Protected managed sellers.

[beerandpizzaplz]

I didn't know there was such a thing..

From part of a recent reply to an old thread:

"

• The accounts were being managed by an account manager in Singapore who was removing all the feedback
• We found out the name of that account manager who was removing neg feedback"

And the bit at the end:

"eBay's whole business model relies on buyer feedback to be a trusted place to buy stuff, but when this sort of thing is happening people won't buy stuff again on eBay and everybody loses."

Really struck me that whomsoever is overseeing this operation called eBay should review the idea of account managers being able influence the represented integrity of sellers on their site. Its antitrust at its finest, although i can believe it happens, how on earth can it be condoned??

[melbourneclearance]

Don't believe everything you read.

I doubt very much that such a thing can happen. Otherwise all the big companies on ebay will have 100% feedback...

[wide-world-of-stamps]

We know of one Australian seller who regularly has negative feedback removed. No change to the revised feedback figure, just red dots disappearing after a few days (at the most). 

Not good for either buyers or honest sellers.

[go-tazz]

---

@melbourneclearance wrote:

Don't believe everything you read.

I doubt very much that such a thing can happen. Otherwise all the big companies on ebay will have 100% feedback...

---

Most Chinese sellers have managers that oversee their "accountability" and what was written in the opening

post is pretty accurate for those sellers.

The same tends to happen in other overseas countries,(it's a well known fact that a lot of "bad" feedback

has been removed from those sort of sellers).

You don't get the high volume sellers that used to have bad feedback so much as we used to,(these sellers

had lower feedback scores of 95% or less).

These days even 97% is real bad but you just don't see that anymore,(as "bad" feedback just disappears).

They only have to keep the feedback above 98% for most people to ignore it and still buy from them.

[melbourneclearance]

Is there a concrete proof to this claim?

If these sellers can remove theie negative feedbacks at will, why would they stop at 98%? They'd remove all of them already by now.

[go-tazz]

---

@melbourneclearance wrote:

Is there a concrete proof to this claim?

If these sellers can remove theie negative feedbacks at will, why would they stop at 98%? They'd remove all of them already by now.

That would be unrealistic and would show a big imbalance so by having above 98% it may be more tolerated

by buyers,(hence why you don't seem to see those lower feedback scores any more).

It would tie in with other dodgy things on this site.

---

It all depends on the feedback,(as a number of buyers mention eBay or PP disputes they are quickly removed,(

others that are on a similar vein may also be removed).

Members have come to the boards on occasion where they have left genuine negative feedback and they

noticed that it had been removed,(some were re-instated after they complained to eBay but a number weren't).

So we know they will remove genuine feedback from these type of sellers at times.

Multiply that by all the buyers that don't know about the boards and that have no idea about feedback removal

and/or steps to re-instate it and there could be hundreds of negative feedback scores removed from any seller.

[melbourneclearance]

Feedback removal by ebay is completely different from the original post claiming that there are feedback removal managers located in Singapore.

ebay is quite open about their feedback removal policy. For example, if a buyer threatens to leave a negative feedback unless they get a refund, that's an automatic feedback removal if the seller does get a negative feedback from that buyer due to the feedback extortion rule. This applies to all sellers and is nothing new.

What I do not believe is the claim that big companies can get their negative feedbacks removed at will by paying someone (whether in Singapore or Timbuktu) to do it. This claim seems wild and groundless.

[go-tazz]

---

@melbourneclearance wrote:

Feedback removal by ebay is completely different from the original post claiming that there are feedback removal managers located in Singapore.

eBay is the only one that can remove feedback,(no one can remove it themselves).

ebay is quite open about their feedback removal policy. For example, if a buyer threatens to leave a negative feedback unless they get a refund, that's an automatic feedback removal if the seller does get a negative feedback from that buyer due to the feedback extortion rule. This applies to all sellers and is nothing new.

That's all standard practice and that's why I stated the obvious and then went on to explain what has been

visibly happening with genuine negative feedback removal that has been visible on the boards.

What I do not believe is the claim that big companies can get their negative feedbacks removed at will by paying someone (whether in Singapore or Timbuktu) to do it. This claim seems wild and groundless.

