New Seller Standards - Defect Rate?

19lottie82

If a seller has a defect rate of over 5% on the 22nd (?) August, will their seller account automatically be closed?

TIA

soolin

19lottie82 wrote: »

If a seller has a defect rate of over 5% on the 22nd (?) August, will their seller account automatically be closed?

TIA

The worried sellers on the community board seem to think that basically the account will go straight to restricted and within a yet unknown time frame end up suspended unless the seller is particularly savvy and has already started to turn it around.

19lottie82

Thanks soolin. So basically, its unconfirmed right now?
I've been having LOADS of INR cases being opened for some reason recently. Combined with a batch of faulty items, Its about to push me into the 5% zone :-(

Looks like I'm going to have to start sending everything tracked and find something cheap I can sell loads of for 99p and near enough break even!

bxboards

19lottie82 wrote: »

Thanks soolin. So basically, its unconfirmed right now?
I've been having LOADS of INR cases being opened for some reason recently. Combined with a batch of faulty items, Its about to push me into the 5% zone :-(

Looks like I'm going to have to start sending everything tracked and find something cheap I can sell loads of for 99p and near enough break even!

Have you considered just abandoning and closing the account? You can't close an account once restricted, and you can't open any more, so I think it may be worth killing the account prior to the new rules. If you decide to do that, you need to do this before you are restricted.

I am not sure if you are a TRS, but with the so called 'Holiday Returns' I suspect 99% of people if they have any sense will choose not to engage in that, so essentially won't be getting the TRS discounts from November through til January, so starting a new account now would neatly sidestep the daft TRS extended return policy too as a nice benefit.

soolin

I agree with Bxboards and would try and get the account closed and restart afresh. I'm just concerned though as to whether it is too late to close the account now as ebay don't actually close the account until all the last dates for appeals and cases has passed. So it might slip below standard and get restricted before it is formally closed.

OP, are your defects correct and are any about to drop off the rolling total? Just having a couple drop off might pull you back, or as you suggest water the percentage down with some quick and cheap sales for the feedback.

19lottie82

Hmmmmm that's something to consider. I am a TRS.

I'm actually going on holiday so will be getting rid of my stock within the next week or so, so that could be an option.

Just worried about starting a new account and having to build up my selling allowances again? I'm currently selling about £3-4k a month and about 250 items.

Does anyone have any idea what "restricted" actually means?

Soolin, no I don't think any are about to drop off as I have only been selling for 9 months. I do plan to start selling everything recorded when I get back from holiday tho, and also sell a load of 99p items so this should stem / dilute the cases.

Thanks a lot of the advice / info, it's really appreciated.

campdave

Just make sure the 99p items you sell don't attract any defects of their own.

bxboards

19lottie82 wrote: »

Does anyone have any idea what "restricted" actually means?

It depends, but you could well find yourself with a selling allowance of only 10 or 20 items a month, and with defects approaching 5% that would be pretty much impossible to pull yourself out of that - only 1 out of those potential 20 needs to go wrong (1 / 20 = 5%) and you are in deeper trouble, and will go from Restricted to Suspended.

Remember once you are restricted, you cannot use other accounts, so it's really important not to go to Restricted.

If I was you, I'd cease trading now - you have 30 days + delivery times to close your account, and the new standards don't start until August. So if you stop now, you'll be closed by August and can legitimately start over. And as least you go in fully aware of the new playing field, and won't be caught by retrospective issues.

19lottie82

bxboards wrote: »

It depends, but you could well find yourself with a selling allowance of only 10 or 20 items a month, and with defects approaching 5% that would be pretty much impossible to pull yourself out of that - only 1 out of those potential 20 needs to go wrong (1 / 20 = 5%) and you are in deeper trouble, and will go from Restricted to Suspended.

Remember once you are restricted, you cannot use other accounts, so it's really important not to go to Restricted.

If I was you, I'd cease trading now - you have 30 days + delivery times to close your account, and the new standards don't start until August. So if you stop now, you'll be closed by August and can legitimately start over. And as least you go in fully aware of the new playing field, and won't be caught by retrospective issues.

OK, so will it be OK to close it off on the 1st July? That's when all my stock will be sold, as 90% of it is on auction. Thanks again

bxboards

19lottie82 wrote: »

OK, so will it be OK to close it off on the 1st July? That's when all my stock will be sold, as 90% of it is on auction. Thanks again

Should be - just keep an eye open for the Case deadlines, plus last possible estimated delivery date. If you do want to close, maybe worth editing any auctions without bids to offer a faster postage option, thereby shorting the potential time for Cases to be raised.

Gleeful

soolin wrote: »

The worried sellers on the community board seem to think that basically the account will go straight to restricted and within a yet unknown time frame end up suspended unless the seller is particularly savvy and has already started to turn it around.

Is this true?

I thought there was a 'grace period'