Feedback posted by "eBay automated feedback"?

[a_c_green]

In a different thread on an unrelated topic, I was looking at feedback received by a UK seller when these two feedback comments jumped off the screen at me:

There were several other instances as well, a few labeled as occurring within the past six months, so this looks like a recent addition, at least on the UK side. 

I have not seen this before. Who decides when to post it? Is that a default feedback awarded to the seller if the buyer doesn't post anything by a certain deadline? That wording is bizarre... it conveys about the same enthusiasm as "This seller is a carbon-based life form."

[gone.c-33]

"This seller is a carbon-based life form."

[wastingtime101]

Considering the extremely low % of buyers that leave feedback, and what I assume will be an even lower % now that eBay is requiring product reviews, automated feedback could certainly help sellers offset the impact of negs. Did you happen to check the numbers to see if that auto FB counted towards the seller's FB  % and totals?

eBay often tests things with UK and AUS before bringing it to the US. I guess time will tell if this test is deemed successful.

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Edit: It appears to be a way to give new sellers an assist.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/help/buying/leaving-feedback-sellers/leaving-feedback-sellers?id=4007

What is "eBay automated feedback"?

Auto generated feedback will be added to successfully completed transactions if the following conditions are met:

• Buyer doesn't leave feedback within 7 days of the estimated delivery date 
• The buyer hasn’t reported an issue with their transaction
• Seller has received 10 feedback or less. See more

We do this to provide more information to eBay users and help them buy and sell with confidence. Automated feedback from eBay will remain visible unless there are signals that the buyer’s experience was less than positive e.g. the buyer opened a return, item wasn’t received, or the order was canceled.

Buyers can still leave feedback about their experience which replaces any automated feedback already left relating to the transaction.

[valueaddedresource]

Great find @wastingtime101 ! I saw there was some discussion about this on the UK boards back in May with Marco@eBay saying he was going to look into it but no updates since then. 

https://community.ebay.co.uk/t5/Member-To-Member-Support/automated-feedback/m-p/7611874

This definitely makes sense as Vinted apparently does something similar and eBay is  looking for ways to compete with them and Depop especially in the UK consumer-seller market.

It also made me wonder if they might be looking to do something like Mercari where if the buyer does not indicate there were any problems and eBay leaves this automated feedback, that might speed up the process for having funds available for those who are on new/occasional seller payment holds.

eBay has been surveying UK sellers about payments and financing over the last few months with specific questions about speed of funds availability and finding out what other competitor websites users are either already using or planning to use, so I wouldn't be surprised if that might get incorporated into this functionality at some point as well.

[ittybitnot]

The buyer hasn’t reported an issue with their transaction

@wastingtime101

Wonder if it goes away if the buyer starts a return on day 29?  Why stop after ten?   Simply

rhetorical questions, and I don't require  answers. 

[wastingtime101]

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@ittybitnot wrote:

The buyer hasn’t reported an issue with their transaction

@wastingtime101

Wonder if it goes away if the buyer starts a return on day 29?  Why stop after ten?   Simply

rhetorical questions, and I don't require  answers. 

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I don't see a timeline specified for FB removal. Where are you seeing 10 days?

[ittybitnot]

Where are you seeing 10 days?

@wastingtime101 

Not ten DAYS.  I was commenting on the part that the automatic feedback  will be awarded to sellers with less than ten feedback.   Ignore me....LOL..

[robbie31415]

I'd like it for all transactions.

I'd say majority of sales have no feedback for me, and this most likely would help with eBays stricter feedback removal policies.

The overall impact would most likely increase people's feedback scores and help drown out the few negatives that pop up.

Watch EIS issues. Ebay will stop removing and just add a message.

-EBay fullfilled this order and accepts responsibility for issues that arise with it. Like Amz's FBA. Though if eBay did that I'm sure there would be chaos.

[bennotbill]

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@wastingtime101 wrote:

eBay often tests things with UK and AUS before bringing it to the US.

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That is normally very true. Not gloating but .com has ended up with the "seller" test/technical problem or whatever it's being currently called.

There's plenty of tests/bugs for everyone.

[valueaddedresource]

@wastingtime101 to answer your previous question, no it does not appear to be calculated in the percentage.

Found a UK seller who has 22 positive feedback in the last 12 months, 2 of which were automated from eBay, and the number next to their ID and being used for the calculation is 20.

[wastingtime101]

Is it definitely the auto-FB that makes up the difference of 22 vs 20 @valueaddedresource and not multiple FB from the same buyers?

Asking because if it doesn't count in the total then what the hell is the point? How would it build trust if a newbie has 3 auto FB but their page shows a count of 0?

Maybe it's not counted for that seller because they now have more than 10 FB? I guess we need an account with less than 10 FB to know for sure, unless you can confirm if 2 FB are by the same buyer for the one you're looking at.

[valueaddedresource]

Doh! I can't believe I forgot that 🤦‍ You're right @wastingtime101  they had other feedback that was multiple from the same buyers that could and likely does account for the missing 2.

I'll keep looking to see if I can find an example that would give us a more definitive answer but yeah I agree it would defeat the purpose if they didn't count it, which is why it threw me off when I saw that 20.

[wastingtime101]

Haha well that was a simple solution. So it does count.

I think it's a decent way to help newbies.

I wonder if they also get auto-DSRs? Because DSRs don't appear until a seller has a min of 10 DSR ratings which is why I think eBay may have chosen the number 10? 🤷

[gone.c-33]

So what’s going to happen with all the buyers that don’t leave feedback when a transaction isn’t quite satisfactory and no feedback is left cause it’s not worth the trouble but if feedback was mandatory, it wouldn’t be a positive? 

I don’t see this ending well…

[patrickbegood]

With some reservations, this is good, it indicates for example that a seller is doing successful transactions and not issuing refunds or having cases opened, something which may occasionally not be so easy for a would-be buyer to determine.

It is very bland, I guess primarily because anything else could be construed as attributing an opinion to the buyer, which could carry legal implications, and even the potential to cause unforeseen consequences, like reputational damage, for buyers, and/or people to whom the buyer account name could be linked (even coincidentally or erroneously).