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eBay Feedback: Everything You Demand to Know as a Seller

Feedback on eBay is not what it used to exist. Here'south why it still matters, how to improve your feedback score and how to deal with negative feedback.

eBay Feedback: Everything You Need to Know as a Seller

Feedback was ane of eBay's kickoff innovations. Trading online with strangers takes a lot of trust, but the feedback organisation made it all work. It encouraged everyone – both buyers and sellers – to have pride in acting honestly and fairly in all their interactions on the marketplace.

But a lot has changed over the years. Feedback is now only one way that sellers are assessed, alongside seller ratings submitted past buyers, and many performance metrics that eBay calculates automatically. Sellers can no longer leave negative feedback for buyers, changing what used to exist an equal trading partnership into a much more conventional transaction between a business concern and a customer.

In this post nosotros respond the questions that sellers have about eBay feedback as it is today, including how to reply to feedback, how to remove negative feedback, making an eBay feedback revision request, whether you can buy eBay feedback and more.

Is eBay feedback still important?
Don't I demand good feedback to be a Elevation Rated Seller or PowerSeller?
How is the eBay feedback score calculated?
How is the eBay positive feedback percentage calculated?
What pct of eBay buyers actually leave feedback?
What's the departure between feedback and seller ratings?
What tin I practise to improve my eBay seller feedback score?
How can I go more positive feedback on eBay?
What can I exercise to minimize negative eBay feedback?
How can I remove negative feedback on eBay?
How practice I make an eBay feedback revision request?
Should I answer to negative feedback on eBay?
What should I do if I receive negative feedback?
Can I buy eBay feedback?
Should I get out feedback for buyers on eBay?
Is it possible to get out negative feedback for buyers?
What is feedback extortion?

Is eBay feedback withal important?

Seller feedback used to be cardinal to a merchant's reputation, but eBay has inverse a bully deal over the years and has watered down the importance of feedback considerably.

Why would they do that? Well, the world has inverse.

Not then long agone, auctions were the standard list format on eBay and the whole procedure was novel, fun and innovative. Today, buyers are much more likely to want the convenience of fixed-price listings and fast purchases, without caring what color the seller's feedback star is, or if their feedback percentage is 99.9% or 99.8%.

Nor do most buyers want to read through hundreds of feedback comments, near of which can hardly contain the buyer's excitement of yet some other transaction with an "AAA+++ #1 fantastic eBayer". Most of the fourth dimension, people only expect the same convenience and consistency that they go from other ecommerce sites like Amazon, regardless of who they buy from.

So feedback doesn't matter anymore? Well, not quite. One reason is that it's still placed just under the seller'due south name, and then it is easy to detect for those buyers who intendance to wait:

Having a positive feedback per centum of 99.4% is notwithstanding a stiff betoken to buyers that it'southward rubber to make a buy from this seller.

Another reason, that's less direct, is that it would be hard to maintain a good level of "seller performance" with eBay without also having a good feedback score. It'southward still the simplest, easiest-to-sympathize measure out of how yous are doing on eBay. If your feedback is heading in the incorrect direction so your other performance metrics are probably taking a hit as well.

Don't I demand good feedback to exist a Acme Rated Seller or PowerSeller?

eBay'due south original scheme for its all-time sellers was the PowerSeller program, which shut down in 2021. One of the requirements was a positive feedback score of 98% or college, and then you lot did need good feedback to get a PowerSeller. Notwithstanding, PowerSeller ceased to accept any tangible benefits several years before, so information technology was little more than an honorary condition.

eBay's current programme for loftier-performing sellers is the Top Rated Seller scheme. This does have some worthwhile benefits, such as better search ranking and increased seller protections. Nevertheless, it has no link to feedback. Instead, it is based on performance metrics such as defect charge per unit, cases closed without seller resolution, and late shipment rate.

So, eBay takes practically no account of feedback in determining who its all-time sellers are. Strange, perhaps, but truthful.

How is the eBay feedback score calculated?

Your seller feedback score is based on a buyer's experience with you, and their satisfaction with the product they purchased. Buyers can leave feedback on any transaction that they've had with a seller over the previous 60 days.

