DSR DSR DSR ( complaining abou t this is getting old , I know but.....)

[dagr8_renaud]

1st time I came to these boards was because eBay sent me a message saying my Power Seller status were at risk ( because of new DSR requirements , my dsr back then were 4.8 and above except in S&H COST they were 4.3 ( in S&H time I had 4.8 and more like everwhere else)

advice I received here was to improve Buyer experience with better listing ( I did and since then I have more sells )

the best advice I receive was a link that would help me 'educate buyers' the link is www.leavingfeedback.com

Within 6 weeks of messaging my buyers with that link my 30 days DSR S&H COST went from 4.3 to almost 4.8 . I earned my first discount 1 week ago of 15 % .

here is the bad part : I got lazy and stopped sending the link to all my buyers since I received the discount I figured I was finally above it ( big mistake) , and within 9 days to be exact my S&H COST went back to 4.4 ... in 9 days

Of course the solution is easy message all my buyers again etc etc , maybe someone could link me to a program that would do this automatically for me ?

My point here is it is not normal eBay charges me around 500 $ in average every moth , they could at least educate buyer instead of offering me 60 $ a month to do it myself . my ( and everyone else s including eBay )business a would be way better , more satisfied buyers = more business .

If a simple email from me changes my DSR that dramaticaly in less then 2 weeks there is a problem with the eBay system .

Flame me all you want this is my opinion eBay has to adjust to this and fast . I hope they take this into consideration . opinions are welcome.

Renaud

[pierrelebel]

"I got lazy and... "

"there is a problem with the eBay system ."

The problem is some buyers do not fully realize the quality of your service. They need to be reminded.

With every eBay purchase, I send a small note:

"Great care is taken in providing all my customers “five star” service for all aspects of every transaction.
Positive feedback is posted upon receipt of payment. Buyers are quickly advised of shipping time (typically within 24 hours of confirmation). Stamps, booklets and souvenir sheets are packaged carefully then heat-sealed in plastic bag with adequate backing for maximum protection while in transit.

If you agree the quality of service provided deserves a “five star” rating, please take a minute to do so.
Your positive feedback and “five star” rating on all aspects of this transaction are important to me. Five star rating eventually reflects lower fees by eBay resulting in my ability to maintain lower prices for you.

If you feel “five star” rating is undeserved, please let me know so the next transaction will satisfy you." .

[axe_n_gear_music]

I agree Pierre.
After shipping, I also send the buyer a note which I simply copy and paste. I have one saved for U.S. buyers, and one for Canadian buyers. Works like a charm, and is well worth the extra 5 minutes per customer. Some people out there may not agree with it, but that's cool- I'm just showing this as an example of what works for me. I send it EVERY time, whether it is a 5 dollar or a 1000 dollar transaction. It won't protect you fully from the few boneheads out there, but a little education does go a long way. (plus, I like my 20% discount).
Here is an example of one that goes to my U.S. buyers:

"Hi,
Your new guitar package was shipped today for you from here in Ontario Canada by Canada Post/USPS, and should arrive between 10-15 business days (depending on U.S. Customs, etc).

We pride ourselves on 5 Star quality practices in all areas of business possible and we also consider you to be a 5 star customer. Your fast payment for your item is very much appreciated, and we have left you feedback on eBay accordingly.
Important details regarding eBays new feedback system can be found by visiting this very informative site- www.leavingfeedback.com

We also invite you to check out our website store, and you can also purchase our eBay items at a discount directly from us using your credit card and calling Toll Free from anywhere in North America at 1-877-COOL-AXE.

Thanks again for your business,
Best regards,
AXE 'n GEAR MUSIC
www.axengearmusic.com"

[dagr8_renaud]

yea I did the same for a while , and I will keep going at it since its worht it , but dont you guys feel like its eBay's part to make sure eBay is a great place to buy ?
imho I am paying eBay for a service and I have to do there job that is a nonsense , I provide excelent service , proof is a simple email put me up there , and if you remove my S&H cost rating I surf the 4.9 somethimes closer to 5 then 4.9 ....

