How and why is it possible to hide feedback this thoroughly?

[gurlcat]

I was on the fence about a buyer's offer, so I decided to check out their feedback, see if they're rough on sellers.  But I've never seen this before, no visible comments whatsoever, not even 'left for others.'  They have no items for sale and no Sold's history.  But apparently they've had 2224 positive feedbacks as a buyer.  

So I'm assuming they did something in their settings to conceal everything but the numbers. This definitely does not sit well.  First of all what does a buyer-only have to hide, when they can't receive negatives and it doesn't even show what items they bought in the sellers' positive comments?  Secondly, why does eBay enable hiding feedback left for others, when it's obviously useful information (like for a seller considering an offer)?  

Incidentally when I said I was on the fence about their offer, it wasn't the amount (it was reasonable) but because they made it via email, as I do not (yet) have 'Make Offer' enabled on this item, just posted it a couple hours ago.   I used to have a real stick up my butt about people sending email offers, but eventually I stopped being so irritated by it and even accepted a few because they were reasonable, and they were good buyers.  But this one, I'm not only ignoring; they're going to my BBL.  -Oh that's another thing, their username is a totally random-looking string of numbers and letters.  I don't trust 'em!! 

[a_c_green]

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@gurlcat wrote:

I was on the fence about a buyer's offer, so I decided to check out their feedback, see if they're rough on sellers.  But I've never seen this before, no visible comments whatsoever, not even 'left for others.'  They have no items for sale and no Sold's history.  But apparently they've had 2224 positive feedbacks as a buyer.

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I've seen this coming up occasionally, around about the time that eBay started messing about with the Feedback page, adding buyer photos and attempting to add a new sort order to the comments. I would try bringing up the feedback page from different locations or pages and see if that makes a difference.

I've seen other weirdness with disappearing comments as well. I was looking at one last week where the seller's Neg feedback disappeared if I changed the comments per page setting from 50 to 200 and back again, even though the Order By setting did not appear to change (i.e. so the location where the Neg had been sitting previously, between two Positive comments, was now closed up, with the two Pos comments together in the sequence).

I know we can't name-and-shame here, but if you want to send me the seller ID in a PM, I'd be happy to bang on it a bit and see what I can find.

[wastingtime101]

Buyers can set their feedback to private, which hides everything.

Sellers cannot do that.

When you look at the FB page, do you see (private) next to the ID @gurlcat ? Like you can see on @slippinjimmy 's feedback page?

Reason to hide FB is to maintain privacy. If the buyer leaves FB for others, then you can often trace that back to find the item they purchased.

>>Oh that's another thing, their username is a totally random-looking string of numbers and letters.  I don't trust 'em!! 

These days buyers checking out as a guest cannot register that account. Several years ago, buyers checking out as a guest could register the guest ID and turn it into a registered account. Guest IDs were often random strings of letters and numbers.

While I'm sure some buyers do make their FB private to hide something, the majority do not. I've had buying accounts with private feedback and never had issues, never returned anything, etc.

[gurlcat]

Hey thanks so much for the offer to check.  I'll send you their name in just a sec.  But please reply here what you see, so anyone reading and interested can also find out.  I thought maybe 'glitch' too, and I looked at several other eBay'ers feedback pages; they were all normal.  I just rechecked this guy's and it's still blank. 

[gurlcat]

I don't see 'private' on Jimmy's page, lol. 

[wastingtime101]

Click on one of the 0s @gurlcat 'cause you're on the simplified FB page, not the classic FB page.

[a_c_green]

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@gurlcat wrote:

Hey thanks so much for the offer to check.  I'll send you their name in just a sec. 

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Yes, got it; thanks. It is indeed set to Private, so all you will see is that summary page.

[albertabrightalberta]

I suspect that the buyer has private feedback also. 

Check my profile. 

[gurlcat]

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@wastingtime101 wrote:

Click on one of the 0s @gurlcat 'cause you're on the simplified FB page, not the classic FB page.

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Ah thank you.  

And yes, this buyer's does say private next to their name.  I don't know how I didn't see that before.  Also I have never seen a private page before, I guess I had no idea it was so utterly bleached. 

Welp, they can enjoy their privacy and not enjoy this item.  If I could see nice comments from sellers and see that they don't neg sellers for dumb reasons or to extort them, etc. (or see those sellers' side of the story), then I have nothing to compel me in their favor.  

[albertabrightalberta]

I've heard of sellers asking buyers to open their feedback temporarily so they can see it prior to selling to them. If buyers have nothing to hide, they might be willing to do it. (I've never been asked to do so but I would. My reason for having private feedback is because I sometimes buy to flip on another selling ID and I don't want buyers to know what I bought and how much I paid.)

[broto_64]

I can appreciate what you say, to some degree...

And I should be a nicer buyer, but I've had enough of being abused by sellers who think they "own" something.
Granted I would also never send an offer through messages to a seller about an item that doesn't have "send offer" enabled.

[kenneth686321]

My advice if they made you a fair offer you should accept. 

They look like they are a business buyer or reseller, most likely on Amazon. They have 286 feedback in the past month which means they bought at least 286 items or 8-9 PER DAY. There's no way that's for personal use 

It is highly unlikely that they will open up a fraudulent return on most of their purchases. Too many of those and they might get kicked off Ebay.

I have sold to many private high feedback buyers and I never hear from them afterwards. 

[gurlcat]

I'm really not worried about fraudulent returns and I don't think you'd be able to detect that in buyer feedback anyway, but you can see a pattern with partial refund feedback extortionists, and to avoid getting in trouble with eBay the skilled ones know exactly what not to say in their emails and feedback, but the sellers' replies make it clear.  Anyway my being unable to see what may or may not be true about this person's history is only one consideration in this case.  Only about a quarter of it.  Another quarter is their overstepping my decision not to have M.O. by emailing an offer.    And the whole other half is on my end.   -I might take their offer if I were in more need of funds or if this item had been listed a while and not getting much attention.  But it was literally only a couple hours old when they sent the email and it's getting lots of views, so I think I'll get my BIN price on it.  I do love fast sales so if it hasn't sold in a couple days I'll mark it down a bit.   

[musicyouneed]

I also do not have best offer on my listings and get emails offering an amount.  Usually I just tell them that I do not have best offer on my listings and let it go at that.  However, he does a lot of buying and he may become a repeat customer.  I think you have to go with your gut on this one. 

[gurlcat]

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@broto_64 wrote:

I can appreciate what you say, to some degree...

And I should be a nicer buyer, but I've had enough of being abused by sellers who think they "own" something.
Granted I would also never send an offer through messages to a seller about an item that doesn't have "send offer" enabled.

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LOL so in what ways are you not a nice buyer?  And what do you mean about sellers thinking they "own" something, like something besides the items they have for sale?  How have they abused you?  
Can you show us on the doll? 











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