Buyers want editable feedback
July 22, 2008
A buyer contacted me today expressing a wish to change the feedback that they’d left for me:
Hi, I received the item and everything is absolutely fine and think that you provided an excellent service. Unfortunately I accidentally left you 4 stars in one of the items in the feedback, must have mis clicked or something. I have looked but am unable to find a way to change the feedback.
Thanks
eBay have promised to make buyer feedback editable in limited circumstances at some point in the future. This shows that it needs to be sooner rather than later and must include the comment and DSR score as well as pos/neut/neg.
Realistically if the buyer hadn’t contacted me I’d never have known he’d left me a 4 instead of a 5, but this buyer was so uncomfortable with their mistake that they’ve taken the time to inform me.
If buyers are this uncomfortable that they can’t correct a feedback mistake then that alone is reason for eBay to enable editable feedback now, rather than later in the year.
SNP: 1 month grace before suspension introduced for eBay UK
July 18, 2008
eBay have just officially announced a one month grace period for any seller falling foul of the seller non-performance (SNP) policy for the first time.
Rather than face an immediate site suspension they will be informed that they’re in breach of the policy and given a month to bring their account back into good standing. This is great news and hopefully will keep the dolphins out of the eBay nets. It also means that one upset customer can no longer threaten your eBay business - by the end of the 1 month warning period their feedback will have dropped out of the 30 day feedback and DSRs used in the SNP calculation.
If a seller breaches the policy for a second time within a six month period then they will still face an instant selling restriction or suspension.
eBay have also expanded the Seller Dashboard to include a new Buyer Satisfaction Rating (BDR) to enable sellers to track their performance. This includes negative feedback, neutral feedback, low DSR scores (1 or 2 star ratings) and any buyer protection claims closed in favour of the buyer.
BDR is important not only for SNP but also can affect your standing in search - sellers with low BDR will be disadvantaged under the new Best Match search results. Sellers will be considered in breach of SNP if their BDR drops to “poor” or “unacceptable”.
The only part of BDR that is hidden from sellers are the DSR ratings, sellers should be aware of any other factors that could affect their standing. If eBay would change from anonymous ratings and enable sellers to see where they’re falling down it would be a valuable tool to assist seller increase customer satisfaction.
By keeping DSRs anonymous sellers have no clear understanding which transactions or which buyers are marking them down and sellers are unable to target specific areas or product lines for improvement.
Overall it’s a welcome change though - removing the fear and uncertainty sellers have felt with the knowledge just one or two buyers could earn them an instant 30 day suspension is great news.
eBay UK hint at more changes to come
July 11, 2008
Following on from yesterday’s announcement on eBay.com, eBay UK have put out their own statement on feedback changes to be implemented later this year.
It’s confirmed that neutrals will no longer be counted as part of the feedback percentage, and that those percentages will be recalculated. This will be effective late August, but in the meantime, no one will lose PowerSeller status because of neutral feedback.
The promised new dispute process which will give buyers the facility to edit feedback, will also roll in the UK in October. More details of this are coming “soon”.
And finally, a hint that change isn’t finished yet:
We’ve also recently received lots of feedback from sellers about the Seller Non-Performance programme. We’ll provide an update on changes to this programme early next week.
Despite many sellers criticising the ‘neutrals as negs’ policy when it was introduced and demanding eBay change it back again, I’m seeing just as many people this morning criticising them for the latest changes. ‘Too little, too late’ seems to be a popular thought: ‘they shouldn’t have done it in the first place’, and ‘it’s an admission of failure’.
But even if the implementation of the policies was wrong (and it was), the desire to clean up the site, to drag it out of the 1990s and make it a better place to shop, was absolutely right. Watching eBay tweak new policies and work towards getting things right is all part of the process: how many of us try things in our own businesses, test, tweak, see if it works, and if it doesn’t, try something else? It’s difficult, for all of us, but the alternative is a site that never moves forward, and none of us can want that.
Neutral feedback will not be included in percentages on eBay
July 10, 2008
eBay have just announced some significant changes coming to feedback in the next couple of months.
Neutral feedback is to be downgraded and from late August will no longer be included in the feedback percentage.
This was one of the biggest complaints of sellers at eBay Live!, with many sellers saying they felt “punished” for neutrals received prior to the last feedback recalculation. Many sellers lost treasured 100% feedback scores when neutrals were taken into account, and felt that it was unfair to retroactively count them as equivalent to negatives. eBay executives appeared genuinely distressed at sellers’ reaction to the changes, and Lorrie Norrington promised to address the issue.
In a second change, eBay are to introduce editable feedback for the first time. They have recognised that buyers sometimes leave feedback too early and will enable them to change the comments and rating. This will appear on the site in October and will encourage sellers to work with buyers to recitify any issues knowing the buyer can improve the feedback left. Currently it’s not been specified if buyers will be able to edit the DSRs left, but more details will be available in the Autumn.
It’s great news that eBay are not only listening to their customers, but are acting on what they’re hearing. I’ve never known them to make changes so swiftly following feedback from site users, so top marks to the new management team for not only listening, but also for taking prompt action.
How to open a UPI without getting bad feedback
June 29, 2008
As a method for improving your DSRs Scot Wingo recently posted not filing unpaid item disputes (UPI) as tip for improving your DSRs.
Whilst this has certain merits and has been met with approval I’d argue against it on the grounds that bad buyers will never be sanctioned, UPI strikes are the one sure way to get persistant non-payers kicked off eBay. What I would strongly suggest is following some best practices when opening a UPI.
