Aug
20
In their continuing efforts to improve the buying experience, eBay’s Senior Vice President for Auctions announced a new enforcement policy, including sanctions and restrictions, for non-performing sellers. In a post on the auction site’s announcement board last week, Philipp Justus stated that eBay has “begun enforcing [their] seller Non-Performance policy in stricter ways than in the past by considering a sellers buyer-dissatisfaction rate.” The company has incorporated two metrics into this buyer dissatisfaction rate - the percentage of negative and neutral feedback a seller has received and a the percentage of “Item Not Received” complaints filed against a seller. The new “Detailed Seller Ratings” are not currently included in the calculations, but Justus states that he expects the to factor in the equation in the future.
By eBay’s calculations, 1% of sellers comprise this population of non-performing sellers. According to Justus, this small group is responsible for “fully 35% of bad buying experiences.” Sellers who have buyer dissatisfaction rates of over 5% during a 90-day window will be penalized with “selling sanctions” or reduced listing volume for a temporary, 14-day period. Seller’s with dissatisfaction rates of 10% or more are penalized with indefinite restrictions “until they improve their buyer dissatisfaction rates to less than 5%.” eBay promises to provide affected sellers with notification and instructions on how to resolve open disputes and give other recommendations on how to regain full selling privileges.
Of note is eBay’s decision to include neutral feedback ratings as a measure of buyer dissatisfaction. While I understand that the majority of neutral ratings are veiled, gutless negative feedback ratings in disguise - a significant number are not. The only neutral feedback ratings I have came from buyers who managed to convince me to refund their purchase on Half.com because they claimed to have bought the book in error. They felt obligated to leave some sort of feedback, and for some reason felt neutral was the most appropriate. Given that neutral is now negative, I hope that eBay can and will clearly convey the implications of leaving a neutral to the buyer or seller before they the “submit” button.
While I support eBay’s continuing efforts to clean up the marketplace, improve the buying experience and punish/reform those sellers who tarnish the reputation of the rest of us - I’m slightly concerned about the implications of including neutral feedback in the non-performing seller calculations. If neutral is the new negative, eBay should clearly communicate this to the users who leave feedback. Better yet - eliminate neutral feedback altogether so that the only options remaining are the ones that matter: positive and negative.
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3 Responses to “eBay Tightens Up Restrictions on Non-Performing Sellers”
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AS AN EBAY SELLER, I AM NOW INCLUDING THE FOLLOWING LETTER IN EVERY EMAIL AND SHIPMENT TO MY CUSTOMERS. FEEL FREE TO EDIT IT FOR YOUR OWN PURPOSES. DAVID RIDDLE
IMPORTANT: PLEASE READ THIS LETTER, IT EFFECTS YOU!
Dear valued customer,
Would you please take the time to read the following before leaving us feedback or assigning us “stars” on the DSR (Detailed Seller Rating).
On aug. 20th 2008, eBay moved the goal posts and changed the seller requirements (again) concerning feedback; now making it near impossible for honest professional sellers like us to remain on the site if you don’t help us in this situation.
Did you know that when you click on four out of five DSR stars (a B+ grade in the real world); this Is a failing grade for every seller on eBay? The new rules require a minimum of “4.3 stars” in each of the four categories of the DSR. If you don’t voluntarily leave sellers five out of five stars in all four DSR categories, we will all be removed from the site!
THIS IS NOT A JOKE, eBay recently removed us from the site for three weeks due to “Seller Non-performance” because of one negative, one neutral and a single 4.2 DSR category (shipping time) that were determined over a single 30-day period! We are not alone; without warning eBay has automatically done this to thousands of other absolutely good sellers ( for proof: Google “eBay non-performing seller”)
eBay’s ridiculous new statistics program threw out 9-1/2 years of unrivaled commitment to customer satisfaction and determines the survival of our business with a “30-day rolling sample window”.
With more than 10,800+ total positive customer ratings, we have always offered the eBay community; unique, useful and fully guaranteed technical products. In addition, we have also provided everyone free personal expert technical assistance through our toll free (800-544-3746) help line, with or without a purchase.
Could eBay possibly believe that these changes will help you the buyer have a better eBay experience? The answer is obvious, if eBay management persists in this direction, the only experience eBay buyers will have in the future is the loss of dedicated, hardworking, and ethical sellers like myself and many thousands of others.
The magic of eBay has always been the sites’ diverse marketplace, “where cottage industry became global”. When all the sellers of unique new and used goods disappear; eBay will become just another web site hawking automated electronic shopping carts filled with imported consumer goods! With your help and my commitment maybe we can bring the magic back to eBay.
Please call me if you have any questions. Thank you for your patronage and support, David Riddle
P.S. if you would like to receive a copy of the comprehensive article: ”There are lies, damn lies and then there are [eBay] statistics” that I wrote about this travesty of eBay’s managements’ “new ideas”, please call me! (This article was viewed by eBay’s “trust and safety” department and in 14-hours I was reinstated on the site, with restrictions of coarse!).
Hello, I found your article very interesting. I am so sorry to hear about your negative experience with eBay. I have been buying and selling on eBay since 2002, never ever breached an eBay policy and have 100% positive feedback and out of the blue they have “restricted” me from selling my used designer luxury handbags, from my own personal collection, purchased exclusively by myself from the boutiques. I am absolutely flabbergasted to have been treated in this fashion. I foresee eBay having very few decent customers in the near future; I have now found an alternative to eBay as this experience has upset me too much to use them again. Wishing you every success in the future. Kind regards, Amanda
Dear Mr. Riddle,
You should change some of your information, to wit; “The new rules require a minimum of “4.3 stars” in each of the four categories of the DSR.” That has changed slightly to a requirement of 4.1 on all five detailed seller ratings. I applaud your efforts to make public any information about Ebay’s dirty little punish the seller policies. You are correct; in the real world a 4.3 rating would be a B+ which would give you a 3.5 grade average in any university. The new 4.1 standards are just as harsh, in the real world that would be a B grade; at my university it would give me a 3.0 grade average which is commendable to say the least. This DSR policy is unwarranted and only hurts those who are trying to make a living.
Thank you,
Jana Townsend