Defect rate - from bad to worse

[rosscd57]

For those who have not seen this new eBay fiasco - here it is.

New way to measure performance rewards sellers providing great service

• Starting with the August 20 monthly seller evaluation, a new measure, the transaction defect rate ("defect rate"), will replace the current four individual detailed seller rating requirements in evaluating seller performance. This new rating may impact your status.
• The defect rate is simply the percentage of a seller's successful transactions that have one or more of the following transaction-related defects, the top predictors that a buyer will leave eBay or buy less:
  • Detailed seller rating of 1, 2 or 3 for item as described
  • Detailed seller rating of 1 for shipping time
  • Negative or neutral feedback
  • Return initiated for a reason that indicates the item was not as described
  • eBay Money Back Guarantee (previously known as eBay Buyer Protection) or PayPal Purchase Protection case opened for an item not received or an item not as described
  • Seller-cancelled transactions
• Starting with the August 20 evaluation, to meet eBay's minimum standard, sellers can have up to a maximum 5% of transactions with one or more transaction defects over the most recent evaluation period. A maximum 2% will allow a seller to qualify as an eBay Top Rated Seller. The  same requirements apply both to your Global and US seller performance  standards.
• The defect rate won't affect your status until you have transactions with defects with at least 8 different buyers (at least 5 different buyers to impact Top Rated status) within your evaluation period.
• Just as today, sellers can have a maximum of 0.3% of eBay Money Back Guarantee or PayPal Purchase Protection closed cases without seller resolution over the most recent evaluation period. That means the buyer opened the case, you weren't able to resolve it, the buyer reached out to eBay or PayPal to review it, and eBay found you responsible.
• Just as today, sellers with 400 or more transactions over the past 3 months will be evaluated based on the past 3 months and sellers with fewer than 400 transactions will be evaluated based on the past 12 months.

In general, the lower your defect rate, the better your position in Best Match search results

• By focusing squarely on what matters most to buyers, the new transaction defect rate allows eBay to recognize and reward sellers who consistently deliver the great service buyers expect—and to identify and respond to the experiences that erode confidence and drive buyers away.
• If you maintain a low defect rate, eBay will reward you with an enhanced position in Best Match search results, so your track record for great service can pay off in more visibility and potential sales.

[recped]

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@melissas-minis-2007 wrote:

Do you get a defect for mutually cancelling a transaction at a buyers request? Do you get a defect if you file an unpaid item dispute? Still trying to figure this defect thing out.

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The answers are right here:

http://pages.ebay.ca/sellerinformation/news/springupdate2014/sellerstandards.html#faqs_defect_rate

[pjcdn2005]

Do you get a defect for mutually cancelling a transaction at a buyers request?

If it is at a buyers request you do not get a defect.

Do you get a defect if you file an unpaid item dispute?

No

[melissasminis]

Thank you! I was worried there for a minute. Thanks recped for the link.

[mr.elmwood]

Cancelled transactions only count when there is a defect associated with the transaction.

That is interesting. The last four refunds I have done, were outside of the defect trail. Customers emailed me, thru eBay, explaining their situation. Variety of reasons, all customer based.

Whew! I do not mind refunding, for any reason. It is nice to know that I can, and not be penalized.

[realjazz-123]

About a month ago, a single bidder won auction then emailed me to cancel because he misread the description. He told me he could not cancel on his end so according to an eBay  rule,   4 days after close of sale, I requested cancellation for him. Case was settled as bid cancelled/ closed a day after I requested cancellation. I then  received a defect for my requesting cancellation with reason given as either item already sold or not as described. I called eBay and was told that in August review, the defect would be erased. However, this experience taught me  that any bid cancellation requested by seller could bring defect. Overall, making the transaction successful for buyer and myself is my goal, but doing this will be more difficult if defects are given for gestures by sellers to help buyers. 

[pjcdn2005]

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@realjazz-123 wrote:

About a month ago, a single bidder won auction then emailed me to cancel because he misread the description. He told me he could not cancel on his end so according to an eBay  rule,   4 days after close of sale, I requested cancellation for him. Case was settled as bid cancelled/ closed a day after I requested cancellation. I then  received a defect for my requesting cancellation with reason given as either item already sold or not as described. I called eBay and was told that in August review, the defect would be erased. However, this experience taught me  that any bid cancellation requested by seller could bring defect. Overall, making the transaction successful for buyer and myself is my goal, but doing this will be more difficult if defects are given for gestures by sellers to help buyers. 

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What reason did you use for the cancellation?

