.

 

 I remember reading on here that the seller is not even listed when you're leaving feedback. Now I think ebay did that on purpose, not on accident. The way they use the word "item" here instead of "seller" makes it seem like eBay is trying to change the entire system so that our feedback comments and percentage has more to do with how our buyers see the quality of the products rather than our service.

On Amazon when you sell there is a separate place to rate a seller if you want, but most people are rating the product, but that rating it is attached to the actual product not the buyer.

I know people who have been on eBay for a while who know the system will still keep rating the sellers, But as time goes on, and more and more new people start buying from eBay, they're going to see the way this is formatted and treat it differently than if it said "seller" there instead of "item".

Does eBay realize how big of a change this is? Was there some announcement about changing the feedback system that I missed or are they trying to do it sneakily? Or maybe they are just not realizing what they've done? Or maybe it's the first step towards eliminating the seller feedback system? 

Sorry if other people have specifically talked about the word "item" being used here, and I missed the thread.

[wastingtime101]

There are umpteen threads about this, and several mention exactly what you're pointing out. The only word we've heard from eBay was in a podcast. See that info on this thread in post #18:

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/More-changes-to-feedback/td-p/34538018

eBay does not see this as a problem (apparently) and yes, they are pushing to turn seller feedback into product reviews. I have not seen a single person - not even an outlier - say they like these changes.

As a buyer I have stopped leaving feedback entirely when I'm forced into a product review. If I buy a DVD set, I'm supposed to watch the entire set and review it before I can leave FB? No chance. And I'm not going to leave a fake star rating, either. I've seen many posters saying they will leave 1 or 3 star product ratings just to get the FB through, but that's really crappy in my opinion, because it harms every seller that has that product listed for sale or will in the future.

[wastingtime101]

I have not come close to tagging all the recent feedback discussions (not by far), but as you'll see from your OP I am tagging them when I see them. That makes it easier to follow discussions about these changes, and hopefully makes it easier for eBay to follow if they are gathering up our comments (hint: kyle@ebay ) so please do use these tags when you see fit and click on links below if you want to find all the tagged discussions.

Tag: feedback product review

Used mostly for discussions about forced product reviews.

https://community.ebay.com/t5/tag/feedback%20product%20review/tg-p

Tag: feedback forum 2024

Used mostly for discussions about the feedback forum page where we can leave FB (this page).

https://community.ebay.com/t5/tag/feedback%20forum%202024/tg-p

Tag: feedback redesign 2024

New one started today because of the new page design they are working on for public-facing FB.

https://community.ebay.com/t5/tag/feedback%20redesign%202024/tg-p

[sapphire_studio]

Thank you so much for directing me to that comment you made with that interview. It was definitely an interesting read. Two things she said stood out to me:

"So that means that for items eligible for product review, buyers will be able to give the item a star rating for the first time and item feedback along with the existing seller feedback already."

She seems to imply here that you will be able to leave item feedback along with the normal seller feedback. That is what I thought was happening before this morning. That we were forced to leave a product rating if we wanted to leave a seller rating. I don't know if she's hiding the fact that the seller rating is being replaced with a product rating (but still being attached to the seller) or if she just didn't understand that's how it was going to be implemented.

This comment sheds light on why they're actually doing this:

"What's more item reviews and item star ratings are super important to search engines like Google. So if you google an item, the sites that show the item star rating and item review are the results that are prioritized in search results these days. You'll see like those pop up absolutely at the top."

They have had separate product ratings for a long time (probably to try to help with google) But people aren't actually taking the time to leave product ratings so it's not helping like Ebay wants. So instead they are going to hijack the seller feedback system and replace the word "seller" with "item".so that they can tell Google the seller feedback has something to do with the item rating so they can increase search visibility in Google. 

[sapphire_studio]

I heard on a podcast eBay is going to automatically provide positive feedback on items if you have less than 10 seller ratings (and the buyer does not leave feedback after a certain amount of time).

That makes me wonder if that is sort of cheating the Google product rating system by eBay automatically providing positive ratings on those items for newer sellers.

[luckythewinner]

Ebay formatting it to ask buyer to leave feedback comment about "item" not "seller"

I was always under the impression that feedback was about the "transaction" ... which is not the "seller" or the "item", but rather the intersection of the two.

