I sold a couple items on ebay over a few years ago and don't think any of the buyers even left me feedback. Also, you only get 1 feedback for multiple items shipped using combined shipping.

Do feedbacks expire over time?

Anyway, why would random date codes be an issue to you? Were the parts actually used or just an accumulation of unused parts from multiple places the seller used for his stock?

a search for 'can ebay sellers delete negative feedback' suggests there are official methods that must be being employed

From what I know they remove negative feedback more easily than in the past, the seller can appeal that the feedback is offensive toward the seller and they can remove it all along or just censor the description with an asterisk (but leave the negative feedback).

Probably bigger and professional seller know the right tricks to require the feedback cancellation, it's sad that the customer support is not willing to give you any information.

I remember that someone in this forum said to post this feedback that is usually not removed: "Best way to leave negative feedback is "Item didn't function as described/dead on arrival; seller didn't communicate or help".

It's not very descriptive or helpful but still better than a negative feedback which gets removed.

feipoa wrote on 2024-02-23, 08:31:

Something I don't understand about eBay feedback in the modern day is rating tabulation. When I check this sellers profile, it says 26K items sold, but the feedback number next to his username is only 4167. If I recall right, users who left feedback but have since unregistered with eBay, will have their feedback tabulation removed from the seller, but I cannot see 22K people deregistering. So, did he sell 26,000 items, but then deleted 20K negative feedback records?

People can just not leave any feedback at all (in fact most don't).

I don't really care about feedback because it's useless information to me. If someone's sitting at 97% but has the item I need then I'll buy it without looking at the numbers. If something goes wrong I'll just open a case, simple. I also find it hard to believe that someone could keep a perfect score with 30K+ items sold without ever running into unsatisfied or scummy buyers. No way. Do I care? No. Give me the stuff I want for a reasonable price and we are good.
I also don't care too much about Amazon, Google or any other reviews as they are faked all the time and I'm almost certain that it happens on Ebay too.
I don't bother leaving feedback because the system is flawed and it's a waste of time. I use several more auction sites that have 2 way feedback systems and it's also flawed because they are all filled with revenge feedback. Buyers with a 100% score don't leave negatives for sellers below 100% because they don't want their perfect score tarnished so what's the point?
My solution: If I'm extremely unsatisfied with the purchase then I'll just blacklist the seller on my Elementhider list and don't buy stuff from him anymore. If it's a minor issue or the seller is trying to help me find a solution then I'll keep buying from him. And I never ever read feedback left by others because it's always a hot mess.

I cant say that I have noticed this behaviour but I will most definitely be on the lookout for this from now on.

Thanks for raising awareness

I noticed this too - not now but a few years ago.

A few months ago I got negative feedback by a satisfied buyer 🤣 He even sent me a message that he wasn't able to select positive button and only negative was possible. So he gave me negative with a positive description - idiot! I contacted eBay and they didn't want to remove it even as it was clearly a mistake. So now I'm at around 98% score...

Rossmann had a video or two about Amazon removing negative feedback form sellers. I guess that happens on eBay too then. Not particularly surprised. I assume it's easier to find and keep buyers then large scale sellers and they can't make money if no one sells.

i support the basic idea of undoing negative feedback - in such cases where it is clearly malicious (or ill informed or blatantly manipulative)

but for every definition there will be genuine negatives removed and the system will be 'played' by sellers who learn the combination of words and actions needed to remove them

I had a similar eBay experience a few months ago. I bought a used monitor, described in perfect condition. It showed up with a gouge in the screen. The seller accused me of lying to get a fraudulent return and threatened legal action in an unhinged reply. I escalated to eBay for a return, got my money back and left negative feedback for the seller. A few days later my feedback was gone.

I don't buy from eBay nearly as much knowing the seller feedback is not trustworthy.

Ebay has made changes to their feedback system over the years making it basically worthless.

1) As people have noted, sellers can get negative feedback removed.
2) The % of positive feedback is based on the most recent 12 months. Older negative feedback doesn't contribute to this score. So if a seller has a bad history, but is also getting recent negative feedback removed, this
3) Buyers can only receive positive feedback, and some sellers give automated positive feedback to buyers. It's trivial for anyone to build up a positive feedback score just by buying a bunch of a cheap items. For anyone selling items, their total feedback score (buying and selling) is displayed. You have to dig into the feedback to see whether it's from buying or selling.

These days, buying on Ebay even from sellers with 100% positive feedback is rolling the dice. When I find good sellers that are reliable, I tend to buy from them again since at least I know I'm likely to have a good experience.

Fortunately I've had relatively few bad experiences with Ebay.

RandomStranger wrote on 2024-02-23, 11:57:

Rossmann had a video or two about Amazon removing negative feedback form sellers. I guess that happens on eBay too then. Not particularly surprised. I assume it's easier to find and keep buyers then large scale sellers and they can't make money if no one sells.

That's the issue. Because these platforms make money on transaction fees, they have incentive to remove negative feedback to encourage more people to buy and sell on the system.

It's a blatant conflict-of-interest.

I received a reply from eBay, however, I cannot determine if it is from a real person or some form of AI. I will attach the reply here:

I tried to reached you out through the phone number registered on file but was not able to reach you, hence sending you this email. Allow me to inform you that we only remove negative feedback from an account if it's valid for removal. Means, the feedback including the comment violates our feedback policy.

Upon carefully reviewing the feedback you've left, I can confirm that it is purely an experience you had with the seller and the condition of the item you received. Hence, this feedback should have not been removed. Please accept my sincerest apology for what happened. Though we can no longer overturned the action done on this feedback, I can assure you that we do not tolerate such opportunity from our colleagues.

I will be forwarding this incident to our Team to be reviewed and proper action or coaching will be given.

