DSRs - Discuss

Premier_2

cyril82 wrote: »

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.

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)

Well I like to have confirmation of when an item has been dispatched, what postal service was used and a tracking number if appropriate.
I send that automatically to my buyers.
Sellers who don't provide me with that information may well find themselves marked down for communication if they don't.
If you are happy not to receive such communication, then feel free to give 5 stars. Afterall, it's averages that counts. If most people have your frame of mind, the few who think like me will have little influence.
Interesting to note though that I have 4.9 stars for communication as a seller ... well you can't please all the people all the time can you.

then we have buyers "upset" at not getting feedback for a purchase marking you down,

Not sure what DSR section that would fall under

Feedback blackmailers marking you down if you don't give into their demands,

Doesn't the ebay policy on feedback extortion adequately cover that?

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

Again, DSR's are all to do with averages.
I would suggest on average, most sellers sell their items to people who actually want the item rather than the odd competitor who is prepared to buy off a competitor just to leave poor feedback. In the overall score, the odd competitor that might do this would have their scores lost amongst the masses of buyers who leave feedback on a genuine basis.


Perhaps rather than just criticise which is so easy, why not make some counter proposals to the ebay DSR system?
Doing so would probably add more weight to your postings.

cyberbob

soolin wrote: »

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

Some buyers want to build there feedback up before they start selling

cyril82

Premier wrote: »

They do


But some people are just TSFE

i disagree with you, i think the way ebay explain it is more like example 1 in my post which you quoted which makes people think that a mark of 4 out of 5 is "good" when in reality anything less than 5 out of 5 is negative mark, a small seller can get into trouble and even suspended just for getting consistent 4's on his dsr's if you work out the averages.

That was my point. 4 out of 5 is not "good" yet most will assume they are giving a mark equal to "good" and so will use 4 out of 5 most reserving the highest mark for rare and exceptional buying experiences, or instances where the seller had to make special arrangements for them etc etc.

Premier_2

cyril82 wrote: »

i disagree with you, i think the way ebay explain it is more like example 1 in my post ...

The way I explained it in post#31 is exactly the way ebay explain it

If the seller did not provide a service that the buyer found "very {insert appropriate word}", then there is room for improvement.

cyril82

Premier wrote: »

The way I explained it in post#31 is exactly the way ebay explain it

i know, that's what said...:rolleyes: i think it is misleading though since....oh, i can't be bothered actually this would be the third time i said it and you don't get what i'm saying.

I'll just say this, in my opinion, DSR's are useless, too open to abuse and misunderstanding to be an effective way of judging a seller, much in the same way the feedback system turned out to be useless due to abuse and misuse.

i vote scrap em.

Rebel

stevew8975 wrote: »

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...

Nail and head come to mind, and I think you just hit it, its all (IMHO) an EGO trip.

ps Remember very few buyers come to forums like this unless they have problems and buyers look at things differently to sellers or even buyers that regularly sell stuff.

DaveAshton

stevew8975 wrote: »

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.

And it even changes colour when you reach certain limits. It's like ebay's aimed at kids, what with pretty little stars and circles with maths symbols in them :rolleyes:

I even remember being able to print a certificate after getting my yellow star (a few years ago now, not sure if they still do that...).

RFW

cyril82 wrote: »

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

Most people do rate 5 out of 5 though, as is shown by the figures. The numbers for thresholds (discounts, penalties, etc) were introduced after the DSRs had been trialled and they had seen what the sellers were getting, good top sellers were averaging 4.8 and most decent sellers were averaging 4.6.
The Ebay average is 4.6ish, so the large majority do leave 5s. Not the greatest system ever but seems to have had the desired effect in getting rid of some inflated postage guys, late senders and some other riff raff.
Its a pretty good (if not brilliant) self regulating system.

StaffsSW

Given the choice, I'd prefer to have solely the DSR rating, than having both feedback, comments and star ratings.

I want it to be as easy as possible for people to spend their money on my products - if they have to faff around composing a short message, clicking pretty stars etc, that is not a fundamental part of the purchasing process, and may explain why the feedback return rate is so low - around 30% for me at the moment.

People just want to find, decide, pay and wait to receive their items in a day or two. Leaving feedback is not crucial to this gratification process.

Which is another point - I strongly believe that sellers who dispatch same or next will always have higher star ratings than those that dispatch once or twice a week. If a custoemr gets their goods quickly, well presented and in good condition, they are much easier pleased than the same package taking 4-5 days to arrive.

cyberbob

Thats quite a low feedback return rate steve. Ours is nearer the 90% mark at the moment. Though it does fluctuate