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What is the policy?
Our policy is to ensure that feedback is meaningful for both buyers and sellers. We do not allow feedback that is harmful, inappropriate or irrelevant as this reduces trust between buyers and sellers, and undermines the feedback system. You’ll find more detail below on situations in which we remove feedback. In each case, we make sure we have factual evidence to support removal.
While we’re committed to protecting sellers’ businesses, it’s worth remembering that buyers do not expect to see 100% positive feedback and that eBay is not in a position to contradict buyers’ opinions or judgement of items. We recommend that sellers reply to negative or neutral feedback with a thoughtful, well-written response that demonstrates how much you care about your buyer’s experience.
How do we remove feedback?
We use automation to proactively remove feedback that goes against our policy but in cases that are not clear-cut, we carry out a manual review. You can contact us to request removal, at which point a team member will review the feedback. Depending on the situation, we may remove the comment, ratings and/or images.
When do we remove feedback?
Harmful, inappropriate or irrelevant comments and images
We remove all feedback that contains any:
- Content promoting hatred, violence or discrimination
- Profane, obscene, adult, illegal or explicit content
- Opinions on any political, religious or social issues
- Any implied or explicit threats or intimidation
- Personally identifiable information
- Links, URLs or other content encouraging sales outside of eBay
- Infringement of third-party rights
- Meaningless content or images that aren’t of the item purchased
- Comments intended for a different item or seller
- Negative comments with positive ratings, or positive comments with negative ratings
- Personal attacks that could harm the reputation of the seller or their business and could not reasonably be viewed as constructive criticism
Any pictures left in feedback should accurately represent the item purchased and follow our policies, including the Images, videos and text policy, the Offensive materials policy, the Restricted adult items policy, and the Illegal explicit content policy.
Extortion and manipulation
We remove all feedback that:
- Is used as a means to extort another member
- Is used to manipulate feedback ratings (see our Feedback manipulation policy)
Buyer-related transaction issues
We remove neutral/negative feedback when we can see that:
- The buyer asked to cancel after placing their order
- The order was cancelled due to an issue with the buyer’s address
- The order was cancelled because the buyer didn’t pay
- The buyer is raising an issue that was correctly disclosed in the listing
- The buyer has been actioned under our Abusive buyer policy
- The buyer requested a change to an order after they’d paid (and their feedback relates to this)
Item delivery issues
We remove neutral/negative feedback when the buyer is referencing:
- A delivery issue where tracking shows us that the delivery or handling time expectations were met
- A delivery issue where a natural disaster or unexpected event caused a carrier delay
- A customs or tax issue outside the seller’s control that we could identify
Returns issues
We remove neutral/negative feedback when any of the following occurred and this is what the buyer is referencing:
- The item was returned used or damaged and the seller deducted an amount from the refund
- The seller declined a change-of-mind return request, as the listing didn’t offer returns
- The buyer changed their mind and was liable for the cost of an eBay return label
- The seller offers free returns, handled the return and issued a refund
eBay site or programme issues
We remove neutral/negative feedback when:
- The comment is about not being able to retract a bid
- The problem was caused by a technical issue on the eBay site that we could identify
- An eBay Money Back Guarantee case or payment dispute was closed with the seller having met their obligations to the buyer
- The item was posted on-time with eBay International Shipping or the Global Shipping Program and there was a delivery-related issue
Tip
If you think feedback goes against our policy, you can contact us within 90 days of the transaction to request removal.
We regularly review our policy to make sure we’re keeping up with industry standards and being fair to everyone in our community. The enforcement of our Feedback policy, which protects buyers and sellers, is dependent on both parties adhering to all other relevant eBay policies.
Activity on eBay is required to follow this policy, the eBay User Agreement and all applicable laws, as well as respect the rights of third parties. If it doesn’t, eBay may take action consistent with applicable laws and the eBay User Agreement, and may even be legally required to do so. Such actions may include, as an example only: Removing the listing or other content, issuing a warning, restricting activity or account suspension.
Why does eBay have this policy?
This policy helps protect the integrity of the eBay feedback system, and builds trust between buyers and sellers.