Act of clear DSR sabotage… can anything be done?

porto_bello

charlies_mum wrote: »

I would still appeal against unfair low stars. Even with lots of sales, a few low stars can damage your account. Think I read somewhere that to even out one low star, you would need to make 400 sales.

Will do... Nothing as yet from eBay. I don't hold out much hope with on-line communication with them. The only times I've actually managed to get somewhere is over the phone, so I'll return to that once I've received the anticipated standard "please be fobbed off" reply.

Though I've been rather more actively selling in the past, I'm currently nearer to 40 sales per year than 400, so one low star is very damaging and I can't afford to simply turn the other cheek.

Interestingly, I've just had another look at this buyer's feedback and by the nature of the less than rosy comments from other sellers, and the huge time gaps between bidding and receiving sellers' feedback - in multiple cases, exactly the same CD - it's rather clear that a number of sellers have been chasing for payments.

Perhaps they grudgingly paid me simply to avoid 'yet another' NPB case and thought hitting my (and perhaps every other seller's) stars was an anonymous way to 'injure' us?

sharpy2010

Imagine this: There is a boxing match, and one boxer is the "eBay Buyer", the other is the "eBay Seller". Now, one boxer, the "eBay Seller" has his hands tied tightly behind his back, during the entire match. Of course, they "eBay Buyer" wins the match, because it's guaranteed. THIS IS HOW EBAY TREATS ITS SELLERS. EBAY IS NOT A FAIR PLACE TO SELL.

Ms-Money-Penny

porto_bello wrote: »

Though I've been rather more actively selling in the past, I'm currently nearer to 40 sales per year than 400, so one low star is very damaging and I can't afford to simply turn the other cheek.

I know how you feel all my DSR's are either 4 or 5 which i can live with but one buyer has left a 1 for postage:eek: and 3's for everthing else and my postage DSR is now down to 4.50:eek: Will have to stop selling for a while or add postage costs to items.

Ms-Money-Penny

Strapped wrote: »

They have 4 days to pay before you can open a case, and then another 4 days to pay before you can close the case ie before any action against them. So effectively they have 8 days (approx 1 week) to pay before eBay will sanction them. Does that make things clearer?

http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/sell/questions/no-payment.html

If you're trying to get at the fact that they have 4 days to pay before you can open a case, then you are correct. But going in all guns blazing at this point will get you bad comms stars, as the OP has learnt the hard way. eBay suggest "a friendly reminder".

I'm waiting for a negative, emailed a seller as they hadn't paid after 5 days, sent the ebay upaid item reminder and whoosh they came out all guns blazing told me i wasn't being left good feedback etc for opening the Unpaid item.

charlies_mum

Ms-Money-Penny wrote: »

I know how you feel all my DSR's are either 4 or 5 which i can live with but one buyer has left a 1 for postage:eek: and 3's for everthing else and my postage DSR is now down to 4.50:eek: Will have to stop selling for a while or add postage costs to items.

Unfortunately stopping selling won't help. Your best bet is to carry on selling but with free postage.

joess

I'm a business seller and my competitors buy stuff off me to spoil my DSR's. I spoke to eBay about it (never email them - always phone)....... they always side with buyer. They've got your money, they don't care.

Obviously_the_best

oldone wrote: »

Correct me if I am wrong, but don't e-bay say 4 days, and not 1 week.

4 days to open a dispute and another 4 days before you can close it, so 8 days in total

porto_bello

Thank you for contacting us regarding the DSRs of your 'user id' for (item no). I understand that you feel the star ratings they left were contrary to Feedback they left which is why you would want to dispute these.

eBay can't tell buyers to leave 5 star rating, or influence what feedback they leave. If we are to prevent members from choosing what feedback or rating to leave then the feedback forum will no longer be a place for free and open communication. If you feel that this buyer 'user id' leave you a low DSR, you can ask them to contact us and confirm that they'd like to remove the positive feedback as they left a low DSR.

Kindly note that our systems are constantly updated which allows us to take action on any accounts found to be in breach of it. Rest assured that buyers who show a pattern of leaving positive Feedback and low DSRs will be reviewed and appropriate action taken. Any damaging Feedback they leave will be removed.

I trust this information is helpful and wish you all the best on your future transactions on eBay.

Kind regards,

JH
eBay Trust & Safety

So basically, according to this response, in cases where the DSRs are negative, but the feedback positive, eBay can do nothing to upgrade the DSRs... but are very happy to help downgrade the feedback!

I found myself quoting Victor Meldrew: "I don't believe it!" :mad:

As expected, doing it by email is pointless... I'll try by phone.

hermum

porto_bello wrote: »

So basically, according to this response, in cases where the DSRs are negative, but the feedback positive, eBay can do nothing to upgrade the DSRs... but are very happy to help downgrade the feedback!

I found myself quoting Victor Meldrew: "I don't believe it!" :mad:

As expected, doing it by email is pointless... I'll try by phone.

They only left a low rating for comms didn't they?
Or have I read it wrong?
If so, they left a +FB as they were happy with the item. However they didn't like you threatening them with opening a case, so they knocked your comms star.
I really can't see that you are going to get anywhere with this.
I once left a low p&p star, as I was charged something like £13 but the actual cost was £4 something, from what I can remember. The seller wouldn't refund any , so I thought the charges were high.
I was pleased with the item though so left a +.
If you can only leave low stars when you're completely unhappy about the entire transaction to such an extent that you leave a neg, there would be no point in separate scoring for different parts of the transaction.
I would only think that someone had sabotaged my stars or FB if they bought purely to leave low scores.

Crowqueen

The buyer is of the opinion you communicated poorly.

Unfortunately in this instance I agree with the others, I think you kind of cooked your own goose by telling them you were going to open an NPB.

I just send one friendly reminder on day 3. So far (cross fingers as have an existing buyer who is taking his time to pay) I've never had to open an NPB dispute since the timescale shortened in 2009, but I also am of the opinion the people who get problems with feedback with NPBs are the people who hassle their buyers into paying.

I've always just let sleeping dogs lie, and it has worked for me even though over the course of the years I have had my fair share of NPBs. Acting officiously and stuffily usually gets you marked down and CS will not remove this if it is only your comms DSR. You are in control of your own conduct when selling; if someone is rude, don't respond in a similar manner; they can mark you down but you can't do the same to them. Remember, the responsibilities are different between buyer and seller, and act accordingly.

The only principle for me is that the customer should be happy with their experience with me. Anything else is secondary, as I want people to be encouraged to buy from me and successfully complete the sale. Feedback matters - in that it is a representation of how I do business with people paying me - I'm not scared of what a buyer can do; I know they can do it and I've been wrecked, but I'm also conscious of the buyer's POV simply because I've been a buyer more often than a seller.

I've also always cancelled transactions when buyers ask to cancel; I know I'm in a minority in this one but it usually gets the transaction over and done with much quicker and much tidier than dragging it out over the 8-day timetable. I don't mind if people make mistakes, we all do, I've cancelled a couple of things from Amazon with good reason, even once when something was waiting to be dispatched.

There's simply no point in acting like a bull in a china shop with buyers.