Re using jiffy bags - mystery solved

Prudent

I have used ebay for years, but only for the odd purchase.

I have always given away unwanted items to charity shops/ friends etc. This summer however I decided to try ebaying some things that were either new (such as unwanted gifts) or hardly used. It has gone well and I now have decluttered a bit and made over £200. I began all my listings at 99p. My best sale has been £64.00

All the feedback has been very positive except one person did not give me five stars for postage. I am still new to selling so over estimated some items slightly. The items cost £2.20 and I charged £2.50. However I did use a recycled jiffy bag, both for these and other sales. What is likely to have impacted my rating?

I like the moneysaving and the eco friendly side of recycling jiffy bags and have always done this for personal use.Wondering what other people's thoughts are? I am not really intending to sell on any regular basis, so might only make a few more sales this summer.

cootuk

As long as the packaging protects the item, I reuse boxes and jiffy bags. Some people give lower stars whatever you use.

soolin

Prudent wrote: »

I have used ebay for years, but only for the odd purchase.

I have always given away unwanted items to charity shops/ friends etc. This summer however I decided to try ebaying some things that were either new (such as unwanted gifts) or hardly used. It has gone well and I now have decluttered a bit and made over £200. I began all my listings at 99p. My best sale has been £64.00

All the feedback has been very positive except one person did not give me five stars for postage. I am still new to selling so over estimated some items slightly. The items cost £2.20 and I charged £2.50. However I did use a recycled jiffy bag, both for these and other sales. What is likely to have impacted my rating?

I like the moneysaving and the eco friendly side of recycling jiffy bags and have always done this for personal use.Wondering what other people's thoughts are? I am not really intending to sell on any regular basis, so might only make a few more sales this summer.

Unless you sell less than 10 things a single 3 or 4 * should still leave you at 4.9 which is perfectly OK . Even 4.8 is ok and I would happily buy from a 4.7 if I wanted the item. You only need worryif you hover on 4.7 and start going lower.

Keep an eye on your expanded seller dashboard though as it is the 1 and 2 stars that are the killers.

Prudent

Thanks Soolin. I have feedback from 11 items (sold a few more, but they have not left feedback) and one was local pick up. The ratings are all ok apart from that postage one which is at 4.7, which is probably due to the low volume of feedback.

If I do find I have overestimated postage, how do I refund the extra? At what point does it become 'too much'? I am not looking to profit out of postage, but would not have worried about 30p over myself, so didn't give it a second thought. I don't want to invest in scales etc as I will probably only make a few sales a year.

Edit: what is the extended seller dashboard? All the stars seem fine other than this postage issue.

soolin

Prudent wrote: »

Thanks Soolin. I have feedback from 11 items (sold a few more, but they have not left feedback) and one was local pick up. The ratings are all ok apart from that postage one which is at 4.7, which is probably due to the low volume of feedback.

If I do find I have overestimated postage, how do I refund the extra? At what point does it become 'too much'? I am not looking to profit out of postage, but would not have worried about 30p over myself, so didn't give it a second thought. I don't want to invest in scales etc as I will probably only make a few sales a year.

Edit: what is the extended seller dashboard? All the stars seem fine other than this postage issue.

Oh, 4.7 suggests a series of low stars and that is a worry.

I'm terrible at explaining things so someone may have to help you , but basically for your expanded seller dashboard go to your eBay selling page. Hover over the tab 'account' and you will see the option 'seller dashboard' towards the rh side near the top you have your low ratings.

porto_bello

soolin wrote: »

Oh, 4.7 suggests a series of low stars and that is a worry.

What can you realistically do if your stars are getting dangerously low?

You can obviously list more items in a last dash attempt to boost your rating, but for all that good work, if someone again slaughters your stars in a subsequent rating, you could end up in more trouble than you started with!

Or have I got this wrong? :think:

soolin

porto_bello wrote: »

What can you realistically do if your stars are getting dangerously low?

You can obviously list more items in a last dash attempt to boost your rating, but for all that good work, if someone again slaughters your stars in a subsequent rating, you could end up in more trouble than you started with!

