EBAY Feedback Changes

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Tom McMillan

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Jan 1, 2004
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EBAY made some changes apparently today which affects seller's feedback.

I was startled when I signed in today to see my feedback went from 563 to over 1200 (still 100% positive). Apparently, they're allowing weekly feedback retroactively.

Anyway, just wondered if others have noticed it yet?
 
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I always wondered why feedback from a seller that one had multiple purchases from was treated differently...so maybe they have retroactively reversed that policy......I'm a little bummed with eBay...they eliminated reloading components from the mix and my activity has diminished significantly...I've also suspected some shill bidding as things seemed to always approach and sometimes exceed their worth...always a group of folks who game a system I suppose. I'll check my score and see if there is any change. As an aside, of well over fifty transactions both as buyer and seller, I've only been screwed once on a book...and apparently you are on your own at that point, the recourse was nada.....book seller with great record screwed a large group of folks then disappeared...or at least has a new username
 
I just checked my Feedback. It went from 120 to 124... no big deal until I noticed that I now have a 100% Feedback Rating.

It seems that they are only tracking feedback for 12 months on a rolling calender. I had a 100% rating but a few years back, I had a run-in with EBay's #3 seller and gave them a negative rating for two DOA electronic items they refused to take care of. They retaliated and ruined my rating with a negative reply. Now it's 100% again... so at least I feel somewhat vindicated after all the EBay screw-ups lately.

My guess is they know bad sellers will "always" have negatives during any 12 month period, so only tracking for 12 months will weed out old negatives that don't reflect a true rating and give Buyers and part time sellers a morale boost.
 
My total numbers did not change that dramatically. However, I now have feedback for purchases I never made.[:0]

At least they did not mess up my 100% rating.
 
One other item of note is that sellers now cannot leave negative or neutral feedback for buyers, period. So I guess that means all buyers will have 100% ratings, unless they get negative feedback as a seller. That sort of defeats the purpose, methinks, as every deal involves two people, and dirtbags can be either buyer or seller.
 
I had a negative from a deal that went south 3 years ago that no longer registers. Not sure about the seller not being able to leave honest feedback about the buyer.
 
My position on leaving feedback for a buyer:

If the seller gets paid that ends the buyers obligation. Sellers never ship unless they get paid. Works for me.

Re-listing because of a deadbeat buyer can be dealt with other ways. Re-listing a second time is free and you can always contact the number two bidder... at least you use to be able to.

I know it now tilts toward the buyer but payment always goes before the seller ships so it should force the seller to acknowledge that the buyer fulfilled their obligation.

The buyer is more concerned about getting what was described and paid for but also had to be concerned about retaliation. That made it tilted waaaay too far toward the seller.

Doing a 12 month rollover will fix inequities and if they improve arbitration then buyer blackmail can be handled more effectively. As it stands, the seller has to prove that the item was "substantially" not as described and a bogus seller rating can be removed. It's not perfect but it is a lot closer to a level playing field now than in the past.
 
Originally posted by SuperDave

.....It seems that they are only tracking feedback for 12 months on a rolling calender......

The other posts in this thread all seem to indicate that folk's feedback count have increased. That doesn't make a lot of sense. If they are only counting the last 12 months instead of your total feedback count, everyone's count should decrease??

Guess I need to check my account and see if it has changed. I have one negative feedback that was a retaliation comment for a feedback that I left for a crook. It was several years ago so it should be gone if they are only counting the past year's history.
 
I just took a look at my eBay rating and as speculated, my rating has jumped from 98% to 100%. A retaliation negative that I got several years ago was dropped for the purposes of the feedback rating which is now based on the last 12 months of history rather than total history.

I'm not sure about this; but I think the reason most folks count went up is because eBay is now counting transactions rather than rather than buyers and sellers. Used to be if you sold someone several items, their feedback only counted for one feedback even if there were several different transactions. Looks like they are now counting each transaction whether it is with different people or the same person. Good theory for folks who's FB count has gone up; but doesn't explain my situation since my count went 68 to 66. Only thing I can figure is two folks I did business with are/were crooks and are no longer doing business on eBay. Maybe they don't count feedback from inactive sellers??

Even though eBay is only calculating your feedback % based on the most recent 12 month worth of comments, your entire history is still available for review if you want to take the time to wade through a sellers entire history.

EBay is certainly in a difficult spot as far as balancing the interests of the seller and the buyer. It may be a situation where a perfect balance is never achieved; but what they are doing now seems to be a fairer way to deal with the situation.
 
Originally posted by Tom McMillan

.....Apparently, they're allowing weekly feedback retroactively.

Tom: Thanks for the heads-up. I had not noticed the change until you mentioned it.

I don't figure out what your comment above is suggesting. Can you expand a little? Thanks.
 
Yes, Randy--I'll try to explain.

As I recall when I first started with EBAY each positive feedback left would count in your feedback score.

Then awhile back they decided that a person could leave positive feedback for each purchase, but additional feedback for purchases from that buyer didn't count in your feedback score. In other words you would only receive one additional point to your feedback score from any one buyer period.

Now, they've made it retroactive that let's say a buyer purchases several items from you each week and leaves positive feedback for each item---now, your feedback score can increase by "one" each week for that buyer's purchase or purchases. So, even if someone purchases 10 items from you in one week and leaves positive feedback for all--your feedback score will only increase by one.

One point of the changes says: "Members will receive credit for Weekly repeat feedback (retroactive to 1996)." A second point says: "We will base the Positive Feedback percentage on the last 12 months of activity (and include neutral feedback in the calculation)."
 
Originally posted by Randy_
Originally posted by SuperDave
.....It seems that they are only tracking feedback for 12 months on a rolling calender......
The other posts in this thread all seem to indicate that folk's feedback count have increased. That doesn't make a lot of sense. If they are only counting the last 12 months instead of your total feedback count, everyone's count should decrease??
As I understand it, your feedback total is the aggregate since you started using ebay, but the percentage is only for the last twelve months.

Interestingly, they have begun factoring neutrals into your feedback rating. Nearly a year ago, I newbie who didn't quite grasp the concept gave me a neutral rating. Since I've done much less selling over the last year than I used to, it knocked my rating from 100% to 98.9%. :(
 
i think its from buying multiple items from a seller and getting only 1 feedback score. you are now getting the feedback for each item and not each transaction, maybe, i'm not quite sure
 
I just discovered something else that is new...to me at least... on their feedback policy. I tried to leave a neutral feedback on an item I just purchased and got a message that I could not do so for 7 days. I presume the same is true for negative feedback. Guess this an effort to enforce a "cooling off" period and encouraging folks to contact the seller before posting a comment.

The item came in an little bitty envelope with about 6 sq. in. of bubble wrap and $1.30 in postage on the front. They charged me $7.95 for shipping.
 
Something else has changed in Ebay feedback, at least here in Australia

2008528102315_SP32-20080526-152926.jpg


This apparently is to stop "tit for tat" neagtive feed back from sellers, some of whom state quite openly that they will leave negative feedback for you if you give them negative feedback, no matter how justified.
 
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