Ebay - Free listing invite and low stars

Uglymug

I've noted I've not been given a "free listings" invite for this weekend.
I've been through my "Seller Dashboard" to see if I could find a reason for this and if anything was below standard.
I found that a "Global" buyer has given me low stars for "Postage and packaging charges". From what I can gleam this could be 1 overseas buyer who is unhappy about the combined postage I charged for sending 4 items. I've had no notification of this - they've just randomly given me low stars.
Does anyone know if this is the reason for the lack of a "free listings" invite for this weekend?
From what I can comprehend I have to wait 12 months for this to clear. Is that correct?
If so I believe this to be extremely unfair.
I've currently got 100% feedback for nearly 800 items. I'm a good Ebayer and a good seller.
I only sell items on free listing and then use the associated funds accumulated in PayPal to purchase items.
I consider that for 1 buyer to inadvertently stop me getting free listings invites for a year to be extremely unfair.
If this is true it seems Ebay will be losing a good user because I'm being forced not to utilise Ebay for the next 12 months.

RFW

The answer to your question is probably no. The stars from a non UK or Ireland seller don't even count on your main seller dashboard.

soolin

One buyer cannot make you below standard, does your dashboard actually say you are below standard or can you just see a low star? What are your expanded dashboard figures low star percentage wise for all 4 categories

These invites seem to be quite random though.

Uglymug

Thanks for the quick replies.

To elaborate a bit further:

In my Seller Dashboard it says "You have 1 new notification" When clicking on the associated orange flag it says "Your seller performance status is Below Standard in the Global program."

There are 4 options to view status in "USA", "UK & Ireland", "Germany, Austria, Switzerland" and "Global".

The 1st 3 say I'm "Standard", the Global says I'm "Below Standard"

Clicking on "View trending data" under the Global status says in January I had 4 low ratings for "Postage and packaging charges" out of a total of 25 (it say this when asking for a count, under percentage it says 16%)

The Terms and conditions for who is eligible for £0 insertion fees are on the following ebay link

http://pages.ebay.co.uk/promos/1465/

Under eligibility it states "eBay.co.uk registered private sellers who have been invited to participate and are not below-standard sellers or otherwise restricted from selling. Participation is linked to the seller’s account and is not transferable. Sellers must be registered as a resident in the UK."

I've assumed I did not get an invite because I've been flagged as a "below standard seller" Have I misunderstood this?

RFW

Uglymug wrote: »

The Terms and conditions for who is eligible for £0 insertion fees are on the following ebay link

http://pages.ebay.co.uk/promos/1465/

Under eligibility it states "eBay.co.uk registered private sellers who have been invited to participate and are not below-standard sellers or otherwise restricted from selling. Participation is linked to the seller’s account and is not transferable. Sellers must be registered as a resident in the UK."

I've assumed I did not get an invite because I've been flagged as a "below standard seller" Have I misunderstood this?

You aren't below standard in the UK. I had a problem with a couple of lost US parcels and had sold little there so was below standard in the US for some time, my UK status remained Top Rated.
I'm not sure how the invitations work but my guess would be you'll get an invite in the next round. I've got a couple of private accounts that I've never sold on, one received an invite, the other didn't.

justjohn

I was think about this the other day (lol , ok bad thing me thinking)

Why would ebay give anyone free listings?(there is a reason for everything they do)

Improve revenue ?
New stock on ebay.


we have had a free listing day ,3/4 consecutive weeks this month

if I was ebay, who would I NOT give free listings to ?

low star rater's(they say they do that)
continuous re listers listing the same stuff
excessive open disputes/defects sellers

our private accounts always have 50% new stuff listed on a free listing day.(maybe list 20-30 items)

RFW

justjohn wrote: »

I was think about this the other day (lol , ok bad thing me thinking)

Why would ebay give anyone free listings?(there is a reason for everything they do)

Improve revenue ?
New stock on ebay.

Private listings improve sales. "Turn your unwanted goods into cash" means "sell your tat and spend it with some of our big sellers".
Lots of companies do things for free that should cost money, one of the world's biggest companies is based entirely on that - Google. It isn't always the initial selling of a product that gets the revenue in.

Plus of course a 'free' listing isn't really free as everyone pays a final value fee and a Paypal fee. When they reduced all the listing fees a few years ago they put the fees on the selling end.

purple321

I've had all the Free listing invites and most of the stuff is just continously relisted things...

They obviously do make more money from FLW, if someone has listed something for 99p for free and quite often they only sell at that then ebay have made 10p (on the sale part of FVF) but if people list at £2, £3, £4 then they make 20p, 30p, 40p etc. The question is why they bother charging listing fees at all.

cattie

justjohn wrote: »

I was think about this the other day (lol , ok bad thing me thinking)

Why would ebay give anyone free listings?(there is a reason for everything they do)

Improve revenue ?
New stock on ebay.


we have had a free listing day ,3/4 consecutive weeks this month

if I was ebay, who would I NOT give free listings to ?

low star rater's(they say they do that)
continuous re listers listing the same stuff
excessive open disputes/defects sellers

The main reason that ebay now keeps offering free listings is because they realise that now they take a 10% + vat on p&p charges paid by the buyer in commision, many private buyers are reluctant to want to sell on ebay, especially if they have to pay this new p&p fee then listing fees along with the FV fees & of course Paypal fees. It leaves very little, if any profit for lower cost items.

So ebay realise that by offering free listings, they will generate more interest from private buyers & of course the more items people list & sell, the more ebay make out of the commission charges. By now charging commission on p&p, they probably make more money than they ever did on the listing fee income.