[axe_n_gear_music]

Yes, I agree, eBay does a poor job educating buyers, and the DSR system is far from perfect, but by sending your buyers a quick, simple, informative letter like this, it will, in most cases, separate you from many of your competitors. If eBay won't take the time to do it, then I will.
Good luck,
Cheers,
AXE

[coxengines]

the best advice I receive was a link that would help me 'educate buyers' the link is www.leavingfeedback.com

Glad to hear that my advice worked.

I got lazy and stopped sending the link

You said it yourself.

they could at least educate buyer

That's your job, not eBay's

there is a problem with the eBay system .

Look in the mirror to see where the problem lies.

At the risk of sounding harsh but eBay is but an advertising medium. It is up to you, and entirely up to you, to utilize the tools at your disposition

Many posters have given you advice; heed some of it and you will succeed.

High customer satisfaction does take some effort but, once you relentlessly follow a good marketing plan, it will become almost effortless and your DSR's will improve automatically.

Again, I'm glad to hear that your efforts have paid off. Keep it up and you'll never have to complain about poor DSR's on this board again.:-)

Xena

[jeffglobal]

At the risk of sounding harsh but eBay is but an advertising medium. It is up to you, and entirely up to you, to utilize the tools at your disposition

Kind of challenging when eBay is always changing the tools on you!!

dagr8_renaud - I'm with you! eBay USED to be both simple and fun. Sucks to be taken advantage of, as eBay focused all of it's energy on improving the buyer experience at the expense of it's sellers, all the while forgetting that sellers are their customers too.

Would comment more, but I'm too busy wasting my time updating my listings manually still (yet again). Would love to just add more inventory (which I have sitting and waiting) to sell, but why waste time selling and trying to make a buck when I can spend my time stumbling onto bugs and glitches and testing Beta's and reporting my findings to eBay to learn that nothing will be done anyways.

Looking forward to the next round of radical non-sensical change!

[coxengines]

but why waste time selling and trying to make a buck when I can spend my time stumbling onto bugs and glitches and testing Beta's and reporting my findings to eBay to learn that nothing will be done anyways.

Yup!

While you are busy indulging yourself, the likes of myself will be "wasting" my time selling and making a buck.

Don't forget that eBay is what you make of it.

Life is full of stumbling blocks - same as eBay. It is what you make of it that will influence your perspective:-x

Xena

[jeffglobal]

Xena, can you not sense sarcasm? At all? Oh nevermind, I'll just go back to "indulging" myself, as you've put it.

[craftycatsattic]

Oh...I have to agree that the new feedback system totally sucks.

I go through a lot of great care to be fair and to let the buyer's know they are getting 5 star service from me, everywhere from my auction pages, to about me page and my shipping confirmations as well. I even send the little Thank You notes that everyone is talking about and was sending them way before all this feedback upheaval started...only now I mention all the reasons why it was a 5 star transaction...etc.

Even so, it does NOT CHANGE the fact that eBay tells the buyer a 4 is good, yet penalize us for it. The only difference between the 4 and the 5 is the word "VERY". It is simply unfair!

And then you get the completely careless buyers who don't read your auction descriptions and then ding you for it! I got one just this morning and lost my raised search standing in a heartbeat!

And further UNFAIR is that coming November 1st on .com they will block you from any new listings if you don't have 4.3's all across the board. In your PEAK PERIOD!!!

I am totally disgusted with them!!!

And yet am just trying to adapt and survive...but for how long? I keep asking myself what the next nail in the coffin is going to be?

[craftycatsattic]

Oh by the way. Thanks for brining up the link. I've added it in my shipping confirmation and may consider adding it in my Thank You notes.

They do need to update the info though as there's no mention of the upcoming 4.3 policy.

[coxengines]

Yes, jeffglobal, that part went over my head LOL! I'm so used to the whining on this board I overlooked the fact that someone could actually throw in some humour.

