Ebay: Wake Up & Smell the Coffee! Protect Us From Fraudsters Now

mikey72

I think the feedback will be a double edged sword if sellers aren't careful. You may well prompt ebay to sort on feedback, or DSR's.
I don't overly care about the numbers, I'm not sure many buyers are, but most sellers appear to be badly hung up over it.

Invalidation

I havent bothered with feedback for years, its ridiculous and if anyone wants to fiddle the feedback its remarkeably easy.
I also get really annoyed when a seller sends you an email stating "Please leave feedback and I'll do the same for you" pathetic

BigRedAnt

"But if you filter on negatives left, you penalise decent buyers who run into poor sellers"

Shouldn't that be up to the seller? The odd negative would be fine, but if they are leaving above say 10% of their feedback as negative then there is something amiss.

"I don't overly care about the numbers, I'm not sure many buyers are, but most sellers appear to be badly hung up over it".

If unfair low DSRs and Feedback are going to have an impact on your business and livelihood, surely there is a justification to this. Why is this problem not so widespread on Amazon? Because it is more of a level playing field.

"I also get really annoyed when a seller sends you an email stating "Please leave feedback and I'll do the same for you" pathetic "

I agree totally - as soon as one of my buyers pays they get left positive feedback. The points raised here are by no means aimed at removing the safeguards that buyers enjoy, they are designed to allow honest businesses to protect themselves.

Low DSRs can affect business in a huge way; losing Top Rated Seller status can have a big impact on sales, but there are NO means to contest low scores. The fact that they are anonymous doesn't help either; if you receive a low score for "item as described", but don't know which item it is, how can you improve your description to prevent it happening again?

punkpink

BigRedAnt wrote: »

The fact that they are anonymous doesn't help either; if you receive a low score for "item as described", but don't know which item it is, how can you improve your description to prevent it happening again?

But i know that with some sellers i have purchased from i would be concerned if the ratings i had left were visible. Obv. if the item concerned was that bad then a buyer should contact the seller previous to leaving feedback to try and get it sorted, but not all sellers are as reliable/friendly as others!

soolin

BigRedAnt wrote: »

"
If unfair low DSRs and Feedback are going to have an impact on your business and livelihood, surely there is a justification to this. Why is this problem not so widespread on Amazon? Because it is more of a level playing field.

"?

It is actually worse on Amazon , the seller boards are full of people who have been put on suspensions or had their accounts suspended completely because of poor stars.

I gave up big time Amazon selling in November 2010 and immediately afterwards got a 3* neutral that said they enjoyed the book. As I am now only selling about 10 books a month and getting no feedback from buyers my lifetimes percentage is falling on a week by week basis.

mikey72

BigRedAnt wrote: »

"But if you filter on negatives left, you penalise decent buyers who run into poor sellers"

Shouldn't that be up to the seller? The odd negative would be fine, but if they are leaving above say 10% of their feedback as negative then there is something amiss.

"I don't overly care about the numbers, I'm not sure many buyers are, but most sellers appear to be badly hung up over it".

If unfair low DSRs and Feedback are going to have an impact on your business and livelihood, surely there is a justification to this. Why is this problem not so widespread on Amazon? Because it is more of a level playing field.

"I also get really annoyed when a seller sends you an email stating "Please leave feedback and I'll do the same for you" pathetic "

I agree totally - as soon as one of my buyers pays they get left positive feedback. The points raised here are by no means aimed at removing the safeguards that buyers enjoy, they are designed to allow honest businesses to protect themselves.

Low DSRs can affect business in a huge way; losing Top Rated Seller status can have a big impact on sales, but there are NO means to contest low scores. The fact that they are anonymous doesn't help either; if you receive a low score for "item as described", but don't know which item it is, how can you improve your description to prevent it happening again?

