eBay

pierrelebel · ‎10-29-2013

By Ina Steiner
EcommerceBytes.com
October 29, 2013

eBay is considering changing its feedback system, it told sellers through a comprehensive survey conducted over the weekend. As explained in part one, eBay first gathered data on how fair respondents fell the current feedback system was for sellers and how fair they thought the current eBay Seller Standards rating system was. It then presented some changes eBay is considering to the Seller Standards rating system, such as giving a rating boost in Seller Standards for achieving certain performance goals such as "very fast average delivery time."

Part two takes a look at other changes under consideration, including changes to - and the possible elimination of - the Shipping Charges DSR. eBay surveyed sellers specifically about the Shipping Charges DSR, one of four criteria by which buyers anonymously rate sellers. Here is how eBay explains Detailed Seller Ratings:

For more: http://www.ecommercebytes.com/cab/abn/y13/m10/i29/s01

nan*55 · ‎10-29-2013

very fast average delivery time." = A rating for the postal service. LOL

rose-dee · ‎10-29-2013

What caught my attention about the survey questions was the following:

Continue to ask the Shipping charges DSR question, but protect sellers from receiving a low score if their shipping cost is reasonable

Exactly who would determine what constituted "reasonable". I can't see how this option could possibly be applied fairly across the board, and especially not to Canadian sellers.

Continue to ask the Shipping charges DSR question and provide sellers with the scores so that sellers could understand how buyers feel about their shipping costs, but stop using it in Seller Performance

Well, this is a truly novel and intelligent concept, i.e. useful marketing information for sellers without the whack upside the head attached to it. I hope they meant it. I wonder if it would still be displayed in (i.e. factored into) the DSR summary equations on the seller's FB page though?

007steveb16 · ‎10-29-2013

If the clarity or removal of the "Shipping Time" DSR is not fixed in all this change I'm going to flip my lid!

You don't have to be any sort of analyst to not be able to look at ANY sellers feedback to see the GLARING issue that buyers don't understand that DSR!!

rose-dee · ‎10-29-2013

@007steveb16 wrote:
If the clarity or removal of the "Shipping Time" DSR is not fixed in all this change I'm going to flip my lid!

You don't have to be any sort of analyst to not be able to look at ANY sellers feedback to see the GLARING issue that buyers don't understand that DSR!!

Yes, I agree, that one is even more important than "shipping costs" because it's ambiguous. Everybody 'gets' what shipping costs refers to; few buyers I think understand what "shipping time" really means.

rosscd57 · ‎10-29-2013

I guess I just don't get it. These days most buyers know what the shipping charges are prior to the sale. If a buyer agrees to the shipping charges and then pays them - why on earth should they be allowed to rate something they have allready agreed to?

Speed of shipping - that would be, the time it takes me to get the package to the Post Office from the time of sale - period.

.

__________________________________________________________

Old enough to know better. Young enough to do it again. Crazy enough to try

cumos55 · ‎10-29-2013

Postage rates go up every year... middle of January.

How many years will it be before it costs $20 to ship something weighing less than 1.0 kg in Canada.

and

then

How many buyers will NOT say that $20 is too much....

With each increase in postal rates there is a greater probability that buyers will say that all postal rates are TOO high.

This is the reality of postage... It has been for years past and will be so in the future.

Therefore if one is evaluated and rated on the basis of a rating for postage costs.... how many sellers will be on eBay in 5, 6 or more years....

cumos55 · ‎10-29-2013

If there is any one rating that is low or the lowest of all four ratings for a seller it is and will continue to be the lowest.

Shipping and Handling

How many buyers have actually read the explanation for ratings provided by eBay?

brandeentertainment · ‎10-29-2013

I think Shipping Time and Price should not even be a rating for sellers at all ..

As stated above shipping time = Good job mail carrier..

Shipping Price .. Total Bs .. I just got a Neutral saying charge too much for the time it took to arrive .. $6 to the US ... Cost me $5.53 plus Envelope,Labels,Ink which I think it fair to say cost about 47 cents...

