(fl)Ebay pulls negative feedbacks - who knew.

island911 · 06-17-2015, 11:31 AM

I just found this out today, when notified that ebay has pulled my negative feedback ("referb'd" smartphone showed up, a well-used dirty phone with a cracked bezel and delaminating screen.)

meh, now know eBay's rating system is heavily slanted toward the seller.

Well at least there's Amazon, and others.

biosurfer1 · 06-17-2015, 12:06 PM

Yep, they changed that a while back. Not sure if it's better or worse than the early days of anyone can leave feedback for anyone.

scottmandue · 06-17-2015, 12:08 PM

Pretty much all of my online buying has switched to Amazon, well, except for "Buy it now" OEM NIB car parts when the price is imposable to beat.

Even Amazon is starting to slip... used to be you were always buying from Amazon... not they are becoming a "go between" so you don't always get the return policy or fast shipping I have come to expect from them.

The plastic sunglass clip thing for the visor on my car broke... ordered a replacement and expected delivery is three weeks... oh the horror!!! I have to put my sunglasses in their sunglass case! That is 10 to15 seconds a day I'm wasting opening and closing a sunglass case... I want to be compensated!

island911 · 06-17-2015, 12:22 PM

Thanks bio. I knew that they had some auto-positive-feedback generators --for tracked, on-time shipping, but this was new to me. Apparently, if the buyer has an issue with the product that is reviewed by ebay, any negative rating/comments are deleted.

As reviews go, Amazon really is killing it with not only indepth user reviews, but even the ability for review readers to rank the reviews as helpful or not. ...which buries the idiot reviews, and floats the useful.

Of course, the vast majority of ebay reviews are as useless as they are short.

For ebay, Scott has the right idea: "Buy it now" OEM NIB only (and even then, with caution.)

Por_sha911 · Por_sha911's Garage

what was their reason for pulling the feedback?

island911 · 01:21 PM

In short, because system-ebay can not handle any resolution other than sold / not sold. And because they made a decision (got involved) the buyer's comments must be dismissed.

the longer version:

I had asked for a partial refund (due to the not as described crap condition) from the seller.

The seller opened a case for ebay to review for a Full refund. --Ebay gives a Hobson's choice on purchases. (take it, or leave it) Because I took the phone (MIL needed a replacement phone fast & on the cheap) and I took it apart, cleaned it, fixed the broken plastic, re-glued the delam'd screen, and put it back together (as now properly refurbished) I wasn't going to also hassle with sending it back, and re-ordering from yet another seller. And so ebay said, No full refund (which I never even asked for) And allowed no comments about the listing being NOT as described. :-/

I suppose ebay has good reason$ to keep the flow of good$ going, and hold any negative comments at bay. What's their cut? ... 10%? --that's some pretty damn good gravy for what little they do.

onlycafe · 06-17-2015, 01:01 PM

that should be good news for victory motors.

lin7310948 · 06-17-2015, 01:33 PM

had a recent experience with a high bidder who was a no show when it came time to pay. the system is definitely slanted toward reducing negative feedback. i basically had to relist the item....a car....overlook the no show buyer....to proceed with the relisting. maybe i misunderstood what i was required to do but the no show buyer is none the less a legitimate buyer in the future....no negative feedback! i relisted the car and the second auction went very smoothly.

speeder · speeder's Garage

I knew that only sellers could get negative feedback now but not this. The reason for that was that sketchy sellers were simply using negative feedback as retaliation for (justified) negative FB from buyers. Seems like there might have been some other solution to that but it would have required eBay man hours to investigate each instance in a timely fashion, (not going to happen), so they took the nuclear option on that.

I still buy stuff on eBay and rarely have a problem, I just return the item for a full refund if not up to snuff. On the rare times a seller balks, I open a case and my $$ is returned post haste. Minor hassle occasionally but plenty of good deals still and fast ship to my door, etc.

