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eBay buyers with 'private' feedback.
Vernier
Posts: 68 Forumite
Is anyone (apart from me) worried by the existence of buyers with private feedback? I cannot think of any 'good' reasons why someone would have private feedback, but several bad ones. I have one item listed at present and a bidder with private feedback is currently the only bidder. I am tempted to cancel their bid and block them, but they probably have another user ID since they can't sell using their private user name, and could easily bid using their other ID and, if they won, trash my feedback.
Once upon a time, if I spotted a 'private' buyer in a seller's feedback in categories where I might, in future, want to sell, I would add them to my Blocked Bidders list, but now that eBay has severely limited the information available on feedback pages, it is impossible to identify private users until they actually bid on one of your own items. This means, since no one else can see their user name, that the person that they feel the need to hide their feedback from is YOU, the seller they hope to do business with!
It is indefensible that eBay does not allow a seller to block 'private' buyers in their Buyer Requirements. I have complained to eBay a couple of times, but they don't even admit that there could be an issue, and just say "you can still see the number of positive, neutral and negative feedback they’ve received": not very helpful now that 'private' users cannot sell, and buyers cannot receive negative or neutral feedback. Anyone whose feedback has been private for more than a year is guaranteed a 100% positive score, and therefore a seller knows ABSOLUTELY NOTHING about them.
Any alternative views? Anyone with private feedback want to share their reason for it?
Once upon a time, if I spotted a 'private' buyer in a seller's feedback in categories where I might, in future, want to sell, I would add them to my Blocked Bidders list, but now that eBay has severely limited the information available on feedback pages, it is impossible to identify private users until they actually bid on one of your own items. This means, since no one else can see their user name, that the person that they feel the need to hide their feedback from is YOU, the seller they hope to do business with!
It is indefensible that eBay does not allow a seller to block 'private' buyers in their Buyer Requirements. I have complained to eBay a couple of times, but they don't even admit that there could be an issue, and just say "you can still see the number of positive, neutral and negative feedback they’ve received": not very helpful now that 'private' users cannot sell, and buyers cannot receive negative or neutral feedback. Anyone whose feedback has been private for more than a year is guaranteed a 100% positive score, and therefore a seller knows ABSOLUTELY NOTHING about them.
Any alternative views? Anyone with private feedback want to share their reason for it?
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Comments
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Is anyone (apart from me) worried by the existence of buyers with private feedback? I cannot think of any 'good' reasons why someone would have private feedback, but several bad ones. I have one item listed at present and a bidder with private feedback is currently the only bidder. I am tempted to cancel their bid and block them, but they probably have another user ID since they can't sell using their private user name, and could easily bid using their other ID and, if they won, trash my feedback.
Once upon a time, if I spotted a 'private' buyer in a seller's feedback in categories where I might, in future, want to sell, I would add them to my Blocked Bidders list, but now that eBay has severely limited the information available on feedback pages, it is impossible to identify private users until they actually bid on one of your own items. This means, since no one else can see their user name, that the person that they feel the need to hide their feedback from is YOU, the seller they hope to do business with!
It is indefensible that eBay does not allow a seller to block 'private' buyers in their Buyer Requirements. I have complained to eBay a couple of times, but they don't even admit that there could be an issue, and just say "you can still see the number of positive, neutral and negative feedback they’ve received": not very helpful now that 'private' users cannot sell, and buyers cannot receive negative or neutral feedback. Anyone whose feedback has been private for more than a year is guaranteed a 100% positive score, and therefore a seller knows ABSOLUTELY NOTHING about them.
Any alternative views? Anyone with private feedback want to share their reason for it?
Buyer doesnt want people seeing what they bought.....0 -
Is anyone (apart from me) worried by the existence of buyers with private feedback? I cannot think of any 'good' reasons why someone would have private feedback, but several bad ones. I have one item listed at present and a bidder with private feedback is currently the only bidder. I am tempted to cancel their bid and block them, but they probably have another user ID since they can't sell using their private user name, and could easily bid using their other ID and, if they won, trash my feedback.
Once upon a time, if I spotted a 'private' buyer in a seller's feedback in categories where I might, in future, want to sell, I would add them to my Blocked Bidders list, but now that eBay has severely limited the information available on feedback pages, it is impossible to identify private users until they actually bid on one of your own items. This means, since no one else can see their user name, that the person that they feel the need to hide their feedback from is YOU, the seller they hope to do business with!
It is indefensible that eBay does not allow a seller to block 'private' buyers in their Buyer Requirements. I have complained to eBay a couple of times, but they don't even admit that there could be an issue, and just say "you can still see the number of positive, neutral and negative feedback they’ve received": not very helpful now that 'private' users cannot sell, and buyers cannot receive negative or neutral feedback. Anyone whose feedback has been private for more than a year is guaranteed a 100% positive score, and therefore a seller knows ABSOLUTELY NOTHING about them.