Get rid of ratings that have nothing to do with sellers or Clarify the rating sytem and what I mean by that is the Shipping Time DSR is Meant for How fast a seller shipped out but 99% of buyers think it is how fast it was delivered ... CLARIFY IT OR GET RID OF IT

rose-dee · ‎10-29-2013

I for one am weary of "subsidizing" my buyers' shipping costs, rushing to the P.O. mostly the same day, then still getting punished on DSRs.

How a person can be less than satisfied with a shipping cost that (a) they have been clearly informed of, and agreed to beforehand; and (b) is below the actual shipping amount by up to 30%, really baffles me. In most cases, my shipping rates are even below those in the U.S., so I'm really perplexed at what buyers are comparing them to -- free shipping I suppose. I'd love to offer free shipping on every item, but that would not be realistic for the types of things I have to ship.

I actually don't blame the buyers. EBay presents those "ratings" as inconsequential opinion surveys (not to mention the ambiguity of the "Shipping/Handling Time" DSR) that can just be handled like any other survey -- carelessly. The buyers, unless they are experienced sellers themselves, really have no idea of the consequences of ticking off those little stars.

Both of the shipping DSRs need to go off sellers' evaluation table. Information is fine, but not information for the sake of punishment for things that are largely -- or in many cases entirely -- out of a sellers' control.

brandeentertainment · ‎10-30-2013

On the topic my latest Nuetral feedback .. Slow for the price I paid for shipping ..

$6 to the US arrive in 7 business days .. ...

EBAYYYYY WHATTTTTTTTTTTTT COME ON STOP THE MADNESS LOL

pocomocomputing · ‎10-30-2013

@cumos55 wrote:
Postage rates go up every year... middle of January.

How many years will it be before it costs $20 to ship something weighing less than 1.0 kg in Canada.

and

then

How many buyers will NOT say that $20 is too much....

With each increase in postal rates there is a greater probability that buyers will say that all postal rates are TOO high.

This is the reality of postage... It has been for years past and will be so in the future.

Therefore if one is evaluated and rated on the basis of a rating for postage costs.... how many sellers will be on eBay in 5, 6 or more years....

Technically, it happens today. Since Regular Parcel and Expedited Parcel use dimensional weight, if you have a light weight item under 1 kg that is very big, then it could weight 5 to 10 kg based on volume and cost $20 or more to ship from Vancouver to Toronto.

Or you can ship to a remote community in the North and pay $20+ for 1 kg.

froogal_electronic_parts_and_overstock · ‎10-31-2013

@rosscd57 wrote:

I guess I just don't get it. These days most buyers know what the shipping charges are prior to the sale. If a buyer agrees to the shipping charges and then pays them - why on earth should they be allowed to rate something they have allready agreed to?
.

shh.......that kind of common sense talk is sounding pretty crazy.

anguscoinshop · ‎11-01-2013

never seen that survey

femmefan1946 · ‎11-04-2013

I guess I just don't get it. These days most buyers know what the shipping charges are prior to the sale. If a buyer agrees to the shipping charges and then pays them - why on earth should they be allowed to rate something they have allready agreed to?

I suspect that many buyers are just punching buttons after they decide that they want the thingamajig, without actually thinking very hard.

Then when they count up the postage, not having sent a letter or Christmas card since the first class rate was 17 cents, they get upset.

There is a lot to be said for Paypal labels with their stealth postage (ie no postage cost given on label).

rose-dee · ‎11-04-2013

@femmefan1946 wrote:

There is a lot to be said for Paypal labels with their stealth postage (ie no postage cost given on label).

That's true if you would rather not disclose the actual postage paid, but in my case I wish I could opt to display it, because I almost always give my buyers a break (sometimes a significant one), and they don't know it.

I'm a bit reticent to send them a message touting the fact that I've given them a break on the shipping -- that doesn't seem very "customer-friendly" to me. So I wouldn't mind it if we could somehow choose to have the actual shipping cost prominently shown on the label, especially when I pay $30 and the buyer has only paid $15. Despite all my efforts to reduce my buyers' shipping costs and keep them generally below any of my U.S. competitors' rates, I still can't seem to get those 5.0 DSRs for shipping costs.