eBay New Feedback Page Design Removes Critical Visibility From Buyers & Sellers
eBay appears to be testing or rolling out more changes to the Feedback page design, this time removing critical information like feedback left for others and whether feedback was received as a buyer or seller, leaving users more vulnerable to bad actors on the platform.
The old feedback profile page showed how long the user has been a member, what country their account is registered in (which may be different than location on listings) and allowed for filtering to see feedback "received as buyer", "received as seller", and "left for others."
The new design removes country and registration dates completely and the sort and filter options no longer allow you to separate feedback received as a buyer or seller or to view feedback left for others.
eBay had previously tested getting rid of the ability to see feedback left for others last year before reverting back to the old design.
As noted at that time, removing visibility to critical information in feedback profiles will erode trust in the platform and make both buyers and sellers less safe transacting through the site in multiple ways.
Many sellers rely on viewing feedback left for others when entertaining offers to avoid possibly engaging with "problem buyers" who may be prone to leave unreasonable feedback or engage in feedback extortion.
Today I am seeing a different looking page when viewing a person's feedback. Looks like you can sort it different ways, but I cannot figure out how to see the "feedback left for others" with the new screen.
All I could see is the feedback received for that person.... whether they were a buyer or a seller.... could not find feedback that they left for sellers....
As I seller, when I receive an offer, i almost ALWAYS look at the feedback that the potential buyer has left for others before I decide to accept their offer. I am going to be very unhappy if that isn't something we can NOT do anymore!!!!
Without the ability to see "feedback left for others" that takes away one of very few tools sellers have to protect their accounts and spot abusive buyers.
I'd also like to reinforce that redesign requires umpteen more clicks to see basic info. Why does eBay constantly disrespect us and how valuable our time is by hiding everything behind never ending clicks and pop ups?! This is one of the things I hate most about eBay.
More importantly, much of the information that was previously included on the Feedback profile page also served as important consumer protection checks that could help savvy buyers avoid scams and fraud on the site - protections that have now been stripped from the new design.
For example, one very common red flag to look for to avoid scammers engaging in triangulation or other kinds of fraud is to compare the shipping location on item listing pages to the account registration country on the feedback profile page - if the listing says it ships from a US location, but the account is registered overseas, it's not always proof of a scam but buyers should absolutely proceed with caution.
Fraudsters also often face a challenge when using brand new accounts as buyers are less likely to trust a selling account with 0 feedback, especially if they are looking to purchase in demand and/or high dollar electronics or luxury goods.
That challenge is often overcome by simply purchasing low value items in order to increase the feedback number on the account before listing items for sale - and in fact if you simply search eBay for the word "feedback" you'll find hundreds of listings for non-existent or digital only items specifically for this purpose.
Savvy buyers learned to use the previous Feedback Profile page to filter out feedback received as a buyer in order to see if an account had any previous experience as a seller.
But now that trust enhancing feature has also been removed in the new design, leaving buyers with no way to judge if they are at risk of falling prey to the common scam tactic of padding feedback with low value purchases in order to make an account appear more legitimate before listing items for sale.
These changes come at a time when eBay is completely revamping the feedback experience, increasingly morphing what was once solely peer to peer user feedback into product reviews and adding "verified purchase" labels.
eBay also recently introduced automatic positive feedback for some transactions in the UK, prompting comparisons to competitors like Vinted and raising questions about the future of feedback across all of eBay's various global markets.
Liz Morton
Sellers have speculated for years that eBay may eventually do away with the ability to leave feedback for buyers at all.
Other competing marketplaces do not allow feedback to be left for buyers and many outside observers view it as a relic of a bygone dot com era that eBay has struggled (and largely failed) to evolve past.
This new design de-emphasizing whether feedback was received as a buyer or seller could be the first step in getting rid of buyer feedback completely - but if that is the goal, eBay must take steps to enhance trust and provide additional protection for both buyers and sellers to fill the gaps that will be left by removing critical information from the Feedback Profile page.