Any alternative views? Anyone with private feedback want to share their reason for it?
Mines private so my family an friends dont see what ive bought.
Reason being some items are presents.
Besides as a buyer you can only receive positives ,so dont see the problem.0 -
Buyer doesnt want people seeing what they bought.....Mines private so my family an friends dont see what ive bought.
Reason being some items are presents.
Besides as a buyer you can only receive positives ,so dont see the problem.
The obvious assumption is that they've something to hide from sellers though.
Why not have an account that others don't know about for buying presents?
Some listings are private anyway so you can't see what has been bought.
The fact they can only receive positives is the problem. Some sellers leave negative feedback under positive because they can't give negative feedback and they don't report the buyer (or they do and then the feedback cancels it out, which a lot of sellers don't realise). Some sellers also leave positive right away, but then have problems after and can't do anything about the feedback left.
A buyer could have 100 positive feedback and 99% of them could actually be warnings of how bad the buyer is, but no seller can see that warning so they then have problems too.
You as a buyer with private feedback know whether you're a good buyer. The seller, however, is highly likely to be very stressed and cautious about you because they can't possibly know for sure whether you're hiding something bad.0 -
It really does not matter. If people opened cases instead of leaving false positives then it really would not matter if 95% of their feedback is that they did not pay. A lot of sellers leave automatic positive feedback on payment so it really does not matter if they are a nightmare buyer. I personally do not leave feedback for sellers I have problems with and I am sure others do the same.
Just because they choose to have their feedback private does not necessary mean they are bad. There are thousands of justifiable reasons for hiding your feedback that does not mean you are a bad buyer.0 -
It really does not matter. If people opened cases instead of leaving false positives then it really would not matter if 95% of their feedback is that they did not pay. A lot of sellers leave automatic positive feedback on payment so it really does not matter if they are a nightmare buyer. I personally do not leave feedback for sellers I have problems with and I am sure others do the same.
Just because they choose to have their feedback private does not necessary mean they are bad. There are thousands of justifiable reasons for hiding your feedback that does not mean you are a bad buyer.
Yeah, but until sellers all realise that the problem will remain. For each reason a good buyer may hide it there's a reason why a bad buyer might too.0 -
There are thousands of justifiable reasons for hiding your feedback.
Can you name ten?
A common scam among private buyers is to 'discover' a flaw the seller, supposedly, did not notice, decline a full refund, and imply (though obviously not state openly) that failure to give a partial refund would result in negative feedback. The seller can leave them any feedback they like - but of course it can only be a positive.
Another of eBay's invidious policies is that if a user changes their user name, as many 'private' users seem to do quite regularly, eBay will only re-direct feedback links for 30 days, so even if you have some private users on your blocked bidder list, unless you check regularly that they have not changed their ID, you lose track of them.
eBay feedback exists, in theory at least, to enable users, buyers and sellers, to judge the honesty of the people they are dealing with. How can eBay possibly justify allowing people to just opt-out?0 -
Flyonthewall wrote: »The obvious assumption is that they've something to hide from sellers though.
Why not have an account that others don't know about for buying presents?
.
If they dont sell,why would they care about another account?0 -
If they dont sell,why would they care about another account?
If family/friends know about account 1 and check what has been bought they'll know about presents bought. If they have another account family/friends don't know about they can buy presents on there and not have to worry about having private feedback on either account. No surprises ruined!
Either that or change the username of account 1 so no one knows what to search for and make feedback public.
Reason for making feedback public would be as mentioned above, not all sellers trust those with private feedback and so sellers may not sell to them, causing more hassle for the buyer. Or the seller may take extra precautions such as sending an item tracked and if buyer isn't in and expected standard post it can, again, cause issues.0 -
Flyonthewall wrote: »If family/friends know about account 1 and check what has been bought they'll know about presents bought. If they have another account family/friends don't know about they can buy presents on there and not have to worry about having private feedback on either account. No surprises ruined!
Either that or change the username of account 1 so no one knows what to search for and make feedback public.
Reason for making feedback public would be as mentioned above, not all sellers trust those with private feedback and so sellers may not sell to them, causing more hassle for the buyer. Or the seller may take extra precautions such as sending an item tracked and if buyer isn't in and expected standard post it can, again, cause issues.
If they set it to private nobody knows.
What is the buyer worrying about exactly?0 -
If they set it to private nobody knows.
What is the buyer worrying about exactly?
"not all sellers trust those with private feedback and so sellers may not sell to them, causing more hassle for the buyer. Or the seller may take extra precautions such as sending an item tracked and if buyer isn't in and expected standard post it can, again, cause issues."0
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