Dodgy Feedback!

Fidget

A few weeks ago I sold a top on ebay to a woman who apparently had 100% positive feedback at a rating of about 50. Quite a few days went by and she hadn't paid so I emailed her and then several times after that but she did not respond. As I started to worry she wasn't going to pay, I looked more closely at her feedback. As she had a relatively low number it became glaringly obvious that she had quite a lot of comments that were identical word for word even down to the amount of exclaimation marks used, what case was used etc., but from several different people. Surely this is only possible if it is fake as in cut & pasted (when you leave fb for someone you can't even see their other comments to be influenced) I checked and none of the people leaving feedback were connected with each other or had changed username.

Anyway in the end she did actually pay for the item but hasn't left feedback for me nor me for her (as was worried she might try something if I left positive like claim she hadn't received the item).

Athough I haven't lost anything (so far touch wood) from this buyer, I can't help feeling that it's wrong that she is falsifying her feedback and think I should report her to ebay. What do other people think? Am I being too harsh? Also if I did report her, would she know that it was me and be able to then leave me negative?

LULUBELLE_2

Hi, it's not possible for her to have faked her feedback - I'm not sure what you mean by 'cut and paste', were you looking at her f/b on Ebay?

When you say 'when you leave fb for someone you can't even see their other comments to be influenced' you can read anyone's f/b anytime.

I'm puzzled, can you elaborate?

mclaren_2

dont think tis dodgy no - i havein the past just pasted the above comment ie if its "ace sell, item received quick A++" to save me typing it out, just drag and drop - esp if i am in a hurry - usually will write a personal comment but i have done that in the past

victory

[I'm puzzled, can you elaborate? [/QUOTE]

Basil_Fawlty

I tend to look at someone's feedback before leaving my own, and sometimes if I like a comment (sadly, I lack an imagination) I sometimes do copy it but not exactly the same

This does appear odd but hey you've been paid and she's happy I guess so w00t :T

Fidget

I am sure I have heard of people doing this - but I don't know how they do it. I'm sure it has been discussed on this board before. In fact that is why it rang alarm bells(???)

When I am writing feedback for someone I cannot at that point see their other feedback comments and say like, copy it or cut and paste it and use it as my own. Can you do this? Maybe I just go about it a different way.

Since I noticed this, I have looked on many other peoples and my own and although you are going to get some similar words used I have not seen any word for word duplicates (from different people), let alone many within just 50 ratings.

kevinyork

I think the OP is suggesting that because she has identical feedback comments from different eBay members then perhaps the transactions were between the same person albeit under different eBay names. Some people do this to boost their feedback. If you look at the items bought and sold and they are all for low value goods or eBooks for instance then it is likely she is engaging in fake transactions simply to boost her feedback,

The only risk for you would be if she is a scammer and paid via Paypal and initiates a chargeback at some stage to get her money back from you.

Fidget

Yeah thanks, I was sure it was something people practised and it does look dodgy there's quite a lot of it but I did wonder why it was exactly the same (surely if you are going to fake something you would make it look a bit more convincing - but then people can be a bit dense sometimes - me included!)

If it is indeed possible that it is genuine and other people have just idley cut and pasted the same comments as other buyers/sellers then I have no bother with it, I just wondered whether any one else had noticed this type of thing because if you can be dishonest in one way you can be dishonest in others and so I was half expecting a chargeback.