I left negative feedback on eBay today.
(Don’t worry–the seller deserved it.)
The feedback was posted in the correct places, and then I checked again later, and the feedback had been removed!
By the way, eBay did NOT contact me to tell me that my feedback was removed.
So I contacted eBay.
At first, I chatted to a robot, and I asked for a real person because I believe this situation is one that cannot be solved by a robot.
Then I asked the human (via chat), “Exactly why was the feedback that I left today deleted?”
After more than ten minutes, I was told, “Upon carefully checking, I can confirm that your feedback was removed, we take threats of bodily harm very seriously, but this comment does not qualify for removal as it is considered a general expression of ill will and frustration, and is not a direct threat of bodily harm.”
And then I was told, “In this case, allow me to escalate this to our relevant team to know the specific reason why your feedback was removed, I will send you an update within 3 business days. To ensure that our feedback forum is one of transparency, we only remove content that violates our policies.”
…
I’m thinking that the seller might have been able to remove my feedback by falsely claiming that I made threats of bodily harm.
The moral of the story is:
If you leave neutral or negative feedback, you might want to periodically check and see if the feedback gets removed.
If it does get removed, you might want to contact eBay to try to figure out what happened.
eBay is definitely the wild west (the wild wild west would then be Craigslist).
They always did right by me when I contacted them about issues with bad sellers, but never thought about checking for negative/neutral feedback removal.
Thanks for the heads-up, will keep an eye on any I leave from now on.
I received a lengthy email from eBay that didn’t say much of anything.
The bottom line is that the feedback was removed, and it will not be reinstated.
eBay would not tell me why the feedback was removed, which is frustrating.
Hmm…
“Top-rated sellers that offer unconditional returns can get some feedback removed if the buyer is refunded.”
This might have been what happened.
Although the seller did not give me a full refund, I received a full refund by contacting eBay, so that might have been why the seller was able to remove my negative feedback.
I remember @ToyKeeper mentioning that she left negative feedback on Amazon, and it was removed.
I now sympathize with her more.
Although I won’t stop using eBay (or Amazon), I do realize that both platforms allow the removal of negative feedback, which is not ideal from a consumer’s point of view.
The reason that I won’t stop using those sites is because I won’t let “the perfect be the enemy of the good.”
I’ve had Amazon reviews deleted with no explanation. Some of them were really well thought-out reviews, like an exercise in persuasive writing. I’m sure they were deleted for similarly dishonest reasons. TBH, it’s just made me stop writing reviews. I’m already doing free labor, them deleting it means I completely wasted my time.
Yep, I agree.
I wrote a lengthy review of the eBay seller to try to warn other eBay buyers of their shenanigans, and it ended up being taken down.
I did not think to keep a copy of my review.
I guess I could ask eBay for a copy of my review, but I’m not going to.
The next time I write a neutral or negative review on eBay/Amazon/AliExpress/etc., I’ll keep a copy for my own records.
I wrote a scathing review of a certification service in the UK on TrustPilot recently, and it was published.
If I am motivated to write one at all, it is usually glowing about service/ helpfulness/ amenities about accommodation on Booking.com. Just occasionally I get a bad hotel experience, and am compelled to warn others on this platform.
