eBay Uses AI To Detect Sellers Skirting Cancellation Policies - What Happens When Bots Get It Wrong?
eBay is turning to AI-enforcement to detect and punish sellers who try to skirt cancellation policies, but what happens if the bots don't always get it right?
A seller posted to the eBay community forum today after receiving an automated AI-determined policy violation warning for supposedly selecting the wrong reason for canceling an order - but alarmingly, the seller says they have had no cancellations and the warning was made completely in error.
I received this message from ebay 2 days ago (see below). It states that this judgement was made by artificial intelligence . There is no specific listing cancellation cited in the message.
I have not cancelled any sales. I have ended listings and then refreshed them as sell similar, but that is allowed and is not a cancellation. Who do I reach out to at ebay because I believe this is an error or tech issue on their end, and I'd like to remove this judgement against my store.
The seller copied and pasted the full text of the message they received, clearly showing the disclosure that the determination was made by AI.
eBay knows that orders being cancelled can lead to negative buyer experiences, so the listing cancellation policy states that sellers who cancel due to items being out of stock will receive defects that count against their seller ratings and that it is a violation of policy to use an incorrect reason to try to avoid the defect.
That's an understandable and reasonable policy if enforced fairly with opportunities to appeal if defects are given in error.
But considering these defects can cause a seller to incur additional 6% penalty fees if their rating falls "below standard", getting these judgements right is far too important to leave up to bots and should only be handled by actual human beings who are highly trained in nuances of eBay policies and enforcement - which is how manual reviews to catch sellers skirting this policy have been handled in the past.
eBay will sometimes see a seller providing a full refund of an order outside of a formal cancellation request, return or claim as a seller-initiated cancellation as well, so it's not entirely clear if this seller may have possibly taken another action that would have triggered this event, but either way, the increasing use of AI for these types of policy enforcement purposes is concerning.
When eBay laid off ~1,000 employees earlier this year, sellers worried it could mean more impersonal AI options would be picking up the slack, and developments since then have proven those concerns right.
Liz Morton
Given CEO Jamie Iannone's comments about the us of AI for customer service in recent earnings calls and investor conferences, buyers and sellers alike will unfortunately like face even further automation of these types of sensitive, potentially business impacting policy enforcement, trust and safety issues.
What do you think of eBay's use of AI for support and policy enforcement? Let us know in the comments below!
