GET RID OF THE BROKEN SELLER RATING SYSTEM!

[kitzkrieg]

The seller rating system is ridiculous and inaccurate, not to mention UNFAIR as a whole… eBay needs to drop this moronic system and just have positive or negative feedback, also making it so a buyer is forced to settle an issue before being allowed to leave a negative feedback would be nice, seeing as feedbacks cannot be changed unless “your dying” (that was told to me by a eBay rep from the Philippines….:-D)

[cdnpontils]

I would agree in regards to Shipping Time and costs..out of a Sellers control.

You have to add Tracking etc that at times can ADD 40% to the price.One small package to France was $26 without Tracking and $72 with!!..For a $160 item.

Also to not be able to Rate a Buyer is unfair...the point of having a Perfect Feedback ruined by running into an Unreasonable Buyer alone shows this!!

[peacockvintagepens]

I agree. I am thinking that ebay might need a competitor with better policies that are fair to both buyers and sellers. Not only that but Ebay's policies need to be better defined, easier to locate on the site, and their telephone staff should be better educated.

[pierrelebel]

Vintage.

May I suggest you remove this statement from your listings.  It does absolutely nothing to protect you but may be seen by many potential buyers as "buyer unfriendly":

"BE SURE THAT YOU WANT ANY OF MY ITEMS BEFORE YOU BID, I WILL ISSUE REFUNDS, BUT ONLY WHEN THE ITEM IS SENT BACK TO ME, PLEASE DO NOT DO AS ONE OTHER BUYER DID, AND FILE A COMPLAINT WITH EBAY BEFORE CONTACTING ME, I AM NOT HARD TO DEAL WITH AT ALL, JUST EMAIL ME PLEASE!!!"

The DSR system may not be perfect but it reflects what buyers think of every transaction they wish to express an opinion on.  On average about 3 in 5 buyers will leave feedback and DSRs.  As you can see, most buyers leave a "5".

[rose-dee]

... and their telephone staff should be better educated.

Ah, now here's a point I was hoping to see someone comment on! 

Since eBay brought in its telephone-only "help" service (which I'd prefer to call the "hopeless" service), their quality of support has taken a nose-dive.  The last time I called with a problem that required some judgment and broader understanding of business, all I got was a person whose command of English was marginal, and whose grasp of eBay's policies seemed to rely on reading back to me the text that existed on eBay's customer support pages.  She was clearly flummoxed and completely out of her depth.  The "account manager" she finally passed me on to was more assertive but no more informed. 

The problem never has been resolved, I have not received a single email response to my replies from Customer Support, and have essentially given up on the issue.  I don't know where these "telephone people" are located, or how they're trained, but I suspect they are told to identify a key word, plug it into their computer and regurgitate the relevant policy. 

[tobyshitzu]

Ebay is not even close to amzn in customer service

I just had one where paypal reversed the payment (luckily before it was mailed)  so I couldn't open an unpaid item as ebay considers that "seller refunded".  The buyer wouldn't respond but was still active on ebay.    After being out small amounts a number of times I decided not to let this one go and get my $1.45 back.

Half an hour+, 2 ebay csrs, 2 paypal csrs, on hold 6 or 7 times.  None of them had any idea why paypal reversed the payment.  I believe 3 of the 4 were actually in the usa.  The 2nd ebay one who said I had to deal with paypal warned me I may be on hold for a long time and may end up cut off before I get anyone.  The 2nd paypal person declared I had to call back to ebay to get my *$1.45* in fees back  after the ebay reps transferred me to paypal.   So I took a fit on her and she credited my paypal account.  it cost them more in staff time then the money involved.

At AMZN that would be one webform submission, same day response saying problem will be fixed, then another after confirming it had been.

They do have new competition, but not in Canada yet.  Rakuten finally did something with buy.com .  They aren't a mickey mouse company with no money like others

[coolthings123]

I feel your pain.  This system is totally broken and really is in serious need of a total top to bottom overhaul.  

[mr.elmwood]

Be careful with Amazon. It is bleeding red ink on operations. Watch for major fee increases of massive staff cuts there.

When I see posters ranting and raving, using name calling, denegrating others, I take them far less seriously.

I do not think the DSR system is broken. I think that is does not work the way it was intended because buyers do not understand it. There is no buyer DSR, so, they have no frame of reference of what it means.

Bring back negs for buyers? That solves nothing. FB number should simply be a counter of how many transactions you have been involved in. Do away with percentages altogether.

What I sense going on in the background, is far less importance is being given to FB and DSR. More and more, I am seeing buyers being punished for bad behaviour. Sadly, too many sellers trumpet "I HAVE 100%!!!". Sorry, 100% means nothing. Who among us is "perfect"?

I "think" that eBay is moving away from announced and arbitrary changes to a model of background tweaks. Added together, over time, and the tweaks have far more impact than an announced change.

There is constant change when you watch for it.

[i*m-still-here]

I was just going to post the same thing.

You are absolutely right.

Ebay used to announce every change and now it's for us to discover them, and there a lot of them.

I've posted now and then about a few.............

Like the one I just posted about regarding return policies, but I've encountered many similar tweaks which were never announced.

[tobyshitzu]

"Be careful with Amazon. It is bleeding red ink on operations. Watch for major fee increases of massive staff cuts there."