Or have I got this wrong? :think:

If you just have low stars generally and no 1 or 2 * then you can recover especially on p and p by going free postage for a while. If you've got a lot of 1 and 2 * then it becomes more difficult as you can't dilute them and if you have say 4 on a low turnover account it is worth trying to close the account down and start again.

Assuming Op just has 4* or 3* at the lowest they can recover, but would need to,identify what buyers don't like. Anecdotally for instance people who use recorded on low cost items tend to get hit with their p and p stars, and that can be addressed .

plumface

soolin wrote: »

If you just have low stars generally and no 1 or 2 * then you can recover especially on p and p by going free postage for a while (Why should you have too?). If you've got a lot of 1 and 2 * then it becomes more difficult as you can't dilute them and if you have say 4 on a low turnover account it is worth trying to close the account down and start again.
So just because a 'buyer' can mark you down for whatever reason,you advocate 'giving up' your account,giving in and for no reason starting all over again!

Assuming Op just has 4* or 3* at the lowest they can recover, but would need to,identify what buyers don't like.(thats simple,buyers dont like sellers and ebay back buyers full stop. Please tell me how to find out what exactly a buyer does not like!) Anecdotally for instance people who use recorded on low cost items tend to get hit with their p and p stars, and that can be addressed (HOW and why should it be addressed,the seller is not doing anything wrong?).

So here we go again.
A seller does all he/she can in protecting him/her/self from an INR and you say "it can be addressed".
How about a seller,who does all they can, not being put in that position in the first place?
You do ALL you can and yet STILL, you get people towing the ebay line.

Mindless_Clone

For me, if I received something with a £2.20 stamp and had been charged £2.50 P&P, I would think that was reasonable, and I would applaud the seller for recycling materials. 30p I would write off as either a miniscule profit, or as covering additional "packaging" costs (e.g. sellotape or paper/ink for the labels etc.).
I would only mark that down if the reused jiffy bag was in very poor condition to begin with.

I have to say, I do think the issue with P&P is a bit self perpetuating. i.e. the higher you set your standards to keep your feedback stars up, the more the buyer expects from you, and the harder it is to get the feedback you want.
I am mostly a buyer, with the odd sale here and there; as a buyer, I don't exclude a seller for having low P&P stars, unless he/she also has negative feedback or specific comments about the quality of packaging/pricing in their feedback. A star rating of 4.7 on P&P would not put me off. A star rating of 3 probably wouldn't either. I suspect buyers aren't as clued up on it as sellers seem to think we are. It might be different if they started introducing filters so buyers could exclude listings from sellers with below xx rating on any given point, but since that feature doesn't exist, I think we just generally, just go for whatever the best deal for us. Quite often, for businesses with very high feedbacks, I don't even bother to check them; I assume as a business with so much ebay trade, a problem is unlikely and would be easy to resolve if it happened anyway.

Prudent

Thank you Mindless Clone. I have a big box of jiffy bags (years of comping!) and have only picked the ones that are in very good condition and look as new except I need to stick a label over the original address.

I am pretty sure the feedback is from one or two people because last week I had five stars. I then got feedback from 3 people and it dropped to 4.7. One of the parcels was not a re-used jiffy bag (item would not fit in a jiffy bag) and the postage was correct. It was very well packed. Which really only leaves the other 2. Both were charged £2.50 for £2.20 postage. However as you say, I used masking tape, sellotape, paper for a label etc. I didn't use recorded delivery. All items were posted promptly and marked as dispatched when I got home from the post office.

I am selling a few things this week and then will stop as I have had my declutter.I will see how it goes. If I find I have overestimated I will need some kind person to tell me how to do a refund please.

Prudent

soolin wrote: »

Assuming Op just has 4* or 3* at the lowest they can recover, but would need to,identify what buyers don't like. Anecdotally for instance people who use recorded on low cost items tend to get hit with their p and p stars, and that can be addressed .

This seems just the problem soolin. All the comments have been very positive. I think this is because I have been selling new or like new items and been careful with descriptions. I am not sure what I have got wrong which is why I was wondering if it could be the re-used jiffy bag. I could buy jiffy bags, but then would have to pass this cost on to the buyer. I mainly buy from ebay and would rather a seller kept costs lower for me.