Cases to count against you, even if you refund.

campdave

Ebay will now assume no feedback is a positive transaction. Chasing feedback has always been a pointless exercise as it's just asking for trouble.

mrcol1000

campdave wrote: »

They're not trying to push out anyone. 5% of what you sell not coming back as not received or not as described should be very possible - that's 1 in 20 transactions not being right.

Granted, there are some loony buyers who are impossible to please, but they do not make up 5% of ebay's user base.

There are so many sellers on ebay now that they do need to keep changing what is regarded as a top seller - someone who dispatches quickly, and properly describes items, good value for money. That's what I look for when buying an item, and ebay are trying to make that more obvious.

If a seller consistently is getting 5% of their orders marked "down" for some reason, I'd argue the issue is with them and not the odd rogue buyer.

I don't agree with everything ebay do, and I'm affected by these changes (but not so much this time as the last update), but it's wrong to say they are pushing out small scale sellers. They are trying to get rid of bad sellers who take up CS time resolving the mess they leave and put buyers off using ebay to buy items.

It is never that easy though especially as it will now inculde 3 stars. To me 3 stars is average. Should sellers be restricted for being average? In a perfect world 5% should be plenty of leeway for any problems. However in a world where some buyers do not read descriptions, expect items to be there the next day even though they don't pay for faster postage, are dishonest and generally do stupid things 5% is not really that high.

heman2012

For any serious sellers, its actually 2% to maintain top rated seller status.

campdave

mrcol1000 wrote: »

It is never that easy though especially as it will now inculde 3 stars. To me 3 stars is average. Should sellers be restricted for being average? In a perfect world 5% should be plenty of leeway for any problems. However in a world where some buyers do not read descriptions, expect items to be there the next day even though they don't pay for faster postage, are dishonest and generally do stupid things 5% is not really that high.

3's only count for item as described. Putting aside the fact that people don't always read descriptions, this can be countered by having good pictures, with items for scale if your item is small.

Even allowing for different types of buyers in different areas, they will be roughly spread across all sellers, so numpty buyers should affect all sellers equally. Ebay must have figures to contradict this. I still maintain that allowing for morons, 1 in 20 "unsuccessful" transactions" is too high for any seller, and points to other issues.

campdave

I hadn't noticed this replaces the star system completely - I thought it was in addition. No more needed to watch the P&P stars - these no longer count towards your performance standard.

RFW

campdave wrote: »

I don't agree with everything ebay do, and I'm affected by these changes (but not so much this time as the last update), but it's wrong to say they are pushing out small scale sellers. They are trying to get rid of bad sellers who take up CS time resolving the mess they leave and put buyers off using ebay to buy items.

I'm the other way round, last lot of changes were quite favourable, this time it looks like a 30% hike in final value fees, from 8.5% (10% with discount) to 11% and no discount (look set to lose TRS with new changes). Add that to postage increases and it means at least a 10% hike in prices. I'm also currently competing with an idiot seller who seems happy to sell without a profit.
That said I've been moving away from Ebay for a while as it doesn't fit too well with our business model any more.
Promotions manager for basic shop seller is encouraging though, can finally give multiple purchase discounts.
As ever I'll swallow the changes and see where it leaves me, my guess is it will tip the balance further in Amazon's favour as far as marketplaces go.

marking_bad

Since when is 3 star a bad thing? Since when is opening a case a bad thing (since ebay does it automatically now)?

Ebay aren't even playing by their own rules anymore.

soolin

I need to read the announcement properly and see how it affects me, at the moment I have no 1 or 2 * in any category but I think I have at least 2 lots of 3*. The stars were beneficial to me as I had a measure of control, this seems all a bit random especially the bits about opening cases.

soolin

I'm just reading the thread on the community board about these changes and the one thing that struck me is that we ought to be careful what we wish for. How many of us have wished that the DSR stars scheme would be dropped, well we got our wish- but now be faced with a potentially worse system.

Also, as someone on that thread has said, this mimics the Amazon metrics system which seems to give you a strike just because a buyer asks a question!

theonlywayisup

soolin wrote: »

I need to read the announcement properly and see how it affects me, at the moment I have no 1 or 2 * in any category but I think I have at least 2 lots of 3*. The stars were beneficial to me as I had a measure of control, this seems all a bit random especially the bits about opening cases.

Just to highlight, it would seem the new rules will be retrospectively applied.

Those on a 3 month assessment will take 1 May as their 'start' date. Those on a 12 month should work from August 2013.