eBay Makes Unannounced Change to Feedback

by: MJRock

Feedback is dead, has been for years.  I still chuckle when a buyer asks for feedback after a transaction.

As a seller, I never give feedback and hope I never receive feedback from buyers, because it is so one sided toward the buyer it's a joke . . .

by: Rexford

It seems like whatever change eBay makes, the change takes something that was clear and transparent to a state of being opaque.

This is surely intentional on eBay's part. eBay seem to want their sellers to have the most minimal information related to their transactions.

by: Rexford

And I echo what MJRock said.

by: WOODJUNGLE! ON EBAY

+2 MJ Rock.  Incidentally,  the feedback removal policy has been replaced with DEFECT REMOVAL POLICY.  There are no longer a list of reasons that feedback can be removed. It is all deferred to defect removal. That's problematic since feedback is still independent from defects in many ways.

by: Ric

I guess because JD's big box sellers do not care about such details, his highness decided that the rest of us should not care either.

This surely impacts sellers, yet eBay stampedes like a three legged bull through a china shop imposing changes which appear to be intended to intentionally break things that were not broken.

No doubt the change is driven by eBay's need to reduce traffic on their servers. By generalizing transaction time frames from specific dates to generalized date display, eBay probably saves on server capacity.

User efficiency and transparency takes a back seat when it comes to eBay's penny pinching drive to reduce server usage and reduce costs.

Management does not care in the least bit if buyers and sellers are inconvenienced, and they are oblivious to how this change can destroy a buyers ability to complete a second transaction with a past seller.

This company keeps cutting corners and eliminating transparency yet they wonder why buyers and sellers are abandoning the marketplace.

These overpaid MBA's who do not use eBay on a daily basis are working hard to assure that buyers and sellers stop using the marketplace on a daily basis as well.


" At eBay.... We are not happy until YOU are not happy!"

by: justchangecarriers

So now I cant see how much feedback Im getting each day to see? There is literally no benefit to this change.

Now I cant even see what time they left the feedback, if it was before or after my messages. AHHHHHH. Ebay just stop. Fix your buggy site first instead of changing layout and pointless things that dont matter.

Just this past couple weeks, I have had two transactions that paypal reversed payments then the buyer repaid and ebay doesnt log it into my awaiting shipment. Then another buyer pays and it says pending for 2 weeks but actually was processed. This is the second time that has happened. And last time I got a defect for it, and ebay said they'd remove it but didnt.

by: shabbychick

The faster they go, the BEHINDER they get!  

by: Anonymous Annie

Wow. What an oogie-mess!

I can see how this type of change would definitely be a disruption for high-intensity and detail-oriented sellers who carefully watch such things.

I think the only time I ever used specific dates from my feedback pages was when I was trying to figure out what percentage of my buyers actually bothered to leave feedback at all. (And I did so more out of curiosity than any genuine concern.)

So, my questions:

1) How does this benefit eBay?

2) Why was it not announced?

3) Even allowing for no ''heads-up'' announcement... why has there been no explanation or notification?

My predictions:

1) If pressed hard enough, eBay will probably justify the change with their ''you-spoke, we listened'' nonsense.

2) But maybe they'll be honest and straightforward and admit that the reason was to keep sellers from being able to easily identify serial neggers and unreasonable PITAs.

3) WITHIN ONE YEAR, THE BLOCKED BUYER LIST WILL DISAPPEAR. (Mark my words and bookmark this thread.) :-/

by: Martha

I don't see that it means anything..  ''no'' feedback is ''good'' feedback.. I dislike feedback..  when I shop in a brick and mortar store, I don't need to leave feedback..  

just saying.. there are other things that are more important going on.

by: mikeataol

I can only conclude that articles like this one 7/23/14 are the reason:

http://www.ecommercebytes.com/C/blog/blog.pl?/comments/
2014/7/1406163222.html

by: iheartjacksparrow

I wouldn't be surprised if the BBL disappeared since eBay has been heading in that direction ever since they took away the sellers' ability to leave negative feedback. Remember, on eBay all buyers are little angels, and all sellers are the devil incarnate.    

