any1 been having a lot of trouble with eBay sellers lately?

[Fragems]

The new rating policy is going to be a nightmare for sellers . 2% "defect rate" and you lose your top rated %5 or more and you are moved to a "below average" rating at which point they can suspend your seller account. Basically there will be a huge cluster fuck come august and a lot of accounts will not only lose top rated but also end up in a position that could result in their suspension from eBay.

So basically if you have anything goes wrong with 2 or more out of every 100 transactions and you cannot be a top rated seller. 5 or more transactions out of 100 have any problem and bam your account is in jeopardy .

Things that Warrant a "Defect" strike
1. Detailed seller rating of 1, 2 or 3 for item as described(3 star or less review for item description)

2. Detailed seller rating of 1 for shipping time(1 star review for shipping)

3. Negative or neutral feedback(Neutral and Negative feedback are now the same thing )

4. Return initiated for a reason that indicates the item was not as described(even if the return was agreed upon by the buyer and resolved it still counts as a strike )

5. eBay Money Back Guarantee (previously known as eBay Buyer Protection) or PayPal Purchase Protection case opened for an item not received or an item not as described

5.Seller-cancelled transactions


Here is an eBay thread with a bunch of high rated sellers many with 100% positive feedback who are going to be completely screwed unless the policy is changed.

http://community.ebay.com/t5/2014-Sprin ... #U19779906



Edit: Was going to start telling my buyers to select "damaged during shipping" to get around the defect rating since that is what usually has happened anyways. You think that damaged caused by the shipping company would be their fault if you packaged the item well. However it still counts as a "defect" wtf.

What counts as a return initiated because the item was not as described?

These reasons for returns are counted as item not as described:
Missing parts or pieces
Damaged during shipment
Item defective
Item expired

[Hobie-wan]

Well, I can kind of understand if the seller didn't package properly. Like seller morons that pack Saturn and NES games in a bubble pack and expect them to arrive intact. Of course it is another thing if the item was in a sturdy box with plenty of padding and it arrives looking like it was used as a soccer ball or for target practice.

I think the star ratings are stupid. I think sellers are penalized for anything less than 4.8 average or something dumb. IMHO 4 stars should be for when everything was fine with no issues and 5 stars should be for exemplary service. There is no way to indicate that a seller is super awesome because "everyone's a winner".

[marurun]

This pressure is understandable, however. Too many sellers are getting away with pretty poor behavior. Anyway, if eBay tightens too many of the wrong restrictions without fixing some of the underlying problems, many sellers will jump to Amazon's Marketplace.

[Fragems]

This pressure is understandable, however. Too many sellers are getting away with pretty poor behavior. Anyway, if eBay tightens too many of the wrong restrictions without fixing some of the underlying problems, many sellers will jump to Amazon's Marketplace.

Really just read through the thread I posted above and you will see what I'm talking about.
http://community.ebay.com/t5/2014-Sprin ... #U19779906


They are basically screwing over anyone who is in a category with even low return rates for instance electronics, movies/games, and etc. . Simply opening a return case now results in a infraction against your account .


There are a lot of people blowing this off thinking it will only affect the sellers. However imagine what happens when the amount of sellers plummets by 50+% come august. They are already sending out notifications to people with 5% plus "defect" rates over the last 12 months so a lot of sellers especially in the video game category are just going to disappear . Imagine how the market is going to react .

I feel like a lot of people are in the same boat as this guy who started that thread I posted earlier.

I am a TRS since 2007 with over 800+ 100% positive feedback. I am a seller of cell phones and as such, I get a fair number of returns because there are things I cannot control, such as device defects. This is true for all electronics sellers like myself. I ALWAYS give my customers their money back EVERY SINGLE TIME they are not happy WITHOUT ANY ARGUMENT. This is why I get rave reviews on my account. As a seller of electronics, it is impossible not to get returns because you can describe the item 100% accurately, but electronics tend to have faults more than other items.