- As soon as you open a UPI add a message
The wording from eBay is unfortunate to say the least - no one likes being involved in a “Dispute” so the email a buyer receives automatically isn’t the friendliest. By adding a friendly message along the lines of “Hi, we don’t appear to have received your payment, please could you let us know if you’ve already paid and how payment was sent” it takes the sting out of the “dispute” and sends a more friendly worded email. It also indicates to the buyer you’re a good guy and not assuming they are at fault, after all their cheque may genuinely be lost in the post. - If the buyer doesn’t respond close the UPI
Don’t leave open UPIs longer than you have to - if they buyer doesn’t respond close the UPI as soon as the seven days are up. A closed UPI with no response from the buyer removes their ability to leave any feedback whatsoever. - Respond to messages promptly
Check your UPI console at least three times a week if not daily while you have open disputes. The quicker you respond to a buyers reply the more likely they are to pay, or if not that you can close off the dispute. - Avoid antagonistic language
Keep your communications calm and friendly, either you have a customer who has genuinely forgotten to pay or one who has changed their mind and simply doesn’t want to pay. In the former they probably only need a gentle reminder and in the later an argument won’t get you paid but may get you poor feedback. - Telephone your buyer
Typed words can be easily misconstrued - don’t be afraid to pick up the phone and call your buyer. A friendly phone call often solves more problems than it calls and again gives you the opportunity to explain you consider it a non-feedback transaction - If the buyer wants to back out of the transaction let them
Offer them a mutual withdrawal from the transaction without giving them a strike. Remember in the UK under the Distance Selling Regulations if they do pay they still have the right to return the purchase anyway - you’re simply saving the postage cost. - Tell them you won’t be leaving feedback
There is absolutely nothing wrong with telling the buyer you consider it a non-transaction and won’t be leaving feedback. It’s also an indication to them that you don’t expect them to leave you feedback either and in my experience most don’t - Highlight why they haven’t paid
Make sure you highlight why the customer hasn’t paid and get them to repeat it in the UPI. Don’t forget, unless they specifically call out a shortcoming on your part, eBay have undertaken to remove any non-positive from non-paying bidders.
We’ll all get a bidder that doesn’t pay for their purchase sooner or later. Knowing how to handle a non-paying bidder should be one of the tools in your selling arsenal.
The most important tip of all is to remain calm and dispassionate when dealing with non-paying bidders, as soon as you get emotional or adversarial so will your buyer. Act as if you work for a large corporation and credit control is simply your job, the UPI console is the most important place on eBay to remember “The customer may not always be right but they are never wrong”.
If you’ve got some more tips on how to handle UPIs let us know in comments below.
eBay feedback DSR calculator from Auctiontrax
June 27, 2008
If you’re wondering how many 5 star DSRs you need to raise your score, Auctiontrax have released an updated version of their DSR calculator which will tell you.
It will reveal 12 month and 30 day DSR scores for any eBay user ID (even if it’s not your own). You can also calculate how many feedbacks are required to raise or lower your DSR by a tenth. This is especially useful for those with low volume as you can see the impact that a single low DSR rating will have on your overall stars.
The DSR calculator currently only reveals DSRs to the nearest 1/10 (an eBay limitation), but nonetheless it’s a useful tool. I’ve been able to calculate that on my current feedback if just 5 buyers leave me 1 star ratings that star will drop 0.1, or in other words a 1 star DSR lowers my overall rating by 0.02.
The DSR calculator is free to use and is available on Auctiontrax.com
Scot Wingo’s inside info from eBay Live!
June 25, 2008
In todays webinar the first thing that Scot Wingo and Max Leisten emphasised was that eBay have had to take action to stem the flow of buyers quitting eBay. Pretty much for every new buyer they attracted another would leave if not more. That’s why eBay have taken such radical steps such as no neg/neut feedback for buyers and higher seller standards.
The new eBay management have also seen that buyers like fixed price listings and have embraced them rather than concentrate on auctions.
eBay policy
There were some warnings against breaking policies which appear to be more rigorously enforced than before. This includes search manipulation where they have seen sellers suspended for gaming best match or DSR farming by rotating listings between multiple User IDs.
There is no longer a 15 item limit on identical listings, but it’s suspected eBay can scan items across user ids so simply changing the title or listing identical products on multiple ids is not recommended and could be viewed as search manipulation. However this could work to the advantage of smaller sellers who may gain greater visibility when competing with the larger sellers in their category.
The links policy will be enforced more rigorously than before and the recommendation is to remove all links. As eBay are about to route all communications through My Messages it’s recommended as you remove web links that you consider removing both email and telephone numbers to save future changes (It’s safe to insert them in the Business Seller Information, Returns Policy or Payment Instructions sections as they can be edited in bulk). At the same time sellers using active content (Flash, Javascript etc) consider back up plans as eBay have stated they will move from a banned list to an approved list for code in auction. This may block certain gallery type applications in the future.
Sellers should also ensure that shipping is included in the eBay postage information section. Not only will this be essential to appear in search, but it’s possible acceptable shipping bands may be introduced at some point in the future.
Listing strategy
On listing stategies Max and Scot recommend trying International Listing upgrade on your top selling international items. This may be expanded to include more countries in the future and appears to be working for many sellers.
What were they thinking?
