DSRs - Discuss

cyril82

soolin wrote: »

Until sellers realise that stars are subjective and two people with the same experience will rate differently, I thnk there will always be problems.

What about ebay? it's their system and they think that anything less than 5 out of 5 is not good, however the fact is not many people will rate 5 out of 5 or 10 out of 10 if the scale was larger, most people will reserve the highest mark for those rare instances where a seller "goes the extra mile" or does something out of the ordinary, otherwise the next mark down, generally seen as "good" i.e no problems would use again, is used, however this is bad in ebay's book.

Ebay should explain to buyers how their rating system works, for example most would probably assume the system worked something like this,

1. very poor
2. poor
3. average
4. good
5. excellent

yet in reality their scale is more

1. dreadful
2. very poor
3. poor
4. average
5. good

so anything below full marks has a negative impact on sellers as average is not acceptable on ebay, i don't think most buyers realise this and think that 4 stars is a good rating, it is not.

longhotbath

Ok - you have now given me another reason to get paranoid.

My communication dsr has taken a hit in the last week. Yet everyone said great communication in their feedback.

Ive ordered a report to see who it is and what I can do differently. My 12 month DSRs are fine, but my 30 days are up and down like yoyos (admitidly more up...). My report says that someone left a 1 on comms.

A couple of days ago, I agreed to a BIN, posted it 20 minutes later - emailed her to say that it caught the last post. She got it the next morning, and gave me a 4 on comms!!!!

I give a 5 on comms if there are no problems, and I dont get bombarded with emails.
If there is a problem, I give a 5 if answered within 1 working day, and the matter is resolved and the seller is polite.

sequence

How do you find out what stars someone gave you ?

Rebel

OK I am mainly a buyer with a lot of friends who are also buyers and we do sometimes talk (I own and run my own forums with about 6000 members and it has been running since 2001).

Re the DSR's I can tell you why SOME buyers may mark SOME sellers down especially in the communications rating.

I have no intention of starting an argument over something thats been discussed many times before but its all about feedback.

Most buyers I know feel that once they have bought a product and paid for it they have completed their part of the transaction at that point they believe the seller SHOULD leave them feedback, the majority of sellers do not bother.

I am aware most people on this section feel feedback is meaningless, well as a seller you can think like that if you wish but to get the answer you are looking for you need to understand your buyers. As a buyer the feedback does mean something. (Even if its only a reminder the buyer may have been buying to many items:D)

Most buyers check their own feedback religously and feel put out when it is not left for them even if they say differently when they post here!

I can tell you if they feel irritated because they haven't received feedback they often look for a way to punish the seller and DSR's are the easy way to do it, it may not warrant a -ve feedback to them, but a hit on the stars is certainly on the cards.

PS. Don't shoot the messenger, the question has been asked and I have tried to answer honestly and constructively knowing how many other buyers feel.

ArmitageShanks

^The above just punishes the sellers who don't have selling manager pro (or a featured shop where SMP is free) where they can set auto feedback (on payment or receipt of buyer feedback).

We have 4 accounts, 2 receive feedback automatically on payment (meaningless that it is) and on the other 2 buyers get none.

As long as they get their Power Seller discount, most high volume sellers won't give two hoots about their DSRs. After all, why would they.

TurkishDelight

Rebel wrote: »

OK I am mainly a buyer with a lot of friends who are also buyers and we do sometimes talk (I own and run my own forums with about 6000 members and it has been running since 2001).

Re the DSR's I can tell you why SOME buyers may mark SOME sellers down especially in the communications rating.

I have no intention of starting an argument over something thats been discussed many times before but its all about feedback.

Most buyers I know feel that once they have bought a product and paid for it they have completed their part of the transaction at that point they believe the seller SHOULD leave them feedback, the majority of sellers do not bother.

I am aware most people on this section feel feedback is meaningless, well as a seller you can think like that if you wish but to get the answer you are looking for you need to understand your buyers. As a buyer the feedback does mean something. (Even if its only a reminder the buyer may have been buying to many items:D)

Most buyers check their own feedback religously and feel put out when it is not left for them even if they say differently when they post here!

