eBay

holdmygold2 · ‎08-23-2014

Anybody notice that their TRS status on eBay.com disappeared?

rose-dee · ‎08-23-2014

What was your defect rating as at August 20th? That was the date of the first evaluation by eBay, and that may have affected your US TRS rating.

holdmygold2 · ‎08-23-2014

You don't understand. My status is fine but the badge is gone and that is true for all of you as well.

Check your status on eBay.com.

rose-dee · ‎08-23-2014

Yes, my badge is gone because I had TRS Plus on .com, but I expected that once the evaluation based on the new tracking requirement (90%, even for Canadian sellers) took effect. It used to be that eBay "turned a blind eye" to non-valid tracking numbers and gave us a bit of a freebie for quite some time.

Take a look at your dashboard, under the US status, and look at your tracking stats (as well as all the other parameters). Remember that you have to meet all the criteria of the US TRS in order to have the badge displayed, even though you may still retain your Global TRS.

One thing that affects a lot of Canadian sellers in addition to the tracking requirement is the US sales total. In Global, the US sales are lumped in with everywhere else; in the US TRS programme they are calculated separately.

If you retain your Global TRS, you'll still get the 20% discount. I'm not sure the US badge has any significant value to Canadian sellers anymore, at least in terms of cost effectiveness. Few Canadian sellers will be willing or able to provide true tracked shipping on 90% of their US sales just in order to get that badge. I know I won't.

holdmygold2 · ‎08-23-2014

You're right, and I also expected the Plus to go.

It sounds like you're saying it's TRS plus or no badge at all for Canadians?

Is that right?

rose-dee · ‎08-23-2014

@holdmygold2 wrote:
You don't understand. My status is fine but the badge is gone and that is true for all of you as well.

Check your status on eBay.com.

I don't know whether the ID you're using is just a posting ID and not your regular selling ID, but keep in mind that one of the criteria for US TRS is that you have to have at least 100 U.S. transactions over the past 12 months, and at least $1,000 in sales to the US.

When you say your "status is fine", are you referring to your Global or your US status on your Dashboard? And when you say your "badge is gone", do you mean gone from your listings when viewed on eBay.com?

I think more information is needed from you to fully respond to your query.

rose-dee · ‎08-23-2014

@holdmygold2 wrote:
You're right, and I also expected the Plus to go.

It sounds like you're saying it's TRS plus or no badge at all for Canadians?

Is that right?

No. Keep in mind there are now 3 distinct programmes, at least where most Cdn sellers are concerned:

- TRS Global (which includes ALL sales and will get you the badge and the 20% discount on .ca)

- US TRS (includes only US sales, but doesn't have the tracking requirement, or the badge on .com, but will still get you the 20% discount); and

- US TRS Plus (a completely separate, and higher, designation, with the 90% tracking requirement, as well as all the other US TRS criteria, that gets you the badge on .com)

As I said, I anticipated I'd lose my .com TRS Plus, but my Dashboard still shows I have US TRS and Global TRS.

Unless you're willing to use true tracked shipping for 90% of your sales to the US, you won't get the badge back. I've given up on it myself, since the only value I saw in it as a Cdn seller was a sort of "Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval" kind of mark of confidence. It was nice to have as a Cdn selling in a US market, but likely not crucial, and certainly no difference to me in terms of cost of selling on eBay.

holdmygold2 · ‎08-23-2014

Holy **bleep**!

The last vestige of "fair" just evaporated.

EBay truly is not "Canadian Friendly," and no doubt that extends to all non-US ebayers as well.

Hostile to Canadians on so many levels.

rose-dee · ‎08-23-2014

Well, as Canadian sellers we're just little gnats on the back of a big elephant that's based in the U.S. and is focused first and foremost on the U.S. market.