A heir-apparent's feedback for a seller is made up of three parts:

An overall feedback rating which tin can be "positive," "neutral," or "negative."
A feedback comment giving a short summary of how the transaction went.
Seller ratings (also known as detailed seller ratings or DSRs), covering four different aspects of the transaction.

The overall feedback score is calculated as follows:

+ane for each positive feedback.
No change for neutral feedback.
-1 for each negative feedback.

Note that multiple feedback received from the same buyer, for sales that happened in the same calendar week, only counts as one. This actually happens quite a lot, then that most sellers' feedback scores are noticeably lower than their total positive feedback minus their total negative feedback.

For example, sportsshoes_outlet has a feedback score of 240,437 as shown in the question in a higher place, but they have total feedback received of 260,908:

The discrepancy is not down to 20,000 negative feedback received, only to buyers purchasing multiple items from them within i week. It all adds upwards.

How is the eBay positive feedback percentage calculated?

Similar the feedback score, the positive feedback percentage is a little more nuanced than yous might await. It's not simply the total amount of positive feedback received divided by the full feedback received, because it:

Only includes feedback for transactions within the last 12 months.
Excludes feedback for repeat purchases (from the same buyer in the same week).
Excludes neutral feedback entirely.

Because of this, if you accept ever tried to bank check the feedback percentage shown on a seller'south feedback profile page by using the positive, neutral and negative feedback numbers shown in their ratings tabular array, you are likely to finish up frustrated.

For case, a seller with the ratings table below has a feedback percent of 96.6%:

But there's no mode y'all can arrive at that per centum using the numbers above. Handily, eBay provides the bodily numbers used in the calculation if yous click on the "i" icon next to the feedback percent itself. In this case, with echo feedback excluded, the calculation is:

81309 / ( 81309 + 2856 ) = 96.six%

Thankfully, explaining why the eBay positive feedback percentage doesn't seem to add up is never likely to be a question that your life will depend on.

What'south a adept positive feedback percentage on eBay? A few years back, sellers would often get hung upwardly on maintaining a 100% or 99.nine% feedback score. Today, that isn't a very realistic goal. Y'all just can't please all the people all the time, and many eBay sellers do perfectly well with a feedback score anywhere in the high nineties.

What percentage of eBay buyers actually leave feedback?

eBay doesn't say what pct of buyers go out feedback, but information technology'south articulate that it has declined over the years and now but a minority of buyers exit positive feedback.

Judging from eBay's community forums, buyers exit positive feedback on between 20 and thirty per centum of successful transactions, whereas unhappy buyers will go out feedback about xc percent of the time!

And so while your feedback percentage will exist boosted if you can go more than of your satisfied buyers to leave positive feedback, it makes a bigger difference if you tin avoid having unhappy buyers. Dissatisfied customers are much more likely to leave feedback, and that feedback will probably be negative.

What's the difference between feedback and seller ratings?

An eBay seller'southward feedback score and positive feedback percentage both come up from the feedback they receive from buyers – positive, neutral or negative. But buyers can also submit seller ratings (formerly known as detailed sellers ratings or DSRs) which provide information on iv different aspects of your service.

Each seller rating is scored out of five stars, and eBay displays both the total number and the boilerplate star rating for each i. For example:

Seller ratings cover:

Item clarification: How accurately the detail was described.
Communication: How well the seller communicated with the buyer.
Aircraft fourth dimension: How rapidly the seller dispatched the item.
Shipping and handling charges: How reasonable the South&H cost was.

Note that the names of each seller rating can vary slightly depending on where they are displayed. For case "dispatch time", "shipping time" and "shipping speed" are all used by eBay to refer to the aforementioned seller rating.

Also, the seller rating for shipping and treatment charges is automatically set to five stars if the seller provides gratuitous shipping. The heir-apparent cannot override information technology.

What can I do to improve my eBay seller feedback score?

Improving your eBay feedback score and positive feedback pct is non rocket science. You just need to:

Get as much positive feedback as possible.
Get every bit little negative feedback every bit possible.
Try to get negative feedback removed.