I can tell you if they feel irritated because they haven't received feedback they often look for a way to punish the seller and DSR's are the easy way to do it, it may not warrant a -ve feedback to them, but a hit on the stars is certainly on the cards.

PS. Don't shoot the messenger, the question has been asked and I have tried to answer honestly and constructively knowing how many other buyers feel.

I can honestly say that I have no idea whatsoever what feedback is on my buying account, nor do I care. I stopped caring as soon as ebay made buyers feedback irrelevent. (not too long after I joined actually- I was quite baffled when I got a revenge neutral for the one and only time.) The only buyers we have had hassle for feedback were people who were selling as well, and obviously wanted to get a different colour star. :rolleyes: I'm never going to leave feedback before a buyer because their part of the bargain is not done when they have paid- there are countless other ways they can be total nighmares.

soolin

Sorry but I can't agree about buyers. I couldn't tell you within 50 or so feedback what any of my buying accounts have by way of feedback. Why would I be in the slightest bit interested?

I can't get a neg, I can't be stopped form bidding on any auctions due to low feedback once I've cleared 5 or more (that's for sellers who block buyers with no credit card registered and less than 5 feedback). Frankly I wouldn't care if I never received another feedback as a buyer. I can't see the point of it?

My selling accounts ar eslightly different, I actually wouldn't be at all bothered to never get any feedback on that, but i do check it mainly to see what my stars are doing and whether I have any 1 or 2 * in my extended dashboard. Otherwise I really don't care at all.

The only other thing I sometimes check if i get bad vibes about a buyer is their feedback left for others, I actually have a few buyers blocked purely because they leave too many neutrals and negs.

General question then from an interesetd point of view, why would a buyer need feedback?

cyril82

Rebel wrote: »

I can tell you if buyers feel irritated because they haven't received feedback they often look for a way to punish the seller and DSR's are the easy way to do it, it may not warrant a -ve feedback to them, but a hit on the stars is certainly on the cards.

PS. Don't shoot the messenger, the question has been asked and I have tried to answer honestly and constructively knowing how many other buyers feel.

Further evidence of the irrelevance of the DSR system.

So we have got,

• people who will mark you down for not giving them a running commentary on their order, i.e Payment received, postage printed, product put in envelope, envelope posted, (i'd rather they just got on with it and sent me my goods personally)
• then we have buyers "upset" at not getting feedback for a purchase marking you down,
• Feedback blackmailers marking you down if you don't give into their demands,
• competition who will buy from you, leave positive feedback but mark down your DSR's to get higher visibility than you in the best match results

It's just another bad idea that sounds good in theory and doesn't work in practise.

StaffsSW

soolin wrote: »

General question then from an interesetd point of view, why would a buyer need feedback?

It must be an ego thing. It can be the only answer.

Tell me another website that awards it's buyers with a patronising mark when they make a purchase? It's not even like loyalty points that can be cashed in - it's utterly meaningless and proves nothing.

My main buyer account has private feedback, and I've no idea what my score is - it could be 100, it could be 500, it's been that long since I checked!

I just don't understand why non-sellers get so hung up about feedback...

Premier_2

cyril82 wrote: »

...Ebay should explain to buyers how their rating system works, for example most would probably assume the system worked something like this,

1. very poor
2. poor
3. average
4. good
5. excellent

yet in reality their scale is more

1. dreadful
2. very poor
3. poor
4. average
5. good

so anything below full marks has a negative impact on sellers as average is not acceptable on ebay, i don't think most buyers realise this and think that 4 stars is a good rating, it is not.

They do

How accurate was the item description?
1. Very inaccurate
2. Inaccurate
3. Neither inacurate nor accurate
4. Accurate
5. Very accurate

How satisfied were you with the seller's communication?
1. Very unsatisfied
2. satisfied
3. Neither unsatisfied nor satisfied
4. Satisfied
5. Very Satisfied

How quickly did the seller dispatch the item?
1. Very slowly
2. Slowly
3. Neither slowly nor quickly
4. Quickly
5. Very quickly

How reasonable were the P&P charges?
1. Very unreasonable
2. Unreasionable
3. Neither unreasonable nor reasonable
4. Reasonable
5. Very reasonable

But some people are just TSFE