In the “What were they thinking” category Scot highlighted the number of coupons, rebate and Microsoft Live search cashback and that you can use multiple discounts for the same purchase. Perversely none of the coupons are compatible with third party checkouts like ChannelAdvisor causing unhappy customers, although in the future it’s likely third party checkout will be phased out.
The 3rd party checkout redirect is already closed to new applications, but is likely to be discontinued by mid 2009. Although personally I dislike 3rd party checkouts they can have positive benefits for example offering an automatic merchant card facility which can’t currently be handled by eBay checkout.
The choice policy is being discontinued, but there is currently no corresponding way for sellers to list showing what colours/sizes are available, or for buyers to checkout indicating what choice they would like. Sellers will have to manually enter choice information into listings and rely on email communications for buyers to state their chosen options.
Top messages eBay need to hear
If you use a 3rd party checkout email your account manager and tell them why it’s important to you and which functions are essential to your business.
Ask your account manager why 3rd party checkouts can’t handle coupons when eBay are sending out millions of them.
Honest sellers want to see which of their buyers left less than a 5 star DSR, so that they can improve. Inability to see where they could improve is hampering their ability to give customers better service.
eBay need to evaluate messaging on DSRs to buyers to indicate that 4/5 is a failure.
Consider removing neutral feedback altogether - make it postive or negative. Today 100% are counted as negative but Scot believes at least 10% would convert to postives if the neutral option wasn’t available.
Advice for sellers
Be nimble - There will be more changes before the Christmas selling season so be wary when investing in stock.
Be prepared for more large sellers such as Buy.com to come to eBay and consider what would happen if a major competitor arrived in your category.
Continue to experiment with Best Match and use the BayEstimate tool.
My takeaway from this webinar is that, more than ever before, sticking closely to the eBay way of doing things is essential for sellers. 3rd Party Checkout, shipping or returns information in listing text rather than the eBay specified areas and failure to use item specifics are all problematic, either from useability or simply because it will get you lowered in search visibility.
eBay: past and future feedback changes
June 20, 2008
Following Lorrie Norrington’s announcement that buyers will be able to withdraw feedback in the future, Brian Burke hosted a session on “evolving the eBay feedback system to enhance the marketplace”.
Unsurprisingly the room was too small for everyone to get in and before the doors were closed, at least a dozen attendees were turned away from what was one of the most eBay controversial sessions I’ve attended.
Brian recapped the changes that are already in place, with some statics thrown in:
- 10% of sellers were negatively impacted by the feedback recalculation, or as Brian chose to express it 90% saw no change in their feedback percentage.
- Of PowerSellers 10% saw their feedback percentage drop and 11% dropped below 98%
- The average drop in feedback percentage was 0.5%
- The rate of low DSR ratings left by buyers (1 or 2 stars) has increased very slightly but not significantly
- 85% of positive feedback gets 5 star DSR ratings
- The overall percentage of non-positive feedback left by buyers hasn’t changed, but more negatives and fewer neutrals are being left by buyers.
Brian expained that on the whole the changes have had the intended effect, that buyers are less scared to leave a negative as there is no danger of retaliatory feedback, and that those sellers who with 100% rating weren’t being advantaged compared to those who previously received a larger proportion of neutrals but had also had a 100% rating. The changes are highlighting those sellers who truly give stellar service.
The Q&A produced lively questions, and at one point the audience were politely asked not to heckle to allow responses to be heard.
An interesting future possibilty thrown out by eBay was to ask how sellers would view eBay automatically debiting a buyers PayPal account then an auction closes. That would at a stroke wipe out non-paying bidders if PayPal was offered as the only payment option and would be welcomed by the sellers present.
When asked why not scrap neutral feedback, it was explained that although a neutral impacts your feedback percentage, it doesn’t affect your total score in the way a negative does. The audience voted unanimously when polled that they’d still prefer neutrals to be discontinued.
Several questions related to buyer communications, with the general consensus that eBay My Messages and the Dispute Console need a revamp. Feedback extortion is taken seriously, but if via email rather than My Messages is difficult to prove. Also it was agreed that a process to force communication prior to leaving non-positive feedback makes sense giving the seller an opportunity to assist the buyer.
The most telling comment came from the IMA, which was that a buyer who thought your description was accurate, was satisfied with your communications, thought you shipped quickly and that your post and packaging charges were reasonable would be leaving you 4 stars for all DSRs. This would disqualify you from PowerSeller status and you wouldn’t qualify for volume discounts on final value fees.
eBay said that for years feedback was considered to be untouchable, but now that changes have been made it’s not the end. They are still looking at it closely and will be fine tuning it and evolving the feedback system in the months and years to come.
Lorrie promises feedback withdrawal for the holidays
June 20, 2008
In this morning’s keynote speech from eBay Live, Lorrie Norrington promised that a new way for buyers to withdraw feedback left for sellers would be introduced by the end of this year. The announcement was exceedingly short on details of exactly how the new mechanism might work and the timing of its introduction: I rather got the feeling that eBay have decided that something will be done, but haven’t quite decided the details themselves yet.
Minutes earlier, the audience had booed Lorrie as she mentioned eBay’s most controversial change this year, the removal of sellers’ ability to leave non-positive feedback for buyers. Her reaction was upbeat - bring it on, we can take it - and her smile never faltered.
Lorrie revealed that the overall rate of combined negative and neutral feedback has not changed, though Brian Burke, Director of Global Feedback Policy, did say earlier in the week that the balance has changed: more buyers are now leaving negatives rather than neutrals. eBay cite this as proof that their categorisation of neutrals as ‘negatives lite’ is correct, in which case, that’s all the more argument for getting rid of neutral feedback altogether.
