getting fed up with ebay's new star rating

Contains_Mild_Peril

I have a higher rating for p&p than for accuracy of descriptions, which makes no sense. I am quite careful with my item descriptions, but still often just guess at p&p and generally err on the side of overestimation (though I'll admit I weigh things before listing more often now than I did before the star rating system was introduced).
As a seller, I'm not really a fan of the star ratings. I suspect that buyers tend to base their dispatch time ratings on how long the item takes to reach them, which is as much to do with time taken in the post as dispatch time - not to mention cheque clearance times where applicable. If they are going to have detailed ratings, I would think that suitability of packaging would usually be a more important criterion than communication, which is often unnecessary in straightforward transactions.

gingercordial

bella4uk wrote: »

I have to say I don't email my buyers after payment, otherwise I'd be there all day......I only message if there is some kind of problem, or if they ask me a question.....
However I do leave feedback straight away

Fair enough, I appreciate big sellers are usually too busy to send personal messages - but then most seem to have automated e-mails set up anyway. Assuming they have good feedback overall I generally trust them to know what they're doing. This was from someone with lower feedback only selling a few things, and I would have thought they'd have time to send me a message at some point during the week to say "thanks for buying/paying, it's on its way".

Maybe I expect too much from my sellers, but I always do this as a gesture of courtesy when selling things on both eBay and Amazon, and I have a very busy life! After all, I don't expect to be ignored completely by shop assistants in the flesh when buying something, and I would expect a dispatch note from any other online store.

Anyway, point is I can use the star system to express a small amount of dissatisfaction with that one element of the transaction, whilst making it clear that I'm happy with the transaction as a whole and with the other smaller elements. I think this is a good thing.

Incidentally, both of the lovely, very high-volume powersellers I bought from on bank holiday monday e-mailed me personally the same day to thank me for ordering and to let me know they'd be posting my things today. :T

apprentice_tycoon

With regard to the comments above about lack of communication from the seller

I use selling manager pro, it automatically sends out an email when the item has been paid for and again when I click the 'dispatched' button. The buyer knows what the situation is at every stage, it leaves feedback too when a positive is left for me

You can write the content of these auto emails yourself so that it will sound just as chatty as if you'd written it individually, they don't have to be stiff and robotic. SMPro cost £5 per month, that's 16p per day and is well worth it to me in the time saved and it's now invaluable in terms of the stars.

Before I used SMPro I'd often forget to do my emails, particulary the 'dispatched' one because I used to assume that because I sent it at 4pm it was going to be at the destination by next morning so it wasn't worth the bother but on the other hand if it didn't get there next day then the buyer was left in the dark... it does so many other useful things too like traffic reports etc but the auto emails were what swung it for me

Contains_Mild_Peril

Am I being too cynical in suspecting that eBay have introduced this system in order to make more money? The "communication" criterion encourages sellers who might previously have worked without routine dispatch e-mails to pay for Selling Manager Pro, while ratings for dispatch time put Paypal transactions at an advantage.

postingalwaysposting

well i dont mind the new star rating and i am proud to say i have 5 for everyone but then i have only had 30 leave stars :rotfl: with regards to communication i always email them to thank them for paymnet and let them know when i am sending it and then once again once its sent... this is a standard reply though but it keeps everyone up to date... and with regards to over/under charging postage if i under charge i take it on the chin and although i weigh my parcels i sometimes get it wrong... if however i over charge if its under 50p then i dont worry unless someone emails me but if i over charge through more than 50p i pay it back to the customer, even if it requires writing a cheque... i know however not all seller do this but i like to be fair and honest

kimbo_kim

i have to say i always post the next working day of recieving cleared payment and my star is at 4.8 what can you do !!!!!! also i have just put my postage up a bit and the star is at 4.5 so i'm glad i did !!! sorry if people don't want to pay my postage then they won't buy it's that simple.

libra10

Where do you find your more detailed feedback ratings? Have looked at my usual feedback page but can't find anywhere.

Help much appreciated, thanks

amazamum

I always post next day or depending on when payment is recieved the same day,all of my recent buyers have left feedback to say that the items are excellent,very fast delivery,excellent packaging,excellent communications,yet a couple of buyers must have left less that 5 stars as the shading on the 5th star is not compleate.:mad:

You simpally can't win with the new ratings,please bring back the old system Ebay !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Cornishsaver_3

Where do you find your more detailed feedback ratings? Have looked at my usual feedback page but can't find anywhere.

Top right corner of your feedback profile page. It only applies to selling and you must have had at least 10 sales since it was introduced.

dippy-dora_2

Initially I was rating sellers but now I skip the whole thing, so maybe others will just follow suit. I think the way it was before was enough and I think it'll go back to how it was before eventually because sellers will just start complaining about their lack of star appeal.
It's just making more work in the end, and more to complain about.