In all fairness, we Canadian sellers got away with something we really shouldn't have over the past couple of years where the TRS Plus system was concerned. I recognize that if I had had to meet the test of true tracking on 90% of my parcels to the US during that time, I would never have benefited by having the TRS Plus badge on my listings on .com. My understanding is that the eBay.ca staff actually tried to retain that "freebie" for us, unsuccessfully this time around, and were instrumental in getting it for us in the first place.

So, I imagine a lot of US sellers complained that Cdns were getting away scot free, and weren't being expected to meet the same criteria to get the same benefits. And eventually eBay had to do something about removing the loophole.

On the positive side, I'm not sure the loss of the TRS Plus badge itself makes much difference to placement of my listings on .com. I've checked a few, and they're still in more or less the same position as before. And I'm not sure that the badge itself means the difference between a sale or no sale. If a prospective buyer looks at a seller's FB and it's good, they're still going to buy if it's an item they want, at the right price.

However, I agree with you that, while we got away with it, the TRS Plus programme was a special advantage for Canadians. Now we're on the same playing field with US sellers, and of course it's a lot easier for them to meet the criteria where shipping is concerned than it is for us.

holdmygold2 · ‎08-23-2014

Sorry: Not on the same playing field with Americans by any stretch.

Buying and selling here is MUCH more difficult for Canadians on so many levels.

A grind for buyers and a challenge for sellers.

The TRS badge removal for (all?) Canadians sends the message loud and clear that we don't matter.

We knew that anyway but the pretence was nice.

pjcdn2005 · ‎08-23-2014

It sounds like you're saying it's TRS plus or no badge at all for Canadians?

There's no TRS badge for anyone unless they meet all of the requirements for TRS plus.

holdmygold2 · ‎08-23-2014

And so I checked a little and saw that very few US sellers have the TRS badge any longer.

I didn't even notice it fading away until this morning when mine disappeared.

In fact, I now have to wonder if TRS = PITA seller because it may synonymous with high shipping costs.

rose-dee · ‎08-24-2014

@pjcdn2005 wrote:
It sounds like you're saying it's TRS plus or no badge at all for Canadians?

There's no TRS badge for anyone unless they meet all of the requirements for TRS plus.

That's not completely accurate -- if you're a Canadian seller who has met all the qualifications for Global TRS, you'll have the TRS badge on your listings displayed on eBay.ca (but not .com), for what it's worth. If you sell mostly to the US, and expect that most of your buyers will be viewing your listings on .com, then of course it's useless. But it does still exist here.

My listings and yours show the Canadian (TRS Global) badge. As I'm sure you know, the US TRS Plus badge looks somewhat different (for those who have it). It has a sort of laurel leaf design on each side. I had it up until August 20th, but it's gone now, as I expected.

I agree with the OP that we Canadian sellers are the least of eBay's concerns, let alone small Canadian sellers. This is just one more nail in the coffin as far as I'm concerned, signalling that eBay has no real interest in encouraging its "boutique" sellers anymore. I'm beginning to get that "bum's rush" feeling...

holdmygold2 · ‎08-24-2014

Still unclear as to what it takes for a Canadian to get any badge at all displayed on eBay.com.

Last month we had to upload tracking for 90% of our items to get the TRS Plus badge.

What happened to the regular TRS badge?

In other words, why isn't the badge displayed now without the plus if we don't manage to upload tracking for 90% of our items.

it went from all to nothing overnight.

rose-dee · ‎08-24-2014

The qualifications for the US TRS and the US TRS Plus designations have changed somewhat (since Aug. 20th). So yes, it did go from all to nothing overnight for many of us.

Now, in order for a Canadian to get the regular US TRS "badge" on .com, you need to meet the 90% tracking requirement. That used to be part of the US TRS Plus criteria. So, now those of us who had US TRS Plus as a result of the concessions made to Canadian sellers regarding tracking, have lost it. And we've lost the regular US TRS badge, if that's all a seller had on .com prior to Aug. 20th.

