eBay

rosscd57 · ‎03-11-2014

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.

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

bb_cool_stuff · ‎05-04-2014

So how are we refunding here again ?

Buyer says pin has not arrived, amazing how so many of these go missing in the mail. lol

Hasn't filed an INR.

I believe if I refund, without them filing, I still receive a defect don't I ?

rainbow71113 · ‎05-04-2014

I just did a full refund through the payment because I will be graded every 3 months so that should work itself out by August.

What I will be doing from now on is just sending a money payment to their email addy directly from paypal and bypass the ebay item but quote the item number and title in the message and then message them that the money has been refunded. I've had to do it in

the past for customers that changed charge cards and didn't want a credit going to the wrong card. I guess the only problem will be if the buyer still does an INR and you have to explain to ebay why you didn't refund, personally I think we should all plead ignorance.....LOL "what do you mean I have to do it through the payment? I thought this is the same thing..."

rose-dee · ‎05-04-2014

@bb_cool_stuff wrote:

I believe if I refund, without them filing, I still receive a defect don't I ?

Yes, unfortunately that seems to be the way it works now.

I suppose you can either follow 'isis' suggestion and take a chance on doing the refund through Paypal (hoping the buyer doesn't file an INR afterwards), which will bypass the eBay system completely and avoid the defect, or -- if you have a particularly friendly buyer who you're sure will agree to a cancellation - do the refund and take the chance of cancelling the transaction using the reason "Other".

This is going to cause a lot grief for sellers who would normally gladly refund if the buyer says the item hasn't arrived when expected (whether the postal service is taking too long). Mind you, for you sellers who have more than 400 transactions in 3 months, you can at least look forward to a "fresh start" every 3 months. The rest of us lower volume sellers will be dragging our problems along behind us for a year.

It seems we're d---d if we do, and d---d if we don't. The only certain way to avoid a defect is to use tracking, and who can afford that for every item?

Oh yes, 'bb' , I forgot, there is another way we can avoid defects -- don't sell anything. (LOL)

bb_cool_stuff · ‎05-04-2014

Pin was shipped on March 20th.

Should have been there by now.

No choice but to take the buyers word for it.

Funny how in nine years of selling, not one item showed after the filing of an INR or after requesting a refund through eBay messages.

Refunds totalled $805.58 last year & am at $103.74 so far this year which far exceeds my Cookie Jar Insurance.

I think its still best to refund through eBay as refunding directly through Paypal, to avoid a defect, has to make its way back to eBay eventually.

Best to keep my account in Good Standing, but will probably lose my TRS anyway due to the amount of INRs accumulated over the year.

What can I do ?

I ship every package within twenty four hours & would be out of business if I had to ship with tracking.

Some could have honestly gone missing, but that many. c'mon.

My yearly vent is now complete.

westernstargifts · ‎05-04-2014

Pin was shipped on March 20th.

Should have been there by now.

The order for which I just received re-payment was also shipped on Mar. 20. It arrived on May 1.

I am still waiting to see if the 3 packages shipped on Mar. 14 have arrived.

Ricarmic, that is an interesting idea, refunding all but 1 cent. I could just claim that it was a typo....lol.

rainbow71113 · ‎05-04-2014

Hello BB,

actually since paypal is owned by ebay it's all the same thing isn't it....? I've switched over to stamps for almost all transactions so at least my shipping charges dsrs have leveled out around the 4.95% mark but it's getting harder and harder to put on $18.75 for overseas and $10.30 for US....lots of stamps but I also can't afford to ship tracked.... by the way, my refund is now showing as a defect even though I did not cancel that transaction so that answers that question....

bb_cool_stuff · ‎05-04-2014

Just Great isis.

What can we do ?

I will keep selling with Honesty & Integrity & let Karma take care of the Dishonest Buyers, unfortunately at the expense of my TRS Discount.

rainbow71113 · ‎05-04-2014

yes, I sacrificed my stats for the greater good...LOL...but we had to know for sure. I wonder what ebay will do if come August 90% of the sellers are suspended for defects....wouldn't that bite them in the butt, suspension means no fees hence no money for the big wigs....although I think you still have to keep up your monthly fee for your store even if suspended...does anyone know ?

just saw this The Shipping cost and Shipping time DSRs are not taken into consideration for seller standards on eBay.ca- I didn't know that...found that when I was trying to figure out if you still get charged

pjcdn2005 · ‎05-04-2014

DSR of 1 in Shipping Time is a defect on .ca and .com.

Anonymous · ‎05-04-2014

I felt that the sellers shouldn't be penalized for those buyers who have no patience with the length of mail delivery. I get 3 defect because they were asking "I didn't received my items", only to have 2 saying: "Oops, got them this afternoon, sorry!" and other one said the same thing that he got it the next day. All of them didn't realize their packages come from Canada. Note: I have another id username in Canada that shows very clearly as in Canada, those morons didn't read it fully!

Now why the heck should we be penalized for those morons and possible potentinal morons who have no patience with the lenght of mail delivery. And what is the worse is that eBay "estimated" time of mail delivery that is insane. eBay needs to put a longer "estimated" time of mail delivery to protect the sellers.

But no as usual eBay is evil and that is why they do it for the purpose to hurt us as sellers. Thanks to evil eBay!

I totally am not looking forward for more morons who have no patience with the lenght of mail delivery the upcoming months!!

Anonymous · ‎05-04-2014

To bb cool. With your expensive items, you should use tracking number to ship them.

It is hard with cheaper items like pins, etc. I now no longer ship my items across Canada without tracking number. I sell 8x10 and 8x12 photos and always use 2-3 thick hard cardboard inserts to protect the photos and that kind don't match the requirement for cheaper mail service. Canada Post required that we can bend slightly to get those cheaper mail service and that won't work for my photos as I don't want my photos to be even bend slightly, so I had to use Expedited or XpressPost depending on which city/province.

