Why does eBay tolerate such treatment of buyers?

[bearswatching]

A friend of mine who rarely buys on eBay asked my advice. She is a super crafty person and mostly buys on Etsy. She couldn't find what she wanted there and checked eBay and found a seller who has the exact item she needs.  When she checked the seller's feedback she saw 25 neutrals and 41 negs. It's the responses to these that has her upset. The seller responds by calling the buyers losers, ignorant, scammers, morons, idiots, liars, whiners, etc. The two worst (and I paraphrase a bit),  "hopes the buyer doesn't home-school their brats" and "grow up and stop crying we know living in the gutter is hard". Friends going to wait and hope to eventually find the item from another seller but she wonders why the bots haven't picked up on these derogatory terms. I'm wondering too. EBay's reputation is bad enough these days.

[luckythewinner]

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@bearswatching wrote:

Why does eBay tolerate such treatment of buyers?

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EBay tolerates exactly the same treatment of sellers when buyers leave feedback calling them liars, scammers, thieves, idiots, etc.

[fern*wood]

Many of those would probably be removed if the buyer reported them and then called to request the removal.

[hioctane62]

Kudos to your friend for being smart enough to check that seller's feedback.

[bearswatching]

She is pretty savvy. And also want nothing more to do with eBay. That's a shame. I did mention reporting the responses but she said she doesn't think it will do any good. Her choice.

[hioctane62]

Tell your friend to search for the item using outside search engines (google, etc.) as there may be others listed here on ebay that ebay chose not to show them.

[castlemagicmemories]

Yes, many don't bother, when that is what feedback is there for.  You can avoid many potential problematic transactions if you just read those comments.

eBay doesn't know about comments like that; but  CS can be called, and you can ask for Trust and Safety and report these comments to them.  They do take them seriously, and negative comments posted as feedback for a buyer will be removed and the seller will get a violation.

[bearswatching]

You are right, didn't think of it in those terms! Thanks!

[bearswatching]

Thanks castle, I'll tell her that.

[bearswatching · Accepted solution]

That's a great idea!

[hioctane62]

Ebay is just completely blind to the fact that it won't matter WHAT they do to try to stay afloat if they can't do anything to improve their reputation. And it seems that they do more to damage it further, rather than trying to clean it up.

[tracdea1]

The seller who responds in such a way and conducts poor business will not be here very long, hence ebay doesn't tolerate it. It was probably a China seller?

[castlemagicmemories]

I thought about why the bots don't catch this, and while it is horrible for buyers to read these comments, it is an effective warning.  Possibly, eventually, sellers who indulge in this won't have any sales and will move on, or they will be reported and eBay will monitor the situation carefully for possible action at a later date.

[bluelinemetalsllc]

I know what seller you are talking about and her responses to her reviews are truly appalling. I'm sorry your friend found them. 😞

[bearswatching]

Nope, a U.S. seller with over 75,000 feedback. With that much FVF coming in I doubt eBay will do anything. Two of the buyers she called names had FB scores of 0 and 1. Welcome to eBay (snark).