Diamond PowerSellers, feedback withdrawal and DSRs
June 19, 2008
Diamond PowerSeller level
There is a new Diamond PowerSeller level in the US. This new level is for sellers with a $500k/mth and 4.8 minimum of all four DSRs.
Diamond PowerSellers will benefit from packages which will include pricing tailored for their business model. Specific requirements will also be included which could include criteria such as free shipping, despatch time or other service levels appropriate to the category.
Feedback withdrawal
eBay are emphasising that sellers should provide products accurately described with great service up front so that non-positive feedback isn’t left. However they recognise that buyers may occasionally leave feedback too early. Lorrie Norrington is expected to announce a limited capability for buyers to withdraw feedback left for sellers in her keynote speech at eBay Live! tomorrow.
DSR requirement lowered for Best Match
It’s expected that the minimum requirement for DSRs received from buyers will be lowered from 10 to 3 ratings. This will benefit high value, low volume sellers who would otherwise be advantaged in search under Best Match, but currently don’t receive enough ratings in a 30 day period to qualify.
API calls for DSR consoles
Brian Burke told us that eBay are planning to introduce API (Application Programming Interface) calls to enable developers to build 3rd party DSR consoles. These API calls will enable more granular information to be provided than is currently available. The type of information could include the percentage of buyers leaving 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5 star ratings, and the average star rating for each seperate category the seller trades in.
Better DSR data would enable sellers to target the products or categories where they’re under performing and highlight the areas they excel in. This information is key to assisting sellers to improve their business for the future.
Meet the new feedback hub…
June 4, 2008
… same as the old feedback hub.
When eBay promised to implement “a dedicated hub for sellers to report malicious or unfair feedback from buyers”, I think many of us imagined something rather magnificent, a magical interface which would, by the power of eBay, protect us from buyers who want something for nothing or they’ll neg us out of business. We certainly imagined - or at least I did - that it wouldn’t be the same old report form going to the same old support people, with - presumably - the same rather patchy results.
But it is.
Pinkie James has just revealed on Q&A that the “report a problem form we spotted the other day is *it*, the long-awaited hub.
All snark aside, right now eBay need to be working to restore seller confidence in them. I’ve been shocked more than I can say over the last week or three, at the depth of calm anger that serious business people have expressed at eBay. The people threatening to leave now are not those who just sell the odd item they pick up in a car boot sale; these are people with employees and warehouses and serious businesses, and they cannot, they say, risk trading on eBay any more.
Promising something “dedicated”, and then that turning out to mean “email custard support as normal”, is not the way to counteract that. I can only hope that James has been misinformed and that something more robust and responsive is on its way soon.
Thanks to Denny for the heads-up.
Why SNP restrictions need reviewing
June 4, 2008
Looking back over the years eBay have on numerous occasions been hammered in the press for the conduct of sellers on the site. Watchdog in particular have an almost annual pop at them (watch out for another program in the Autumn or early Winter, they’ve had one for the last two years running at that time of year).
eBay have had to take steps to clean up their site, and those steps have inevitably involved setting a bar for acceptable seller behaviour.
eBay had to set the bar somewhere, and no matter how high or low it might be there would always be some borderline cases or “dolphins“. Lower or raise the bar and it’ll simply result in a different set of sellers being borderline.
The big question shouldn’t be “Are the wrong sellers getting caught in the net”, it should be “How should eBay handle borderline cases”.
I have no problem at all with eBay taking action against accounts which are blatantly giving abysmal service and removing them from the site. However being an innocent victim of an over-enthusiastically applied policy and having your income removed for 30 days seems more than a little harsh to say the least.
It would appear fairer if borderline cases could be handled more gently by applying an alternative “speed bump”. Some eBay sites still use different penalties such as a 14 day listing restriction without cancelling any live listings already running, so there are options that could be considered.
I’m aware of the argument that in the past sellers undergoing a selling restriction may have abused the grace period, making as many sales as possible and in some cases giving even worse service than before. Borderline cases such as those with non-positive feedback from a single buyer, or those with only neutrals and no negatives in the last 30 days are the ones most likely to take positive action in my opinion.
eBay have to take a stand to protect buyers and the future of the site for the thousands of sellers giving superb service, but eBay must protect good sellers from becoming victims of the maths of their new policies, especially low-volume sellers who can easily be damaged by one random, rogue bidder.
We spoke to eBay and they have this message for sellers: “We appreciate the situation you’re in. Firstly we’d emphasise that many of the changes are geared towards offering great customer service and resolution of issues up front so that buyers have no need to even consider a neg or dispute in the first place. And we’re doing what we can to encourage buyers to communicate with sellers at the point of giving potential negative Feedback.”
It’s impossible to attain the flawless service eBay aim for all of the time - even a brand new product can be faulty, or a delivery go missing en route. Whilst sellers aim for perfection, sometimes they (myself included) fall short.
There is light at the end of the tunnel though, eBay also said: “With regards to the new criteria for account restrictions we’re well aware of the uncertainty some sellers are feeling and are continuously fine tuning our policies to be ever more effective in targeting the right sellers. We’re also reviewing the nature of some of these restrictions and how best we communicate the policies.”
Hopefully that will also include reviewing those sellers already classed as borderline and unable to currently trade.
