Ebay update to feedback policy

[solefoodbk]

Ebay will start to automatically leave feedback for sales if you ship with tracking and its delivered on time, with no previous disputes. For all sales, not just the starting 10.

They are removing "free returns clause", where they remove feedback if you offer free returns and/or if the customer leaves retaliatory feedback after you partially refund them.

Where this policy completely fails, if there is content both removable and non removable, they will ask the customer to revise the removable part.

I have mixed views on this except for the last part. The reality is, this dilutes feedback and gives bad sellers more chances to compete IMO, because they will combat negatives with sales.

Always have to adapt! I wouldn't be surprised if they change some of these policies by end of year because of backlash. This is not Amazon, eBay will change it if enough people complain. That is my hope.

[ft16]

Originally Posted by solefoodbk

Ebay will start to automatically leave feedback for sales if you ship with tracking and its delivered on time, with no previous disputes. For all sales, not just the starting 10.

They are removing "free returns clause", where they remove feedback if you offer free returns and/or if the customer leaves retaliatory feedback after you partially refund them.

Where this policy completely fails, if there is content both removable and non removable, they will ask the customer to revise the removable part.

I have mixed views on this except for the last part. The reality is, this dilutes feedback and gives bad sellers more chances to compete IMO, because they will combat negatives with sales.

Always have to adapt! I wouldn't be surprised if they change some of these policies by end of year because of backlash. This is not Amazon, eBay will change it if enough people complain. That is my hope.

Is this a new policy on .com ? iIt's been the policy on co.uk for months.

Personally I think automated feedback is great, we all know that most people don't bother to leave feedback so it gives a more accurate picture of how many people are actually happy vs the nutters leaving negs because they had a bad day.

[solefoodbk]

This is new for .com.

I look at my competition from China who are selling with American addresses. Most of them don't know how to combat negative feedback, so if it happens, they just let it stay. They're not offering returns either.

Therefore these sellers will get automatic boosts because total sales = more feedback, which offsets their negatives and will increase their ratings.

I generally get about 20-30% of total sales as feedback. To me this just rewards *most* sellers who are unable to get feedback from genuine experiences.

Total sales is shown for customers so why does feedback need to represent their experience? It is just dilution of the score. Also makes offering free returns pointless unless you want a competitive advantage, there is no benefit beyond that with eBay policy. And if you deduct the amount from a return if the customer used the product, then their feedback can still remain which I think again stupid.

Ebay just removed all incentives to offer free 30 days returns. And further diluted the Top Rated program. It's nearly useless.

[ft16]

Originally Posted by solefoodbk

This is new for .com.

I look at my competition from China who are selling with American addresses. Most of them don't know how to combat negative feedback, so if it happens, they just let it stay. They're not offering returns either.

Therefore these sellers will get automatic boosts because total sales = more feedback, which offsets their negatives and will increase their ratings.

I generally get about 20-30% of total sales as feedback. To me this just rewards *most* sellers who are unable to get feedback from genuine experiences.

Total sales is shown for customers so why does feedback need to represent their experience? It is just dilution of the score. Also makes offering free returns pointless unless you want a competitive advantage, there is no benefit beyond that with eBay policy. And if you deduct the amount from a return if the customer used the product, then their feedback can still remain which I think again stupid.

Ebay just removed all incentives to offer free 30 days returns. And further diluted the Top Rated program. It's nearly useless.

While total sales are shown in some places, it's not always consistent, and eBay seems to be making feedback harder to find. In my view, having the percentage include total sales rather than just feedback left does make things clearer for buyers.

That's impressive that you're getting 20-30% feedback! I tend to get around 20%. I think this change helps because that small percentage of buyers who leave negative feedback (less than 1% of total sales) could previously make your rating look much worse - for example, what might appear as 95% positive could now show as 99% with the automatic inclusion of non-feedback sales.

I can't really comment on the returns aspect though, since UK/EU consumer protection laws require us to accept them regardless of eBay's policies, so we don't have the same flexibility around return policies that you might have.

[solefoodbk]

Originally Posted by ft16

While total sales are shown in some places, it's not always consistent, and eBay seems to be making feedback harder to find. In my view, having the percentage include total sales rather than just feedback left does make things clearer for buyers.

That's impressive that you're getting 20-30% feedback! I tend to get around 20%. I think this change helps because that small percentage of buyers who leave negative feedback (less than 1% of total sales) could previously make your rating look much worse - for example, what might appear as 95% positive could now show as 99% with the automatic inclusion of non-feedback sales.

I can't really comment on the returns aspect though, since UK/EU consumer protection laws require us to accept them regardless of eBay's policies, so we don't have the same flexibility around return policies that you might have.

Yeah I suppose I don’t disagree with anything you said, I can see ways this will benefit me. In terms of small sellers, eBay still counts buying on eBay in this total (unless that’s changed as well). The feedback system itself is flawed, but the thing I dislike the most is them removing free returns feature.

In USA if you offered free 30 day returns and a customer left negative feedback it automatically qualified for removal. Now they’re removing that. And this feedback where part of it can be considered valid so the customer has to revise it, this seems like they’re adding complexity to something that just be minimized. I already know some agents will make this process extremely difficult to follow because all left up to interpretation.