Above Standard Ratings but made Below Standard!

[avionsunantiques]

Here is an interesting situation I'd not heard off before.

In the last month (June), I was hit with 3 feedback extortionists.  Two from China and one in  France.   You know the kind.......the Chinese ones buy an item, and after delivery they pretend its damaged and ask for half the money back.   They refused to return the item, or provide a photograph of the "damage".   The French guy pretended the item hadn't arrived (after delivery), then after paypal gave him his money back (fraudulant claim), he gave me negative feedback claiming my Canadapost Stamped Shipping receipt and customs documents were Fake!  (as if!).   I reported each one to Ebay, but as usual, negative feedback is something they won't remove.

So I got 3 negative feedbacks in one month (the first in 6 months)........bad things happen to good people.........we all know the problems with Ebay's lopsided feedback policy.   I also got atleast 80 positive feedbacks that month, and with about 400  postives over the prior 6 months, my DSR's were high enough to absorb these three sets of 1's.

But here is the new twist!   After receiving these three negative feedbacks (and the 1 DRS's they came with), my DSR were still well above the Above Standard Levels.   But even though my DSR averages (for 3 months and 12 months) meet the Above Standard requirement, Ebay has manually changed my standing to Below Standard!

I phoned ebay to ask why I am rated Below Standard, when my DSR scores say I'm Above Standard (Globally and elsewhere).  I was told it was done manually because of the three recent negative feedbacks!

Here is the really funny part - this happenned on July 3rd, and the first of the above 3 negative feedbacks happenned on June 3rd.........ie one day later, and I would be down to two negative feedbacks in the most recent month!    When I asked about that, I was told my account would be reviewed again the following week (July 10th I assume), at which point, if everything remained the same, I would be Above Standard again.    BUT, and its a big BUT......if I pass on July 10th as expected, Ebay won't actually change my Below Standard standing back to Above Standard until August 20!   Thats right, Not July 20th, but August 20th..........so I get stuck as below standard for about 8 weeks!

So it gets even worse!    During those 8 weeks of Below Standard standing, all my ebay listings go to the bottom of the search results page.   ie, if someone puts in a search term for one of my items............my item will appear at the very end of the list.   But thats not all............my Paypal payments are also held by Paypal for 21 days after payment!    And since I'm a Canadian seller registered on Ebay.ca it doesn't matter if the tracking info says the item was delivered after lets say, 5 days, and the buyer leaves positive feedback after lets say 2 more days...........Paypal will still prevent me from getting that payment out of Paypal for 21 days (or 14 days after delivery confirmation and receipt of postive feedback).

So hows that for a new twist to the DSR approach?   Even if you have above standard DSR's, if you get hit with a few false negative feedbacks in one month, Ebay will over-rule your DSR scores, and change your standing to Below Standard (lower your search standing, and hold your payments for 21 days), and will keep you in that bad place for 8 weeks after the problem has passed!

[brandeentertainment]

I have had some wierd stuff happen in the past from ebay as well but like any big company like ebay they know they are the top dog so who cares what you think . I mean the cumminity cares but ebay doesn't care at all and they will do what they want all thetime ..

I had a friend kicked off and they would not let him sell again because they said he charged to much for US shipping When he contacted the CEO with proof that all his shipping was exact or below they just told him no you overcharge ..

They don't care so always have a back-up plan ..

My back up plan is to close my store at end off year and be shut down but middle of 2013 ... Too much hassle and I make way more money at my real job...

Hopefully one day another billion air will decide to open a site like ebay and teach them a lesson on appreciation and customer satisfaction . I doubt that though because everybody is opening sites like quibids now ...

[avionsunantiques]

Every business has a customer...........as a seller.........my customer is my buyer.   I do everything I can to meet my customer's expectations, because I know if I do so, that customer will come back and buy again.

In Ebay's case, we sellers are their customers.   I pay ebay about $2000 per month in fees.

Nevertheless, Ebay continually makes it harder and harder for us customers to satisfy our own customers on ebay.  Ebay should be supporting its customers, not making it harder for them to operate.

