DSR stars/rating do buyers understand them?

FloFlo

Wasn't too bothered about DSR ratings until ebay said they will offer the final value fee discounts. Yesterday I had 4.9 for all except p&p which was 4.7, four buyers left glowing feedback about dispatch time and items yet my dispatch time dropped to 4.8. I always post within 2 days as stated on my listing usually one day. If I knew which buyer it was I'd be tempted to leave a neutral saying 'Sellers beware will mark you down on DSR rating.'

What do others do to encourage 5 stars to be left on their listings?

soolin

I don;t think we should get too hung up on our stars, we can't expect 5* across the board from everyone even if we hand deliver everything on a silver platter and give them all their money back.

I know we can't identify which buyers leave which feedback as it is cumulative but just in case I would still caution against neutraling someone for leaving just 4 stars, I think that would reflect badly on the seller not the buyer.

Jakg

It could be worse - I just got a very low score (no idea what, though) for dispatch time, after they took a week to pay, i dispatched next day, and then they took 3 weeks to leave feedback.

GRRRRRR. Now my dispatch time (usually next day or even same day if they are early-morning Payers) is at 4.5. YAY.

pepsi_max2k

before eBay actually started making DSRs have an affect on sellers I voted things as such:

0 stars = can't get any worse.
5 stars = can't get any better.

so it's very unlikely i would give 5 stars to anyone, given it's the maximum possible, unless you did the maximum you possibly could. that is, described each item to intricate detail (as i do) with large pictures, charged me no more than a stamp and envelope would cost (or even less than they cost), emailed me about every thing you did regarding the item (confirmed purchase, confirmed payment, confirmed postage) and shipped same day (or next if payment made in evening. oh how i wish frankly anyone did this) then it was unlikely you'd get 5 stars.


the second ebay started punishing people for not getting 5 stars, i stopped making any use of the thing and will automatically give someone 5 stars so long as they don't right mess anything up, as a finger up to ebay for punishing via something that, as OP has noted, is never gonna get you full marks however well you do.

FloFlo

Jakg wrote: »

It could be worse - I just got a very low score (no idea what, though) for dispatch time, after they took a week to pay, i dispatched next day, and then they took 3 weeks to leave feedback.

GRRRRRR. Now my dispatch time (usually next day or even same day if they are early-morning Payers) is at 4.5. YAY.

This is exactly what I think happened to me, one of the buyers who left feedback the day my stars dropped waited almost 2 weeks before paying. I posted the next day but I can't think why anyone else would have knocked the stars down.

Ebay say the ratings are an average, well I have over 900 ratings and had a 4.9 average so wouldn't they have had to have given me a very low score for my average to be affected.

The problem is if I drop below 4.6 because of some idiot I will lose out on £20-£30 discount and I have probably made £5-£10 on their order. So I would like to now to be able to block them biddingagain and costing me more money.

StaffsSW

It doesn't help with the descriptions that eBay leave for each category - 4 stars is indicated as "Accurate, Satisfied, Quickly & Reasonable" would suggest to buyers that all is good, but in the eyes of ebay this is not a good enough standard for sellers.

angel

The only things that I sold when this first started were with free postage to encourage buyers. I still got marked down on postage and packaging charges! I was amazed.

loobylee

Several people mark me down for p&p - as I only offer special delivery to protect myself. Now all my items are at the bottom of the list in the 'best match' search as my p&p star is down to 4.6.

I just have to hope most buyers search by 'time ending soonest' otherwise it will not be worth using ebay soon!

Barcode

It also happened to me this week. I really, really wanted to leave a neutral as the buyer that caused my DSR's to drop paid almost two weeks late (but kept mailing me explaining the delay to which I was sympathetic), then paid by a crossed p/o, and then had the nerve to complain when I explained I obviously couldn't post until it had cleared.

Said buyer then left positive feedback, but all my DSR's dropped 0.2 points. It's a silly figure, but it does affect you as a seller. I'd still like to leave a neutral for buyers behaviour, but think it would just like petty.

StaffsSW

angel wrote: »

The only things that I sold when this first started were with free postage to encourage buyers. I still got marked down on postage and packaging charges! I was amazed.

A friend of mine has been offering "free" postage on all of their listings, but only has a 4.5 P&P rating. He contacted a load of his buyers asking for an open an honest answer on what they left as a star rating, in order to improve.

A fair few did reply, but worryingly 3 people said they left a 3 for the P&P as it could not be accurately rated. As an experiment over the next month, he has now dropped his BIN price by 25p, and added a flat 25p P&P charge for all his listings.

I'll be very keen to see what happens with this.

pinkgem

i was doing free postage on a few things and i noticed some people were only rating me on the first 3 options and not filling in the last one at all!? i should have put 1p postage or something!