So, I got the email from saying my defect rate is over 5%. I know it’s because of customer initiated returns. What’s going to happen this August? Am I going to lose my account? I am so scared because this is my livelihood. This is NOT FAIR. I can’t control item defects and I give refunds 100% without ever arguing with my customers. My average ebay bill is around $700-1000 a month and I can’t believe they are willing to dump me like this.

What can I do? I am so scared of losing my account!!!!! Do you think at the end of the day, eBay just doesn’t want sellers like myself??

Edit:
Consider also how easy it will be for fraudulent buyers to hurt a seller now . Something as small as 8 neutral feedback in a 12 month period could mean your seller account could permanently be restricted from selling.

[marurun]

I did read that thread, actually, and I am bothered by eBay's new policy, but I understand the pressure on them to do something to alter their marketplace. Honestly, if eBay has a reputation for questionable sellers, it is in part because eBay's own flawed policies have allowed them to flourish. I think these new rules will fix some of the trouble with bad sellers, but at the expense of a lot of good ones. They are building up new rules instead of tackling some of the fundamental flaws in their existing ones. I have always been frustrated that Neutral ratings have effectively acted as "weak Bad" ratings (now full bad). I don't want to rate a buyer "Good" if I had a less than satisfactory experience, but I don't want to rate them bad if it wasn't truly bad.

That said, there are now many alternative marketplaces to eBay. There's Buy/Rakuten, the Amazon Marketplace, and even Newegg has a broader marketplace program. Someone mentioned eStarland (I don't know much about it). Point is, these sellers will get shafted in the short term, but they have alternatives. eBay doesn't have alternatives. If it drives away more good sellers than bad, eBay could sink themselves altogether.

[Fragems]

This was an interesting email that one of the sellers posted up on the thread.

Yes for the 12 month evaluation period, sellers will be evaluated for the last 12 months as of Aug 20th which will be from Aug 1st 2013 to July 31 2014.



Sellers on a 12 month evaluation period will be protected until March 20, 2015 seller evaluation from selling limits or restrictions as a consequence of falling below eBay's minimum standards strictly because of one or more of the defects that were not previously counted and that ocurred before our announcement. Note that this protection does not prevent the loss of Top Rated seller status and benefits, having your listings lowered in search, or having selling privileges limited or restricted for other reasons besides performance standards such as eBay polict violations. It doesn't protect you if you fall below standards by today's requirements before July 31, 2014.

Just got to the point that I had the hang of selling on eBay so I hate to leave but I think I probably will at least until this gets sorted out if that ever happens.

edit: Guess I might keep going till around August as long as I don't creep towards the below average rating. Main reason I prefer eBay over Amazon is their fast payment and auction options. Plus there is a lot more room to describe your item. Sure there are other auction sites out there that I could go to but none that get as much traffic as eBay most likely .

[CavZee]

Well I bought a copy of Ape Escape two and half weeks ago and it has yet to arrive. Haven't heard back from the seller yet so I guess that qualifies.

[Mad_Hatter]

In buyers defense, eBay sellers kind of walk into problems when they put up listings like this:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Authentic-RARE- ... 1e89359a9c

[Fragems]

I just really don't see what is wrong with the current system it seems a much better rating system for determining who is a good seller. However they are implementing this oversimplified mess that crucifies you for any returns or even small problems that are easily resolved. I kind of feel like the other sellers this system seems geared toward eliminating a good percentage of the Top Rated Sellers .

Ticks me off that we are going from this





To This and they are trying to say it's for everyone's benefit.




Another lovely thing is tracking has to be "validated" 90% or more of the time. To get validated an item has to be scanned at least once by the carrier. USPS is pretty hit or miss when it comes to scanning sometimes usually I only get 1 to 2 scans per shipment and sometimes as suggested by my percentage I don't get any scans at all .

This is just like the damaged during shipping bs. Basically if the USPS screws up a few times it can wreck your seller rating .