eBay Rolls Out New Feedback Removal Policy, Promises Human Review Of Requests
eBay has finally delivered on promises made in June at the Summer Seller Check In with new feedback removal guidelines and assurances that removal requests will be manually reviewed by humans rather than AI.
The commitment to create a "more fair feedback experience for sellers and buyers" came as part of VP Global Regulatory, Trust & Monetization Andrea Stairs' presentation where she acknowledged changes made earlier this year had gone too far, with automation often denying removal requests that should have qualified and sellers being given no option to appeal.
Liz Morton
The eBay Feedback Policy page has now been updated to reflect the new "more fair" experience and while many of these changes look good for sellers on their face, as usual - the devil will be in the details and execution.
What is the policy?
Our policy is to ensure that feedback is meaningful for both buyers and sellers. We do not allow feedback that is harmful, inappropriate or irrelevant as this reduces trust between buyers and sellers, and undermines the feedback system. You’ll find more detail below on situations in which we remove feedback. In each case, we make sure we have factual evidence to support removal.While we’re committed to protecting sellers’ businesses, it’s worth remembering that buyers do not expect to see 100% positive feedback and that eBay is not in a position to contradict buyers’ opinions or judgment of items. We recommend that sellers reply to negative or neutral feedback with a thoughtful, well-written response that demonstrates how much you care about your buyer’s experience.
How do we remove feedback?
We use automation to proactively remove feedback that goes against our policy but in cases that are not clear-cut, we carry out a manual review. You can request removal through Seller Help, at which point a team member will review it. Depending on the situation, we may remove the comment, ratings and/or images.If your feedback qualifies for removal, you will be notified via email and the feedback will be removed from your account within 24 hours. If it cannot be removed, we will provide clarification as to how it doesn’t violate our policy.
The new policy says eBay will remove "harmful, inappropriate or irrelevant comments and images" that contain any:
- Content promoting hatred, violence or discrimination
- Profane, obscene, adult, illegal, or explicit content
- Opinions on any political, religious, or social issues
- Any implied or explicit threats or intimidation
- Personally identifiable information
- Links, URLs, or other content encouraging sales outside of eBay
- Infringement of third-party rights
- Meaningless content or images that aren’t of the item purchased
- Comments intended for a different item or seller
- Negative comments with positive ratings, or positive comments with negative ratings
- Personal attacks that could harm the reputation of the seller or their business and could not reasonably be viewed as constructive criticism
They also broke out several specific instances where feedback may be removed, along with examples of what types of comments may qualify for removal in each instance.
Extortion and manipulation
All feedback that:
- Is used as a means to extort another member
- Is used to manipulate feedback ratings (see the Feedback manipulation policy)
Buyer-related transaction issues
eBay will remove neutral/negative feedback when they can see that:
- The buyer asked to cancel after placing their order
- The order was canceled due to an issue with the buyer’s address
- The order was canceled because the buyer didn’t pay
- The buyer is raising an issue that was correctly disclosed in the listing
- The buyer has been actioned under the Abusive buyer policy
- The buyer requested a change to an order after they’d paid (and their feedback relates to this)
Item delivery issues
Neutral/negative feedback will be removed when the buyer is referencing:
- A delivery issue where tracking shows that the delivery or handling time expectations were met
- A delivery issue where a natural disaster or unexpected event caused a carrier delay
- A customs or tax issue outside the seller’s control that eBay could identify
Returns issues
eBay will remove neutral/negative feedback when any of the following occurred and this is what the buyer is referencing:
- The item was returned used or damaged and the seller deducted an amount from the refund
- The seller declined a change-of-mind return request, as the listing didn’t offer returns
- The buyer changed their mind and was liable for the cost of an eBay return label
- The seller offers free returns, handled the return and issued a refund
eBay site or program issues
Neutral/negative feedback will be removed when:
- The comment is about not being able to retract a bid
- The problem was caused by a technical issue on the eBay site that eBay could identify
- An eBay Money Back Guarantee case or payment dispute was closed with the seller having met their obligations to the buyer
- The item was shipped on-time with eBay International Shipping or the Global Shipping Program and there was a shipping-related issue
- The item was sold under the Authenticity Guarantee program, was shipped on-time and passed authentication
- The item was sold under our Guaranteed Fit program, the buyer requested a return because the item didn't fit their vehicle, and eBay can see that the seller met all their obligations to the buyer
That last part is interesting as feedback protection was recently removed from the Guaranteed Fit section of the Seller Protections Policy page - it's good to see it is now listed on the Feedback Policy page, but it's still odd it was removed from the other policy page when references to feedback protection in other scenarios remain and of course it doesn't address the issues of Service Metrics protections for Guaranteed Fit also being removed.
Liz Morton
Sellers have 90 days to request feedback removal under the new guidelines and it's highly encouraged to carefully read through the full policy, including the specific examples eBay provides, to understand what eBay is looking for when determining what will qualify.
Many sellers will likely be skeptical as some less than honest buyers have historically used eBay's examples to learn how to phrase feedback in a way that may be damaging and/or unfair to the seller while skirting gray areas or being just vague enough to avoid a clear cut case for removal.
That being said, initial reactions in the community have been positive and sellers seem hopeful this new policy will be an improvement over the previous automated process.
mam98031
I just had one removed because the Buyer bid on a figure BOX only and was mad he got the box with no figures when clearly title specifics and description stated was for the box only. He left me this negative "only received an empty box no figures title was confusing" Ebay QUICKLY removed it.
I was very happy and surprised they did it so fast and without any hassle. PROPS to Ebay for making these changes.. its a start in the right direction.Good Job Ebay.
Interesting change. Overall I'd say it's for the better if it's actually implemented as shown in here and not how the current feedback removal vetting system behaves.
What do you think of eBay's new feedback policies? Let us know in the comments below!
