Offering Free Returns = eBay will remove Negative/Neutral feedbacks?

[mormardra]

I'm a powerseller (different account) and I have never been able to remove a negative or neutral unless the shipping carrier screwed up.

Last month, my girlfriend purchased a few items from a seller on eBay and they turned out to be non-authentic. She was pretty upset because it was a father's day gift so she left negatives for both orders. Immediately after, she realized she could return the items at the seller's cost so she did that and selected, "Doesn't seem authentic."

After she returned the items,  eBay gave her a refund which also had a message within the opened case stating, "we removed the listing from the site" with no other information. It said to check her messages for more information but there was nothing there.

A few weeks later, her negative feedbacks disappeared. She was unhappy about this so she called eBay asking why they were removed. The rep said, "if a seller offers offers to return the items at their cost, any feedback corresponding to the transaction can be removed if the seller contacts us." HUH???? Is this true? Is there anywhere on eBay that states this?

One thing I noticed is that the same exact day she left him the negatives, he changed his username. Does this somehow get rid of the negatives eventually? They disappeared about 2 weeks after his name changed.

I need to understand what's going on here. Every time I contacted eBay, they told me that feedback is the opinion of the buyer. So how did this guy get possibly his feedbacks removed?

[mormardra]

Anybody have any idea about this? Please help me out. It would really be beneficial for sellers to know what's happening here.

[castlemagicmemories]

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/Informal-Poll-Who-thinks-offering-free-30-day-returns-is-worth...

Being in Free Returns, the seller is protected from negative or neutral feedback, including SNADS.

[femmefan1946]

the same exact day she left him the negatives, he changed his username. Does this somehow get rid of the negatives eventually?

No.

Name changes have no effect on feedback, positive or negative.

[mormardra]

Thanks for that link. I read through the whole thing and I am completely shocked about this policy. I have no idea how I even missed it.

[automotivepartsrecyclrs]

They will but the negative has to be written a certain way with the air tempature so so and moon phase in a certain degree. Then they will remove it.

[castlemagicmemories]

---

@mormardra wrote:

Thanks for that link. I read through the whole thing and I am completely shocked about this policy. I have no idea how I even missed it.

---

You're welcome.  I'm sure many missed it.  I was aware of the policy but was shocked as well at what it literally means.  I thought it surely would not include negs for SNADs as that comes under the MBG and all sellers follow the same rules regarding that~accept the return, pay return shipping~so it doesn't matter if the seller is in Free Returns or not.  The only way a neg will stay on a Free Returns seller is if the buyer keeps the item~but who will keep a SNAD item just for the purpose of posting a negative?  

[mormardra]

---

@castlemagicmemories wrote:

---

@mormardra wrote:

Thanks for that link. I read through the whole thing and I am completely shocked about this policy. I have no idea how I even missed it.

---

The only way a neg will stay on a Free Returns seller is if the buyer keeps the item~but who will keep a SNAD item just for the purpose of posting a negative?  

---

You would be surprised. According to this policy you pointed out to me, 90% of the neutrals/negatives that I received the past year would be removed if the customers responded to me offering a free return.  The last 10 neutrals or negatives I received had comments such as, "my item was damaged in transit", "I received the wrong item", "just didn't like it", and they all kept the items.

[luckythewinner]

---

@mormardra wrote:

Thanks for that link. I read through the whole thing and I am completely shocked about this policy. I have no idea how I even missed it.

---

Yes, eBay appears to buy into the same flawed argument that many sellers here use. 

A seller can ship substandard merchandise, waste the buyer's time, tie up the buyer's money, disappoint the buyer, and waste the buyer time returning an item that never should have been shipped in the first place.

But as long as the buyer gets a full refund, the buyer should consider this to be a "positive" experience. 

[castlemagicmemories]

Absolutely true!  I could not agree more!  They should exclude SNADs from that scrubbing.  

[mormardra]

---

@luckythewinner wrote:

---

@mormardra wrote:

Thanks for that link. I read through the whole thing and I am completely shocked about this policy. I have no idea how I even missed it.

---

Yes, eBay appears to buy into the same flawed argument that many sellers here use. 

A seller can ship substandard merchandise, waste the buyer's time, tie up the buyer's money, disappoint the buyer, and waste the buyer time returning an item that never should have been shipped in the first place.

But as long as the buyer gets a full refund, the buyer should consider this to be a "positive" experience. 

---

The tricky part is every customer has an opinion. I have sold an item that one person says is amazing quality, while the next says it's the worst thing they've ever seen. For example, someone purchased a piece of apparel from me about 6 months ago and left me a negative saying, "This is complete JUNK! Material is so thin!". I sold that same exact thing last week and a customer left a positive feedback stating, "Nice, thick and great quality!".

It's difficult to please everyone and I'm not sure what eBay can do about that.

Sort of off topic but I just wish eBay would create 2 requirements for customers:

1. Require customer to communicate with seller before leaving feedback

2. Not allow customer to leave a negative or neutral if their reason shows that they didn't read the description. For example, someone ordered a shirt with gray stitching on it. The customer thought it would be black stitching so they left a negative. My description stated gray and the image showed gray. Ebay wouldn't remove this for me.

[castlemagicmemories]

Sort of off topic but I just wish eBay would create 2 requirements for customers:

1. Require customer to communicate with seller before leaving feedback

2. Not allow customer to leave a negative or neutral if their reason shows that they didn't read the description. For example, someone ordered a shirt with gray stitching on it. The customer thought it would be black stitching so they left a negative. My description stated gray and the image showed gray. Ebay wouldn't remove this for me

*****************************************************************************************************

1.  I don't agree.  Communicating with the seller may just open the buyer to hostility, so they should not be forced to communicate.  A Blue has stated you can also consider opening a case as the buyer's communication.

2.  I agree.  A buyer's misconceptions are not your fault.  

[southern*sweet*tea]

Just a general comment:

SNADS still count toward seller metrics regardless if a seller has free returns, buyer paid returns or no returns. Right now, that's all that matters to Ebay - the defect and return count.   Feedback plays no part in Ebay's evaluation for a seller. That's all that matters to Ebay - what THEY think. They don't care what buyers or sellers think.

Just wanted to throw that out there.

[2015mhfashions]

Shouldn't need any form of Snad when free returns are offered, are you also including all the fake snads and liar buyers into that equation ? There has to be a benefit to the seller who is willing to cover no questions asked returns, the removal of this feedback is the benefit but comes at a cost, Agreed selling fake **bleep** is absolutely not on but that is another issue, but as i said any seller offering to cover costly shipping no questions asked should IMO see a benefit, please don't mention FVF, you would not believe the amount of cases opened claiming all sorts to avoid postage, when pointed out it's free anyhow they skulk away.

[castlemagicmemories]

Thank you!  Yes, I know that the SNAD counts toward the seller metrics and that eBay does not use feedback as an evaluation tool.  You're right; they have their reasons.  It has been said they want to incentivize and reward those who go above and beyond the usual expectations, above and beyond referring to offering free returns when many don't.  

BUT SNAD policy applies to all sellers the same, whether they have no returns, or free returns.  You accept the return and pay return shipping, so free returns sellers are not doing anything different in the case of SNAD that other sellers do.  They are held to the same policy.  And in the case of SNAD, they aren't meeting basic expectations, so it isn't above and beyond in any sense of the term.  

Buyers who see their negs for SNAD removed are upset and then don't trust feedback.  They may feel betrayed, which could make them less likely to buy here, and posts attest to this.

But I know, this isn't my sandbox.