I have no reason to give great service on eBay
June 2, 2008
Today I received a totally justified negative feedback from a buyer. He stated in the neg that the item I supplied was not fully working with an intermittent fault.
Sadly the buyer never contacted me or he would have received a full refund or a replacement (or possibly both!). I’d have actually preferred that he open an INR dispute for SNAD (Significantly Not As Described) prior to leaving feedback, as than I’d at least have had an opportunity to rectify the situation.
I should point out I’m not that fussed about a neg per se. It’s not the first and it almost certainly won’t be the last that I receive in my eBay selling career. The problem is that it could spell the start of the end of my eBay business. The Seller Non-Performance criteria are an unknown quantity, both the exact criteria and the visibilty of a sellers standing. It may only take a couple more negative or neutral feedbacks combined with a few low scoring DSRs or maybe a buyer dispute opened, and my account could be suspended.
Having already received the neg I can see no reason why I should help an unhappy customer. If it led to a suspension I certainly couldn’t afford to be magnanimous and assist in spite of receiving poor feedback, which is what I have done in the past.
Recent eBay changes such as business seller registration, highlighting the Distance Selling Regulations and Sale of Goods Act and insisting on returns policies haven’t helped this buyer in the slightest. eBay has put me in the position where I have zero incentive to give great service and plenty of reasons to simply not bother.
But of course I did, this evening I telephoned the buyer and it was an interesting conversation. First I simply said I saw he had left negative feedback, sorry about the problem, would you like a replacement or a refund. A pleasantly surprised buyer asked what about the return postage costs and, when I said he wouldn’t have to pay any, there was a stunned silence followed by “What’s the catch?”
Well there really is no catch but he couldn’t believe that I was willing to simply replace the product, that’s why he hadn’t bothered to contact me in the first place. It turns out he’s new to eBay and one of his other purchases, significantly higher value than the one from me, had gone wrong. He explained “I’m really sorry but I’d just about given up on eBay, there was a problem with the last item I bought and you just got the brunt of it.”
My buyer has asked how he can erase the feedback (his suggestion, not mine) but of course he can’t – a great argument for editable feedback or the return of feedback withdrawal. eBay emphasise that many of the recent changes are geared towards offering great customer service and resolution of issues up front so that buyers have no need to even consider a neg or dispute in the first place, also they’re doing what they can to encourage buyers to communicate with sellers at the point of giving potential negative feedback. Unfortunately neither happened in this case.
I have a happy customer and one that will probably go on to trade on eBay in the future. It’s just a shame I caught the tail end of another seller’s poor service and now have a neg on my account for the next year.
The question is what would you do? Once the feedback is left there’s no possible benefit to you so would you ignore the neg and still look after the customer? Although I did in this case, I’m not so sure I would if it was the neg that got me suspended.
I know I can’t neg buyers so why bother telling me?
June 2, 2008
“Yes we are using the pop up. This is simply a way of letting buyers know the ‘new news’ that they shouldn’t be afraid to speak their minds if they have a bad experience.
They’ll see it a maximum of three times and if you’re providing good service there is nothing to fear from this. In contrast we’re asking buyers to go through a three-part checklist if they intend to leave a neg encouraging them to make contact with sellers before leaving feedback.”
James (eBay Pink) on the PowerSeller board (log in required)
eBay are constantly bombarding buyers with the message that they are immune from non-positive feedback from sellers. But why are they telling me as a seller? Firstly I’m sick to death of seeing this pop up and I’ve seen it a lot more than the stated three times. (You might ask why I’ve not ticked the box so that I don’t see it again and the answer is out of perverse interest to see just how long it’ll be displayed for). Secondly as a seller I only have the option to leave positive feedback anyway as can be seen from the greyed out section of the image.
Just how long is it going to be appearing for and how many times (certainly a lot more than three) will it be shown to each user?
Feedback extorter demands payment for positives
June 1, 2008
Reports are circulating of a feedback extortion racket where sellers are demanding $100 in exchange for positive feedback.
A thread originally posted on the Seller Central board, and reposted on eBayink comments, explains how a seller received an email from a buyer, saying “We are prepared to leave you 5 Positive Feedbacks or 5 Negative Feedbacks depending on your actions. In a nutshell, we are in the business of selling Positive Feedbacks to eBay Sellers for $20 each, totaling $100 for 5 Positive Feedbacks.”
The email warns against reporting the demands to eBay and threatens “If you refuse to purchase the 5 Positive Feedbacks, we will leave you 5 Negative Feedbacks for starters…. we have enough [eBay accounts] to consistently leave you Negative Feedbacks for months resulting in you having to shut down your business.”
Whilst this might appear a truly frightening prospect it’s not only something that eBay would take extremely seriously, but is also without a doubt illegal. Any extortion attempt along these lines should be reported to eBay as soon as it is received, and also to the police.
Regardless of how many user accounts may be involved (assuming the rumour is true) the perpetrators would soon be identifiable if negative feedback was left. It should also be remembered that feedback extortion is the very rare exception rather than the norm.
How I increased my P&P DSR by 2 points
May 30, 2008
It’s been over a year since DSRs raised their head on the eBay landscape, and I have to admit to start with I treated them with pretty much the healthy contempt I treated feedback with.
I never used to look at my feedback, and remember with horror the morning I woke up to a message on the PowerSeller board saying “Sorry to see you got negged”. It wasn’t so much that I’d got a neg that caught me off guard (and yes it was undeserved 
), it was more the fact that someone else noticed before I did.