It's useful to look at each of those separately. Thinking about how to go as much positive feedback as possible can atomic number 82 to quite different deportment compared to thinking about how to minimize negative feedback. Getting negative feedback removed is a different activity birthday.

Nosotros'll look at each of those in more than detail in the questions beneath.

How tin can I become more than positive feedback on eBay?

In that location are ii aspects to getting more positive feedback as an eBay seller. First, do whatever you can to make sure your buyers are happy. Second, try to become your buyers to actually exit you feedback!

Your buyers are more than likely to be happy if you:

Take authentic, detailed listings so buyers are more likely to purchase the correct detail and not get whatever unpleasant surprises when they receive it.
Reply apace to messages, including questions before and afterwards sale, complaints and return requests.
Dispatch items chop-chop, packaged properly, using a fast, reliable aircraft service.
Have reasonable terms of sale, and good business practices generally, particularly around returns and refunds.
Provide skillful value for money.

Now, if y'all accept more often than not happy buyers, how tin you get more of them to leave feedback for you? We've seen above that a typical feedback charge per unit is merely 20-thirty%, then pushing that higher will have an impact on your feedback score and per centum.

1 way to ask is with a message to each heir-apparent, after you have immune enough time for them to receive the detail and decide if they are happy with information technology. In that location are besides software tools that automate eBay feedback requests, including Feedback Boost and 3Dsellers.

Another, lower-contour method is to put a sideslip in the packet asking the heir-apparent to contact you with whatever questions or concerns, and also to leave feedback for you. You might have to explain to them where to go to do this, equally they won't have an easy link to click.

Many sellers are cautious about asking buyers for feedback and rightly and so, because information technology tin be annoying to be harassed for feedback. You don't want to chance turning a happy buyer into an unhappy one. However, if yous ask for feedback carefully and sparingly information technology tin better your feedback rate without upsetting buyers.

What can I exercise to minimize negative eBay feedback?

It might feel more comfortable to focus on the positive, and recall virtually how to make customers happy, but it can too be very useful to think virtually what makes them unhappy.

While some people just want to find fault regardless of what you lot exercise, and sadly others will try to rip you off, most of the time there is a valid reason for receiving negative feedback.

Here are some of the most common ones:

What the buyer received was not what they were expecting. Try to find out specifically what was wrong, and modify your images or description to prevent that particular problem from happening once more.
Shipping was slower than they expected, or the item didn't get in at all. Everyone expects fast delivery these days, no matter what yous say in your listing. Look into how to alter your processes to dispatch more quickly, and investigate different carriers if yours keeps losing items.
They had a problem with the item. Selling skilful quality items that are not faulty or damaged is of import, but fifty-fifty then there will exist problems from time to time. Message buyers proactively a day or two after they receive the item, and tell them what to do if at that place are any issues. This can be automated using the same feedback request tools mentioned above.

Accept a wait old at another seller'south negative feedback. Any seller with a feedback score higher up 100,000 will have plenty of negative feedback, even if their positive feedback percentage is 99%+. Just click their feedback score and so on the number of negative feedback in the last 12 months. You should see that most all of the comments fall into 1 of the 3 categories above.

So, you lot can minimize negative feedback by making sure your buyers receive what they expected, when they expected information technology, and that you bargain with whatsoever problems chop-chop and effectively.

How can I remove negative feedback on eBay?

There are 4 ways that negative feedback can be removed:

Automatically by eBay, under a few circumstances such as an unpaid item case against the buyer or a Money Back Guarantee case plant in your favor.
Following a manual review past eBay, in express cases such every bit when in that location was a failed commitment attempt or the annotate independent profanity or other inappropriate content.
Following a review by NetNeutrals, an contained service which aims to resolve disputes for a fee.
Manually by the heir-apparent, later you lot send them a feedback revision request.

Automatic feedback removal

There's nil y'all tin do to influence automatic feedback removal. As the name suggests, it should happen automatically.

Manual review by eBay

To request a manual review by eBay, contact eBay client service. The circumstances in which they will remove feedback are very express though.

eBay will remove feedback that complains most not-delivery, if you lot tin provide bear witness that delivery was actually attempted. They will also remove comments which incorporate profanity, but not the negative rating itself.