When I look back over the years.

First Ebay prohibited other payment methods..........does anyone remember bidpay?   I used to love getting paid by bidpay..........my buyer's paid bidpay, and I got paid the actual amount the item sold for.     Well, then bidpay disappeared, and if it hadn't, I bet Ebay would have prohibited accepting bidpay payments.   I also used to get lots of certified cheques in the mail, as well as personal cheques, and cash.   Not one of those buyer's ever sent me a fake cheque or tried to steal my item.   I also love getting paid by Western Union - again, I've never been ripped off by anyone paying by Western Union.   Along the way, Ebay prohibited all those payment methods, claiming they are unsafe.........instead forcing sellers (Ebay's customers) to use Paypal.    I've been ripped off more times than I can remember by theives using Paypal.   Paypal is the most risky payment method I've ever had to use.   I never used Paypal, until Ebay banned the other safer methods.

Then came the lopsided feedback..........prohibit sellers from leaving feedback (which is what leaving postive only feedback means), and do nothing to sellers who abuse their feedback rights!

Then there was the addition of Ebay fees on the shipping cost in an attempt to get sellers to ship for free (ie sellers pay the shipping cost out of their end!).    So if you get the buyer to pay the mail cost, Ebay makes the seller pay Ebay a percentage of the mail cost as a "tax or fee", OR the poor seller has to pay the whole shipping cost themselves.

Then there is the Top Rated seller discount........but included in the calculation is the buyer's assessement of the post office shipping charge!   Ebay might as well include a Presidential opinion rating - after all, the seller has as much to do with setting the Post Office mail rate, as they do Presidential policies.   Rating sellers is fine - but rating sellers on a factor the seller doesn't control, is a rigged contest.

I used to be Top Rated........infact I am top rated in all the factors I control..........its only the shipping cost rating which pulls me down to Above Standard - and there is nothing I can do about that - the post office sets their mail rates, not me!

Now we have Paypal/Ebay stopping sellers from getting their payments out of Paypal for 21 days, using the most flimpsy excuse to do so.

I wonder how many other above rated sellers suddenly found they can't get their payments out of paypal for 21 days, just like I did............in my case, 3 bogus negative feedbacks in the prior month was the stated reason..........but I wonder if other sellers got the same treatment, but were given other reasons?

[pjcdn2005]

downsizer, you said that your average DSR's are above what is needed to be an above standard seller. Could it be that the percentages of low DSR's are what is causing the problem?  You can't have more than 1.2% of 1's and 2's in communication and no higher than 2.4% in the other categories to be rated above standard.

[avionsunantiques]

HI, I tried to cut an paste, but no luck, so here are my percentage of low DRS ratings (1 and 2 scores) over the last 12 months (as reported by ebay in my seller dashboard)

Item as described     0.68%   (7)

Communication        0.5%     (6)

Shipping Time          0.49%   (5)

Shipping and Handling Charges 1.07% (11)

The numbers in brackets are the actual number of 1 or 2 DSR scores I've received in the last 12 months.

Of the above, 3 of each came in June from the three feedback extortionists I got hit with.   All the other 1's or 2's are from the same kind of bad buyers, but spread over the year.

I also have 769 positive feedbacks record by ebay in the last 12 months (ie from different buyers or same buyer on different dates), and 1028 Transactions (this includes repeat buyers), so a total of 1017 positive feedbacks, 4 neutrals, and 7 negatives over the last 12 months.

As you can see, I'm well within the Above Standard rating, and no where near Below Standard!

Nevertheless, Ebay has manually put me as below standard - and as a consequence, lowered my search standing, and put me in the 21 day Paypal payment holding pattern!

I'd love to be at 100% postive feedback, but as a higher end antique and art dealer, whose business is partly based on selling antique chinese porcelain to Chinese buyers, it just isn't possible (for example, it costs about $250 ish to send a decent sized vase to China by Canadapost Xpresspost, which is the cheapest signed and tracked method - UPS, DHL or Fedex are 2-3 times higher).