How To Retract Feedback on eBay

Evan Gower June 26, 2019

As an old saying goes, the customer is always right… Or are they? That certainly isn’t always the case on eBay, seeing as a lot of mistakes tend to happen on this huge online marketplace – and some of them are the buyer’s fault.

The seller might send the wrong item, or the buyer might claim that the product didn’t match its online description. Negative reviews can hamper your online reputation, but what if we told you that you can work things out with your buyer/seller and avoid any further inconveniences with your transaction? Keep reading to find out how.

Revising the Feedback

The most common solution to receiving negative feedback is asking your customer to revise their feedback if you’re the seller. The way you’re going to do this is up to you, but it’s highly recommended that you, besides just asking them, give them a good enough reason to actually consider and accept your revision suggestion.

Maybe you should suggest that the customer returns the product they’re unhappy with and you give them their money back, for example. If they’re not interested, yet you’ve sent them the correct product but in a wrong color, perhaps you could send the right one at a discount or even free and let them keep the wrong one.

That way, your customer ends up benefitting from the compromise, so he or she will most likely accept your suggestion. As long as your proposition is reasonable, they will likely be willing to change their negative feedback into positive.

Making Things Right

Here’s how you can request a feedback revision:

Go to eBay and click on the “My eBay” button in the top-right corner.
Scroll all the way to the bottom of the page and click on “Site Map.”
Find the “Community” tab on the Sitemap. Since it’s near the bottom of the page, it’s best to click on the Community button at the top, which serves as a shortcut.
In the Feedback part of the Community tab, there’s an option labeled “Request Feedback revision.” Click on it.
As long as you’ve received any neutral or negative reviews in the last 30 days, you should be able to see them here. Click the checkbox next to the feedback you’d like to retract.
Feedback options will appear as soon as you click on the checkbox. You can either work things out with your customer beforehand or suggest a revision at this point. Give the buyer a reason to consider revising his or her feedback, write a short message to further describe the situation, and then click on “Send”.
Keep in mind that the buyer only has 10 days to reply to you. If the customer accepts the revision suggestion, the negative or neutral feedback should become a positive one after successfully sorting everything out. The revision date will appear next to the review.

Invalid Feedback

Every now and then, it happens for feedback to be invalid. In these cases, you should report it to eBay and see if they can solve the problem. You need to make a request for a manual review up to 90 days after the transaction. This is most commonly done when there is no reply from the customer or when you just can’t agree on a solution.

If the reason you can’t contact the customer is that they put a wrong email address, eBay will remove the feedback if you report it to them. The same thing happens if the item remains unpaid for.

There are also situations in which eBay removes feedback automatically, the most common cases being a result of a program or website error, as well as a buyer that has been suspended by eBay.

Communication Is King

Staying calm and knowing how to approach the situation is half the battle. You’re giving yourself a head start if you don’t panic at all, making communicating with you easier for your customer. If you’re the one who made a mistake, know that you can work everything out by communicating clearly, but you should also be willing to apologize to your customer and offer a solution to the issue as soon as possible.

It also might turn out that the mistake is on the customer’s end, e.g. if he or she gave you neutral or negative feedback. If you believe you’ve done everything right, checking if that’s the case might also help.

Clearing the Air

Whatever you do, make sure to reply to neutral or negative feedback, as others might see your lack of reply as a sign that you agree with the feedback in question.

Note that you can only request a revision of feedback received in the last 30 days, as well as the fact that you can do it only once per transaction. Beyond that, you can only request up to five additional revisions for every 1,000 pieces of feedback you receive, so make sure to check your feedback regularly and react in a timely manner.

Have you ever received unjustified negative feedback on eBay? Did you manage to resolve the issue, and if so, how did you do it? Tell us about your experiences in the comments below!