e-bay Feedback - Not Happy.

[brucemillar]

Folks

I use e-bay fairly frequently buy & sell. I am always careful to fill out feedback for buyers and sellers alike and hope that buyers & sellers from me would do the same. All was well with this until I noticed that despite sellers leaving me positive feedback my feedback count was not moving so my ebay ratings were not changing along with he colour of stars.

Today I called e-bay customer support to enquire what had gone wrong with my account.

Here is e-bays response.

If the same seller leaves you feedback for more than one transaction in the same week that feedback will not be added to your score. Even if the transactions are for un-related/un-connected items.

So you order a cable on Saturday and receive it it on Monday (that is what actually happened). I left feedback for the seller he left feedback for me. Good at this point.

My wife then said "could you get me one of those please" SO I order another cable Tuesday which turns up on Friday. I again leave feedback and so does the seller. But this time e-bay ignores his feedback and does not alter my feedback total.

So when you see feedback totals or people saying those with less than ten etc be aware as they may well have more than ten if they have multiple transactions in the same week.

This seems manifestly unfair to me. What possible justification can there be for this. It is at best misleading.

 

[Deleted member 37751]

It's to stop people using the feedback system fraudulently.

As in, say me and you want to do a scam on eBay but we need to get our feedback scores up, so what we do is put up items for a couple of quid and buy from each other and leave each other feedback. This then puts ebayers minds at rest and so the scamming can commence.

Does seem a strange rule once you have over a hundred feedbacks though...

 

[mobeyone]

I think people have misused it in the past to make their feedback look better, then sell items and take off.

 

[Dieselman]

Does it really matter, especially as a buyer?

 

[BTB 500]

AFAIK it's always worked that way ... not a recent change.

 

[brucemillar]

Does it really matter, especially as a buyer?

Yes it does. As you are not being credited with honest transactions. SO any buyer of your goods looking at feedback (which most in here seem to do) will not see a true representation of your activities.

It is taking a sledgehammer to crack a nut. Why bother leaving a seller feedback in the knowledge that their feedback to you will be discounted.

 

[SavMan]

Does it really matter, especially as a buyer?

I can understand how it could matter as many sellers that are advertising higher fraud risk items such as iPhones will say that buyers with low feedback or less than x must contact them first which makes it difficult for new buyers to swoop in at the last moment.

 

[Dieselman]

Yes it does. As you are not being credited with honest transactions. SO any buyer of your goods looking at feedback (which most in here seem to do) will not see a true representation of your activities.

It is taking a sledgehammer to crack a nut. Why bother leaving a seller feedback in the knowledge that their feedback to you will be discounted.

As a seller one has greater risk, all a buyer has to do is buy, pay and wait.
The only feedback a seller is leaving is that you paid. That really doesn't present much risk to other sellers because if you don't pay, they don't send the goods.

A single transaction among many isn't worth bothering about as long as you still have overall good feedback.

 

[SavMan]

But the seller may have removed your bid before you win as they have concerns over payment.

The seller can also exclude you from the auction in advanced settings although in practice I have yet to see this work

 

[Dieselman]

I'll leave you to this thread...

 

[brucemillar]

So e-bay actively encourage the use of feedback for both buyers and sellers. It is their way of measuring your credibility. How many time do we hear "did you check their feedback" or "The first thing I look at is their feedback" As a buyer I expect to receive feedback on my fast payment and good communications. I always pay at the moment my purchase is accepted. I now see that I need to space my buying over a 7 day threshold if I want to receive and display that feedback.

So if I do that then any fraudster can do that. Maybe ebay should say that feedback is witheld as you are considered a fraudster.

 

[mobeyone]

As far as I know, eBay has checks in place to stop that from happening e.g. You are someone who has bought x items, all low value then suddenly list items worth a lot of money.

It's a lot better now then what it used to be.

 

[brucemillar]

As far as I know, eBay has checks in place to stop that from happening e.g. You are someone who has bought x items, all low value then suddenly list items worth a lot of money.

It's a lot better now then what it used to be.

Well not according to what their support people told me today. I have been with them for many years have 100% positive and no disputes. My score should be at over 200 but is stuck at 159 because they are blocking feedback.

Amazon here I come.

 

[Spinal]

Well not according to what their support people told me today. I have been with them for many years have 100% positive and no disputes. My score should be at over 200 but is stuck at 159 because they are blocking feedback.

Amazon here I come.

Feedback is a reputation system; think of it this way.

You visit a pub every night, and tell them how good they are. They now put your feedback on their wall. It doesn't really matter that you tell them how good they are every night, because it's still just you telling them.

You've done your duty, you've rated the other party. By rating the transaction, you are creating a profile of credibility for the buyer/seller. Lots of feedback from the same party doesn't affect the credibility of the person.

If I had to choose from buying from a seller with 100 feedback, from 100 people and one with 10,000,000 feedback, from one person... I know I wouldn't be touching the second seller with a bargepole...

M.

 

[brucemillar]

>>>By rating the transaction, you are creating a profile of credibility for the buyer/seller. >>>Lots of feedback from the same party doesn't affect the credibility of the person.

No I am not. e-bay may chose not to display that feedback so nobody has the chance to see if I have been left feedback or have given feedback.

 

[MOCAŠ]

I now see that I need to space my buying over a 7 day threshold if I want to receive and display that feedback.

So if I do that then any fraudster can do that. Maybe ebay should say that feedback is witheld as you are considered a fraudster.

The point is that most genuine fraudsters are after a quick turnaround, so won't bothered with building up feedback over a matter of weeks or months. They want an instant profile that they can start exploiting.

I think you may be making a mountain out of molehill here. Lots of companies have fraud-prevention measures in place to protect their customers and their own reputation. For instance, locking out accounts after three failed password-entry attempts: inconvenient if you're forgetful or a clumsy typist, but it's there to protect your account.

Once you start thinking that the use of such measures means they think you are a fraudster, you're getting into persecution complex territory.

 

[brucemillar]

The point is that most genuine fraudsters are after a quick turnaround, so won't bothered with building up feedback over a matter of weeks or months. They want an instant profile that they can start exploiting.

I think you may be making a mountain out of molehill here. Lots of companies have fraud-prevention measures in place to protect their customers and their own reputation. For instance, locking out accounts after three failed password-entry attempts: inconvenient if you're forgetful or a clumsy typist, but it's there to protect your account.

Once you start thinking that the use of such measures means they think you are a fraudster, you're getting into persecution complex territory.

I think you are picking on me now MOCAS. Picking on on my paranoia is not good.

 

[Beetnik]

A few things to look at:
Length of time trading.
Feeedback number
Feedback %.
Not all buys and then a sell.

To be fair once you've got over 100 items of feedback I don't care whether you've got 101 or 1,001 it's the % that counts.

I did once buy a watch from a guy who had 100% positive feedback on several hundred sold items, albeit over a short period of time. Excellent price and service.

I only started to take more note of length of time trading when I saw a report in the local paper 18 months later. He'd been convicted for a large theft from a curtain sided truck.

And yes, the haul included a large number of examples of the watch I'd purchased.

 

[Dieselman]

We will remember to comment on your nice wrist warmer when we see you Beetnik

 

[MD5]

I think you are picking on me now MOCAS. Picking on on my paranoia is not good.

I've said before that paranoia forced me to give up playing rugby. I was convinced they were talking about me every time they had a scrum down.

Seriously though, as Beetnik said, after 100 and if all is good, does it matter, or is it more about the stars?!!!