There really wasn’t much cause to look at feedback in those days, so I never did. Taking the attitude that if I gave customers great service feedback would look after itself it was one of the least referenced pages of my eBay real estate.
DSRs didn’t make much difference either. Sure eBay were banging on about how they would become relevant in the future but mine were ok, or so I thought.
Then one day eBay introduced seller discounts and the possibility that competitors could be advantaged in search compared to me. Overnight DSRs and feedback had became very important.
My DSRs weren’t that bad though, but what gave me a jolt was that my Postage and Packing DSR was 4.6, any lower and I wouldn’t qualify for seller discounts.
I immediately set about examining how I worked, with the sole aim of improving my P&P DSR without impacting any of the others which have consistently been in the 4.8-4.9 range.
The big question is “Was I one of the fee avoiding postage gouging baddies”, and in truth I have to admit that I was. Certainly I’d never considered myself in that light, and to this day my postage costs are higher than many competitors due to two factors: Everything I ship goes on a priority tracked service and that costs, and I’m VAT registered so have to charge VAT in addition to the basic packing and shipping costs.
That aside I always rounded postage up to the nearest £1 for Royal Mail items, and for courier items the heavier the item the more I charged, even though I was invoiced a flat rate up to 30kg. I figured that buyers would be more than willing to pay a higher price to have a 25kg printer delivered than they would a 2kg docking station. Plus in truth on a lot of items I simply guesstimated the cost with a healthy margin of error - pure laziness on my part.
Ruthlessly I went about cutting postage, on the heaviest items by as much as 25% and it’s paid dividends. Some items I have switched to cost effective Royal Mail, instead of shipping via more expensive couriers, but that’s been a slow process as next day delivery is not guaranteed - Protecting my dispatch DSR was a priority and buyers don’t rate sellers on how quickly they ship, simply on how long it takes the parcel to arrive.
As a result of the changes my P&P DSR has risen from 4.6 to 4.8 with my other three ratings all remaining at 4.9. One of the most useful tools has been the Seller Dashboard (even though it was the lite version), as it enabled me to monitor changes over a short period of time. A change in postage prices could be seen in DSR ratings within about two weeks of making the change.
So what does this mean for me, and what does it mean to eBay? Well in truth I have to say that DSRs have made me a better seller, or at least have made me act like a better seller. Whilst profits are down very slightly it’s not much, I’ve simply lumped the difference onto the selling price and the difference in fees is more than covered by Seller Discounts.
My aim now will be to further increase my P&P DSR from 4.8 to 4.9, again without impacting my other DSRs. Whilst there may not be any immediate benefit, when Best Match fully rolls out in the UK those with the highest DSR scores will benefit most.
Expanded Seller Dashboard goes live on eBay UK
May 28, 2008
The expanded Seller Dashboard has gone live on eBay UK, and it is the all singing all dancing version showing DSRs to 1/100ths.
Their only appear to be two differences to the US version - Search Standing is only “Standard” or “Lowered”, with no “Raised” (To get standard visibility your DSRs need to be all 4.4 or above, in the US it’s 4.6 on P&P for standard and 4.7 on all 4 DSRs for raised). The second difference is that there’s no Buyer Satisfaction rating on the UK version. Buyer Satisfaction is measured from your DSRs, your overall Feedback rating, and any buyer protection claims against your eBay account.
I’m not sure why Buyer Satisfaction ratings aren’t included in the UK dashboard, as the help pages state they are used to calculate whether you have earned Standard or Lowered Search standing. This part of the Seller Dashboard on eBay.com is blocked for UK registered users.
Overall the Dashboard is a great utility for measuring your eBay performance, and now it’s like on the UK site I’m guessing there will be a lot of users visiting the utility over the next day or two and a lot of threads on discussion boards 
eBay need to get dolphin-friendly sooner
May 28, 2008
There’s no nice way to tell you this, so I’m just going to say it: one single pissed-off buyer can spell the end of your eBay account. eBay have previously assured sellers that neutral feedback, or one single negative would never, could never, get your account suspended. But with more recent changes on eBay UK, this is no longer the case. We’re hearing of more and more sellers who are being suspended for - frankly - the flimsiest of reasons. Here are just a few of them.
Gareth from saversoftware posted about his problems in our forum. He’d received just three neutral feedbacks, with no other problems, no negs, no PayPal disputes, but had been told his account was being suspended for 30 days for non-performance. Claire from imagineallthat received three neutral feedbacks over the last month. With 83 positives in the same period, you’d think she was a good seller, but under eBay UK’s new regime, she was suspended for 30 days.
Luciano, who sells as malpastrade has just one negative feedback. But balanced with 27 positives over the last 30 days, that puts him on 3.7% non-positive feedback, which according to eBay, makes him a bad seller. Sarah from just-toys-online also has just one negative feedback. She says she also has one item not received which she’s replaced and is just waiting for the buyer to close the dispute. A buyer who’s a bit slow to close an INR dispute can now get your selling account suspended too. Both Sarah and Luciano are also on a thirty day suspension.
None of these sellers deserves censure. None of them should have been suspended, and when their cases came to light, eBay should have admitted that their policy had hit people it was never intended to hit, and reinstated their accounts.
