Can you really trust Ebay feedback and TrustPilot?

ironstrike

Hi,
I recently had an experience which makes me question how much you can really trust user reviews. I had dealings with a company on Ebay where I had terrible customer service so I left them feedback that reflected this.
Just by chance I checked back a few days later and the feedback was gone, I did not receive any notification that the feedback had been removed. I contacted Ebay about this as all my points were completely verifiable but Ebay were very vague and evasive about how and why the feedback was removed but told me once it had been removed it could not be reinstated but assured me that some sort of business level investigation would be carried out.

I then posted a review on TrustPilot, the company reported my review for "possibly" violating TrustPilot's guidelines, again I received no notification that my review had been reported. I contacted TrustPilot, told them I could completely verify everything I had mentioned in my review and they told me that the report of my review was being investigated and a decision would be made at future date unknown.
So when TrustPilot get around to reading my review and publishing it at some stage in the future it will no longer be current and allows the company to bury my review in more favourable reviews.

This all seems to defeat the purpose of feedback and reviews if a company can just have them removed if they don't like them. It also makes me wonder how often this happens without the consumer ever being aware that their opinion has been disregarded.

I know I will now take feedback scores and user review stats with a large pinch of salt as they seemed to be weighted in favour of the company and not the consumer.

JJ_Egan

Yes just like many posts on here and the web in general .

ironstrike

Ok, naive I suppose. I should have known having worked for a magazine for a short period where I was horrified to find that every article was paid for.

JetpackVelociraptor

Trustpilot, no - they are a paid for service, paid by the company, and so tend to side with the company footing the bill more often than not. I have in the past refused to use Trustpilot because in addition to manipulating genuine customer reviews such as yours, I very much suspect that they sometimes leave fake negatives for the companies in order to convince them to pay for their services. EBay, I would say generally yes. There are only specific circumstances where they will remove feedback, and no amount of hassling on the seller's side will get feedback removed if it doesn't meet their guidelines for removal. You can check their official website for reasons why they might remove it, but in my experience as a business seller on eBay it would have to be one of the following: If the feedback is about things you were informed of prior to purchase, e.g. a high postage charge that was given on the listing, or damage to the item that is described in the listing If it contained any offensive language, cursing or "defamation" (eg if you called the seller a thief or a con artist). Defamation claims may take longer and require threats of legal action from the seller, if your fb was removed right away this is unlikely to be the case. If you made what eBay thinks of as "unreasonable demands" such as insisting on free delivery or next day delivery that isn't offered in the listing, or demanding a free item be included after you made the purchase.. If the feedback is demonstrably untrue or refers to something that was subsequently resolved (e.g. if you state the item wasn't delivered and it arrives up the next day, or if you say the seller promised delivery by a certain date when they hadn't) If the feedback is about something entirely outside of the seller's control or remit, eg your parcel arrived wet because it was raining If you have a track record of leaving a lot of negatives for sellers, eBay may be more likely to remove your feedback when the seller appeals it. I expect that eBay are also less helpful to sellers who receive a higher % of bad feedback.

ironstrike

JetpackVelociraptor said:

Trustpilot, no - they are a paid for service, paid by the company, and so tend to side with the company footing the bill more often than not. I have in the past refused to use Trustpilot because in addition to manipulating genuine customer reviews such as yours, I very much suspect that they sometimes leave fake negatives for the companies in order to convince them to pay for their services. EBay, I would say generally yes. There are only specific circumstances where they will remove feedback, and no amount of hassling on the seller's side will get feedback removed if it doesn't meet their guidelines for removal. You can check their official website for reasons why they might remove it, but in my experience as a business seller on eBay it would have to be one of the following: If the feedback is about things you were informed of prior to purchase, e.g. a high postage charge that was given on the listing, or damage to the item that is described in the listing If it contained any offensive language, cursing or "defamation" (eg if you called the seller a thief or a con artist). Defamation claims may take longer and require threats of legal action from the seller, if your fb was removed right away this is unlikely to be the case. If you made what eBay thinks of as "unreasonable demands" such as insisting on free delivery or next day delivery that isn't offered in the listing, or demanding a free item be included after you made the purchase.. If the feedback is demonstrably untrue or refers to something that was subsequently resolved (e.g. if you state the item wasn't delivered and it arrives up the next day, or if you say the seller promised delivery by a certain date when they hadn't) If the feedback is about something entirely outside of the seller's control or remit, eg your parcel arrived wet because it was raining If you have a track record of leaving a lot of negatives for sellers, eBay may be more likely to remove your feedback when the seller appeals it. I expect that eBay are also less helpful to sellers who receive a higher % of bad feedback.

Yes, this seller has a high % of good feedback but now it makes me wonder if this is because they have all negative feedback removed. There was nothing that I could see that breached any guidelines and when I spoke to support they apologised that the feedback was removed but said they were unable to reinstate feedback once it is removed. I suppose it could have been removed on a technicality. Even though they did not send within the time span they promised, provided a fake tracking number, did not deliver on time, did not reply to my message and in fact they did not send it at all, they did provide a refund. Maybe Ebay considered that an acceptable resolution.

LadyDee

I have been told that very high volume business sellers have their own account managers within eBay who can have negative feedback removed.

coffeehound

From experience of some years ago:  If eBay feedback mentions that a case was raised to resolve a dispute, the seller can have the text removed, but the (negative) feedback rating remains.  Perhaps things have changed since then.

askeym

Why not post your feedback on here? Also FB.

Paul_Varjak

I saw reviews for a company on TrustPilot today - mostly positive too but then I saw the claim by the company (on the TrustPilot website) that they are part of the Ombudsman scheme, but that turned out not to be true, so definitely won't be using them.

joeco

Are there alternative review websites that are more reliable?

JJ_Egan

EBay feedback is not as bad as OP makes out . Millions use it and leave genuine feedback Likewise for Amazon reviews   . Really all a question of judgment .