“TOP RATED” status gets demoted to “ABOVE STANDARD” over 2 late shipping star dings.

[sarahsales88]

What Happened?

Nov/Dec. 2018, rotating strikes at Canada Post caused mail backlogs..

I closed my eBay “Store” in an effort to avoid stress.

Ebay then sent messages saying “Open Your Store…’ encouraging, reminders that this was prime time for selling, seemingly supportive….

I reluctantly re-opened the “Store” hoping for the best.

Then in Dec/18 & Jan/19, two late shipment star dings were posted for slow delivery within Canada.

I felt the 2 dings were an expression of buyers’ frustration with the on-going Canada Post vs Union highly publicized conflict which went on for months, culminating in rotating strikes.. My 2 star dinger buyers gave glowing written positive feedbacks showing satisfaction with the transactions. One said,….”I love this seller”, yet gave the late shipping star ding. 

Many are not aware of the long term ramifications of giving less that 5 star ratings. 

On June 26th eBay sent this message: 

“Act now to regain Top Rated Seller status.

Top Rated Seller status update

Hi ,

Unfortunately, your account no longer meets one or more of the Top Rated Seller requirements based on Global seller performance standards…..”

That was more bad news from eBay, and again, poooof went my satisfaction with eBay….10% Top Rated saving on final value fees disappear and other disappointing ramifications are imminent .

The higher status was lost through the max 3% star defect rule, based on the relatively small # of sales in Canada alone, ( even though the vast majority of sales were to the States and oversees,… but they didn’t count. ) How do I “Act now to regain Top Rated Seller status.”??

I’m still naive and assume computer program robots executed their preset programs, and this has bypassed live employees attention at eBay.

Please, someone at Bay who reads these posts, please help. Please ask whoever is in charge of getting rid of those 2 star dings to do so. You know who to go to to undo the damage, so I really would appreciate your help. The scenario so far is not fair. There has to be some empathy. Talking on the phone is not an option for me and I I do not want to spend any more precious time skirting around this. It’s an easy fix for eBay.  With a lot of great items here to list, I do not have time to spend on dealing with rule changes. I disliked that in school and this seems similar..

Trying my very best to have smooth transactions.  I love transacting with precious people in distant places around the world through the eBay sales. That has always been the motivating factor, amazing, keeps me going. 

But constant eBay rule changes have caused hundred of hours of extra work. I feel punished rather than supported, feeling the weight more and more, feeling that “last straw”, less happiness, sad because I have put my heart and soul into this for years. I’ve worked too hard at it to just walk away.

Thank you for help, appreciated it big time if you can.

Cheers from Canada, Sarahsales88    

[femmefan1946 · Accepted solution]

yet gave the late shipping star ding.

There are two different TRS ratings.

You may not qualify for the US version, but still qualify for the Global TRS.

 An easy way to check is to look at one of your listings on dotCOM then switch and look at the same listing on dotCA.  (Just change the URL.)

A Global TRS has all the advantages of the US one, but is not available to US sellers and is not visible on the dotCOM site.

So, did you lose your Global TRS? If not, that message was from dotCOM and is meaningless to a Canadian seller.

The labour dispute was over before Christmas and the mail was moving properly domestically by then.  There remained some delays in incoming mail, but that would not affect you.

[pjcdn2005]

Your post is a bit confusing to me as it isn’t clear why you lost your top rated seller status. It sounds as if you referring to the detailed seller ratings(dsr)  which can be seen on your feedback page but those dsr ratings have not affected  seller ratings for a while......I’m guessing that’s been the case for 3 years or more. 

You can can get a late shipping ding but that isn’t related to the dsr star ratings. But you Steve allowed more than 2 late shipping dings.  You can’t lose global top rated seller status for late shipping unless you have more than 5 dings AND the percentage is more than 5% of your global sales.

 The trs standards are explained here -  https://www.sps.ebay.ca/sd/sdrequirements?spsProgram=GLOBAL

The following link will take you to a page that will show you what percentage you have in each area so you can compare your numbers to the numbers on the trs standards link given earlier.   https://sellerstandards.ebay.ca/dashboard

Its possible that you lost your trs because you don’t have  100 sales from global buyers. That’s probably the most common reason for losing trs.

[ypdc_dennis]

The dings will disappear after a year.

One of the requirements for the 10% discount is having 100 sales in the last year for either the USA or "Global" regions.  "Global" does not count your USA, UK or Germany sales. The totals are calculated every month. 

https://sellerstandards.ebay.ca/dashboard

[recped]

You don't lose Top Seller status because of 2 late shipments, not for US TRS (More than 3% AND at least 6)  or Global TRS (more than 5% AND at least 6).

https://www.sps.ebay.ca/sd/sdrequirements?spsProgram=US

Suggest you study your Seller Dashboard, look at the US page and the Global page to what specific area you are deficient in. The message suggests it's for Global but that might not be accurate.

https://sellerstandards.ebay.ca/dashboard

[sarahsales88 · Accepted solution]

Hi Femmefan1946, thank you for your input.  The post was made in haste last night.  It was my 1st attempt at communicating here. This morning I would like to edit it or remove it completely. I was whining too much near the end as I was getting tired . Thanks again for your help.

Best, Sarah

[sarahsales88]

Hi pjcdn2005, thank you for your input.  My 1st ever post here was made in haste last night.  looking this morning I would like to edit it or remove it completely. Too much whining near the end as I was getting tired . Thanks again for your help.
Best, Sarah

[cumos55]

It was my choice to have my store on vacation from September 17 to December 31, 2018, during the rotating Canada Post strike.    I was careful not to have any  delivery problems with Canada Post.

Many new listings were added to my store during this time period..... about 250 new listings.

An email was received from eBay making note of the fact about 1300 new listings had been added to my store over the past year... and my sales will be very good as a result of this activity on my part.

January 2019  was very"hot"  for sales....  People were buying a lot of my new listings....    Sales continue to be  at a very good level.

--------------------

My listings now show very high in a search and continue  to do this to today ....  I confirmed that this was a "true" reality when I did a search on a computer other than my computer.  This other  computer was on MTS  while mine was Shaw Cable and  and a search was done with a different eBay ID

The search result was the same with this other computer....  with a different IP address... MTS versus Shaw...  and a different eBay ID.   

I did have a question   .... Was I being shown this search result because it was me doing the search?  The search result was "real"

-------------------- 

Life was not perfect during the rotating strike....  But my standing on eBay  is very good, partly because new listings are constantly being added ....  and my sales are very good

[femmefan1946]

You can use the Options in the top right corner of your post and Report Inappropriate Content to have your post removed.

But please don't.

Your problem or some version of it happens to many sellers and the responses may help them.

We're all in this together-- Red Green