Even eBay’s own ex-employees have fallen foul of these new rules. Vzaar were selling off some of their eBay swag a couple of weeks ago, and one damaged parcel has earned them a negative, a positive and two neutrals from the same buyer. Result? They’re taking a month’s enforced eBay leave too. Jamie told me, “I have to give the guy credit because he even initiated a conversation before leaving the comments. I like buyers like that. In the end I even agreed to meet for a beer at eBay Live this June! Sadly though in receiving these mixed comments from the buyer our account has now been suspended for 30 days from buying and selling with immediate effect. It feels that with one bad transaction (the items were posted as one) against our name, we have fallen foul to the new changes that were introduced to penalise consistent sloppy seller standards.”
So what are eBay doing to resolve these problems, to ensure that changes that were meant to affect bad sellers don’t inadvertantly affect unlucky ones too? On the face of it, absolutely nothing. eBay staff on message boards have consistantly refused to acknowledge any problems with what has happened to these sellers. They’ve been referred to as “dolphins caught up in the nets”; hardly reassuring when your business, your bank account, your family’s living is what’s on the line. Every one of these accidental victims of this policy is a real person, not an eBay seller statistic. Every one of them is having their livelihood damaged by this month’s suspension. eBay need to acknowledge and do something about that.
eBay must immediately introduce a proper appeals procedure for those caught up in this policy. Human beings must be made available to look at accounts which have been suspended, human beings who have the authority to make a reasoned judgement call as to whether a seller really deserves to have their account suspended or not. And they must change this wretched policy that says that one buyer’s feedback can cause an account to be suspended.
We want peace of mind too…
May 27, 2008
When eBay banned non-positive feedback for buyers earlier this month, many sellers were understandably worried that this would lead to negative and neutral sprees by buyers, with no right of response. Two weeks after the change rolled out, it’s clear that a few buyers had indeed waited until the changeover to leave their own non-positive feedback. Did they know about the change in advance and wait deliberately, or did eBay’s announcements that buyers can no longer be negged inspire those buyers to leave negative feedback when previously, they’d have said nothing?
eBay did their best to reassure sellers that they were not going to push buyers towards non-positive feedback: the pop-up message informing buyers of the change in policy would, they said, show up a maximum of three times. Sadly, this isn’t true: Chasbert, a PowerSeller and power buyer, has seen the pop-up message when leaving feedback for her sellers more than twenty times. I’ve seen it half a dozen times and counting. Chris saw it when leaving positive feedback for a *buyer*. This “neg your sellers if you want to” message is not going away.
It’s not only there. The little logo people are on eBay’s front page, telling buyers of their new powers:
I wonder if using the red person was a coincidence?
And many UK-registered buyers received eBay’s marketing email yesterday, again reminding them - twice! - that they can now leave as many negatives as they want to.
Enough already!
Until now, I’ve largely been in favour of these feedback changes. I think they will give buyers more confidence that the feedback they’re checking is accurate; if buyers have more confidence in the site, we should all have more sales. But eBay have to get the balance right; at the moment, every seller is at the mercy of their buyers. Safeguards for sellers - the hub to report feedback abuse and the removal of negative and neutral feedback from NARU members - keep being promised “soon”, when these should have rolled at exactly the same time as the other changes. Sellers have been penalised first, helped second, and it should not have worked like that.
Don’t stop selling
More problematically, the way that percentages are being calculated does sellers a huge disservice. Seller non-performance seems to be worked out on a rolling 30 day average. If you cut back on your sales, a couple of neutrals, that you thought wouldn’t affect you, may suddenly come to represent a much higher percentage of your feedback, and could leave you with sanctions against your account. Those who are cutting back their eBay sales and closing their Shops may not care, but I predict the sight of eBay sellers returning from holidays to suspended accounts will be more common this year than it’s ever been.
eBay really need to find us a better incentive to keep listing than that!
eBay.com seller dashboard now displays 1/100ths
May 27, 2008
Logging into the seller dashboard on eBay.com now reveals your DSR scores to the nearest 1/100th. It should now be clearer if your score is edging upwards or downwards over a shorter period of time.
For those who have seen their scores fluctuate between two decimal places you are likely to see your DSR score in the 1/100ths hovering around the x.x5 mark and being rounded up or down.
I would caution against giving your scores too much weight over a short period of time. Just one or two feedback DSR scores received could show large swings, especially over a 30 day period unless you receive vast amounts of feedback. However if you monitor the dashboard over an extended period of time you should be able to see if your scores are trending up or down.
The UK Seller Dashboard is expected to go live this week, and to display scores to 1/100ths by next week.
eBay average DSR is not dropping
May 25, 2008
Now we have some stats available through the US Seller Dashboard it’s possible to see how the stats have changed over the course of a year.
| DSR | eBay 12 month Average |
eBay 30 day average |
|---|---|---|
| Item As Described | ||
| Communication | ||
| Dispatch Time | ||
| Postage and Packaging Charges |
It appears (at least from figures available on eBay.com) that DSRs have in the large remained static or crept upwards over the last year. I’ll be interested to see the averages next week when DSRs are displayed in 1/100ths.
In order for your listings to have raised visibility in Best Match on eBay.com each of your DSR 
scores has to be 4.7 or higher, and Post and Packing charges are still the sticking point for the average seller.
That DSRs aren’t falling has got to be a relief to sellers, but of course the real question is are yours above, level or below average?
The new Seller Dashboard on eBay.com
May 23, 2008
The new expanded Seller Dashboard is live on eBay.com and I like it! Not only does it supply a lot more detailed information but it acts as a guide to the areas you need to improve in.
The dashboard covers five main areas - Search Standing, Discount Level, PowerSeller Status, Policy compliance and Account Status. For US users it also give an indication of Buyer Satisfaction not available if you log in with a UK account.
