Ooh, got a bit of bad feedback on a recent eBay sale? That’s okay. Well, not really, but it doesn’t have to mean the end of the world for you. At FeedbackExpress, we’re firm believers in finding the silver lining on any storm cloud and that includes negative feedback and how to get rid of it.
Ascertain if the Right Conditions are Met
First off, you have to be absolute certain that the right conditions are in place if you’re looking to remove negative feedback on your eBay sale. And even then, eBay uses the word ‘may’ instead of ‘will’, so don’t pin all your hopes on it, sadly. But here are the criteria for resolving issues.
1. The feedback is in violation of eBay’s policies.
- Primarily, the user violated eBay’s policies on what constitutes ‘okay’ feedback. For a full list of what’s kosher and what isn’t, check out eBay’s page on that. But for a brief little primer, users generally can’t include links/scripts to other pages, references to eBay/PayPal investigations or customs delays/fees, comments about other transactions, comments that reveal sensitive information, and a few other things.
2. The buyer has unpaid items on their account.
- eBay has a pretty clear-cut policy in place regarding unpaid items (read all about it here). But generally, they have two days to arrange payment for the item otherwise a case can/will be opened in the Resolution Centre.
- If the buyer does this enough (avoids paying for an item they successfully bid on), they can actually lose their buying privileges.
- And if they haven’t paid for an item AND left negative feedback, then eBay sees this as fairly strong grounds for you being able to get that bad review removed.
3. The buyer engages in these other miscellaneous practices.
- Sometimes a buyer gets his or her experiences and sellers mixed up, leaving negative feedback for the wrong person. It’s unusual and doesn’t happen very often, but eBay is pretty good at straightening the whole mess out and ensuring you’re not left with bad words on your site (if you’re the wronged party).
- But maybe a buyer hasn’t gotten their sellers mixed up and has, indeed, left negative feedback that corresponds with the right seller. One other way in which eBay will take that negative feedback is if they receive a court order or cease-and-desist letter telling them to do so.
- And yet a third way where negative feedback can disappear is if eBay gets what’s called a ‘Notice of False and Defamatory content’ that essentially says the feedback is, Actually Defamatory.Depending on which country you and/or the buyer reside in, defamatory content will mean different things. But there’s usually a decent umbrella criteria that says that it is, such as if someone says, ‘So-and-so is a rotten scoundrel and a thief for making off with my money’. Not cool, and most likely removable. But if it comes to this, you’ll probably want to get a lawyer on your side.
So if this happens, eBay recommends doing one of two things:
1. Make your feedback private.
The upside of this is you can minimise damage done by negative words. The downside is eBay won’t let you list items if you’ve made your feedback private. So, weigh both sides before making your decision.
2. Ask eBay to referee.
You can most definitely ask them for help, but if you’re going to do that, you’ve got to do things the way they’ve laid out and they’ve got a page of instructions you can follow to make sure you’ve got the process right.
We’ve tried to keep things as simple as possible while showing that there’s still a light at the end of the tunnel when it comes to a bad-ish experience. If you want to remove negative feedback on eBay a buyer’s left you, it’s far from impossible!
*A version of this blog first appeared on RepricerExpress’ blog