I'll find and paste the details on qualifying for the Canadian (Global) TRS in the next post, as I agree this whole thing is rather complicated.

I'd also suggest reviewing the entire TRS programme requirements at this link: http://pages.ebay.ca/help/sell/top-rated.html.

rose-dee · ‎08-24-2014

Here's the information specifically on the Canadian (Global) TRS programme:

Canadian sellers can qualify to be Top-rated in two separate programs. They can qualify for the Global program, which measures performance according to sales made to any buyer, and they can qualify for the US program, which measures performance only on sales made to buyers located in the United States.

Global Top-rated program

Sellers who meet all the Global Top-rated seller performance requirements receive the following benefits:

Priority customer support
20% discount on final value fees (on item price portion only)
A badge on listing pages on eBay.ca

To become a Global Top-rated seller you need to:

Be a member of the PowerSeller program
Have at least 100 transactions and $1,000 in sales during the last 12 months with Global buyers
Meet the following requirements for detailed seller ratings (DSRs):

DSR category	Percentage of 1 and 2 ratings
Item as described	0.60%
Communication	0.60%
Shipping time	0.60%
Shipping and handling charges	0.60%

Notes:

Sellers with 400 or more transactions over the past 3 months are evaluated on their transactions with Global buyers from the last 3 calendar months. For all other sellers,the rate is calculated from transactions with Global buyers over the last 12 calendar months.
To measure your overall performance accurately, we count 1 and 2 ratings only if they come from 2 or more buyers within any given evaluation period. If you have more than 400 transactions, 3 or more buyers must leave low detailed seller ratings before they are counted.

Be sure to look at your Seller Dashboard to check your current average ratings, status, and discount level.

rose-dee · ‎08-24-2014

For some reason that link above (to the whole TRS programme information) didn't work. I'll try again:

http://pages.ebay.ca/help/sell/top-rated.html

holdmygold2 · ‎08-24-2014

NOBODY cares about badges displayed on eBay.ca.

Not even worth acknowledging for the vast majority of e-buyers.

What this means is that there are three kinds of Canadian sellers who will be publicly acknowledged as TRS on .com where it matters.

1. Those who are selling 90% or more higher priced items (Say in the $200+ range) because upgraded shipping with tracking makes sense for these items.

2. Those selling big heavy items which can only be shipped via Expedited mail.

3. Sellers who are willing to pay for upgraded shipping out of pocket. (Stupid Sellers)

((Those who nail buyers with higher costs for tracked shipping will likely lose TRS standing due to low DSRs so they don't count.)))

Most Canadian TRS sellers will be #2.

TOTAL "BLEEP."

To extend that: I don't know the situation for US sellers, but it's very possible that these categories apply to them as well but to a lesser degree.

rose-dee · ‎08-24-2014

Yes, you've pretty much summed it up.

For a brief while after they announced the changes to US TRS, I considered trying to meet the 90% tracking criterion, since many of the items I ship do go in larger boxes, are more expensive and/or heavier.

But I wasn't convinced the benefits of having that badge on .com (and the placement eBay says that goes along with it) was worth the extra cost. It wouldn't have been stupid, as you call it, but just a calculated gamble that I decided not to take. I really don't see that my listing placements have suffered all that much on .com since losing the badge/US TRS, so it's of dubious value to me.

rose-dee · ‎08-24-2014

@holdmygold2 wrote:

To extend that: I don't know the situation for US sellers, but it's very possible that these categories apply to them as well but to a lesser degree.

Actually, to a much lesser degree. For US sellers, shipping domestically with tracking is far less expensive than for us Canadians attempting to ship with tracking to the US.

And US sellers have the GSP programme which essentially exonerates them from any responsibility for shipping woes -- on the buyer's dime -- yet provides tracked service.

No, I didn't say it was a level playing field at all -- just that we Canadian sellers are now thrust onto the US playing field, and being obliged to play by their rules even if we are handicapped by our location and our postal services.