eBay barrages users on a regular basis with messages about how its marketplace is safe for shoppers, and this fall, it changed the name of its Buyer Protection policy to eBay Money Back Guarantee. As some have opined, the messaging itself calls attention to whether eBay is a safe marketplace or not.
This holiday shopping season, eBay sent a special message to sellers to tell them it was making the marketplace safer for them as well and said it had enhanced its automated protections for feedback and claims in order to protect more sellers from buyers that show a pattern of leaving low Feedback.
eBay UK was pretty specific in putting a number on how it helped sellers. In an email it sent in November, eBay said so far in 2013, it had suspended 54,000 buyer accounts that were in breach of eBay policy, and had protected the seller performance ratings of over 60,000 sellers.
The UK email also encouraged sellers to report bad buyers. “Reports from sellers like you, together with our policies, detection systems and dedicated Seller Protection Team, are helping make eBay an even better place to buy and sell.” The email sent recipients to a seller-protection portal on eBay.co.uk.
In the U.S., eBay sent an email to sellers in December stating that three times more sellers were protected by enhanced automated protections. The email contained the following message:
Enhanced automated protection
While you’re working hard this holiday season, we’re working hard to make sure your ratings are an accurate reflection of the service you provide. So we enhanced our automated protections for feedback and claims to protect more sellers from buyers that show a pattern of leaving low Feedback.
The improvements we’ve put in place have tripled the number of sellers whose feedback and seller standard are protected from buyers who consistently leave low Feedback and/or open claims.
The people, policies and technology to help you sell with confidence
Our dedicated Seller Protection team works behind the scenes – every day, around the clock – to enforce our Buying Practices and Seller Protection policies. So you can sell confidently and focus on your business.
Backed by a set of large-scale automated detection systems that monitor millions of transactions every day, our team keeps a look out for anything that could cause problems for our sellers.
While you may never have to deal directly with us, you can sell confidently knowing that we’re always here for you.
Sincerely,
The eBay Global Trust Team
The email eBay sent to U.S. sellers linked to this page on eBay.com. The page encourages sellers to report bad buyers and features a flow chart showing how eBay handles the reports. For example, eBay’s automated detection system reviews the buyer’s behavior, scanning over 250 variables to see if the buyer violated eBay policies. And if the system “sees” an issue, the Seller Protection team steps in to investigate.