by: Philip Cohen

The only reason Johnny Ho has done this (or other similar anonymising) is to further obscure the endemic fraud that eBay calculatedly facilitates on its auction marketplace; still, at least this change is obvious to anyone that looks; it was not so with the unannounced changes to eBay’s “shill bidding policy” that they specially put in place to protect one of their “preferred” sellers, ie, she who provides them with lots of FVFs on sales—real or faux …

The eBay executive suite—where the incompetent mingle with the disingenuous, the malevolent and the outright criminal, and the just plain stupid ... http://bit.ly/11F2eas

by: MJRock

If BBL goes, I'm gone.  

That is the ONE good thing about eBay feedback, is that if I get a weird or demanding customer, I can check their feedback to see if they leave alot of negs or neutrals.  If so, BLOCKED . . .

I really wish AMAZON had a way to block buyers, cuz hard to deal with customers are there too.  Those types are leaving eBay, so they gotta go somewhere!

The only place I don't have to worry about feedback, is my own website.  And it seems when customers know they don't have a public forum to gripe on (such as eBay or Amazon feedback), they are much easier to deal with and take care of when issues arise . . .  

by: MJRock

* UPDATE ON FEEDBACK CHANGE

Here is something I just noticed.  My feedback has been at 99.4% for most of this year due to 2 negative feedbacks.  I have a negative getting ready to drop off next month (after the 12 months are over since receiving the negative) So, my feedback would go up to 99.7% next month when this happens . . .

This morning, my feedback was still 99.4% . . . this evening, feedback is 99.7%, with that negative feedback now saying "Past 12 Months" .... And I know my percentage did NOT go up because of increased sells or increased feedback.


So the question, is this eBays way of getting sellers feedback percentages up?????

by: AgendaSwallowsAll

@MJRock

Thanks, I needed a laugh today

''So the question, is this eBays way of getting sellers feedback percentages up?????''

Too funny, LOLOLOLOLOLOL

by: Linda

eBay has got to be the most paranoid site I have ever seen in all my 14+ years of ecommerce.

Not only take away feedback so sellers can't see who they are dealing with! OMG I am getting to hate them and can't wait to quit!!!!
We stopped selling on one ID that lost its TRS and now we get a email saying they have extended our ''Grace Period'' to October 20 on that ID.

The defect report is no longer visible if you have no defects for the last 30 days so you can't even see when defects are falling off! Can't even make a call because there is no reference to reference!

eBay is flat out schizo and trying to drive me nuts too!

by: Whatever

cant believe they still have feedback - why? can't believe they still have community pages either their such control freaks

by: thehosst

Feedback is the only way eBay can visually show sellers some punishment, they encourage buyers to leave negative feedback, did you notice that sometimes you get a lot of feedbacks and it happens a lot just before you monthly evaluation?

eBay has a way to annoy and remind buyers to give feedback to a seller that is about to get evaluated, so that he/she can lose the unreachable top seller discounts. Feedback is a scam, an abuse and the most incredible unfair feature that is killing eBay.  

by: forrosebud

interesting re: ebay removing dates and such when FB was left. When a buyer left Fb for me, I automatically did follow FB for the 'excellent' buyer that looked like this: Immed Pay on (date); Shipped from (city) and on (date) which was always the same day or day after payment; Rcvd in (city) on (date) Thanks! It was one way of protecting myself. I am so $@#! happy that I am gone as of 2 weeks ago! Ebay is slimy and smarmy, and continues to screw with sellers every which way possible. continues  

by: forrosebud

I meant to say that I did ''reply to feedback received'', which showed specific dates re: the transaction. Since I used actual shipped and received dates in my 'reply' to the buyer's FB for me, I guess Ebay would REMOVE it or not allow any 'follow up feedback'.