Had awful time with a so-called Top Seller, who has 126 negative feedback entries for the past month! How is it they are are a Top Seller?

[hopscottch]

I just don't understand the validity of the "Top Seller" rating when it as pinned to a seller who regularly and obviously cheats their customers: regardless of the proportion of negative feedback (even if it's a small percentage of their sales volume), surely 126 negative entries in one month is not of "Top Seller" status. Can someone please justify this, or should I now simply take this rating with a grain of salt? My current thoughts are that this gold badge is working hard in the buyer's favour, while providing, at best, mixed messages to consumers.

I have read eBay's disclaimer about the Top Seller program... buyer's due dliligence and all that... but this does not explain how or why the rating is maintained after such blatant missteps by a seller.

[scifan57]

Top seller status is in part based on the sellers feedback percentage. If a seller has a high enough sales volume,even 128 negative feedback in a one month period will not neccessarily cause them to lose their top rated seller status.

[scifan57]

Here is the eBay page on the top rated seller program.

[007steveb16]

I'm seeing the seller you're talking about and have glanced through their feedback. I've noticed that these large movie selling companies, it appears, don't really "care" how many neutrals or negatives they get because they get 100x's the amount of positives. I noticed that it looks like they never respond to issues and never reply to feedback. I think they've become so large that they can choose to ignore a problem and bury it because of how many more times their product doesn't cause a problem.

[dmil8030]

Hello 'hopscottch',

It's a numbers game, - they sell so many that the proportion of negs doesn't have significant effect to interfere with the TRS badge.  In my opinion that 'top rated seller' thing is meaningless anyway, for the reasons you point out.  A seller can be horrible but sell a lot so they have it, but a small seller who is simply excellent needs only 1 neg for nothing or a couple low DSRs and the badge disappears. 

I've bought from that seller you describe.  For me, it is still an okay place to buy from, - low prices, great combined rate, quick shipping, - all the things that count most. 🙂  But you're right, - extremely poor customer service.  Or maybe not 'poor', but annoying, or non-existent.  There are no real humans on the other end.

If you send an inquiry, the scanning software picks up keywords and sends a reply based on what your message 'might' say.  I bought this: 271045104599.  It turns out these are manufacturers rejects, in that instead of 3 movies there are only 2, the double-sided disc has the same movie on both sides!  I sent a note to let the seller know.  The response didn't fit, so I assumed I was unclear.  I sent a second, same thing, and a third in which I began "On the off chance this is ever read by a real human...".

They're still selling that product.  They must have got them cheap, but I thought they ought to know the problem.  I didn't want to return, or get money, or even an apology,  but some folks are pretty quick to leave negs.;-)  In my opinion it is a small thing and not worth leaving a negative over.  I'm very forgiving in real life, too.  I just assume this company either has no humans working there and hence the problem cannot be rectified, or they are completely and utterly indifferent to their buyers. 

So yes, very poor customer service and lots of negs, but the overall percentage of negs is only about .27% which is extremely small when viewed in light of the requirements as indicated in scifan's link.  I'll still buy from them, - after all, there are far worse sellers on ebay, - but only if the items are cheap.  Because if there is a problem, it's money down the drain.

You did get a refund for those items, right?  You didn't lose more than your time?

[leb17]

Hi... with a 50,000 a month sales and a 250,000 sales in 6 months... yes I do concur with the others responders...it's a number game.

Sellers like that can handle a negative hit or more negative hits.

[hopscottch]

Thanks to everyone for the information and opinions. I've arrived at the conclusion that the "Top Seller" designation is attributed via a flawed process (that favours high-volume sellers, suprise-surprise), and is not a reliable unit of measure. Personally, I think its ludicrous that a seller who has garnered so many negative comments in the course of a month should be able to market themselves as within the upper echelon of eBay sellers, regardless of percentages. What it says to me is: "Well, this seller rips customers off about 4 times a day, but because they have so many buyers, the chances of you being one of the chumps who's scammed is actually not that great! Here's a gold badge!" This is not sensible. The final score is eBay: 1, Common Sense and Consumer Confidence: 0.

[ok_so_im_50]

Why would you buy from someone who had a lot of negs before you made your purchase?

Many years ago, there was a well known high volume seller on ebay.com. They had tons of negs yet people kept buying from them and I never understood why.

Feedback is there for you to make a decision whether or not to buy. Regardless of the seller's overall positives, I would never buy from someone with that much negative feedback.