Ebay bending the rules?

Garawa

Anyone had issues with Ebay lately? My wife has excellent feedback and stands at 100% but ONE buyer scored her a star less for postage. She cannot argue it or see where it was given and it means she now has 4.8 out 5. Ebay now send her monthly warnings telling her it must improve and she now cannot take advantage of free listing weekends!

After a lengthy phone call she was first told her account had been hacked only for a second person to say it hadn't. That person then said lowering her postage costs would improve this (I am no maths genius but she can NEVER get back to 5 out of 5)!!!

For the record, she never makes money out of the postage and charges no more than 50p over the top of the Royal Mail cost (tape, jiffy bags, bubble wrap all cost more than that). If it does work out cheaper when she takes it to the post office she refunds the difference without being asked.

It seems Ebay have changed the rules so that they make more money. She would still be paying the selling charge and then the Paypal charge as well (which is also a little con given that you have to use it to use Ebay, high street banks wouldn't be allowed to do it). These rules means free listing weekends are forever out of her grasp. Some items are impossible to send for the price Ebay now demands, for example dvds etc are generally set at £1.99 and it will be hard to send a box of Only Fools and Horses videos at that price! It feels as if they have you over a barrel and we just have to smile and lump it!

Hintza

This would be better placed on the EBay boards. Hopefully Mods will move it over soon.

Sounds harsh but I have been hearing reports that this has been going on a for a while on EBay.

custardy

Garawa wrote: »

Anyone had issues with Ebay lately? My wife has excellent feedback and stands at 100% but ONE buyer scored her a star less for postage. She cannot argue it or see where it was given and it means she now has 4.8 out 5. Ebay now send her monthly warnings telling her it must improve and she now cannot take advantage of free listing weekends!

After a lengthy phone call she was first told her account had been hacked only for a second person to say it hadn't. That person then said lowering her postage costs would improve this (I am no maths genius but she can NEVER get back to 5 out of 5)!!!

For the record, she never makes money out of the postage and charges no more than 50p over the top of the Royal Mail cost (tape, jiffy bags, bubble wrap all cost more than that). If it does work out cheaper when she takes it to the post office she refunds the difference without being asked.

It seems Ebay have changed the rules so that they make more money. She would still be paying the selling charge and then the Paypal charge as well (which is also a little con given that you have to use it to use Ebay, high street banks wouldn't be allowed to do it). These rules means free listing weekends are forever out of her grasp. Some items are impossible to send for the price Ebay now demands, for example dvds etc are generally set at £1.99 and it will be hard to send a box of Only Fools and Horses videos at that price! It feels as if they have you over a barrel and we just have to smile and lump it!

I havent been on eBay much
however IIRC the star rating relate to the last 12 months
So yes,you can get back to 5/5
If P&P isnt enough,then add the cost to the starting price
you may wish to consider doing free P&P listings for a while to get sales/stars % through.

As I say I'm a bit rusty on current regs but someone will confirm

maninthestreet

So Ebay start telling you off if you have less than 100% feedback now??

custardy

maninthestreet wrote: »

So Ebay start telling you off if you have less than 100% feedback now??

is that what the OP says?

Garawa

Sorry, didn't realise there was an ebay board. I did scroll through all the different ones and must have missed it.

Ebay have sent messages regarding the postage part, not the 100% seller rating. However it appears they have taken no regards to this rating at all as surely if someone was unhappy they wouldn't give good feedback?! Are there people with 98% seller ratings enjoying these perks because they have 5/5 for postage? Putting it into perspective, she has 300 transactions with 100% rating and only ONE buyer marked her down on postage which has lost her her privileges!

I believe this person may have mistakenly did it or gave it no thought as no-one queried the cost at the time or mentioned it in feedback, all delivery charges are kept as low as possible to avoid these situations. Very annoying.

zaax

Why dosen't she give free postage and up the price? I always search for lowest price and postage

verityboo

There is a current thread on the ebay board about the star rating, how important they are and how to check. Here:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4260911

techspec

You are allowed 3 low stars or 2% over a year.

So the one feedback low is out of out many? Must be one out of 50 or less.

Still agree though - its totally wrong that people with 100% feedback are being thrown off for low stars - while people with 98% feedback - LIKE ARGOS - can carry on regardless.

As for saying you can't go back - you can - cos its over a year. Also - its only the percentage thats bringing your account down. Therefore - listing with free p&p GAURANTEES your percentage of low stars will fall.

DON'T IGNORE IT - YOU MUST IMPROVE MONTH ON MONTH FOR 3 MONTHS - OR YOU COULD BE KICKED OFF!!!!!

Garawa

It's like being in some insane world. I'd like to know any other business that treats its customers that way! Just to compare, I bought 2 shelves from a seller on Amazon, postage was £4.95 each. I asked if they can be packaged together to save on cost and was told no. They arrived in ONE PACKAGE despite 2 despatch notices and I did a cost check with the courier and found the cost to be £2.95. So we were charged £7 for a flimsy bit of grey plastic! Amazon confirmed this was correct and yet here Ebay are getting all high and mighty.

I think they will regret this, Gumtree here we come!

Garawa

Ps, about 50 transactions this year would be about right. It would be nice to know when this appeared though so we know how long we have to carry on for, we might not be selling anything else for months! And the few we do won't get the figure up high enough if we have to wait a year to get the 100% back!