DSR stars/rating do buyers understand them?

TKPeters

We state the following in our dispatch emails;

Once you've received & are satisfied with your order & our service, please leave us Positive Feedback & 5 Stars on all 4 DSR's & we will do the same for you within a few minutes, this allows us to archive your sale as completed.


** Understanding eBay's Detailed Seller Rating Stars **

1. Description: Is the item as described? If not, we do offer a 7 day money back guarantee.
2. Communication: We will send you an email when you've Won an item, made Payment & when we've Dispatched your order, notifying you of every stage of your order.
3. Dispatch Time: Is the time from when your payment has cleared to the dispatch date (Normally the Next Working Day), not the delivery time, as we cannot be held responsible for the time Royal Mail take in delivering your order.
4. Postage & Packaging Charges: P&P is not just the price of the stamp & the envelope, in fact all our seller costs such as the cost of staff to print, pick & package your order & eBay's Final Value Fee's are factored into our P&P Price.


Feedback Link: {FEEDBACKLINK}

pinkgem

TKPeters wrote: »

We state the following in our dispatch emails;

i didn't think you could include ebay fees in your p&p?

Jakg

TKPeters wrote: »

We state the following in our dispatch emails;

Mind if I take that and edit it?

TKPeters

pinkgem wrote: »

i didn't think you could include ebay fees in your p&p?

Yes, all seller fee's can be included in P&P

Sellers may charge reasonable postage & packaging charges to cover the costs of posting, packaging, and handling the items they are selling.

Handling Fee for Items sold on eBay is their charges

Jakg wrote: »

Mind if I take that and edit it?

No problem, Just been editing it myself & revised above

pinkgem

I am certain that somewhere in the ebay help ages it says, or used to say that, p&p must not include ebay or paypal fees and that item cost must include fees.

TKPeters

pinkgem wrote: »

I am certain that somewhere in the ebay help ages it says, or used to say that, p&p must not include ebay or paypal fees and that item cost must include fees.

As eBay charge a percentage for the Final Value Fee its impossible to calculate it, if you add it to the item price the FVF increases.

The only rule eBay have for fee's is;

Sellers who accept electronic money services as a means of payment for an item purchased on eBay may not impose a surcharge. Electronic money services include, but are not limited to, services such as PayPal, Nochex, FastPay or Moneybookers.

A seller can add a surcharge to the final price of the item in four instances:

• Credit and Debit Card Payments - Surcharging is permitted where sellers accept credit or debit cards as a means of payment for an item purchased on eBay. Such sellers will have merchant accounts with a bank or credit card company. These sellers may not pass on to the buyer a charge greater than the amount of the commission payable by the seller to the bank processing that credit or debit card payment. In other words, sellers may recoup the charges incurred as a direct consequence of accepting the credit or debit card, but no more. Please note that under English law, sellers have a legal right to pass onto the buyer the charges incurred for a credit or debit card transaction. However, this right does not apply to electronic money services. Where a credit or debit card is used to purchase electronic money to fund a transaction made via an electronic money service such as the ones listed above, this is not a credit or debit card transaction, but an electronic money service transaction.
• Postage and packing - Sellers may add a reasonable postage and packing fee to the final price of their item. A postage and packing fee can cover the seller's reasonable costs for mailing, packaging and handling the item. Postage and packing fees cannot be listed as a percentage of the final sale price.
• Escrow - Sellers may pass along the costs associated with using escrow, if the buyer agrees to use escrow. Use caution when considering escrow. To avoid being deceived by fraudulent escrow services, use https://www.escrow.com, eBay's approved escrow service.
• Different Currency - Sellers may choose to accept payment in a different currency than the currency listed on eBay. If the buyer chooses to take advantage of this optional payment method, the seller may pass along to the buyer any costs associated with the currency exchange, provided that the costs are disclosed and agreed to in advance by the buyer.

meester

TKPeters wrote: »

Yes, all seller fee's can be included in P&P



Handling Fee for Items sold on eBay is their charges

I am sorry, but you are wrong. And I would certainly give you a low feedback score if I received this email from you because I frankly find it a little presumptuous, not to mention wrong. And you are really asking for trouble spelling out that you are breaking ebay's rules so explicitly (as opposed to simply just charging more, which is what most sellers do).

This has been Ebay policy for at least five years:
http://forums.ebay.co.uk/thread.jspa?threadID=37355&start=0

Taxes should not be included in a postage and handling fee e.g. VAT or Import duty taxes, customs taxes, Pay pal or any other GBP based electronic payment systems, eBay fees, Escrow, or charging for different currencies (as these are separate surcharge issues altogether, and indeed another workshop topic!!).

A Postage and Handling fee is considered as the cost of posting the item by the Post office, and other packaging material costs such as Bubble Wrap and Jiffy Bags etc… Excessive charges are where a seller is making profit on Postage and Packaging and not simply covering their costs. Therefore if a seller incorporates shoe leather, or petrol etc. as part of the handling charge, this would be considered an “excessive charge”.

And

Postage and handling is postage + packaging + a credit card surcharge. Ebay considers excessive as to include petrol costs, shoe leather etc...

Also

Enery [sic] costs, and labour costs cannot be included in a postage and handling fee.

These costs such as wages, should be added in the opening price, when listing an item.

Basically a five-star rating should only be given for free postage, or for postage that has been charged at no more than the cost of postage plus a reasonable cost for packaging materials, perhaps rounded up to the nearest 25p.

Anything other than that should be marked down to some degree. I don't have any objection (i.e. I'm not going to give them negative feedback) to someone adding on £1 extra if they have to go to the post office or whatever, but don't think that means I'm going to rate them 5* for this.