Amzn operations were profitable last year, the entire $40m loss (and more) was a goodwill write down on living social as the group deal site fad is ending.  Its the 3rd party sellers fees that are the profitable part, which is growing a lot faster then ebay;  They are intentionally losing money on other things now to own the market later.

[mr.elmwood]

Amazon lost $274 million in the thrid quarter alone.

[tobyshitzu]

yes, not from their operations  though.  For the year they reported a $40m loss on $60b revenue.  The q3 write down related to their partly owned living social was a lot more then that.

[pierrelebel]

Not the kind of business I like (negligible profit margins (-0.06%), return on assets (1.46%) or return on equity (-0.49%))

Enjoy:

http://finance.yahoo.com/q/ks?s=AMZN+Key+Statistics 

[pierrelebel]

If you look at the very long term (15 years or so) you see the shares of eBay have done much better than Amazon:

http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=AMZN&t=my&l=on&z=l&q=l&c=ebay 

If you look at the shorter term (1 year), once again the sahres of eBay have done slightly better than Amazon:

http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=AMZN&t=1y&l=on&z=l&q=l&c=ebay 

Yet, Amazon has many supporters.

[tobyshitzu]

and over the last 5 year period amzn blew away ebay

http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=AMZN&t=5y&l=on&z=l&q=l&c=ebay

[reallynicestamps]

Does either company pay dividends? If they do not, they are working for shareholders who can only make money by selling their shares.

In other words, gamblers, not investors.

If a company is really working for its shareholders, it would be paying them for the use of their money and investing that money in making the company more profitable.

Companies that don't pay dividends are constantly cooking their numbers to make themselves look good for the next quarterly report.

Back on topic: the DSRs do need to be rethought. EBay seems to have noticed that the Shipping Cost was useless, since all buyers think all shipping is too high, and brought in the "Free Shipping/Five Stars".

The Shipping time is widely misunderstood. Could it be connected to a "Item Shipped " button that in turn would be connected to the seller's stated shipping period?

Description is fine.

Communication is fine-- although eBay has been fiddling with that too.

[kitzkrieg]

Hi Pierre, it may sound harsh, but if you look at my auctions prior to Christmas, I clearly had my shipping prices broken down, so that the buyer could see what they would be charged prior to clicking "buy it now", but they still.. even after being reminded during the purchase, and still prior to accepting the deal, they were yet again reminded by the ebay checkout system what the final fees were, but it seems that afterwards it was still an issue, so I just want them to be aware whats the total fees are, unlike some of the suggestions given to me by the ebay reps (ie: make all auctions "buy it now" with the shipping fees in the total price, but advertise as "free shipping",lol) they also said that I should make it clear in my ad that Canada Post is one of the highest carriers out there, and that is why I have to charge what I do.... it might be easier to just tell them not to buy from Canada? it is ridiculous for ebay to put a hold on my funds, that I earned... I have a total of $85 in fees on my account right now, and you bet, when it comes time for them to get paid, they are not going to wait, it is their money afterall! they do not even pay us intrest on holding our cash, and last time I checked, every bank pays out intrest at some level, am I right?

sorry for going on so long with my reply, this entire rant ws not aimed at you Pierre, lol

but if enough sellers demand that ebay change or remove the shipping fee rating all together, maybe, just maybe... they will listen.

I forgot to mention that they do not even have a workable way for us to fix this, at least it seems so, since the options they suggested to increase my seller rating all had to do with the areas that I had perfect scores in, which is every one, except shipping fees, lol

[pierrelebel]

"if enough sellers demand that ebay change or remove the shipping fee rating all together, maybe, just maybe... they will listen."

No.  eBay has listened to all sellers over the last twenty years and the policies in place today reflect the reality of the market place as they see it, from an American perspective.

To expect eBay to change policies for small occational Canadian sellers when the bulk of their income comes from larger American businesses is to expect too much.

If Canadians want to sell on eBay, they need to adapt to what eBay is and what eBay does, not the other way around.  Those who adapt generally do fine on eBay.

[inuk_the_polar_bear]

Vintage, simply because you list the fees and shipping that you charge, does NOT mean the buyer is agreeing with them. They want the widget and the shipping is a required evil. Does not matter what you charge, or not charge, it is still "too much".

Does not matter if it is cost based, it is still too much.

Some buyers have very narrow minds and just believe what they believe and you will never be able to move them.

I include a blurb that says I show the shipping charge seperately for accounting purposes.

Shipping stars will always get hit unless you go to the free shipping model. I believe that eBay is moving to a free shipping model to the USA. That will level the playing field and eliminate a lot of complaints.

Free shipping, coming to an eBay near you.

[pocomocomputing]

Does either company pay dividends? If they do not, they are working for shareholders who can only make money by selling their shares.

In other words, gamblers, not investors.

If a company is really working for its shareholders, it would be paying them for the use of their money and investing that money in making the company more profitable.

Companies that don't pay dividends are constantly cooking their numbers to make themselves look good for the next quarterly report.

While I understand your point about eBay not paying dividends, do you really think it makes much difference if they did pay dividends. Then the pressure shifts to making an expected amount of dividend which means the same or similar moves to keep eBay paying those dividends. In either model, pressure to perform is still on the eBay management.