Appeals have always been hit or miss but over the last year they have gotten so random that it’s generally accepted you will often have to appeal bad appeal decisions on the forums. Is there any plan for improving the quality of appeal reviewing so that the decisions become more meaningful instead of a hail Mary that doesn’t work 1/3 of the time? If the community could take appeals decisions seriously it would also reduce the effort the actual staff has to spend overturning clearly incorrect rulings.
Can you share some examples of incorrect or inconsistent appeal decisions? I have had quite a number overturned by posting them here 
I had this one overturned last month, I regularly see threads where the same happens. Sometimes the community agrees it should be overturned and it isn’t because there’s no formal process for that, you just hope someone who can do something sees it. None of that should be necessary!
I agree it shouldn’t happen. But posting here at least creates awareness so hopefully staff can be trained on these areas better going forward and reduce these issues. If we do not share, then no one sees the issue
I’m not saying we should stop posting, I’m going to keep appealing appeals until they have someone competent reviewing them, but it’s crazy to me that the one time most submitters get any direct feedback from Niantic about their submissions they get incorrectly filled out copy pasted templates.
I am glad you made this post. So many people are clamoring for more appeals, or for appeals to be returned right away every time one is accepted. But the appeals system, which I am very grateful for, is still far from perfect, and I have doubts they could handle the stress of even more to review.
I have zero insight into how these work, except that humans review the appeals. Are they pressured into hitting certain numbers? IDK. I do think they are doing their best with the guidance given, and am glad that we can push back here when we don’t think they got it right.
I do understand why they would want more, if appeals are perceived as low quality and rushed they might as well ask for more since it’s not viewed as something much work went into.
It’s another axis of Niantic’s “if they don’t care then why should we” problem. If appeals are just something churned out of a call center that have little to do with ruling on the edge cases of the criteria then people will treat them as disposable.
Most of the people asking are the ones who are having their appeals accepted and think the appeals team is doing a great job, as opposed to the general community of reviewers.
I’m not sure that’s contradictory, most of my appeals are accepted and I’m glad it’s an option, especially with the ML tax. I still see enough come back rejected with strange and inaccurate reasonings, either on mine or from others, that it makes it hard to view them as anything more than a slot machine. It happens to be a slot machine that gives me what I want more often than not but I don’t put much stock into its results.