I give up !!!!!

charlies_mum

The DSR description for the fourth star is 'postage and packing charges', although I suppose the amount of packaging would influence a buyers rating.

The point I was making originally, was that I charged £2 packaging, and the actual postage was £1.94. Added to that the cost of the jiffy bag, and I was actually out of pocket on it. The book sold for £1.99 :rolleyes:

behappysmile

Does anybody take any notice of these, I know I don't I just check for negative feedback when buying.
:j

Jakg

4.5 for my dispatch time, yet I usually send the "item dispatched" emails out same day. Can't please some people!

Premier_2

charlies_mum wrote: »

The DSR description for the fourth star is 'postage and packing charges', although I suppose the amount of packaging would influence a buyers rating.

The point I was making originally, was that I charged £2 packaging, and the actual postage was £1.94. Added to that the cost of the jiffy bag, and I was actually out of pocket on it. The book sold for £1.99 :rolleyes:

I understand your frustration and accept it's impossible to please all the people all the time.

With respect to p+p charges, some people may rate this irrespective of your associated costs.
e.g. your p+p charge in this case exceeded the value of the item purchased.

Now some customers may appreciate the fact that the item was delivered in a professional looking, crisp new jiffy bag. (and perhaps would look to lower any feedback rating if it were not so delivered) Others may consider the fact they had to pay good money for that jiffy bag they they now feel guilty about having to throw away into landfill to be somewhat of a waste. Perhaps they would prefer you to have used recycled packaging.
I understand this is potentially a lose-lose situation for you, but all you can do is monitor your feedback to see if you can understand what the majority of your buyers prefer and act accordingly.

I see also that you say the postage charge alone was £1.94. I guess this was first class. Again whilst some may appreciate the advantage of receiving the item soonest, others may feel that you spending their money on first class post was something of a waste, preferring a cheaper 2nd class service. This one may be easier to act on by offering the customer the choice within your listing (if you don't already do so)

Even so, there are strangely those customers who object to paying any extra for posting & packing. Perhaps they would prefer you to offer free p+p?

I sell on amazon and one of my (seller central) competitors is currently running a trial offering so called free postage. However, just as I can offer lower than usual item prices on some items due to the high, non-negotiable, delivery charges amazon sets on my behalf as a marketplace seller, my competitor simply adds the the cost of delivery to his unit price.
Now when I view his feedback, I see he is certainly winning some customers by his offer of free postage on which he is being actively complemented.
But I have surprisingly sold some items because I have priced them at a very competitive 99p unit price (plus amazon set delivery charge of £4.00) rather than at what maybe seen by some as a relatively exorbitant £4.95 each my competitor has elected to sell at (albeit with no additional postage charge).

Even if you were to offer free p+p, I'm not sure you would get to hold onto 5 stars. Just like pinkgem said regarding dispatch time, I'm sure some buyers will forget how much p+p you actually charged them and award you 4 stars (in the same way I'm sure someone would probably award you 5 stars had you charged them 10 quid p+p!)

There is always the possibility of someone making a genuine mistake too. I'm not sure how this happens so often but I'm astounded the number of times I look at an ebayer's negatives, neutrals & withdrawals to see a comment such as "Excellent" with a followup by the same person apologising and saying the feedback was intended to be positive.

With regards to DSRs, only look at the averages and any trend they indicate over time.

GabbaGabbaHey

GregtheHammer wrote: »

If you are new to eBay rating something at a 3 because you received satisfactory service etc is an easy mistake to make.

Why would that be a mistake?

In my opinion, for "satisfactory" service a rating of 3 (on a scale of 1 to 5) is the correct rating to give - with 4 and 5 being used for "above average" and "significantly above average" service, and 1 and 2 being used in a similar way.

However, it does seem that eBay wants people to use 4 Stars (rather than 3, but certainly not 5!) for a normal smooth transaction - that's one with an "Accurate" description, "Satisfied" with communications, dispatched "Quickly" and "Reasonable" P&P. Obviously it helps eBay's credibility if everybody has lots of Stars!

For a seller to get 5 Stars, the eBay definitions are "Very Accurate", "Very Satisfied", "Very Quickly" and "Very Reasonable".

Starz_Ceilings

Personally I don't see a lot of point to the DSR ratings.

My dispatch time and P&P charges are both at 4.7 but the way I look at it there are always people who will mark you down for no reason. You learn a lot more about a seller by reading the actual feedback comments that buyers have left rather than bothering with the DSR ratings.

FloFlo

Ebay raised fees and instead offered sellers a discount if their DSRs remain above 4.6 on a monthly average. Which means that good sellers are now financially penalised for selling to numptys who leave 3 ratings!!! So a sale of 99p can make you lose out on a discount of a large amount.

soolin

FloFlo wrote: »

Ebay raised fees and instead offered sellers a discount if their DSRs remain above 4.6 on a monthly average. Which means that good sellers are now financially penalised for selling to numptys who leave 3 ratings!!! So a sale of 99p can make you lose out on a discount of a large amount.

Don't forget this only applies to power sellers or equivalent so for the majority of us the DSRs are not as important. The only reaosn we need to be very careful about keeping them high is the possibility of falling into the 'bottom 5% of sellers' rule.

FloFlo

TBH I have enjoyed selling on ebay for the last couple of years and am thankfull for the extra money it brought in but with the new changes my attitude to buyers is changing. I feel things are much too weighted in favour of the buyer and I resent this. I am hoping (against all odds) to have a bumper couple of months and then quit.