its just not fair

soolin

I think the generalism that a high percentage of buyers mark down stars regardless is obviously wrong, if that was correct then how are we all holding on to our accounts?

We all have the same buyers if one seller attracts a lot of poor stars then there does seem to be an argument that they are doing something that attracts these issues.

Yes we all have issues, I have 3 low stars on my private account (although none on my p and pa so far) but even as a small private seller the actual percentage is still low enough to maintain my account as standard. Also those three stars are well spread over the course of a year, one of the posters here as 3 in less than 4 months which bodes Ill for their account if they had wished to continue selling.

chickywiggle

perhaps its a generalisation all sellers are out to kill stars but I do believe some people do do it for fun. And i think ebay SHOULD let you see who has left stars.

I've just looked on mine and it shows 1 buyer has left me a 1or 2 for dispatch time and communication (same or different). I'd LOVE to know who as 80% of the time i send next day, at the worst the other 20% the day after. when would they like it posted? yesteday. No one has ever messaged me to tell me they are unhappy just killed my stars. it is a very unfair system.

RFW

sharpy2010 wrote: »

After all, I knew what the postage was going to cost when I bought the item. If I didn't like it at that point, I simply wouldn't have bought.

Am I unusual in doing this? Seems a bit sad to be quibbling over pennies I think.

You may not be unusual, but if you are selling you should be aware that there are many people who will mark down for the perception that they are being ripped off. A skill in selling is to make the buyer think they are getting the best possible deal from the seller. No amount of saying what buyers should do or think will make them change, so as the seller you should work out what will make it better.

On one of my accounts that sells low weight items the post ranges from at or below cost to a fraction above. If I have the post at above the cost it will include a postage price that is less than the buyer would expect (eg 10p for a padded envelope). I have also started to mix in 'free' post. We have a good level of sales, high stars and have been Top Rated since it was introduced.

Never inflate postage, don't weight it with charges for driving to the post office, calories used for licking a stamp or any other stupidosity you can think of. Either keep moaning that you are hard done to or listen to someone who knows what they are talking about. (the last bit wasn't directed at the OP or anyone specifically in this thread, just a general observation:beer:)

soolin

chickywiggle wrote: »

perhaps its a generalisation all sellers are out to kill stars but I do believe some people do do it for fun. And i think ebay SHOULD let you see who has left stars.

I've just looked on mine and it shows 1 buyer has left me a 1or 2 for dispatch time and communication (same or different). I'd LOVE to know who as 80% of the time i send next day, at the worst the other 20% the day after. when would they like it posted? yesteday. No one has ever messaged me to tell me they are unhappy just killed my stars. it is a very unfair system.

Depending on the goods you sell it is actually very easy to work out who left low stars , I can pinpoint where every single one of mine came from and I suspect people who are used to checking their expanded dashboard also have worked out how tshush the 'run reports' system. However nothing can be done about it and even if you phone eBay you need to be extremely careful motto say outright that you have identified the user, only that you 'believe' it was xx

pumpkin25uk

. Also those three stars are well spread over the course of a year, one of the posters here as 3 in less than 4 months which bodes Ill for their account if they had wished to continue selling.[/QUOTE

300 sales in 4 months with 3 people marking me down in postage and 100 percent feedback.......
not sure how that bodes ill for my account!
Which is what my arguement is about, it's seems a tad contradictory!

The fact of the matter is eBay want you drop postage costs in turn for higher sale prices, that way they make more money from you.
The star rating is a ridiculous system which is anon, yet people continue to give good feedback to save face.

soolin

pumpkin25uk wrote: »

. Also those three stars are well spread over the course of a year, one of the posters here as 3 in less than 4 months which bodes Ill for their account if they had wished to continue selling.[/QUOTE

300 sales in 4 months with 3 people marking me down in postage and 100 percent feedback.......
not sure how that bodes ill for my account!
Which is what my arguement is about, it's seems a tad contradictory!

The fact of the matter is eBay want you drop postage costs in turn for higher sale prices, that way they make more money from you.
The star rating is a ridiculous system which is anon, yet people continue to give good feedback to save face.

I commented on it as it marks you out as unusual compared to other sellers.

We sellers are all judged against each other, to have 1% of your buyers suggest you fall into the lowest category of sellers in one category is a worry whatever way you look at it.

How many other sellers here, business or private have got so many unhappy customers? If I had that many all my accounts would have been banned by now as for a small seller the maximum in a whole year works out to something like 5 .

If that had carried on then you could well have bene looking at 12 low stars in a single year, which is completely out of line with other sellers

Incidentally, I do not offer free postage currently on any of my items and on all of them charge a tiny margin over and above the stamp price, so it is nto correct that only sellers will free postage can survive.

pumpkin25uk

soolin wrote: »

Yes we all have issues, I have 3 low stars on my private account

Pot kettle and black spring to mind.
1 percent of my customers aren't happy that I've charged them 50p too much for their postage. Yet my feedback tells a different story.
Yes, that is far too many unhappy customers that are obviously all liars. Rather than get personal I suggest you look at the whole picture, eBay star system is completely contradictory to their feedback system. They do nothing to protect their sellers from that 1 percent of people that aren't happy with anything, or the people who continue to buy and not pay, which I might add we can't give negative feedback to.

ryanr

did you try giving ebay a ring?

soolin

pumpkin25uk wrote: »

Pot kettle and black spring to mind.
1 percent of my customers aren't happy that I've charged them 50p too much for their postage. Yet my feedback tells a different story.
Yes, that is far too many unhappy customers that are obviously all liars. Rather than get personal I suggest you look at the whole picture, eBay star system is completely contradictory to their feedback system. They do nothing to protect their sellers from that 1 percent of people that aren't happy with anything, or the people who continue to buy and not pay, which I might add we can't give negative feedback to.

I can't explain it again, but do you understand percentages?

It isn't only the number that matters it is the percentage and 1% of your buyers felt the need to leave a 1 or 2 *- that is what did the damage, not the actual number but the percentage of your buyers that were unhappy.

before stars you would have got neutrals or negs instead and still looked like a bad seller, the amount of negs and neutrals being left for sellers now has really gone down. That is because buyers can reflect in the stars the single bit of the transaction that they were not happy with, yet maintain overall the transaction was OK.

So in your case overall they were happy, hence positive feedback but when asked to rate your p and p against other sellers they thought it was poor.

My 3 stars are all for item description, one was for a lost item (they left me 3 * for the other categories) one for an item that arrived broken and which I refunded immediately (they left 5* in other categories) and one mentioned in the feedback that they loved th eitem but the colour looked different on the screen (5* left in other categories)

sharpy2010

pumpkin25uk wrote: »

Rather than get personal I suggest you look at the whole picture, eBay star system is completely contradictory to their feedback system. They do nothing to protect their sellers from that 1 percent of people that aren't happy with anything, or the people who continue to buy and not pay, which I might add we can't give negative feedback to.

Its the old problem: Give people more ways to complain, and they'll complain more often, just for the hell of it.