Negative feedback removed

[glamlyn]

I regretfully left my first negative today after over 15 years of buying on eBay because I thought it was important for buyers like me to see this and avoid that seller if they chose to.

The feedback was polite and I only spoke about the difficulty to get a refund for a “arrived damaged” item. It took over 3 weeks of daily messages where the seller kept offering me discounts from 20% to 88% . I was finally refunded by opening a case on eBay. Then more bargaining started again over the return postage cost that they had promised to refund immediately. 

Now the feedback has been removed and that seller looks to be trustworthy!
The only option I have is to not buy on eBay any longer because I cannot see a true picture of a seller. It is disgraceful!

[sandypebbles]

Any email from eBay is bot generated, based on key words

Anyone who sends similar emails will get the same reply, adjusted for key words given

The emails are basically read by a computer program

No human eyes read them nor write replies to the person who sent them

But you can take comfort from knowing very few people even get a bot response

[countessalmirena]

@glamlyn,

I'm glad you didn't take them seriously. (It's hard sometimes to gauge subtle undertones when not able to see visual clues, just the words on the page.)

I remember reading a post by another member who insisted that they had been given a personal rhapsody of approbation by eBay staff in a similar instance (disappearing feedback). The wording as reported by that poster was strikingly similar to that which you received.... Does anyone else recall that post?

[springyzone]

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@glamlyn wrote:

I regretfully left my first negative today after over 15 years of buying on eBay because I thought it was important for buyers like me to see this and avoid that seller if they chose to.

The feedback was polite and I only spoke about the difficulty to get a refund for a “arrived damaged” item. It took over 3 weeks of daily messages where the seller kept offering me discounts from 20% to 88% . I was finally refunded by opening a case on eBay. Then more bargaining started again over the return postage cost that they had promised to refund immediately. 

Now the feedback has been removed and that seller looks to be trustworthy!
The only option I have is to not buy on eBay any longer because I cannot see a true picture of a seller. It is disgraceful!

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That would annoy me a lot too.

Where was the seller located, just out of interest?

I am glad you opened a case on ebay and got a refund, but for sellers located in Australia, I would never pay up front for return postage, I'd be expecting them to send through a postage label.

To me, any seller who starts in on bargaining about a discount is immediately suss. If they had asked you what you prefered- a full refund upon return or a 20% discount and to keep the item, fair enough, but to just barter about how much refund is a red flag.

From all I have read, feedback can be tricky, even when you are polite. If I have it right, you are not supposed to mention opening cases with ebay and there are a few other things you have to steer clear of as well. I have seen plenty of feedback, mind you, where those sorts of comments are left but feedback could be removed if the seller complained about it and brought it to ebay's attention.

It sounds as if your seller complained. 

I don't know that you should let it turn you off ebay altogether. First off though, if I were you, I'd try to buy from Australia only as the refund/return process should be easier if you needed it.

Secondly, I'd say that the feedback for smaller to middle range type sellers is more likely to be accurate than the feedback for massive big companies, so you can be more confident buying from the former. I know that isn't the picture ebay likes to put across, but from everything I have read, the big sellers have more clout and some of them have a much easier time getting feedback removed. The average medium seller, not so much.

[*sons_and_daughters*]

Given the seller kept offering discounts, I would be quite confident in saying the seller is Chinese. The are renown for that.  Decent Aussie sellers wouldn't hesitate to give a full refund if there was an issue, regardless of if they want the item back or not.

Thankfully the OP got a full refund. Shame about their feedback though, all because they probably mentioned a dispute or refund.

[papermoon.lady]

To add to what springy said... Was it possibly a powerful seller? I have seen feedback removed from powerful sellers that didn't break any rules, for example mentioning poor packaging (how would eBay know the packaging was not poor). As a matter of fact, I have seen some powerful sellers who manage to have 70-80% of negative feedback removed. I don't trust such sellers, so I don't buy from them, no matter how great eBay think they are. On the other hand, I have seen really unfair feedback left for small sellers (for example mentioning that the seller refused to combine postage because they had already paid for two or more separate transactions), and it stayed. 

[glamlyn]

Yes, the seller is in China and is Top Rated by eBay. But I have bought from many sellers in China who really try to do the right thing. I have also come across Australian sellers who are not decent.

Thank you Springyzone for your helpful comments about continuing to buy from smaller sellers. I need to remember that almost all of the sellers (from all countries) that I have bought from have been principled and decent.

Papermoon.Lady (and anyone else), I’d love to know how you can see that negative feedback has been removed. Perhaps if you see really high positives and almost no negatives is a glue?

[glamlyn]

Hmmm, that should have been a clue not a glue!

[papermoon.lady]

I can't really see what has been removed because I don't work for eBay, but sometimes I was looking at their negative feedback and a week later most of it had disappeared (not even breaking any rules). This convinced me not to buy instead of the opposite. 

[springyzone · Accepted solution]

Papermoon is right in that most of us have no special powers or anything to see feedback that has been removed.

But what has sometimes happened on this board is someone will take a screenshot of a feedback page for a seller to show how bad it is then take another screenshot a few days later and post both and suddenly you can see the negs have gone. Mainly it is people such as yourself who are suspicious after something similar happens to their feedback and so keep tabs and watch.

I wouldn't say it is common, not at all. Just that the sellers with a big turnover have more clout.

Hopefully you won't have any cause in future to need to leave a negative but if you do, sons& daughters is right and just don't mention an ebay dispute or refund.

[sandypebbles]

No, discounts or substitutions are far more often than not empty promises by dodgy sellers to string the buyer alone so they can’t open a dispute

there is also a little thing called feedback extortion that eBay frown upon

It is also a widely known tactic of sellers in China to try to pull on unsuspecting buyers and nothing to do with this topic