Perhaps I need to stay off the site for a day...;-)

Xena

[celticstudio]

I don't usually post here but I do read the comments.
In August I was diagnosed with a brain tumor and it was a bit of a shock to say the least. I had to go for CAT scans, MRI's and numerous doctor's appointments. I actually make all of the products that I sell so this took me away from my normal night and day work schedule. I had numerous orders in the eBay pipeline and even though I clearly specify the delivery time on my custom made products I know that my Buyers don't read this information. I custom make Scottish Clan jewellery and I believe I am the only company in the world that makes sterling silver and gold Clan jewellery. It takes time to make these items!
My feedback is about 1480 with three negatives. One recent as a result of my health issue. One from a Buyer who tried to extort $200.00 of jewellery after buying a $35.00 ring and threatening negative feedback. (I had just gone over 1000 positive feedbacks at 100% positive and became a target!) I reported him, sent copies of his e-mails and "Trust and Safety" would do nothing. They never do in my opinion. I took the negative! The second was a few weeks later because the post office did not deliver quickly enough... Ahh well what can you do about this when they just leave a negative without communication. My feedback is amazing.. people are so delighted to get my unique family related items that they can find no where else in the world!
I got "the call" from eBay. First communication in over two years! Wow! What service for the high fees I pay! They informed me that I may no longer be able to sell on eBay. My DSR on shipping had dipped in the last 30 days on shipping. No discount! No longer able to Sell on eBay! I explained the situation and they did nothing except make a note. I gave them Doctors name etc etc but they did nothing!
This brings me back to the point of this subject on DSR's. In my opinion, they are a ridiculous. Personally, I very rarely would rate any service a 5. Adequate service for me would rate in the middle a 3 out of 5 for satisfactory service. This is a highly subjective decision on any rating system. The problem with the eBay DSR system is that they do not inform the Buyer of what the system is used for. They give the Buyer no idea of what “good” service is, where that rates on their scale. For eBay to assume that Sellers should all be rated across the board on a close to 5 basis is a rather absurd when they do not inform the Buyer of the effect on a Seller or their level of expectations of Sellers. What can we do? The suggestion here is that we take more time and inform the Buyer of eBay’s expectations and the results of the Buyers star rating. Again, eBay transfer the job of informing Buyers of eBay’s policies. This is really not our job. EBay created the system and they should inform the Buyer. EBay use the system against Sellers but do not inform the Buyer of what their actions mean to the Seller so they shift this burden to us, the Seller. This is not part of our Selling mandate.
The other problem with the DSR system is that it is selective and optional for the Buyer. The selective nature means that there is a big disconnect between feedback and DSR’s. I have numerous Buyers who never bother to leave feedback no matter how many reminders I send them! At a certain point I become BAD service because of my endless e-mails asking them for feedback… I become a nuisance and they simply can’t be bothered leaving feedback. They bought the product, received it and are happy that the transaction went well but now they don’t want to take the extra time and log on to leave feedback. They, like us all, have busy lives and leaving feedback is optional not mandatory. It is not part of the transaction.. that is over!
DSR’s therefore only apply to the subset of Buyers who bother to leave feedback. A percentage that we can not truly tell because they are blind to the Seller other than a “floating” 30 day number. How many Buyers leave feedback and do not bother leaving DSR’s? So we end up being “judged” by eBay on a small number of Buyers. These Buyers are motivated by either extreme satisfaction (a 5) or have an axe to grind (a 1). This makes the DSR system both highly selective, blind to the Seller, blind to the Buyer and an invalid manner in which to judge a Sellers performance since it is a subset of a subset of Buyers.
What choice do Sellers have in such an arbitrary system? Really none. We have to try and do the jobs of educating the Buyer since eBay do not. More time and overhead in being an eBay Seller. Poor service from eBay… who here would give eBay a 5 star rating? I bet not to many Sellers would.