[sapphire_studio]

I would say the transaction is basically the same thing as the seller. That's different than how you liked the actual item.

I sell beauty products and if anyone were to leave a negative feedback because they didn't like how a specific beauty product interacted with their skin, I would have assumed (before now) that they are leaving feedback the wrong way. But now I guess they would be doing it correctly if they left me a negative feedback for not liking that beauty product.

I have no issues with product ratings in general. Amazon does it correctly by keeping it separate from the seller ratings. They could really help us when we are sourcing to make sure we are sourcing items that buyers like. However the way it's being implemented by hijacking the seller rating seems very wrong to me.

[luckythewinner]

---

@sapphire_studio wrote:

I would say the transaction is basically the same thing as the seller. That's different than how you liked the actual item.

---

I still see this when I leave feedback for an item I purchased last week. It asks about my "experience", about the "seller", and about the "item". I guess I am not in the new interface.

[sapphire_studio]

I just tested it out to make sure I was correct. When I left a comment about how I liked the item it appeared on the seller's feedback.

Even if they want to force product ratings (to help with Google) before you leave feedback, I think they should have a comment for how a buyer liked the item that is attached to the item, and then a place to write about your experience with the seller or the transaction that is attached to the seller.

[ittybitnot]

@sapphire_studio 

The part/text box in your screen shot that says "Tell us more about this item" is still what populates the comment on the seller's feedback.  I think it was @wastingtime101 that confirmed this for me.   Why it is working like this I sort just chalked up to the "usual" eBay ineptness when creating a "new improved enhancement".   The fact that they made this product review mandatory in order to proceed with the feedback rating has not been explained as far as I can tell.  Instead of any 'transparency' we get the usual 'seagull' approach i.e. drop the load and refuse to comment by eBay.  

To add to the example, by @wastingtime101  and the DVD set. what happens if your DVD set doesn't arrive at all?  or arrived smashed to bits? Or is a counterfeit copy? One would not be able even leave a "red donut" review for the seller who simply sent the proverbial empty envelope to your local gas station instead of your DVD set, which of course you can't rate honestly because you never got it in the first place.  

Somehow apparently, this makes sense to eBay.  To me it is just another Kafkaesque/eBay  mini series installment,  Season 22,  Episode 14. 

[wastingtime101]

---

@sapphire_studio wrote:

I heard on a podcast eBay is going to automatically provide positive feedback on items if you have less than 10 seller ratings (and the buyer does not leave feedback after a certain amount of time).

---

As of now that's specific to the UK and it's only to help new sellers get started. It has zero to do with product reviews - it's providing seller FB not product ratings. Read the real story here @sapphire_studio :

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/Feedback-posted-by-quot-eBay-automated-feedback-quot/td-p/3454...

Or here:

https://www.valueaddedresource.net/ebay-testing-automatic-positive-feedback-for-sellers-in-the-uk/

[sapphire_studio]

There's no progressing past the product rating in order to rate the seller. The product rating is the seller's rating.

You make a really great point about the lack of ability to leave a negative feedback if it really is something the seller did wrong. Does a one-star rating leave a red donut? If not I don't think there's any way to leave negative feedback for sellers on these types of items. There's no second page you can get to. You have a star rating for the transaction and a star rating for the product and then a comment about the product (that populates the seller's feedback)

[wastingtime101]

---

@luckythewinner wrote:

---

I guess I am not in the new interface.

---

You're on the new page, but your item was most likely (a) preowned, (b) did not have product identifiers like UPC or MPN, or (c) not one of the categories where this has rolled out yet. Those are the reasons you won't see a forced star rating product review above the comment box. eBay said they will be expanding, so don't expect those exceptions to stand forever.

[sapphire_studio]

Yeah I definitely know it's to help new sellers out and I think it's a good idea.

I just think it's convenient for eBay that they are experimenting with auto-populating feedback at the same time that they have combined product feedback with seller feedback into one. Basically when you leave a product review (for certain new items) it becomes the seller's feedback. So if there's a new seller selling one of these new items and eBay auto-delivers five stars and a positive review, that positive seller rating (which is really now just a product rating) would probably help the item show up in the google algorithm. 

[wastingtime101]

I don't think that's how it works though @sapphire_studio - I think the system leaves FB without the product review star rating.