Feedback changes announced!!!

GeologyRocks

Retaliatory feedback is one of my biggest annoyances on eBay, so I would have thought I would welcome some changes.
But it's amazing how whenever eBay make any changes, they seem to make things even worse.

nightswimmer wrote: »

...eBay can wash their hands of any responsibility regarding the transactions. If a buyer has any problem then they can just say that they are covered by the DSR and should take it up with the appropriate trading/legal authorities.

Totally agree with this. eBay are defnitely trying to phase out the small sellers.

Occasional/low volume sellers definitely hit by the 12 month limit thing, for the reasons people have previously mentioned.

And the 3 day limit for buyers leaving a negative? How does that help the seller? If it was a limit 10-14 days or so, this would be enough time for the item to arrive, and the buyer to contact the seller if they had a problem, and the seller to try and sort out the problem.
3 days, wow. That's enough time for:
a) item to arrive and buyer to neg
b) a full time ebay powerseller to post their item the same day and should there be a problem, issue an immediate 'refund and keep the item' to bribe the buyer not to leave a neg. The small/occasional seller who probably won't be turning over as much profit as a powerseller might not to want to issue an automatic refund and instead rather try to deal with the actual problem first. This might take longer than 3 days.

People have been suggesting a blind feedback system for years to solve the retaliation issue. What could possibly be the problem with this?

I like this quote:

What happens if a buyer bought the wrong item and leaves me a negative because I don't accept returns?

If a buyer has purchased the incorrect item, and you do not have a return policy, which you believe may cause you to receive negative Feedback, here are a few steps you can take:

* First, professionally let the buyer know about your selling policies.
* Review your listings to make sure the item is well described and your terms are clear and concise. Excessively long descriptions can sometimes create problems.
* Finally, some selling policies, such as no refunds, limits on how a buyer may pay, descriptions that hide details in the fine print, etc., may increase your likelihood of receiving negative or neutral Feedback from a buyer.

Translation:
eBay isn't interested in you. Become a proper business and accept refunds.
Bow down the the dumber buyers!

I do like the removal of negs from suspended buyers though. That's probably the only thing.

Tea3

This was the push I needed to close my white elephant stall umm I mean ebay shop. Know its not started in UK yet but even the threat of this was enough for me. I had some negs on my account (overall 99.5% with over 3000 feedback), however these have been for things such as buyer taking 6 days to pay then complaining two days later that order had not arrived despite being posted the day they (finally) paid - that was my first shiny neg with the remark that they paid for next day delivery (yup, one of the breed who believe that 1st class is definately next day delivery), also had neg for someone who did not like the way the item looked when they tried it on - we offer return and refund but they did not see why they should return something in order to get refund, and my favourite the lady who bought and paid for her item then the following day ordered another item and DEMANDED i cobine shipping - ignored the fact that the original order was already sent and this was paid in two transactions so two payment fees etc, they got so rude I refunded them in full and several times explained about fees, already posted etc and they left me a neg because of this.....and now ebay say we would not be able to respond to these kind of things? Its time ebay realised that buyers can cause more problems than just paying late.

Thats my shop closed now, buying only for me now and then only if I cant find items elsewhere! I fully agree with another poster on here that people should stop leaving all feedback as this is just ANOTHER way for buyers to blackmail and hold sellers to ransom!

slates

I have to agree with my posters here, thats it for me selling on ebay, for what I sell it's just not worth the possible hassle from the try it on buyers.

I'll be trying gumtree for my selling.

GregtheHammer

I will be turning to ebid & I do not think I will be the only one.

The small seller's days are very much numbered. eBay have forgotten that it was the little people that originally made the site what it was!

Badger_Lady

Well, I'm a small seller and I've never had a "try-it-on buyer". Maybe I'm just lucky, but my suspicion is that they're few and far between. I've never received an unfair neg (apart from the accidental one), and never felt the need to neg anyone else (retaliatorily or otherwise).

The only "problem" buyer I've ever had was one last week who didn't understand the "make an offer" system - she emailed me, asking me to change the price from £99 to £90 so she could buy it now. By the time I'd got to the listing, she'd already done the Buy It Now at £99 and emailed me asking for a £9 discount on the invoice. This annoyed me because it meant I was paying more FVF than I should be, so I explained this and also explained how to use the "Make an Offer" button to get the price you want.

It was all settled in the end... then she decided she wasn't happy with the product and I've asked her to return it for a refund. The large item costs £10 each way to post, so that's me another £20 in the red.

But she's the worst out of 270-odd buyers in the last 3 years, and she's still not bad enough for me to "warn other sellers".

Everyone here keeps saying "this is the end for small sellers" - well, I don't agree, I'm still more than happy to continue selling through the site.