My last Negative feedback, a new Buyer with 4 transactions, who did not complete one transaction, left two negatives for two others and completed one transaction. I questioned eBay “Trust and Safety” about this Buyer who had never left a positive feedback and they said .. doesn’t look like they are doing anything against the “rules”. HUH!! A Buyer who never left a positive is OK!! Of course, I could not tell that this Buyer never left a positive since no Seller is allowed to warn other Sellers by leaving a Negative feedback for them. I tried to warn others but was slapped with a “Policy violation”. EBay seems to protect Buyers extensively but does little for Sellers. Sellers are eBay’s customers.. Buyers are ours. EBay customer service is aimed at Buyers and they ignore their customers, the Sellers who pay their fees!
Just my 2 cents.
Louis

[faerywishes]

dagr8_renaud
I totally agree with Pierre and axe. To earn your 5*'s you have to provide 5* service on every order. I too educated my buyers about shipping time at every opportunity and my dsr's went up. Then they went down again and I was still giving them 5* service. Then I realized someone was sabotaging me. A fellow seller/buyer. Now that she can't leave dsr's or f/b my shipping time is at 4.8 right now. My item description is 5 and communication is 4.91. I'm lagging a bit in shipping fees at 4.7. So now I will also tackle the shipping fee in the same way I did about the shipping time. Educate, educate, educate.

To succeed in business never leave decisions about service or how to run your business up to some one else. This is your business. I look at it this way. Ebay does a great job of bringing the traffic-buyers to Ebay, then it is up to me to sell to them. If I don't give excellent service and products they will go to someone who does. It is exactly what I do. I buy from people who give me 5* service. I will buy from sellers that I have never bought from before and if I don't get great service I'll find someone else. Think like a buyer. Even though we can feel at times they aren't helpful I still feel this is the best place on earth to bring in the traffic.

celticstudio As far as receiving neg and neutrals that you shouldn't have, almost every one does. Also look at your own behaviors that may have upset the buyers to give them. Xena made me look at myself when I received 30 neutrals from a buyer/seller that I felt were totally unearned. I thought I was done in here. By blocking this person she gave me 30 neutrals cuz she was upset. In light of my dsr's now I would do it again in a heartbeat. Her leaving the 30 neutrals made her look bad as some buyers have emailed me and said they would never buy from her because of that. And these were buyers that had never bought from me before but now do. Also there are lots of sellers that have blocked her now. So she earned what she gave.

When people buy in here now they really look at the feed back and why you received it. They understand that some buyers elevators don't go all the way to the top.

I also look at it this way, I work for a company that can have anywhere from 800-1000 people working there. Probably 10% are people that lack social skills, grumpy, or just plain nasty. Think about how many of those types of people come into Ebay. You're bound to meet up with some of them sooner or later.

The bottom line is for the most part you get what you give.

Have a Wonderful Day
Colleen

[boneshakerscards]

Again I will say it. 1500+ Seller transactions within the last 9 months, yet only 392 (to this day) of DSR's left. The problem is multiple item purchases that are happy with you don't bother wasting the time to click on the stars and leave them (since they consider it a waste). It only seems some do, and more than often someone who might have a gripe with you for whatever reason WILL take the time to click lower than 5 stars. This brings down your actual average.

I have said it before, I will say it again, Ebay needs to make it that if a Buyer leaves positive feedback and DOESN'T leave the DSR's then they default to 5 stars being left automatically, but unfortunately that doesn't happen. I myself lost my 15% discount because of this 2 months ago and have got it back since but am in the position of losing it again!

[pierrelebel]

"1500+ Seller transactions within the last 9 months, yet only 392 (to this day) of DSR's left"

eBay reports the numbers differently.

If you have (for example) a sale with five different items and your buyer leaves you 5 feedback, all 5 will be shown in the profile box (although just one will go in the feedback rating). On the other hand, only one DSR will be shown and counted.

If you look at my numbers, I have over 11,000 sale transactions in the last 12 months, resulting in 8,544 positive feedback left (about 2,000 counted due to multiple purchases at the same time) and only 1,600 DSRs.

It is quite normal.

The 5%, 15% or 20% FVF discount on the other hand is based on DSRs received in the last 30 days only. .

[celticstudio]

Hi Pierre,
I think you answered my question but it looks like my feedback was removed!
Louis