[realjazz-123]

As I recall I said "buyer misread listing" or something like this.

[rose-dee]

Yes, according to eBay.ca's rep, choosing the reason "Buyer purchased item by mistake or changed mind" should not result in a defect. According to the same eBay.ca rep., it's important to communicate through eBay messages with buyers wanting a cancellation, so you have a record of the buyer's "ask" to bolster your claim that the defect was incorrectly applied. 

However, this seems to imply that eBay is not in fact properly monitoring cancellations when they occur.  From reading some seller experiences so far, and from further statements at the Wed. discussions, it seems defects are issued automatically in some instances, and -- supposedly -- reviewed later.  But by whom, and how?  If this means we are going to have to phone CS every time we need to appeal a defect that was applied in error, I can just imagine the chaos on the eBay phone lines. 

It will be interesting to see whether these "erroneous defects" do in fact disappear come Aug. 20th. 

[resaleshoppingtherapy]

Thank you for bringing up the relisting programming mess!!!

I am about to loose my selling ability (I will go from 3200 listings per month to 170 as of November 1st) due almost exclusively to canceling transactions that should not have been available in the first place. Like you, I quickly realized that the quantities reverted to their original numbers every time I relisted and quit creating multiple variation listings and listings with quantities greater than one (these too go back to their original #). However, also, like you, I have not caught all of the left over errors. I have over a thousand items listed. I am one person. I need to shop, sort, take pictures, list, answer emails and ship. I do not have time to do a thorough inventory. I would like to think that if I put the quantities in accurately originally, the left over quantity is still accurate. Not so.

I may be done with Ebay. Today I have a licensed business. I pay rent and taxes. I have been doing 3-5k in sales a month (primarily used kids clothes, adult work out clothes and nwt Gymboree). I have been profiting. Now, I will be stuck with thousands of dollars in inventory that I will not be able to sell and rent to pay out of some other source of income. Except for my unwillingness to go back and inventory everything that I have listed (again, over a thousand different items - not including the multiple variations / quantities listings) and my not recognizing which items would no longer have accurate quantities, I do not see myself as responsible. 

[rainbow71113]

Hello,

I had another issue with variation listings- I was just changing a photo and realized that it reverted back to the original listing quantities not the ones that were left at the time of the revision.  Luckily I caught it but normally I wouldn't even have thought to look at those.  Has me wondering if it's happened on other listings that I haven't caught yet...

[bestchoicebrand]

What will happen in buyer agree to cancel (change his mind), but not support the case? Will it count against my score?

[rainbow71113]

can you clarify what you mean? if the buyer agrees to cancel then you get your fees back and it does not count as a defect.  Don't know what you mean by not supporting the case.....

[lordfishman]

I recently had a case for item not received from a customer in Asia.  I worked with the customer and the item actually arrived to them a couple of days later.  Case was closed by buyer and all was good.  Is there any recourse in getting the transaction reviewed considering I don't use tracking for most items due to the cost here in Canada.   This new system seems almost impossible to keep top rated for those of us who are smaller.  I already in the last few months had two "Low detailed seller ratings for item as described"

[rainbow71113]

it seems to depend on the ebay rep you get when you phone in what results you get on removing any defects or negative/neutral feedback.  I had one negative go all the way to the top only to be told it was not eligible to be removed but when I phoned for another issue the rep said that it looked like feedback extortion and he removed it.  I also got one removed that was on for over 6 months because luckily I had sent the package by expedited and even 6 months later they could see it was delivered....the buyer had faulted me for the post office sending the package to a post office to be picked up because he wasn't home...yes, right, that was MY fault.  The negative was because the magazine the buyer bought had 4 pages on the cover story and he didn't think that was enough...yes, again MY fault.  Apparently we are responsible for our listings even to the point of....knitting their yarn, making the actual movie, writing the books, etc...I have seen negatives faulting sellers for all these.  I wonder when ebay will recognize that we are not responsible for buyers who just want to penalize a seller for any reason- it is in ebay policy that the buyer is required to read everything in a listing before purchasing.   It seems the only recourse is to repeatedly phone until someone helps us.  I know that's time consuming but what else can we do if our stores depend on these stats to operate.

You didn't say if you got a defect, I'm assuming you did....you might be able to get the defect removed if the buyer has left feedback saying they received it, also since they closed the case you might be able to get it removed.   I had a strange case- sent a package to Russia and after a month the buyer asked for money back, 2 months later I got the package back to me saying it was not deliverable, yet confirmed with the buyer that the address was correct.  This went against me as 4 defects because there were 4 items in the package- luckily they only count it as one buyer though.   Transaction could no longer be cancelled because of the time elapsed.  This is another issue that ebay doesn't address- the length of time international items get returned as non delivery.