Detailed seller ratings now come with three viewing options: 12 month vs eBay 12 month average, 30 day vs eBay 30 day average, and 30 day vs your 12 month average.
Each rating has a hover over which tells you exactly what your rating is and how you’re performing, and if one of your ratings is slipping it’ll be highlighted in red.
Possibly the most useful part of the expanded DSR console is to be able to compare yourself with the eBay Average. You probably already know if your DSRs are slipping against a rolling 12 months, but if you’re above the eBay average you’re likely to be doing well in all areas including being advantaged in search.
Search Standing is calculated from a mix of Buyer Satisfaction and DSRs, if you have raised Search Standing your listings may receive higher placement in search when sorted by Best Match. Importantly there is a note “Even if you already have a raised search standing, continue to improve your detailed seller ratings to increase the visibility of your items.” so raised Search Standing isn’t a given, unless you have the highest DSRs on eBay.
Buyer Satisfation on my account is rated as “Good”, but that section of the Seller Dashboard isn’t available in detail to UK users.
The part of the expanded Seller Dashboard that deals with Seller Discounts will be most familiar to UK users. This was effectively the first part to be introduced to the UK and is currently the only part viewable from the UK site.
PowerSeller status has been included in the Seller Dashboard. Although this information is also available rom logging into the PowerSeller Portal it includes in addition a track of Policy Violations in the last 60 days and whether your account is in good standing.
The final two parts of the Seller Dashboard have already been covered above - Policy Violations indicates if you’re in danger of account restrictions and even if you’re rated as Good, it warns a violation could still result in your listings being removed. Account Status shows any over due amounts and if you’re account is past due, or on hold.
Overall the new Seller Dashboard appears well thought out, comprehensive with the ability to click into each section for much greater detail, and a useful addition to enable sellers to monitor themselves.
Until the expanded dashboard is available in the UK you can log into eBay.com to view it
60 days grace to save your PowerSeller status
May 21, 2008
A little bit of good news for any PowerSellers whose percentage score fell below 98% in the recent feedback recalculations: eBay are giving you 60 days grace to improve things. A post by Pink James on the UK PowerSeller board (valid PS sign-in required) reads:
PowerSellers who have fallen below the minimum PowerSeller requirement (98%) due to the recent recalculation will be given a 60 day grace period during which they will remain in the Programme and have time to improve their score.
eBay.com scrap choice and multiple listing policies
May 19, 2008
eBay.com have just announced that with immediate effect the choice policy is to be scrapped. This means sellers will be able to offer a choice of size, colour and configuration on a single listing.
This should result in significant cost savings for sellers who up until now have had to use multiple listings to offer choices to their buyers. It should be noted that if a choice is offered failure to supply will be considered a violation of the Seller Non-Performance Policy.
Also in June the multiple items listing policy will be relaxed to allow sellers to list an unlimited quantity of identical items, previously the limit was 15 identical items.
Although a seller can list larger numbers of identical listings eBay’s new Finding will limit the number of listings presented to buyers from a single seller. No more than 10 identical listings from a single seller will appear on a search page, however this is sure to please sellers who routinely list multiple listings so that their product always appears in Ending Soonest sort.
It’s not known when these two changes will become official UK policy so sellers this side of the pond should wait for an official announcement to avoid listing infringements. As Best Match hasn’t fully rolled out in the UK it may be some time before the policies are introduced.
In the same announcement Mystery Auctions are banned, a new Search & Browse Manipulation Policy is announced, and a new Links Policy is to come into force in July.
Finally the new expanded Seller Dashboard is to go live in the US next week and sellers with 4.7 and above on all 4 DSRs over the last 30 days will start to be advantaged in search. This will be tested in a few categories before being rolled out across the site.
JD signs eBay feedback certificates
May 19, 2008
One of my buying IDs got it’s 50th feedback this week along with the congratulations email from eBay and a link to download a Blue Star Certificate.
It’s the first feedback certificate I’ve had since JD took over and sure enough his signature has replaced Meg Whitman.
If you missed getting your feedback certificate and want to download them they’re available as .pdf documents: 10 Yellow Star, 50 Blue Star, 100 Turquoise Star, 500 Purple Star, 1000 Red Star and 5000 Green Star.
Mind you JD’s pen must have run out of ink as Meg’s signature is still on the 500, 1000 and 5000 feedback certificates
eBay have never (as far as I’m aware) produced Feedback Certificates for Shooting Stars, maybe by that time they figure you’ll have enough certificates hanging on your wall?
Recent Comments
- Whirly: #3 you don’t deserve one after having a 1p listing festival you jammy blighter.
- Chris Dawson: #1 I didn’t get a voucher either
If anyone has one and wants to spend it with me... - northumbrian: the only fault with that bling thing is if anything it makes the item look to good
- faculty-x: us techies are honoured at the mo from ebay or the ones that have dropped off ebay the most, us...
- faculty-x: bling looks excellent, must get a copy. been messing around with coral for years, should save ages. so...
- Whirly: No voucher for me which is a pain as I need some stuff I know a buyer who will get one, he likes...
- Whirly: #2 If you build the fee’s into your sale price I think it’s a justifiable expense, we regularly...
- Trish Connolly: I need to dissagree with part of your statement. You say, “I’ve met many buyers who are more...
- J R: if we sell something for £500 there is no way we would be willing to give ebay £50 plus Paypal fees, there...
- Whirly: lmao