I appreciate your understanding on this mater.

I didn't receive any missed calls. I don't believe that they cannot re-add my feedback; they have access to exactly what I wrote on their system. Looks to me like they are trying to please the seller while trying not to aggravate the buyer. I agree with Shponglefan, this is a conflict of interest.

kixs wrote on 2024-02-23, 11:35:

I noticed this too - not now but a few years ago.

A few months ago I got negative feedback by a satisfied buyer :lol: He even sent me a message that he wasn't able to select positive button and only negative was possible. So he gave me negative with a positive description - idiot! I contacted eBay and they didn't want to remove it even as it was clearly a mistake. So now I'm at around 98% score...

wow. From what I can tell it is mostly automated. You go through the automated eBay bot when requesting to remove negative feedback. Just type in the write keywords which violate the feedback policy, regardless if it is true or not, and voila.

y2k se wrote on 2024-02-23, 12:55:

I had a similar eBay experience a few months ago. I bought a used monitor, described in perfect condition. It showed up with a gouge in the screen. The seller accused me of lying to get a fraudulent return and threatened legal action in an unhinged reply. I escalated to eBay for a return, got my money back and left negative feedback for the seller. A few days later my feedback was gone.

I don't buy from eBay nearly as much knowing the seller feedback is not trustworthy.

That has become very common. It used to be that refunded/returned items would retain their feedback.

Shponglefan wrote on 2024-02-23, 13:04:

These days, buying on Ebay even from sellers with 100% positive feedback is rolling the dice. When I find good sellers that are reliable, I tend to buy from them again since at least I know I'm likely to have a good experience.

This is also my experience. There's some real unpleasant sellers out there.

feipoa wrote on 2024-02-23, 22:05:

I received a reply from eBay, however, I cannot determine if it is from a real person or some form of AI.

One of the responses I received back from the customer support included the phrases, "I believe you are wonderful buyer and as human being" and "eBay is pleasured to have you".

They're either using some bad translation software or bad AI.

Maybe both.

Shponglefan wrote on 2024-02-23, 22:09:

One of the responses I received back from the customer support included the phrases, "I believe you are wonderful buyer and as h […]
Show full quote

feipoa wrote on 2024-02-23, 22:05:

I received a reply from eBay, however, I cannot determine if it is from a real person or some form of AI.

One of the responses I received back from the customer support included the phrases, "I believe you are wonderful buyer and as human being" and "eBay is pleasured to have you".

They're either using some bad translation software or bad AI.

Maybe both.

That second one is quite creepy, IMHO.

On a sidenote, how long does it normally take for amazon product reviews to be visible?
I've recently did a few and after three days still nothing on the review front, yet the stars assigned are visible. (one product didn't have any reviews whatsoever, and the stars assigned showed up, yet no review)

edit: apparently it took about three days.

weedeewee wrote on 2024-02-25, 13:20:

On a sidenote, how long does it normally take for amazon product reviews to be visible?
I've recently did a few and after three days still nothing on the review front, yet the stars assigned are visible. (one product didn't have any reviews whatsoever, and the stars assigned showed up, yet no review)

edit: apparently it took about three days.

It took a few days for mine to be approved as well . My guess would be that an actual human vets them.

feipoa wrote on 2024-02-23, 08:31:

Have you guys noticed this becoming more common place on eBay in the past 10 years or so? There are some really notorious selle […]
Show full quote

Have you guys noticed this becoming more common place on eBay in the past 10 years or so? There are some really notorious sellers on eBay who appear to have 100% positive feedback ratings today, but were were in the 90's 15 years ago. I figured they must have been deleting their negative comments but had no proof until today.

I bought a few memory modules which were advertised as "new". When I received them, the IC's had several worn off part numbers and a complete mix and match of datecodes. When I asked the seller about actual item photos for another of his listings, or if he could supply the part numbers, I was banned from any further buying. He replied to the effect that this request is not worth his time. So, for the first time in 15 years, I left negative feedback for this seller and indicated the reason, that is, not new chips, worn off part numbers, random datecodes, being banned from buying after asking for photos/part numbers.

I checked my feedback 24 hours later, and it was still there. I checked it 36 hours later, and it was gone. Seller back at 100%. He did not attempt to communicate with me, implying to me that he knew how to get it removed and has done it before. I noticed how he did not delete it right away, perhaps to avoid me trying to re-add it.

I called eBay customer service to find out why, but could not get an answer, just that they would send my request to a case manager. I doubt this will have any positive outcome and believe the whole feedback system is now a sham. It used to be that feedback could not be removed for any reason.

Something I don't understand about eBay feedback in the modern day is rating tabulation. When I check this sellers profile, it says 26K items sold, but the feedback number next to his username is only 4167. If I recall right, users who left feedback but have since unregistered with eBay, will have their feedback tabulation removed from the seller, but I cannot see 22K people deregistering. So, did he sell 26,000 items, but then deleted 20K negative feedback records?

What has been your experience with disappearing negative feedback?

I can also confirm this, had a seller outright scam me, I left negative feedback but it promptly disappeared.

I’ve had someone on eBay try to scam me when I sold a job lot of computer parts even tho the listing said untested used parts sat in box for decade no refunds or returns it sold for a tenner buyer tried to claim back money and leave negatives feedback out of spite the listing was honest as to the possible condition luckily I won the dispute but I suppose I don’t use eBay enough so feedback is not really important it’s the accusation of scamming that needed to be cleared.

Tho I can up a cropper of a scam when I tried to sell a cross trainer on shpock trading someone tried to steal it and make me pay for the privilege of it being stolen. And my ad was duplicated across many platforms same pictures and all different contacts and then my shpock account got banned so I couldn’t even remove the listing and they didn’t even reply to my dispute.