Where eBay really sucks is for sellers, IMO. The supply side is saturated for most things and the site doesn't seem to get the traffic it once did for selling the random stuff I have laying around. Plus the fees are high and they charge commission on shipping!

which is another nuclear option to the problem of people charging one dollar for things and bumping up the shipping cost.

island911 · 06-17-2015, 03:16 PM

I also rarely have a problem with buys on ebay. Just a few weeks earlier I bought a similar "Refurbished" phone from another buyer. Looked like new. It had just one old test photo, on the 'roll' --the inside a Chinese phone factory. (read: new old stock)

This latest seller had 2% negative --which I now know is likely much higher-- and, clearly, they are doing nothing more than dropping (used carrier trade-in) phones into a new box and shipping. Luck of the draw, I got a dirty, well-used phone on that one.

I do wonder if the seller strategically opened the 'case' with ebay, knowing ebay would then block any negative FB. (gaming the system)

I will also note that ebay asks the buyer to notify the seller that there's a problem (seems reasonable) and that ebay also requires 7 days to pass before any negative FB can be left. (read: ebay makes their process convoluted, for the legit feed-back, but still completely gameable, for those who live on ebay - both buyers and sellers)

impactbumper · 06-17-2015, 06:41 PM

I do not care about ebay much. Amazon is a better avenue. Or reputable online sites, like the host. At the end I always find myself on Amazon.

EarlyPorsche · 06-18-2015, 07:25 AM

Just to get the order of operations down (because I'm dumb and confused)...you didn't open the case you used a regular eBay message to let him know the phone was substandard and that you took XYZ measures to rectify. And you just asked for a partial refund. At any point did you use the word "feedback" in your message? And then the seller opened a case against the buyer?

widebody911 · widebody911's Garage

I'd wondered about the feedback system; I've seen sellers with thousands of transactions and zero negative feedback, which didn't seem possible.

Porsche-O-Phile · Porsche-O-Phile's Garage

Why is anyone surprised by this? Ebay has no skin in the game at all and gains nothing by getting in the middle of buyer / seller disputes. They're messy, nobody ever leaves happy, they take a lot of time to resolve and can be expensive propositions as a result. They just want to sit back and rake in fees for doing as little as possible. The more people that buy and sell stuff, the more fees they rake in. Why would they do anything to discourage someone from buying a product on their site (i.e. allowing negative feedback)? The only thing they care about is collecting their fee - if the seller is unscrupulous or misrepresents stuff, whatever I doubt it matters much to them. They stand to make more in the long run by allowing that seller to keep pushing product in whatever way they want (more transactions = more fees). They just have to give the bare minimum level of assurance to keep people from perceiving their site as a haven for scheisters and going to a competitor like Amazon, so that's what they do.

Follow the money.

motion · 06-18-2015, 08:44 AM

Meh... a buyer gave me negative feedback last year. First one in the 15 years I've been on Ebay. Ebay would not remove it, even though I still feel that I am in the right and don't deserve the negative feedback.

tabs · 10:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by speeder

I knew that only sellers could get negative feedback now but not this. The reason for that was that sketchy sellers were simply using negative feedback as retaliation for (justified) negative FB from buyers. Seems like there might have been some other solution to that but it would have required eBay man hours to investigate each instance in a timely fashion, (not going to happen), so they took the nuclear option on that.

I still buy stuff on eBay and rarely have a problem, I just return the item for a full refund if not up to snuff. On the rare times a seller balks, I open a case and my $$ is returned post haste. Minor hassle occasionally but plenty of good deals still and fast ship to my door, etc.

Where eBay really sucks is for sellers, IMO. The supply side is saturated for most things and the site doesn't seem to get the traffic it once did for selling the random stuff I have laying around. Plus the fees are high and they charge commission on shipping!

which is another nuclear option to the problem of people charging one dollar for things and bumping up the shipping cost.

This ^^^^^

Buyer says don't match description or is defective....Buyer gets money back plus initial shipping...end of story.

Seller tests electronics, it works, ships it. Buyer says it don't work, buyer gets money and shipping back...conclusion don't sell electronics...

So what to sell on Sleeze Bay....hmmm something that is small, is relatively uniform in size and weight so it uses a std box, is easy to package and can be run over by a truck and won't be damaged?

Oh yeah it also has to have a good profit margin as a ROI...one thinks about 4 to the 1 one invested on average is about right....

Hmmm now what could that possibly be???

BTW..everything shipped HAS TO BE wt TRACKING to prove it was sent and delivered...