I know there are a lot of self-interested sellers on here who think that they should be able to charge twice the cost of the postage and have a god-given right to five-star ratings all round, but I personally think they are crackers. The whole point of the ratings is that they are anonymous and 5* should be outstanding, and anyone adding on paypal fees, staff costs, and other such nonsense is NOT going to get 5* from me.

Don't like it? Reduce your postage charges. Very simple.

The goal from ebay's point of view is that buyers see the cost of the item, including the seller's profit and expenses, in the price they actually pay. Don't like that? Trade elsewhere.

StaffsSW

Reduce postal charges? When the RM have just increased them? I beg to differ.

Financially many sellers are working out that it is better to increase postage prices by 15-20p per item, rather than aim for a small discount on Final Value Fees. For the discount that I had last week, I could have increased my P&P by 29p per item to earn the same amount, and I doubt that would have too much of a negative effect on the star ratings, and even if it did knock them below 4.6, the extra P&P revenue would make up for the lost discounts.

As Business Sellers, myself and TK Peters are perfectly justified in however we spread our cost burden. With regards auctions, the costs have to be weighted towards the P&P, as final prices can not be guaranteed. With Buy It Now and Shop listing formats, we do have a bit more control as to how our costs are balanced as the final price is set from the start.

Handling is a variable cost - the more I sell, the more it costs me, and as i do not know how much I am going to sell, how do I know how much to add to the starting price? It's far from postal gouging, we're talking no more than £1 or £2 on a £30 sale, but it is realistic and strategic business planning.

My business does not revolve around achieving 5 stars on every sale, but does revolve around providing a good service at a good price that makes me a profit. If my star rating earns me a further discount, then that's great, but it is only a bonus. Anyone relying on the discount is running an unsustainable business model.

Call me a capitalist charlatan if you will, but my 30 day DSR's at the time of writing are 4.9, 5, 5, 4.8 - and that is with my "cost-weighted postal charges"

pinkgem

meester wrote: »

I am sorry, but you are wrong. And I would certainly give you a low feedback score if I received this email from you because I frankly find it a little presumptuous, not to mention wrong. And you are really asking for trouble spelling out that you are breaking ebay's rules so explicitly (as opposed to simply just charging more, which is what most sellers do).

This has been Ebay policy for at least five years:
http://forums.ebay.co.uk/thread.jspa?threadID=37355&start=0

Taxes should not be included in a postage and handling fee e.g. VAT or Import duty taxes, customs taxes, Pay pal or any other GBP based electronic payment systems, eBay fees, Escrow, or charging for different currencies (as these are separate surcharge issues altogether, and indeed another workshop topic!!).

that is what i was trying to find last night

ebay state that your p&p should not include ebay or paypal fees so sending emails to your customers stating that you charge ebay fvf in your p&p is not a very good idea!

meester

stevew8975 wrote: »

Reduce postal charges? When the RM have just increased them? I beg to differ.

If RM have just put up postage charges 2p and you were already charging £1 over the cost, there is clearly an opportunity to reduce costs.

Financially many sellers are working out that it is better to increase postage prices by 15-20p per item, rather than aim for a small discount on Final Value Fees. For the discount that I had last week, I could have increased my P&P by 29p per item to earn the same amount, and I doubt that would have too much of a negative effect on the star ratings, and even if it did knock them below 4.6, the extra P&P revenue would make up for the lost discounts.

As Business Sellers, myself and TK Peters are perfectly justified in however we spread our cost burden. With regards auctions, the costs have to be weighted towards the P&P, as final prices can not be guaranteed. With Buy It Now and Shop listing formats, we do have a bit more control as to how our costs are balanced as the final price is set from the start.

Nonsense. You are selling by auction by choice. You know that this can result in grossly inflated prices or sometimes making a loss. If you do not like this uncertainty, you can start the auction at a profit-making level, or you can sell buy shop/BIN. This isn't a justification. I am aware that there are lots and lots of items being sold for under £1 where it's essentially impossible to actually make any money after fees unless you make a profit on the postage, so I guess reality is not quite there yet.

Anyway, ebay quite clearly states that you are not justified in spreading your cost burden, because the postage cost should only cover postage and materials, nothing else.

Handling is a variable cost - the more I sell, the more it costs me, and as i do not know how much I am going to sell, how do I know how much to add to the starting price? It's far from postal gouging, we're talking no more than £1 or £2 on a £30 sale, but it is realistic and strategic business planning.

Not sure what you mean? Handling, in ebay's terms can only refer to a payment surcharge. Nothing else. Very few sales will result in any handling cost (paypal surcharges are not allowed).

The p+p costs are definitely something you can work out to within a few pence. You run a business, so you must have a stock of envelopes/jiffy bags, etc, and you know how much you paid for them, and you know how much the postage will cost.

My business does not revolve around achieving 5 stars on every sale, but does revolve around providing a good service at a good price that makes me a profit. If my star rating earns me a further discount, then that's great, but it is only a bonus. Anyone relying on the discount is running an unsustainable business model.

Call me a capitalist charlatan if you will, but my 30 day DSR's at the time of writing are 4.9, 5, 5, 4.8 - and that is with my "cost-weighted postal charges"

Well yes, and no. As you say, your goal is to maximise profit, which is an entirely commendable pursuit. And if you have calculated that you can overcharge on postage and get away with it, and even that the extra profit from overcharging outweighs any penalty from ebay, then it's logical to do so. BUT, it is against the rules of ebay.... Of course any one that DOES play by the rules will lose out to people like you that break them, so it's hard to resist sticking on an extra pound or two I'm sure.