[art-in-the-making]

Whew! I do not mind refunding, for any reason. It is nice to know that I can, and not be penalized.

Talk about small blessings!

Trying to think of an equivalent - how about...

the city announces a $2000 fine for driving or parking in any way incorrectly on any line, even those that are improperly painted, which is a lot of them. Sensors are built into all tires to ensure that you get fined for all infractions.

You are free though, to drive only in your driveway or on dirt roads and be assured of never getting fined! 

[lordfishman]

Thank you, I will contact eBay soon as the case history has a message from the buyer saying it arrived and everything is fine and case closed.

I once had a case where I had a case opened while the tracking stated it was in transit.  The issue was with USPS as it somehow got bounced around NYC.

It was finally delivered and the buyer still claimed it never reached him and eBay refunded his money on me but thankfully did not take it out of my account as I clearly had tracking and this was before the new system.

I also fought off a dubious "charge back" with eBay from a buyer even after they received it. 

The issue I have is tracking here in Canada is very expensive and for most of my items I sell it is wont be worth it to track unless the item itself is worth a decent amount.  Ill try my luck with eBay support tomorrow to see how it goes.  I'm still ok for Top rated but a couple of more of these defects will render me ineligible for a few months.

I dont mind being penalized if i truly messed up (which I never intentionally do) but I can see a lot of abuse with this "did not receive it" as without tracking I have no choice but to refund it and call it a day.

[rainbow71113]

interesting that you would mention a chargeback...I just got 13!! from a customer who bought a bunch of royal magazines from me in August and luckily I had shipped them expedited with tracking showing they were delivered so I'm covered but it has me wondering what the heck? I wonder if wife went to town and husband got the statement and said oh heck no....still waiting for paypal to throw them back their way though...it's a lot of unnecessary stress.

I also fret over the fact that almost all my packages go out as lettermail, what I have started doing is checking the buyer's feedback to see what they leave for other sellers...especially if it's a higher priced item.  I got a head's up on a guy in Belgium who thinks nothing of leaving negatives saying the shipping was too high so I gave him a deal on shipping and got a positive...it seems that's all he really cares about but it does make you wonder why he gets away with those feedbacks since he obviously sees the shipping charge before purchasing at least in most cases.

[ultimatedealzonlinegeneralstore]

All of the new changes ebay has made lately are just ridiculous......defect rate....yep - I have 2 of those - they can't even tell me what they are 'cause they're from so long ago.....grrrrrrr

....and - what about the way they arrive at the Top Rated Seller status' ? - I am sooooooo angry about this!!!

I thought the whole idea was to give great customer service - excellent buying experience.......but nooooooo - now if you don't have 100 sales with a minimum $3,000.00 worth of sales - you lose your Top Rated Seller status!!!

I am so so so upset with this - it's ridiculous........this isn't about excellent customer service!! - it's about pushing for more transactions = MORE $$$$ fees for ebay!!!

[katlover1952]

I think some of you are correct when you say eBay is trying to force out the small seller of which I am one. I sell smaller priced items and mostly used. I had one case opened on me recently - someone did not receive their item (or so they said & it could certainly be the case). Because of the price of my items and the cost for tracked shipping in Canada I must self insure to be competitive with shipping costs. I ended up refunding the money and the shipping costs to this buyer but I did tell them in my message that they did not need to open a case as most top rated sellers are very willing to deal with their buyers and strive to resolve problems without opening cases and involving eBay. She replied that she did not realize she was "opening a case and just thought that was the way to contact me". So I am very close too to loosing my top rated seller status - just one more and that it is.

I really don't understand why eBay is making this so difficult. Even if a case is opened and I really have to wonder if eBay is not encouraging this - if it is resolved by the seller without eBay having to settle I do not understand why it should be a defect. How can we as sellers be responsible for the Post Office loosing someone's parcel??

Sure does not make any sense to me. And as for the item not as described - yes just another way for buyers to change their mind about a sale and now we are stuck either refunding including postage or paying to have it returned and refunding. Sure does not seem right to me. If you buy other items on the internet and decide you don't want them for whatever reason or they weren't what you thought I don't think other companies pay for the return postage.

I really think eBay needs to rethink their whole strategy around sellers and if they really are just after the big guys selling new items so be it but if I recall it was the small sellers selling vintage and used items that got this whole thing started. Maybe it is time for them to take a step back and look at where they came from before they decide where they want to go.