I don't mind any filter the buyer wants personally.
If they can afford to pick and choose customers, they must be unique enough.
I think to balance it, their filters should be visible, so a buyer knows what sort of seller he's dealing with, and so they won't have bids rejected after they try to place them.
If a seller sets their preferences to no negatives left, no low dsr's, no new ebayers, over ten feedbacks etc, I think they'll probably only filter themselves out very quickly anyway.

BigRedAnt

punkpink wrote: »

but not all sellers are as reliable/friendly as others!

It's a fair point; but I really believe that some sellers are automatically on the defensive as they think that any buyer that raises an INR case is out to scam them!

DSRs are essentially flawed I believe. Item not as Described is used as a catch-all for all sorts of issues; is an item is damaged in transit, if the quality isn't as expected, etc. The fact that this one in particular is anonymous doesn't help the seller or the buyer; how can a buyer determine which product is dodgy?

Dispatch time is used incorrectly, often buyers leave low DSRs because Royal Mail were slow, even though the seller despatched well within time.

P&P, unless offering free, is again open to interpretation; some buyers believe that the postage shoould be the base stamp cost and no more (packaging is free apparently).

Most EBay sellers are small businesses working on tight margins, and their business can be stopped in its tracks quite easily through no fault of their own.

Amazon is a strange one; it appears to have a better "class" of buyer, and they definitely investigate buyers as well as sellers. However you really do have to provide a first class service or you will get bitten. The problem with EBay is you will still get problems even if you bend over backwards to help a customer, which is why I believe contact should be enforced before leaving negatives or neutrals.

"If a seller sets their preferences to no negatives left, no low dsr's, no new ebayers, over ten feedbacks etc, I think they'll probably only filter themselves out very quickly anyway. "

I think you are right there, personally I would set mine to feedback score greater than -1, negative feedback left less than 5%, Item Not Received cases less than 10%.

I don't think we should be able to filter on DSR scores left, but we should be able to contest them.

porto_bello

As things stand, a buyer:

Can covertly leave damaging negative DSRs as their mood takes them, without fear of exposure.

Can leave negative feedback for no better reason than they felt mailicious, without fear of riposte.

Can continuously claim ebay purchases never arrived - only to resell them in the full view of ebay, without any fear of ebay interest.


:question: Surely nobody is going to pretend this is a healthy state of affairs?

soolin

porto_bello wrote: »

As things stand, a buyer:

Can covertly leave damaging negative DSRs as their mood takes them, without fear of exposure.

Can leave negative feedback for no better reason than they felt mailicious, without fear of riposte.

Can continuously claim ebay purchases never arrived - only to resell them in the full view of ebay, without any fear of ebay interest.


:question: Surely nobody is going to pretend this is a healthy state of affairs?

In reality though it is extremely rare to run across more than one of that sort of buyer every few years..

chancesare_2

lovinituk wrote: »

Exactly - and that is point 3 of the groups proposals.


Its easy enough to be the best seller in the world, to follow the rules to the letter without ignorance and still be taken for a ride by a buyer using those same rules to their advantage.

But I can live with DSRs. I do however disagree with your statement that you can be taken for a ride. There are always scammers and at the moment, I think the situation on Ebay is probably one of the most secure it can be for both seller and buyer alike. Nothing is perfect or 100% secure, but I am more than happy with it.

As things stand, a buyer:

Can covertly leave damaging negative DSRs as their mood takes them, without fear of exposure.

Can leave negative feedback for no better reason than they felt mailicious, without fear of riposte.

Can continuously claim ebay purchases never arrived - only to resell them in the full view of ebay, without any fear of ebay interest.

DSR is not perfect, but I think your statement that infers people leave damaging ones as their mood takes is an overexaggeration. There are always bad buyers but there are always bad sellers.

As for claiming purchases never arrive. Currently the rules are very clear. Send it via an online trackable means and you are covered. When someone sends without tracking and an item is claimed as INR, then you as the seller have no way of knowing if that is a genuine or false claim. Either follow the rules or take the chance.

Too many people think too many buyers/sellers are scammers. Most of those (if this board is anything to go by) are buyers/sellers who are not aware of the rules/protection.