I noticed something new yesterday when I was leaving feedback for a couple of items I bought recently on eBay. On the listing that provided free shipping, eBay posted a small notice reminding me of that fact.
A Positive Step
Maybe this isn’t new and I’ve just never noticed it before (see suggestions below), but I thought this was a positive step towards fixing the problems with eBay’s DSR’s. Perhaps eBay felt obligated to include this note because they couldn’t explain why the average S&H DSR for sellers that exclusively offer free shipping is less than 5.0.
Suggestions for Improving the DSR System
Now that eBay has a little momentum towards fixing the DSR problem, might I offer a couple of suggestions for continued improvement?
- Make the little free shipping reminder turn red when the buyer’s mouse hovers over any star in the S&H evaluation block other than the “5″ star. Better yet — If the seller offers free shipping, make it so they automatically get “5″ stars for that particular metric. The only way the seller could do better would be to send the buyer money for the priveledge of shipping the item!
- Put up the same kind of note in the shipping time DSR if the buyer opted for Media Mail shipping (or the seller was forced to only offer Media Mail due to eBay’s ridiculous $4.00 shipping fee cap in the books category). Make that notice turn red if the mouse hovers over any star except the “5″ star.
Assuming we are stuck with them, what changes would you suggest to the DSR system?
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One Response to “DSR’s – A Change for the Better & Two Suggestions”
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I would put forth the bold argument that DSR ratings should NOT be available for a buyer leaving negative feedback.
Negative feedback represents the failure of the transaction in one form or another. I guess I feel like the DSRs should represent successful transactions and that negative feedback speaks for itself as a percent of failed transactions.
While the negative could be left for reasons the DSRs cover, I think the negative speaks for itself with enough weight.
Aside from that, I think there’s probably a fair amount of negative feedback that comes with one star across the board, especially if the person is angry. Perhaps this explains one reason why people with free shipping still end up with a reduced shipping cost DSR.