Just over a month ago, in September of 2025, eBay rolled out automatic positive feedback for all US sellers, marking one of the biggest changes to the platform's feedback system in years. If you've noticed new feedback appearing on your account with the label "eBay automated feedback," you're not alone. This update is designed to recognize successful transactions even when buyers don't leave feedback themselves, but it comes with some important details every seller needs to understand.
In this guide, we'll go over this feedback policy update from a seller's perspective, understand the benefits and drawbacks of this system, and learn how the automated eBay feedback system will work in practice when it comes to your feedback profile and seller metrics.
Key Takeaways
eBay automatically leaves positive feedback on the buyer's behalf 7 days after tracked delivery if no issues are reported.
Automatic feedback counts toward a seller's feedback score and is intended to build trust by increasing sellers' positive rating percentages.
Statistically, only 1 in 3 buyers ever leave feedback, so automated positive feedback helps a seller's feedback score more accurately reflect their rate of successful transactions.
Buyers can still leave their own feedback within 60 days, which will replace the automated message.
The update includes changes to feedback removal policies that make it harder to remove certain negative feedback.
What Is eBay Automatic Positive Feedback
The term "eBay automatic positive feedback" refers to eBay's recently introduced system where eBay itself leaves positive feedback on behalf of buyers who haven't reviewed their purchase. The platform introduced this feature to address a common problem: only about one in three buyers actually leaves feedback, even when transactions go smoothly. This means sellers were missing out on recognition for successful deliveries and excellent service, and ultimately gave shoppers a skewed perspective of the rate of positive transactions on eBay as a whole.
The automated feedback system first launched for new sellers with 10 or fewer feedback ratings, then expanded to all UK sellers in April 2025, and finally rolled out to all US sellers in September 2025. Unlike traditional buyer feedback that includes personal comments, eBay's automated message is standardized and clearly identifies that it came from eBay rather than the buyer. Note that this isn't the same as seller automatic feedback settings, where you can automate leaving feedback for buyers.
eBay users viewing your feedback page are able to filter this type of feedback out if they wish by ticking or unticking the "Show automated feedback" box, essentially reverting their view to the previous buyer feedback system.
Ultimately, the goal of this system is to create a more accurate reflection of seller performance and help buyers make informed purchasing decisions based on a larger sample of feedback data.
At 3Dsellers, we've seen firsthand how feedback volume impacts seller success over our years of helping eBay sellers grow their businesses. While this automated system increases feedback quantity, we still recommend actively requesting feedback from buyers to build genuine customer relationships and gather detailed reviews that highlight your eBay Store's real strengths.
How eBay Automatic Positive Feedback Works
Understanding how eBay automatic positive feedback works for sellers will help you maximize its benefits while avoiding any surprises. In this section, we'll go over the eligibility requirements that determine which transactions can receive automatic positive feedback, understand when you can expect automatic feedback to appear on your feedback profile, and see what the automated message looks like so you know what to expect.
Eligibility Requirements
Not every transaction qualifies for automatic positive feedback. eBay has established specific criteria to ensure the automated system only rewards genuinely successful transactions. To qualify, an order must meet all three of the following requirements:
You shipped the order using a tracked service and tracking confirms the item was delivered on time.
The buyer has not already left feedback on the transaction.
The buyer has not reported any issues, opened a return request, requested a refund, or cancelled the order.
If any of these conditions aren't met, eBay won't generate automatic positive feedback.
When Automatic Feedback Is Added
eBay waits 7 days after tracking confirms successful delivery before adding automatic positive feedback to your seller profile. This waiting period gives buyers time to inspect their purchase and report any issues, ensures the item actually arrived rather than just showing as delivered, and allows buyers the opportunity to leave their own feedback first.
Even after automatic feedback has been left for a transaction, buyers still have 60 days to leave their own feedback for the transaction. Buyer feedback will override the automatic positive rating left by eBay, regardless of whether the feedback is positive, neutral, or negative.
What the Message Looks Like
eBay automatic positive feedback is generated by the platform itself to recognize sellers for completed transactions, and always contains the same message: "Order completed successfully—tracked and on time." Additionally, it will be clearly marked as "eBay automated feedback" to help shoppers distinguish between this feedback and feedback actively left by buyers.