NetNeutrals review

NetNeutrals uses independent arbiters to help resolve disputes regarding any vehicle buy, and other purchases of $300 or more in value. When they have finished their investigation they volition share their findings with eBay who will then decide whether or not to remove the feedback.

It costs $130 to open a case with NetNeutrals and then it volition exist far too expensive for near sellers, other than those who sell small volumes of high-value items and could be seriously impacted by a unmarried negative feedback comment.

Buyer feedback revision

For about sellers, the appropriate approach in near situations is to try and resolve the problem directly with the heir-apparent, and then ask for a feedback revision asking. We'll look at this in more than particular next.

How do I make an eBay feedback revision request?

If a buyer leaves yous negative feedback, and you lot are able resolve the situation, you lot can enquire them to change their feedback. You can also do this if the buyer left the feedback in error, for example by accidentally choosing a negative rating, or past confusing you with another seller.

Feedback revision requests are limited by eBay, as follows:

You can simply request a revision for feedback that is less than xxx days sometime.
You can only make five feedback revision requests in a year.
For every 1,000 feedback ratings you receive during the year, you can brand five additional feedback revision requests.

After yous brand an eBay feedback revision request, the buyer has ten days to either revise their feedback or decline your request. If the buyer ignores the asking, or refuses to change their feedback, at that place is nothing more you can do.

Because feedback revision requests are limited, and the decision lies entirely with the buyer, information technology is very important to piece of work things out with the buyer through eBay'south messaging system before sending a revision request. Only later they have agreed that they will alter their feedback should you go ahead with the feedback revision request.

Get-go the feedback revision procedure on eBay.com.

Should I answer to negative feedback on eBay?

It is possible to reply to any feedback that you receive on eBay, including negative feedback. Yous tin can respond merely once and you lot tin't edit or remove your reply at a later date.

Replying does not affect your feedback score, and it'southward not a adept way to resolve issues because there is no way to have a back-and-along conversation. The but matter it does is evidence your respond under the feedback itself, on your feedback profile page.

But a minority of eBay buyers will go and expect at a seller's feedback contour page, and fewer still volition spend time reading negative feedback comments. However, buyers are more probable to do this if yous sell high-value items, and in that location is one other potential benefit: putting across your side of your story might make you experience a lot better!

Y'all can reply to feedback simply once and you lot tin't edit or remove your respond at a later date, so it's important to use it carefully. Don't reply to feedback at all if there is any chance of resolving the problem with the buyer, as it is simply probable to antagonize them further.

If you do respond to negative feedback, explain what happened calmly and factually. If you audio angry or defensive, information technology can just reinforce the feedback. A reply such as "We offered a full refund but the buyer did not respond" volition come up across a lot better than "Zilch nosotros did could make this heir-apparent happy".

Reply to feedback on eBay.com.

What should I do if I receive negative feedback?

As mentioned in a higher place, you should resist immediately replying to negative feedback. You simply get one risk to reply, and then don't use it up straight away. The aforementioned applies to leaving feedback for the buyer (which can merely be positive anyhow).

Sometimes negative feedback is a surprise – you had no idea there was a problem – and sometimes information technology comes later you lot and the buyer have exchanged messages. It can fifty-fifty come up while you lot are still working with a heir-apparent to resolve a problem!

Remember that buyers are ordinary people, and that their negative feedback could be due to simply about anything, including:

They are extremely upset about some aspect of their purchase.
They completely misunderstood your letters to them, or they freaked out when you didn't reply as quickly as they expected.
They think submitting negative feedback will flag their problem to you lot, or to eBay, and aid get it resolved.
They are having a bad day, or a hangover, or take simply been fired.
They don't understand how to employ the eBay feedback system.
They clicked the incorrect push button.

Whatever the circumstances, it's usually worth messaging the buyer and trying to resolve the problem. Put your best client service hat on, keep an open mind, and try to notice out what went incorrect.

Exactly how yous endeavor to resolve the problem depends on many factors. Request them to render the item is not always the correct solution. For instance, if they ordered a pack of 5 of an detail that is difficult to become hold of, and you sent them a pack of three, a partial refund would be a much better solution.

