eBay

jt-libra · ‎06-05-2015

I just received my second defect as a result of low DSR's for Item as Described and Shipping Time (1's). In both cases, I not only received a lovely e-mail from each buyer thanking me for the quick shipment and the great packaging, etc., but also positive feedback indicating that the item was received even faster than anticipated and that I was "the best seller on eBay" LOL. So my only conclusion is that these individuals checked off 1 star thinking it was better than 5 stars.

Now this really isn't an eBay problem, but carelessness by buyers leaving feedback. Having said that, however, I do agree with rose-dee who in another thread stated that eBay should do something to educate buyers that Shipping Time does not mean "transit time" but "out the door" time by sellers.

I've always been reluctant to court positive feedback by inserting some sort of note with the package. I send every buyer an e-mail after purchase and payment thanking them for their purchase and advising them when they can expect delivery and the method of shipment. I include a gift and a little thank you note in the parcel. I then leave it up to them to leave feedback, recognizing that as time goes on, fewer and fewer buyers actually do. But that's okay. I'd rather they not do it at all than do it incorrectly.

As a buyer, I've received notes thanking me and requesting that I express my satisfaction by leaving 5 star feedback. That doesn't really bother me but I'd rather they didn't and that's why I don't ask for it. But even if I did include a friendly little note encouraging feedback, that still wouldn't prevent people from completing the DSR's improperly. And to further explain the way the DSR star system works would be like insulting their intelligence, in my opinion.

To wait a year for unwarranted defects to drop off the dashboard is discouraging .... although I have heard that eBay is reviewing the whole feedback/DSR process. Hopefully something more meaningful will take its place.

musicyouneed · ‎06-05-2015

I also have had a buyer give me glowing feedback and then give me 3's in both shipping time and shipping cost. When I asked about it they said that it was meant for another seller, ya right. This person was a seller and knew full well what she was doing. She gave me 3's to lower my score and positive feedback so I couldn't have it removed. I called ebay 3 times, even with the evidence that she said she made a mistake on the rating and they wouldn't change or remove anything.

It is happened to me before, this buyer also seller, gave glowing feedback then dinged 1 for each of the 5 DSR's. When I called ebay on this buyer, they removed all the feedback she had given out for the last 6 months to all sellers, I guess she showed a pattern of doing that.

I too hate that DSR and Defect system. There has to be a better way.

rose-dee · ‎06-06-2015

@jt-libra wrote:

".... although I have heard that eBay is reviewing the whole feedback/DSR process. Hopefully something more meaningful will take its place."

I agree with all your comments, 'jt', and would add (as I probably have in the past) that many of these issues are hardest on the "little guy" trying to make a small living out of selling on eBay.

I hadn't heard anything specific about eBay reviewing the FB/DSR system, and at first when I read your comment I thought: great, finally! Yet my second thought was that the replacement system could end up being even harder on small sellers than the current system.

It's a sad comment that it's come to the point where I would almost rather not get FB/DSRs at all than risk a buyer being confused or careless and affect my seller status for a year. Too bad, because for sellers who work hard to make buyers happy, FB used to be a great thing.

Besides, so few people bother leaving FB anymore now that eBay might as well just have an automated transaction counter with, say, a checkmark (=satisfactory transaction) in the absence of any input by buyers.

maggiebvintage2010 · ‎06-06-2015

If this happened to me, I would take the time to call eBay and try to have the defect removed. Since you have the comments that specifically negate the DSRs (hopefully your emails were via eBay Messages), I would try and try again to get through to Utah CS, and ask for a manager if necessary. Some sellers have reported success with this, so you may have a chance.

jt-libra · ‎06-06-2015

@maggiebvintage2010 wrote:
If this happened to me, I would take the time to call eBay and try to have the defect removed. Since you have the comments that specifically negate the DSRs (hopefully your emails were via eBay Messages), I would try and try again to get through to Utah CS, and ask for a manager if necessary. Some sellers have reported success with this, so you may have a chance.