Benefits of Automatic Positive Feedback for Sellers
The main benefit of eBay's automatic positive feedback for sellers is not just increased feedback volume, but a more accurate representation of the ratio of positive transactions in your feedback score. Since only one in three buyers leaves feedback, automatic positive feedback ensures your successful transactions get recognized instead of going unnoticed.
This is especially helpful for new sellers and those who sell in lower volumes. When you have limited feedback, a single negative can significantly skew your percentage. Automatic feedback helps offset this, allowing you to maintain the high rate of positive ratings that buyers look for.
What Happens If a Buyer Leaves Feedback Later
Buyer feedback always takes precedence over automatic feedback. If a buyer leaves their own feedback after eBay has already posted automatic feedback, the buyer's feedback replaces the automated message – and rating – entirely.
Buyers have 60 days from delivery to leave their own feedback, which would replace the automatic feedback left by eBay. As such, it's important to provide excellent customer service and handle issues promptly, even after receiving automatic positive feedback. Furthermore, if a buyer reports a problem or opens a return, eBay instantly removes the automatic feedback, since the system is designed to avoid leaving positive feedback on transactions that are not 100% flawless.
How This Affects Your Feedback Score and Rating
Automatic positive feedback contributes to your feedback score and positive feedback percentage just like regular buyer feedback. When eBay leaves automatic positive feedback, you receive +1 to your feedback score, and the transaction counts as a positive rating when calculating your percentage.
For most sellers, automatic positive feedback will improve or stabilize their positive feedback percentage. If you're selling 100 items per month but only 25 buyers leave feedback, you're missing out on 75 potential positive ratings. With automatic feedback, many of those 75 transactions will now generate positive feedback, assuming they meet the eligibility criteria, which means negative feedback will have less impact on your overall percentage.
However, there's an important caveat about feedback removal that came with the automatic feedback update. eBay changed some of its feedback removal policies in August 2025, making it harder to get certain types of neutral or negative feedback removed in return scenarios. Specifically, eBay will no longer automatically remove negative feedback in two scenarios: when the item was returned used or damaged and you deducted an amount from the refund, or when you offer free returns, handled the return, and issued a full refund. That said, you can still request a feedback review through eBay Seller Help if you believe it's in violation of eBay's feedback policies.
Finally, it's important to note that the automatic feedback system doesn't affect your seller performance standards or metrics like defect rate, late shipment rate, or tracking upload rate, which are used to calculate your eBay Seller Rating. It only impacts your feedback score and positive feedback percentage, which are separate metrics that buyers can see on your feedback profile.
FAQs: eBay Automatic Positive Feedback for Sellers
Q: How do I know if feedback on my account is automatic or from a buyer?
Automatic feedback displays "eBay automated feedback" instead of a buyer's username as the source. The message is standardized and says "Order completed successfully—tracked and on time." Regular buyer feedback shows the buyer's username, usually includes a personalized comment, and will be left in conjunction with the Detailed Seller Ratings for the transaction.
Q: Can I turn off automatic positive feedback on my account?
No, automatic positive feedback is applied to all eligible transactions automatically, and there's no opt-out setting. If you don't want automatic feedback on specific transactions, you would need to avoid meeting the eligibility criteria, such as not using tracked shipping, but this would negatively impact your seller performance.
Q: Does automatic feedback count toward Top Rated Seller status?
Automatic positive feedback counts toward your overall feedback score and positive feedback percentage, but feedback percentage is not a requirement for Top Rated Seller status. Your eBay seller status is based on performance metrics like transaction defect rate, late shipment rate, and cases closed without seller resolution. However, having strong feedback can still help build buyer confidence and potentially reduce disputes.
Q: What happens if a buyer opens a return after automatic feedback was left?
If a buyer opens a return request or reports an issue after eBay has already left automatic positive feedback, eBay will remove the automated feedback. The system monitors for any signs of problems with the transaction and removes the automatic feedback to ensure accuracy. If the buyer then leaves their own feedback, that will appear on your profile instead.
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