Yet it happens all the time,(so it's a known fact).

They don't have to pay anyone as the accounts managers that have feedback removed are eBay

employees that look after them,(hence why it's removed so quickly).

---

Account managers are part of the overseas selling system on eBay and part of their job is to keep that

feedback high enough.

[beerandpizzaplz]

I didn't really want to post the whole shebang but here 'tis:

healthandstyle (21145 ) View Listings

Community Member

Posts: 10

Registered: ‎01-26-2013

Re: Beware of seller; <Removed>

in reply to paul_mac1

Friday

I've had this problem too with one of my competitors and in the last 12 months I have watched at least 50 negative feedbacks being removed from both of their accounts which sell identical products.  After digging a bit deeper into this we discovered that;

• Ebay were able to see all the feedback that had been removed and acknowledged that is shouldn't have been done
• The accounts were being managed by an account manager in Singapore who was removing all the feedback
• We found out the name of that account manager who was removing neg feedback
• We tried phoning the eBay Singapore office but were not able to be put through to him to discuss these problems
• We made multiple complaints to eBay, but to this day feedback is still being removed and the account manager still hasn't effectively managed make this seller(s) comply with eBay policy.
• I was also informed by another source that it was quite common for account managers Singapore and Malaysia to accept gifts and hospitality from the accounts they manage in return for getting negative feedback removed.

So as a seller who does their best to maintain the highest standards and customer satisfaction, we at least deserve the right to compete on a level playing field, but when competitors feedback is being proactively removed and they lie about their item location, the only thing that ends up happening is that customers are getting screwed.

eBay's whole business model relies on buyer feedback to be a trusted place to buy stuff, but when this sort of thing is happening people won't buy stuff again on eBay and everybody loses."

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I'm not that seller, nor do I know, or am in any way affiliated with them but....

I have NO doubt it is at least mostly true - and I thought it was an important enough point that it should not be simply buried at the end of a dead thread.

As to why big sellers don't all have all positive feedback - i"m sure its clear that that would raise too many eyebrows - I'm guessing they all do have a sea of red dots removed - but only need to do so to the point that there are no other impacts upon their business (~98%positive)

[beerandpizzaplz]

I've had this problem too with one of my competitors and in the last 12 months I have watched at least 50 negative feedbacks being removed from both of their accounts which sell identical products.  After digging a bit deeper into this we discovered that;

• Ebay were able to see all the feedback that had been removed and acknowledged that is shouldn't have been done
• The accounts were being managed by an account manager in Singapore who was removing all the feedback
• We found out the name of that account manager who was removing neg feedback
• We tried phoning the eBay Singapore office but were not able to be put through to him to discuss these problems
• We made multiple complaints to eBay, but to this day feedback is still being removed and the account manager still hasn't effectively managed make this seller(s) comply with eBay policy.
• I was also informed by another source that it was quite common for account managers Singapore and Malaysia to accept gifts and hospitality from the accounts they manage in return for getting negative feedback removed.

So as a seller who does their best to maintain the highest standards and customer satisfaction, we at least deserve the right to compete on a level playing field, but when competitors feedback is being proactively removed and they lie about their item location, the only thing that ends up happening is that customers are getting screwed.

eBay's whole business model relies on buyer feedback to be a trusted place to buy stuff, but when this sort of thing is happening people won't buy stuff again on eBay and everybody loses."

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I'm not that seller, nor do I know, or am in any way affiliated with them but....

I have NO doubt it is at least mostly true - and I thought it was an important enough point that it should not be simply buried at the end of a dead thread.

As to why big sellers don't all have all positive feedback - i"m sure its clear that that would raise too many eyebrows - I'm guessing they all do have a sea of red dots removed - but only need to do so to the point that there are no other impacts upon their business (~98%positive)

[melbourneclearance]

Ah, I get it now.

When they pay the $550/month fee for Anchor Store they get a personal ebay account manager, and that account manger is the culprit in all this. That makes more sense, I thought you guys meant a non ebay account manager.

I guess that can happen, and probably does. Just another unscrupulous ebay practice to show how much they care about the little people.