That did cross my mind, but having read about the difficulties sellers have had in getting horrible, unwarranted feedback removed, I presumed I wouldn't have a prayer. But it doesn't hurt to try, does it? I might just do that. It's hard enough to avoid defects for situations over which you have control, let alone the well-intentioned, careless buyer.

ricarmic · ‎06-06-2015

This has happened to me where the feedback was glowing but the DSR for the same thing was not. A quick call to eBay got it removed.

jt-libra · ‎06-06-2015

ricarmic wrote:
This has happened to me where the feedback was glowing but the DSR for the same thing was not. A quick call to eBay got it removed.
T\

That's good news! I'll call for sure.

pjcdn2005 · ‎06-06-2015

I would also try to get them removed as I've read on other boards that it can be done although it sometimes takes persistence.

One or two defects may not seem like much but what if next month you have an inr and then a couple of months after that you have another problem that is considered your 'fault'? It takes just a bit of bad luck for them to add up so when there is a possibility of getting rid of them, I would at least try.

But now that buyers are told that a dsr can be seen by the seller, you might want to write the buyer(s) a friendly letter asking if there was a problem because you noticed the low dsr's etc etc. If they write back saying that the low drs was a mistake then it might be easier to have it removed.

katlover1952 · ‎06-12-2015

I got 2 low ratings on items not as described. The one case I sold an antiqued bronze colored pin and she told me she thought that it was green as that was how it looked in the picture. My description clearly stated bronze. Another one I did contact the buyer about the low rating and she said she thought it looked a little different than the picture. I take my pictures in a photo tent but we all know that color can look different on different monitors. I have seen items listed as silver that looked gold on my PC.

Anyway I did call eBay about having the defects removed but while they seemed somewhat sympathetic told me that as that was the buyers opinion they could not change it.

I think it is extremely difficult to get eBay to change any defects. At least that is my experience. And as a small seller I now have to wait till July to get the one defect removed to get my top seller status back and that is if nothing else happens.

My other 3 were items lost in the post which were refunded. I rarely use tracked packet because I sell smaller priced items and it is just too expensive.

Good luck - hope you make out better than I did.

reallynicestamps · ‎06-13-2015

My other 3 were items lost in the post which were refunded.

The buyers reported them as 'lost'.

Uh-huh.

Put those names on your Blocked Bidder List.

This is where Cookie Jar Insurance comes in handy. This just means adding a few pennies to every asking price or shipping fee as a premium against occasional losses or damage in transit.

Those few pennies are cheaper than using tracked services.

If a customer reports a problem, you can refund before it becomes a Dispute, protecting your selling account.

At least one constant poster reports that with Cookie Jar Insurance he actually makes a small profit every year-- just like the big insurance companies.

jt-libra · ‎06-13-2015

@katlover1952 wrote:

I think it is extremely difficult to get eBay to change any defects. At least that is my experience. And as a small seller I now have to wait till July to get the one defect removed to get my top seller status back and that is if nothing else happens.
My other 3 were items lost in the post which were refunded. I rarely use tracked packet because I sell smaller priced items and it is just too expensive.
Good luck - hope you make out better than I did.

I agree it's a lost cause. It's probably easier to get negative feedback removed where comments are offensive or profane. In my case, when I finally got through, I was told that sometimes buyers leave very complimentary feedback but express their true opinion through the DSR's. This makes no sense. Since the buyer had already received positive feedback from me, she did not have to fear that I would leave retaliatory feedback and, more importantly, the feedback stated that she received the item sooner than she had expected. Her very nice e-mail to me also stated that she thought the item was beautiful and she was happy to have received it so quickly. So why would she leave a 1's for "shipping time" and "item as described", if not in error? My attempt to explain this to the CSR was, of course, like whistling in the wind.

