Feedback API Overview | eBay Developers Program

The Feedback API includes resources for retrieving items awaiting feedback, retrieving and submitting feedback entries, providing feedback rating summaries, and responding to feedback. These methods allow users to manage feedback across buying and selling activities.

For more information about using RESTful APIs, see Using eBay Restful APIs.

Technical overview

This API allows third-party developers to retrieve and respond as well as provide feedback for buyers and sellers. The API supports filtered and sorted retrieval of feedback, offering options to order results by relevance or date, and provides privacy masking for buyer or seller identities based on login status. Aggregated metrics are also available for detailed performance analysis.

Methods

The methods in the Feedback API, arranged by resources, are as follows:

awaiting_feedback

getItemsAwaitingFeedback: This method retrieves a filtered list of line items for which feedback is pending from the user based on their role.

feedback

getFeedback: This method retrieves a filtered list of line items for which feedback is available from the user based on their role.
leaveFeedback: This method submits feedback associated with a line item for an order partner, generating a unique ID for tracking and reference purposes

feedback_rating_summary

getFeedbackRatingSummary: This method returns a categorized summary of feedback metrics for an eBay seller, filtered by criteria.

respond_to_feedback

respondToFeedback: This method responds to feedback provided by the order partner on a specific line item in an order.

Primary fields

The following primary fields are used across multiple resources.

listingId: This field provides the unique identifier for the listing associated with the transaction and used in the response of the getFeedback and the getItemsAwaitingFeedback methods, and in the request for the leaveFeedback method.
orderLineItemId: This field pinpoints the exact line item for feedback with the transaction and used in the response of the getFeedback and the getItemsAwaitingFeedback methods, and in the request for the leaveFeedback method.

Primary fields in other resources are listed by resource below.

awaiting_feedback

filter: This query parameter limits the response based on the specified filter parameters such as by the specific listing ID, the user's name involved in the transaction, or the role of the user providing feedback and is used in the getItemsAwaitingFeedback method.

feedback

feedbackId: This parameter is returned by the leaveFeedback method, and is required for the respondToFeedback method.
listing_id: Used as a query parameter to narrow the results for the getFeedback method.
order_line_item_id: Use this field to retrieve specific feedback entries related to an order line item ID.
userId: This field indicates the unique identifier of the user who gave the feedback and is retrieved in the response of the getFeedback method.
user_id: Used as a query parameter to narrow the results for the getFeedback method.
transaction_id: This field is used as a query parameter to narrow results to those associated with the specified transaction ID for the getFeedback method.

feedback_rating_summary

feedbackMetrics: This array contains aggregated feedback in metricName and metricValue fields in the response of the getFeedbackRatingSummary method.

respond_to_feedback

feedback_id: This parameter is required for the respondToFeedback method.

Business use cases

Sellers and buyers can use the Feedback API to manage feedback across buying and selling activities. This section outlines the high-level use cases addressed by the Feedback API.

Get items awaiting feedback

To retrieve a list of items that still require feedback, whether acting as buyer or seller, call the getItemsAwaitingFeedback method.

Retrieve feedback

Use the getFeedback method to gather feedback for a specified user, with filtering options based on transaction, item, comment type, AI-filtered topics, or feedback containing photos. With this in mind, this method supports various feedback retrieval scenarios:

All feedback for a user
Feedback received by the user
Feedback left by the user
Specific feedback entries
Feedback for a particular listing or line item
Feedback of a specific type
Feedback for the user acting as either a seller or a buyer

Retrieve AI-filtered feedback

You can specify a topic and have AI generate any associated applicable feedback items through the getFeedback method. Specify the topic and then only feedback for those listings are returned. For example, to have AI generate and return the last 30 days of positive feedback items associated with shipping as a seller, use: filter=commentType:POSITIVE,topics:shipping,period:30,role:SELLER

See the topics value in the filter query parameter for specific topics available.

Leave feedback

Buyers and sellers submit feedback for completed line items by calling the leaveFeedback method.

Get feedback rating summary

To return aggregated feedback metrics for review, call the getFeedbackRatingSummary method. These ratings are only for sellers and can return metrics like on time delivery, shipping costs, and communication.

Respond to feedback received

Buyers and sellers can reply to feedback left by their order partner by calling the respondToFeedback method.

Using rating templates

Rating templates, if used, define the feedback rating options available for transactions, covering key aspects like on-time delivery and overall experience (two examples of detailed seller ratings), and open comments. Detailed seller ratings (DSRs) are only applicable when buyers leave feedback for sellers. Each rating specifies the label presented to users, whether the field is required, the enabled status, and the format of accepted input (predefined choices, range, or free text). Call the getItemsAwaitingFeedback method to return any available rating templates. See the following for examples of rating templates returned.

PREDEFINED yes/no rating type for ON_TIME_DELIVERY

{
  "ratingKey": "ON_TIME_DELIVERY",
  "ratingLabel": "Did this item arrive on time?",
  "required": false,
  "ratingValueType": "PREDEFINED",
  "enabled": true,
  "acceptableValues": [
    {
      "value": "2",
      "valueLabel": "Yes",
      "enabled": true
    },
    {
      "value": "3",
      "valueLabel": "No",
      "enabled": true
      }
  ]
}

PREDEFINED with positive, neutral, and negative feedback for OVERALL_EXPERIENCE

{
  "ratingKey": "OVERALL_EXPERIENCE",
  "ratingLabel": "How was your experience?",
  "required": true,
  "ratingValueType": "PREDEFINED",
  "enabled": true,
  "acceptableValues": 
  [
    {
      "value": "POSITIVE",
      "valueLabel": "Positive",
      "enabled": true
    },
    {
      "value": "NEUTRAL",
      "valueLabel": "Neutral",
      "enabled": true
    },
    {
      "value": "NEGATIVE",
      "valueLabel": "Negative",
      "enabled": true
    }
  ]
}

Freetext rating type for OVERALL_EXPERIENCE_COMMENT

{
  "ratingKey": "OVERALL_EXPERIENCE_COMMENT",
  "ratingLabel": "What else would you add?",
  "maximumCharactersAllowed": 500,
  "required": true,
  "ratingValueType": "FREETEXT",
  "enabled": true
}

RANGE rating type that takes values between 1 and 5 for DSR_ITEM_AS_DESCRIBED

{
  "ratingKey": "DSR_ITEM_AS_DESCRIBED",
  "ratingLabel": "Item description",
  "required": false,
  "ratingValueType": "RANGE",
  "enabled": true,
  "acceptableValues": [
    {
      "value": "1",
      "valueLabel": "Very inaccurate",
      "enabled": true
    },
    {
      "value": "2",
      "valueLabel": "Inaccurate",
      "enabled": true
    },
    {
      "value": "3",
      "valueLabel": "Neither inaccurate nor accurate",
      "enabled": true
    },
    {
      "value": "4",
      "valueLabel": "Accurate",
      "enabled": true
    },
    {
      "value": "5",
      "valueLabel": "Very accurate",
      "enabled": true
    } 
  ]
}