We’re introducing automated positive feedback to put your business in the best light.

[38e_avenue]

Your effort should never go unnoticed—and we’ve made sure it won’t. Starting in March, we’ll provide automated feedback for eligible orders, giving you more opportunities to increase your feedback score.

What’s changing

Most transactions go smoothly, with sellers providing great service, but that hasn’t always been reflected in buyer feedback. Now, you’ll automatically receive feedback for successful transactions that meet all of these criteria:

1. You shipped the order with tracking and it arrived on time
2. The buyer hasn’t left feedback
3. The buyer hasn’t reported any issues

If a buyer decides to leave feedback, we’ll replace our automated message with their revised message. If the buyer returns the item or reports an issue, we’ll remove our automated feedback.

You don’t need to take any action to benefit from automated feedback. You’ll start seeing this feedback appear in March.

[mandicrafts]

US sellers don't seen keen on this feature that they've had for a few months. It kind of makes our real hard-won fb meaningless?

[mrdutch1001]

more AI, non-human **bleep**, who needs it?! NO, thanks!

[38e_avenue]

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@mrdutch1001 wrote:

more AI, non-human **bleep**, who needs it?! NO, thanks!

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Why not? I don't have anything against more positive feedback. The feedback system has failed years ago - buyers don't bother anymore to leave any comments. For the last 100 transactions I got maybe 10 feedback?

I personally welcome that change.   

[flipistics]

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@mrdutch1001 wrote:

more AI, non-human **bleep**, who needs it?! NO, thanks!

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I don't see a downside. IMO, people generally leave feedback for one of three reasons. Either they're annoyed at the automated messages asking them to leave feedback, they had an exceptionally good experience, or they had a bad experience.  The automated feedback system should prevent smaller volume sellers from being hurt as bad by a buyer who leaves negatives no matter what, or has a package lost in the mail, etc.

[38e_avenue]

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@flipistics wrote:

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The automated feedback system should prevent smaller volume sellers from being hurt as bad by a buyer who leaves negatives no matter what, or has a package lost in the mail, etc.

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1. You shipped the order with tracking and it arrived on time

Unfortunately, the automated feedback doesn't apply to packages lost in mail. 

[regs43]

I used to get excited to hit feedback goals when I first started out, the last major milestone was 20K (but my excitement was very minimal lol). I would likely be close to 50K by now if ebay didnt handcuff sellers in past years (only 1 feedback from a member counted), I have a lot of repeat buyers, close to 1/4 of my sales in a year. When that rule was lifted I started to see meaningful progress. But as someone else mentioned most buyers don't bother leaving feedback now.

Generally to me feedback only matters if you have a ton of negative and or neutrals as that kind of indicates a transaction with that seller could possibly have more risk of not going  perfectly. I also rarely look at feedback in general.

[flipistics]

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@38e_avenue wrote:

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@flipistics wrote:

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The automated feedback system should prevent smaller volume sellers from being hurt as bad by a buyer who leaves negatives no matter what, or has a package lost in the mail, etc.

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1. You shipped the order with tracking and it arrived on time

Unfortunately, the automated feedback doesn't apply to packages lost in mail. 

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No, but if 20% of buyers leave feedback, the damage of the negative for the item that was lost in the mail is greatly reduced when feedback instead approaches 100%.

It's probably not an issue for most people posting here (I'm not sure if anyone in this thread even HAS a negative in the past year).

[ricarmic]

Another site I list on moved to automagic feedback a couple years ago. Their style is if no feedback is left by the buyer within 45 days an automagic positive is left (and it is called that ie automatic feedback). I recall when it came out there were buyers complaining that a patient person awaiting an item that took a long time to arrive lost the ability to leave feedback once the 45 days went by.

For me, it will not make as large a difference because I ship a lot of untracked stuff within Canada, so I fail the first requirement. Everything to the US is tracked so that should help for the US ratings.

[byto253]

Not a big deal but will nerf the power of negatives to some extent. 

[fergua3]

so after 18 years of doing everything they could to discredit sellers with harsh metrics and strict dsr's we had to meet (beginning with Donahoe's 'tough love' approach), Ebay has finally figured out that wasn't the best idea.  Brilliant.  Now that there is competition for our businesss they aren't being bullies any more.

[ricarmic]

@fergua3 this really doesn't do anything to diminish the harshness of the metrics, they've been ingnoring negative feedback from metrics for a long time. 

Anything like defects, late shipping etc are all based against transaction countss not feedbacks, so more positive feedback doesn't really make a difference.

The autofeedback does push negatives off the "top page" so to speak quicker and our visible feedback positive percentage will go up so that is a "marketing" positive.

[grann-4629]

Why do you welcome that change?

tks. 😎

[38e_avenue]

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@grann-4629 wrote:

Why do you welcome that change?

tks. 😎

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I will reformulate the question: 

"Why do you think that getting more postive feedback is bad for your business?" 

[mrdutch1001]

I for one don't really " need" more feedback, as my well established record stands for itself,  BUT I would prefer feedback come directly from the hand of the buyer in the buyer's own words, specific to the transaction...otherwise it's just fake, made up and irrelevant...

[grann-4629]

"Why do you think that getting more postive feedback is bad for your business

I don't.

I am wondering why getting more feedback is good for an eBay seller's business, especially if it's not coming from a buyer, but from eBay. Maybe it's just a numbers or per-centage thing ...

I don't understand why sellers need to be stroked for doing what they are supposed (contracted?) to do (their job). This is like paying a firefighter $150K per year to fight fires (the job) and then paying him/her more to actually go out and knock one down.

At any rate, as a buyer only, I will continue to provide feedback to those who sell to me ... at least until eBay gets rid of this feature that creates so many problems for sellers.

[38e_avenue]

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@mrdutch1001 wrote:

I for one don't really " need" more feedback, as my well established record stands for itself,  BUT I would prefer feedback come directly from the hand of the buyer in the buyer's own words, specific to the transaction...otherwise it's just fake, made up and irrelevant...

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Fake? Made up? Irrelevant? Seriously? 

A seller will get an automated feedback, ONLY IF: 

1. "The order arrived on time"
2. (...)
3. "There was no issue with the order" 

It's still beyond my comprehension, why some people here are AGAINST IT? 

No matter it has been left by Ebay, or a buyer - it ALWAYS confirms a seller is doing a good job.

I was not EXCITED after Ebay announced that change, but having to choose between:

BAD / NEUTRAL / GOOD, I chose GOOD.

[mrdutch1001]

and I shall choose "Indifferent"

C'est la vie!

Que sera, sera!

[grann-4629]

It's still beyond my comprehension, why some people here are AGAINST IT

I'm not against it - I just think it causes more grief than good.

When I buy something at a store, I always thank the cashiers out of politeness (yes, I'm that old), not to thank them for good product, good service etc. They are doing their job and they get paid to do it.

In my mind, good feedback is starting to become a form of 'tipping', and we all know where that's going.

Or it's used as a tool to degrade someone else, which results in another post here 😎

[ricarmic]

In the current context, IMO the only thing it does positively for us is reflect a better % after our name.

Supposedly it represents our successful transaction rate, so 100% looks quite good after a sellers name, 94.5% doesn't look so good.

This change is likely to bring the 94.5% up to a higher % number, the higher % number is better "success marketing" to potential buyers.

What I do when I am buying is I look at the sellers negatives. I look to see how they respond... ALL CAPS, demeaning, belittling the buyer are all signs/forewarning that if there's problems they likely won't have my back so that seriously lessens my likelihood of buying from them (even if it is cheaper). I don't care about positives so for me from a buying perspective it would make no difference.