Tea3

Hi Badger_lady - I truely am glad you have been able to avoid the bad buyers however once the system changes I think there will be many many more of them - this lady who returned the item and caused you to be £20 out of pocket - after accepting it back and paying refund etc how would you feel if she then turned round left negative and moaned about the item, says your a bad seller etc AFTER you've been so nice and refunded etc? I am sure she wont however many buyers will after the changes as they will know there can be no retaliation and to their minds they are 'just warning the next buyer'. I dont mean anything personal against you, was just using your case as an example

I too think ebay has gotten a little too big for their boots and I am sure this new rule as well as the higher fees, less protection etc will sooner or later bite them in the !!! - the preferential treatment for powersellers alone is annoying to me who [STRIKE]is[/STRIKE] was paying around £150 to them and another £100 or so to paypal every month - talk about a kick in the teeth. They may be the biggest and most well known but if the sellers move elsewhere then the buyers will follow.

....can you tell I feel strongly about this lol

windswept

Not all registered business sellers are power sellers - ebay obviously don't want us anymore.
I was a power seller until xmas, but now that ebay is only 10% of my sales, I don't bother with buy it nows, I just keep a few items in my shop for advertising my "name", 25 products in shop inventory is enough to keep sales ticking over, albeit below ps levels.
How long before powersellers have to use ebay exclusively ( and sign forms to that effect) for the discounts? the biggest seller in my main kites category has already said that his amazon sales were 4 times that of ebay, after only 2 months trading on the "big river" as they call it,( in the naive hope that ebay won't understand the subterfuge).
I've no wish to become a power seller again, profits are 30% - 40% LESS than selling on my website, is it only a matter of time before paypal remove seller protection from non-powersellers too?

Badger_Lady

Tea3 wrote: »

Hi Badger_lady - I truely am glad you have been able to avoid the bad buyers however once the system changes I think there will be many many more of them - this lady who returned the item and caused you to be £20 out of pocket - after accepting it back and paying refund etc how would you feel if she then turned round left negative and moaned about the item, says your a bad seller etc AFTER you've been so nice and refunded etc? I am sure she wont however many buyers will after the changes as they will know there can be no retaliation and to their minds they are 'just warning the next buyer'. I dont mean anything personal against you, was just using your case as an example

No, I don't take any offence to this - it's a fair point. However, in this example, although I'd be a bit miffed, it would be the same situation for everyone. There will be very few sellers like me with 100% - after all, we're amateurs! But as long as I'm not constantly misdescribing things (as this lady claimed and I continue to deny), I will still have, say 90%. And other sellers will average 70-100%, putting me in a fairly good position.

In the meantime, buyers will easily be able to compare sellers by their feedback (it's very rare to find one below 95% at the moment), so those who manage to preserve a higher rating may find that they can demand higher prices due to their apparent reliability. And they will only be able to preserve this rating through good selling - not through threats of retaliation.

fuzzgun19

I think more and more sellers will get uncalled for negative/neutrals, and ultimately the feedback system will turn into a shambles (more than it already is).

Buyers will not know the TRUE efficiency of any sellers because the feedback scores will all be trashed by unreasonable buyers leaving negs because they know they can get away with it.

Tea3

I understand where you are coming from and it may well work that way - I think I am a little jaded having been on the receiving end of some buyers 'blackmailing'. One customer left me neutral feedback after paying and receiving the item saying how I was more expensive than others on ebay!!! I mean why order from me then? And why not mention it to me first? As it happens the only people cheaper were USA sellers and the shipping worked out much more than my auctions so I was the cheapest for uk buyers at that time. Another customer 'neutraled' me saying 'item was not sent first class - rip off seller' - fair comment apart from the fact they clearly paid for 2nd class recorded and order was sent 2nd class recorded - for both these cases I left neutral back to warn other sellers that these people bid, buy, pay and receive and then leave bad feedback about things that are not the sellers fault - it would be unfair for these buyers to be able to leave neutral or negative for things beyond the sellers control as in the above cases - had they contacted me first then I could have explained but now ebay s making it easier for buyers to think sod it and leave a neutral or negative without even trying to sort out a problem - maybe there should be a dispute console thing you have to go through b4 you can leave a negative - that way ebay can check if its fair but as that would mean more work for ebay without more income I cant see it happening

Should say I come across as very bitter and prob sound like a bad seller but I sold on ebay and websites for several years with the vast majority very happy returning customers - 99.5% feedback and one of my websites won website of the year 2007 from a magazine mainly for customer service so I know I am doing something right , however my pet hate is people who expect miracles and dont even bother to try and sort things out with the seller - grrrr

Once again I apologise for the mini-rant and the longsaga posts - its rare something works me up this much and ebays new rules are kicking the people who helped it get big right in the teeth...wheres my 'down with ebay' placard lmao heheheh