Not selling at the moment ... falling dsr's!

MimiJane

I've apparently been under-performing on ebay and have been restricted to selling 5 items per month since Feb. Totally unfair, but as I've been marked down on P&P, I've been doing my best to recover from it and have been sending everything I've sold with free P&P.

I'm only a very small-time seller and, as I've recently married/been away and organised everything myself, I've been unable to sell anything for some time. Now I have to have an op. and won't be able to sell anything for a while longer. I've noticed that my DSR's have fallen still further (P&P has gone down from 4.12 to 4.49/4). I've emailed ebay to explain and they're not prepared to do anything and I'm worried I'll go down to suspension level and won't be able to sell at all. This seems totally unfair and I know ebay aren't known for their fairness, but has anyone got any advice? Is it worthwhile ringing them?

Thanks.

soolin

This is one of my rants...I can sense all the regulars rushing off the board as I type!

Simple statistics appear to be completely beyond the capability of ebay. A seller starts performing badly and as it is partly based on percentages the only way to do 'better' is to increase the 'good' sales to lose the poor sales. However, ebay in their wisdom restrict sellers, so your poor transactions become a higher an dhigher percentage of the overall score as the good transactions fall off the calculations.

It is actually quite possibly to turn your trading around considerably and yet still end up suspended.

Whilst it is of no use at all to you I will make my normal plea for all sellers to keep a very good note of their full expanded seller dashboard, make a habit of checking it once a week at least. The moment your stats move downwards, however slightly, make every effort to improve them. If you can make real improvements before you start getting warnings you don't end up in this Catch 22 situation.

OP, what specifically went wrong with your stats, what categories and what warnings?

MimiJane

Hi Soolin,

I didn't have any warnings, just a couple of emails from them explaining they had restricted my selling. I didn't really know anything about DSR's 'til then and suspect the "nail in the coffin" was a woman who left me negative feedback (my first one after years of selling) when a CD arrived with a broken case (damaged in the post). She was a newby, refused to retract her comment when I asked her (politely) to reconsider and of course ebay wouldn't remove it.

Totally maddening as you can only make your DSR's better by selling and if you're restricted/ill, etc., you've got no chance, as you know!

My stats. stand at : Item as described (1.12%/1), Communication (0.00%), Despatch time (1.12%/1) and, as above, P&P (4.49%/4).

If it wasn't so ridiculous, I'd find it funny that, at the end of every email they send, ebay insist on telling me how to improve my selling practices when I'm repeadedly telling them I cannot sell at the moment and my concern is falling DSR's in the meantime! The standard "blurb" is infuriating and irrelevant to the question.

techspec

Soolins right - by restricting you, you have no way to put things right fast.

My beef was also that i never knew about the seller dashboard and DSR's until AFTER my postage triggered Ebays threats of restriction. By the time they emailed me - i was almost 1% over the limit. All i had done to lower my score, was start posting recorded.

Why is the dashboard warnings not more visible and why arn't the monthly assesments, which i also knew nothing about, emailed to the seller with reminders and warnings etc.

In my case, no restrictions - yet! But with nothing on at the mo - it could just be a matter of time. 100% - 4.97,4.98, 4.87,4.78 - and the looney tunes at Ebay think thats not good enough. My DSR's are 0.00% , 0.05% 1.4%, 2.5%. Proud of my zero for item as described. I always post by next day - so the 1.4% for dispatch is nonsense. So just 0.5% to shave off postage. Its a race against the Ebay looney clock.

Try emailing a few times - you may get that one decent memeber of staff that works now and again. But talking to ebay is like talking to a brick wall. As your only problem is postage - wouldn't it be better to stop you charging postage until back within standard?

MimiJane

Hi techspec

My first few email replies didn't even address my question ... just all standard blurb about how to improve my selling. On the third try, I seemed to get a helpful lady who said they'd review my account and maybe even stop the restrictions. She then came back and said ebay were not prepared to do anything.

I've written back again asking for precise reasons why I'm being penalised for not being able to sell for a while. I fully expect the reply to consist of "ways to improve my selling" ...arrghhhhhhh!

techspec

I get emails now, congratulating me on my improvements.

Still don't know why i was not restricted when others have been. Maybe theres a trigger point - say 4%. My max was 3.06%. I don't charge postage anymore - too risky that someone will leave a 1 or 2 for no reason.

Ebay say that they actively remove low DSR's if people leave them with a postitive feedback - as they contradict each other. In fact - when i gave someone the link on here - they sucessfully had a DSR removed. This re-instated their top seller rating status. As you have 100% feedback - you could try that. But they may want proof you did not overcharge for postage, so if you did - that may not work.

Quote from Ebay "leaving low DSRs with positive Feedback could be viewed as an attempt to intentionally hurt a seller’s reputation".

MimiJane

My feedback stands at 99.1% now ... this has dropped as well since I've not been selling.

The one negative mentioned above put paid to my 100%

hermum

techspec wrote: »

I get emails now, congratulating me on my improvements.

Still don't know why i was not restricted when others have been. Maybe theres a trigger point - say 4%. My max was 3.06%. I don't charge postage anymore - too risky that someone will leave a 1 or 2 for no reason.

Ebay say that they actively remove low DSR's if people leave them with a postitive feedback - as they contradict each other. In fact - when i gave someone the link on here - and they sucessfully had a DSR removed. This re-instated their top rating status. As you have 100% feedback - you could try that. But they may want proof you did not overcharghe for postage, so if you did - that may now work.

Quote from Ebay "leaving low DSRs with positive Feedback could be viewed as an attempt to intentionally hurt a seller’s reputation".

I think that's a bit daft, I left my first low DSR for p&p the other day, as the seller charged almost £7 over the top on postage but I was happy with the item itself & didn't feel that it deserved a neg or neutral. I did however feel that the postage was high, it was something that is impossible to gauge the weight of as a buyer until it arrives.
I thought that was the whole idea of DSR's.

MimiJane

Must admit I've read of people complaining on the ebay forums that they have low DSR's when their feedback is 100% positive.

hermum

I've only received one low (1) Dsr but still have 100% + FB.

techspec

hermum wrote: »

I think that's a bit daft, I left my first low DSR for p&p the other day, as the seller charged almost £7 over the top on postage but I was happy with the item itself & didn't feel that it deserved a neg or neutral. I did however feel that the postage was high, it was something that is impossible to gauge the weight of as a buyer until it arrives.
I thought that was the whole idea of DSR's.

Exactly - that what most people do. Ebay seem to be contradicting themselves.

TBH i think Ebay are happy for DSR's to be trashed - as it increases fees from higher prices/lower postage & increases fees from sellers who lose their top rated status.