As for USA, I use tracked packet or Expedited. There is a risk to send my photos to International countries as Canada no longer cover insurance for small air packet.

When I started to change from cheaper mail service to Expedited or XpressPost for Canada, I thought my sales would go down but it is opposite, it goes up like never before! So go figure! Unless the Canadian buyers are more understanding about the increase postage rates this year than before? Hope so!

US buyers are the worst one, always whining and insisted that our postages rates are more cheaper than USPS when in fact it is not true.

rainbow71113 · ‎05-04-2014

Hello honeybed,

you can certainly send those 2 sizes as lettermail and I'm sure with the cardboard you aren't thicker than 2 cm. I also send prints and photos and buy those cardboard envelopes made for them and add extra cardboard and still send them lettermail to US and Canada, they are well within the 27 cm width.

rainbow71113 · ‎05-04-2014

I was just on the phone with ebay, his answer to defects for a "no questions asked" refund policy is you won't be penalized if you are satisfying the buyer's needs.....I said, really? if you have 100 returns a month you can't tell me that this won't impact a seller. He corrected himself and said yes, that would impact the seller. The outcome of the call was - he said they are still working on the defects and things might change and that we will have opportunities to appeal....so can you imagine every seller appealing something on their defects...it will get nuts.

His other response to my current issues (a removed neutral) was....come August I won't see those- that this is just a hint of what it's going to look like to give us an idea. Well we all know any store showing a 12 month window will be seeing what we are seeing now. He admitted that the neutral on my account was removed but is still showing as a defect but for me not to worry -it can be appealed in August if it's still showing up. So I guess what he was saying is they are not going to address these issues until August but by then it might be too late.

when they first tried to get buyers to use UPS they phoned me and I asked what a magazine would cost to the US- Canada Post at the time was $3.80- UPS would have been $13 for the same thing and he said "but it would be there in one day" I said my customers don't want to pay the $3.80 do you honestly think they are going to volunteer to pay 3 times that....!!? no answer to that...

rose-dee · ‎05-04-2014

@isis1313 wrote:

just saw this The Shipping cost and Shipping time DSRs are not taken into consideration for seller standards on eBay.ca- I didn't know that...found that when I was trying to figure out if you still get charged

As 'pj' mentioned, a DSR of 1 in "Shipping Time" is a defect, but the "Shipping Cost" DSR is no longer counted toward your seller status and won't generate defects.

However, before you cheer about this, as we all know, a buyer who is really unhappy with shipping cost may very well leave neutral or negative FB, which isa defect, so there's no escape from it...

Although 'ricamic's' idea of refunding all but 1 cent is clever, I imagine it wouldn't take eBay too long to catch onto that ruse as well. It did occur to me though -- could a seller refund all but the shipping cost and send the shipping cost refund itself through Paypal? That would show as a partial refund on eBay but the buyer would get all his money back. It might be a bit confusing for some buyers, but it would mean explaining it in advance I suppose.

Isn't it awful that we can't concentrate on just giving the best service possible, without having to count up the possible defects if we do?

cumos55 · ‎05-04-2014

eBay keeps making adjustments... to the TRS and TRS plus program...

and sellers learn how to "Beat the System"

Many sellers on eBay.com would buy postage daily and have the tracking show on eBay.....

But those parcels are delivered to the post office twice a week.... There is a seller with TRSplus that delivers to the post office on Tuesday and Friday.... that is put in every listing.

Now on eBay.com shipping time is very tight... so if you play the game.... The buyer may expect delivery on the day you ship..... with shipping on a day but not with a one day handling time.

There also may be something such as verification that the parcel has been delivered to the post office ... with tracking confirmed based on a record obtained at the post office

This is a new defect system..... yet there are sellers who have already figured out how to "Beat" the System....

The standard for TRS plus on eBay.com keeps getting more strict... mainly because eBay is working to close those sellers who work to beat the system....

The best any seller can do is work to make improvements..... and meet the standards of the new defect system.

cumos55 · ‎05-04-2014

Adjustments I have made

(1) As the years passed, World wide shipping was reduced...mainly because of the... Item Not Received ...claims.

Now I only ship to a select group of European countries.... Only rarely does a parcel travel internationally without tracking.

(2) Each adjustment by Canada Post has allowed me to add tracking to more parcels..... US buyers are buying more this year than last, the first year with Tracked Packet...... The US buyers are adjusting.

Tracking to the US is currently at about 70 %

Tracking is more important than insurance... something Canada Post might be able to consider... track when received by the post office and when delivered.

(3) My one problem with not received had to do with a buyer... who paid and I shipped...

A few hours later, (parcel was in transit) buyer states I found it for a lower price at Chapters... Chapters was clearing old inventory with free shipping... true free shipping... and then buyer proceeds to whine in several emails... (Buyer made a mistake.... OH NO! how could I do this)

Eventually a claim was opened ... not received.... no tracking with lettermail... buyer got a full refund

Then buyer left a negative feedback, and low ratings of 3 for everything except shipping and handling.

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I do suspect the buyer played me to get a refund... buyer knew ahead of time about the Chapter's price....(No refund with Chapters).... Buyer bought from me..... and knew about the lack of tracking with lettermail.

Everything appeared calculated and too much to a defined procedure

Buyer could have bought from Chapters..... but would have received no refund....

When the book was purchased from me buyer worked the system to get a "free" book...

Three defects with one transaction but only added one defect to the count...

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A seller on an eBay.com discussion board did indicate he knows someone...who bought 10 items on eBay... played the ... "Item Not Received " option and got a refund on nine of the purchased items....