These types of situations used to bother me much more than they do now, although, of course, it's still very frustrating. There was a time I used to lose sleep when a buyer ripped me off and made false claims in their quest for a refund. But now, I've come to accept that it's just a matter of time until I fall off this tightrope that eBay has us walking and my selling career will be in the dumps or sorely damaged. There is nothing more I can do, or am willing to do, to satisfy their ever-changing and new requirements. And because I've become disenchanted with this venue, I've only listed about a third of the items I have available .... my heart's not in it right now.

So, the end result was as expected. Too bad .... so sad!

pjcdn2005 · ‎06-13-2015

Just based on comments written on other boards I don't think that trying to get a defect removed is necessarily a lost cause although according to other posters, it can take more than one phone call. But the fact that one does have to jump through hoops is frustrating and I can understand why you feel as you do.

I do have two defects for items not received and in both cases the item was returned to me because the address was wrong. I didn't have any other defects at the time so didn't even try to get them removed but now in hindsight, I wish I would have tried because after a couple of more 'defects' those 2 original defects could end up really hurting me.

pjcdn2005 · ‎06-13-2015

I do think that it would make it easier to remove a defect like this if the buyer wrote in ebay messages that they didn't mean to leave the low dsr's. I'm not quite sure how I would ask a buyer about that but there must be a non confrontational way to do it.

jt-libra · ‎06-13-2015

@pjcdn2005 wrote:
I do think that it would make it easier to remove a defect like this if the buyer wrote in ebay messages that they didn't mean to leave the low dsr's. I'm not quite sure how I would ask a buyer about that but there must be a non confrontational way to do it.

I considered that, but then I thought it might be better to let sleeping dogs lie. I told the CSR that I had the eBay message in which the buyer expressed her satisfaction, but it wasn't accepted. I have a defect from last August that will be dropping off in a couple of months (a year is far too long, as far as I'm concerned), so then I'll be back to a number that, hopefully, will keep me safe for a while. But, certainly, any further defect I receive as a result of low DSR's, I will politely follow up with the buyer.

triber · ‎06-13-2015

That doesn't work. I had a buyer who paid for 2 items separately, I combined the shipping and sent a partial refund. She forgot I had done that and opened a case saying one was not received. I got a defect. I reminded her that they were sent together and she remembered. I called eBay and pointed out her message, but they wouldn't remove the defect because the package didn't have tracking. This buyer even called eBay and explained, still no removal.

cumos55 · ‎06-13-2015

A recent occurrence....

Several buyers have sent me a thank you through the email system.... directly to my email address.

They did not leave Feedback.

A lingering thought is that they might expect me to leave feedback first.... after that personal email.

They thank me.... and I leave no feedback.... and no problems so far.

pjcdn2005 · ‎06-13-2015

Each situation is different. Many sellers have reported that they have had defects removed for various reasons. But in most cases, I think that it is unlikely that an inr defect would be removed unless there is delivery confirmation showing that the package was delivered. I'm not saying that is always fair but it does seem to be the way that it is.

jt-libra · ‎06-13-2015

@cumos55 wrote:
A recent occurrence....

Several buyers have sent me a thank you through the email system.... directly to my email address.

They did not leave Feedback.

A lingering thought is that they might expect me to leave feedback first.... after that personal email.

They thank me.... and I leave no feedback.... and no problems so far.

I've always left feedback as soon as I receive payment. I too have had buyers who have e-mailed me with a thank you but have not left feedback. I think buyers who do that that simply feel that a personal note is more meaningful than feedback .... and I think it is.

nuvistors · ‎06-13-2015

Most successful sellers leave feedback as soon as they receive cleared payment because the buyers part of the transaction is finished at that time.

pjcdn2005 · ‎06-14-2015

@nuvistors wrote:
Most successful sellers leave feedback as soon as they receive cleared payment because the buyers part of the transaction is finished at that time.

I do leave feedback once the item has been sent out although I don't agree that the buyers part of the transaction is necessarily finished. But I don't see any point to withholding feedback since it is just one more number on a buyers feedback count.