Help Please: ebay Shipping Rate issue & Communication DSR question

[old.crows.nest]

Hello,

I recently received lower DSRs (4s) on all but the Item as described.

I do not know who left the ratings but they all came in at the same time so I am thinking from one sale.

I am very careful about giving quality service so I went looking in case I had overlooked something.

All items were shipped same or next business day so nothing I could do anything to fix there.

I discovered an issue with the S&H but nothing I did. It seems that eBay gives one rate in the listing but does not fill in the same rate on the Invoice. An example: S&H rate is US $2.89 in listing and the Order Details page shows US $3.01. I do not have a handling fee and do not fiddle with the Invoice when I send it. I have always trusted eBay to fill the fields in correctly. I am thinking that this might be why my S&H Star was dinged as it looks like I changed the rate after the auction ended? Has anyone else noticed this inconsistency with the application of Postal Rates?

Last thing, I know that there was a push last year to get Sellers to use ebay generated communications to hopefully eliminate Buyers annoyance with being spammed by Sellers who send multiple updates. I thought it seemed like a good idea, especially as ebay also guaranteed that if there was no Buyer or Seller initiated communication there would be an automatic 5 Star for Communication. Because of this promise and because there were NO attempts to contact me with questions I do not understand how I ended up with a 4 Star rating. Does anyone know if 5 Star guarantee was only for US (dot)com Sellers or only for Domestic Sales? I tried to find the information in the Help Pages but came up with nothing.

Thanks in advance for any help.

[lady.stark]

I thought it seemed like a good idea, especially as ebay also guaranteed that if there was no Buyer or Seller initiated communication there would be an automatic 5 Star for Communication. Because of this promise and because there were NO attempts to contact me with questions I do not understand how I ended up with a 4 Star rating. Does anyone know if 5 Star guarantee was only for US (dot)com Sellers or only for Domestic Sales?

That system is REALLY flawed, because even if no communication occured (other than on invoice and payment), the buyer still have the possibility to give less than 5 stars... I've experienced it both as a buyer and a seller. 😞

As for your other questions, I (finally) responded in my post where you also asked your questions. 😉 I'm sorry for not responding sooner, I'm working 35 hours a week and barely had time to read the new spring announcements for sellers (which are NOT good news at all, except maybe for the "2 days before opening an UID").

[adela_b]

I have been shopping a lot and I noticed that sellers, registered on eBay.com do get their 5 stars in communication automatically if there was no communication. I just received an order from Italy, I assume the seller is registered on eBay.it and although there was absolutely no communication between us, I had to rate the communication.

The only explanation to me is your buyer was annoyed and got to you through your DSR. I read a lot at a forum where stuff like that are discussed at length and I see that some people will intentionally damage the DSR of a seller with no solid reason.  

[recped]

recently received lower DSRs (4s)

4's mean NOTHING, don't waste brain cells even thinking about it.

[rose-dee]

That system is REALLY flawed, because even if no communication occured (other than on invoice and payment), the buyer still have the possibility to give less than 5 stars... I've experienced it both as a buyer and a seller.

To "lady.stark" and "old.crows.nest" - 5 star communications DSRs are tied to other parameters -- the seller must also specify 1-day handling/shipping time and upload tracking by the end of the next business day in order for the 5 stars to be forced.  See under "Communications" on this page:

http://pages.ebay.ca/sellerinformation/sellerprotection/feedbackprotection.html

So if your seller did not meet all 3 criteria for a given item, as a buyer you'd find you would be able to rate the Communication DSRs.  As a seller, if you do not meet all 3 criteria for a given item, you won't get automatic DSRs.  I am told by the pinks at eBay that the messages contained within invoices, etc. do not count as "communications", so you can still leave a note in an invoice and get the auto-5 DSRs as long as you've met the other 2 criteria.  The question of whether buyers see/read those notes is another issue...