Continue the buyer informed, and let them know what you lot are going to do. Check that they are satisfied, and when the whole situation has blown over you lot can request a feedback revision (encounter above).

Can I purchase eBay feedback?

You don't have to expect very hard to find people offering to post positive eBay feedback for you, commonly on freelancing sites like Fiverr and People Per Hour.

For example, the freelancer below is offering 500 eBay watchers for £15 (about $20), in an attempt to game eBay'southward search algorithm. 10 positive feedback is offered as an add together-on for an additional £15. At the bottom of the screenshot, yous can encounter that this offer has had over 90,000 views and over one,000 sales.

You can't receive feedback on eBay without first making a sale. But making a sale means receiving payment, shipping orders, and paying fees. So, fake feedback services similar this normally work by accepting culling payment methods on your listings (such as greenbacks on collection), so you can marking orders as paid and shipped without actually having to receive payment.

The freelancer will often apply the "Make An Offer" facility and then they can brand very low offers which you and so accept, to minimize your eBay fees. They will employ different eBay accounts and wait a few days before leaving feedback, to go far announced that the transaction is genuine and normal.

Unsurprisingly, buying faux positive feedback is forbidden under eBay'south feedback manipulation policy. The typical pattern of faux feedback, as detailed above, is quite easy to detect. If you are caught, information technology will be very clear that you intended to deceive eBay and eBay buyers, and so you should look to take your seller account suspended, mayhap permanently.

If you really desire to increase your feedback, it's much safer to take your time and sell a lot of low-value items, instead of buying feedback and risking losing your account forever.

Should I leave feedback for buyers on eBay?

Y'all can leave feedback for buyers on eBay, but you can only get out positive feedback, and then information technology's more of a simple thanks than a 18-carat comment on a transaction.

Heir-apparent feedback doesn't really matter a great deal, now that nigh transactions on eBay are at a stock-still price and paid for immediately. It actually seems quite strange today to receive feedback for but ownership something online! It'southward not a remarkable thing.

However, some eBay buyers will proceed an eye on their feedback score and volition appreciate your feedback, making it more likely that they will reciprocate and leave positive feedback for you lot.

Y'all tin can leave feedback manually, but if you accept Selling Manager Pro this can be completely automated.

Is it possible to leave negative feedback for buyers?

You can only leave positive feedback for buyers, regardless of how the transaction went.

This does somewhat undermine the whole idea of feedback. How can it be your opinion of the heir-apparent and the transaction, if you can merely say one thing?

Leaving feedback for buyers is really a throwback to eBay's early years, when buyers and sellers were more than equal trading partners. Today, information technology would maybe make more sense for buyer feedback to exist scrapped entirely rather than maintaining a pretense of feedback. Still, there it is.

What is feedback extortion?

Feedback "extortion" is the rather dramatic proper name given to misusing feedback to get something that y'all desire, rather than just leaving feedback as a comment on something that has already happened.

A buyer might threaten to exit negative feedback if a seller doesn't give them a refund, or promise to exit positive feedback if they go a faster aircraft service than they paid for. A seller might inquire for positive feedback from a heir-apparent before they accept a return asking.

The examples in a higher place, along with whatever other apply of feedback every bit leverage against an eBay heir-apparent of seller, autumn nether eBay's feedback extortion policy.

Sellers can accept their accounts suspended for feedback extortion, then it'due south important to exist aware of the policy.

Different buying feedback, which y'all can but really do deliberately, information technology'due south possible to autumn foul of the feedback extortion policy accidentally. For example, if a buyer asks to render an item they ordered due to their own error, the seller might think it's off-white to ask for positive feedback on the "original" buy start. They might feel like they are doing the buyer a favor rather than "extorting" them in this state of affairs!

All the same, eBay'due south policy is clear: yous can't require a buyer to go out positive feedback, or specific seller ratings, or to revise existing feedback in gild to get something they are already entitled to. But if, as far every bit yous know, the transaction is already "concluded" so it's fair game to enquire for whatsoever of those things.

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Source: https://www.webretailer.com/b/ebay-feedback/