Rewards for leaving low DSR's for a seller!

StaffsSW

As if DSR scoring is not flawed enough already, ebay.com are now offering coupons to US buyers who leave low DSR ratings for their purchases.

Obviously the corporate line on this will be "to retain buyers who may not have been satisfied", but this is going to be counterproductive for sellers - if people realise they can get a 10% coupon, then why not leave poor scores all the time?

On the flipside - for ebay anyway - if these low scores drop sellers below the bulk discount DSR threshold, then that will save money for ebay. I really hope this does not spread to the UK...

Time2Go_25

Perhaps they should give coupons to those who are not happy with Ebay, ah, wait a moment that would put them out of business.

frivolous_fay

Now I've seen everything.

frivolous_fay

What's the source of this news, out of interest?

StaffsSW

frivolous_fay wrote: »

What's the source of this news, out of interest?

oops... Credit where it is due!! http://blog.auctionbytes.com/cgi-bin/blog/blog.pl?/pl/2008/3/1206374629.html

Jakg

frivolous_fay wrote: »

Now I've seen everything.

Snap.

Already getting p!!!ed off that i'm getting glowing (but blatantly not heartfelt) feedback but low (low for eBay standards, at least, a 4) DSR's - now there gonna punish people more and more for having "low" DSR's and now they're gonna encourage people to punish us even more.

eBay ftl

Shaem I got into eBay too late

StaffsSW

It's official now, and not, as widely rumoured, an April Fool or scaremongering.

Hi everyone,

We appreciate your input, and we've passed along your comments and concerns to the teams. I also wanted to share a little bit of background about the coupons.

As you know the company is focused on retaining eBay buyers. In the case of coupons, we want to give our best buyers a special incentive to come back and shop on the site. We’ve been testing a variety of ways to use coupons to drive buyer loyalty, and in this case we’ve provided coupons to a few buyers who’ve had a bad experience. This is comparable to what other businesses might do for a customer who they feel has not been 100% satisfied -- it's not an admission of wrong on the seller's part, but it does send a message to an important customer of the marketplace that their business is important to us and that we hope they keep spending their money with all the sellers on eBay.

Regarding the concern that some buyers could try to "game' the system by leaving poor feedback intentionally just to get a coupon -- that's a legitimate concern and we have safeguards in place to ensure this doesn't become a loophole that the unscrupulous few can exploit. For example, giving a bad score definitely doesn’t mean that you’ll get a coupon. Plus, people who show a pattern of complaints aren't eligible at all.

In general, these coupons are being sent to buyers with established track records -- these are some of our top buyers who have been good trading partners and who may have hit a bump in the road. We want to tell them we appreciate their business and that we want them back.

Increasing buyer loyalty is a win for everyone involved, and will continually evolve these types of programs to make them more effective.

I hope this helps clear things up a little.


Jeff K. | Community Development | eBay

http://forums.ebay.com/db2/thread.jspa?threadID=1000671982&tstart=0&mod=1206641168752

"safeguards are in place" makes me feel very comfortable - in the same way that safeguards against shilling are in place.

Regardless of whether it is selected buyers only, it is now going to lead to buyers trying their luck in a competition, with as many entries as they like, for no cost to them.

Great. Just frikkin great....

Brooker_Dave

stevew8975 wrote: »

oops... Credit where it is due!! http://blog.auctionbytes.com/cgi-bin/blog/blog.pl?/pl/2008/3/1206374629.html

"Ebay slides further down it's slippery slope......Even with the brouhaha they've created for themselves regarding feedback and withholding PayPal funds, they still step further into the muck and mire and now are rewarding grumpy buyers with discounts whether or not the buyer was justified in their less than perfect assessment of a transaction. On top of this they are coercing sellers regarding shipping costs and forcing Ebay UK sellers to offer PayPal........astounding! The ebay "powers that be" must have testicles the size of basketballs and brains the size of Tic Tacs! Their antics become more ridiculous every day! "

<respect>