OT: eBay's New Seller Performance Standards
 

Just got an email from eBay saying:

Spring Seller Update: New performance standards designed to bring you more potential sales

Starting with the regularly scheduled monthly seller evaluation on August 20, a new measurement, the transaction defect rate, will replace the current four detailed seller rating requirements used to evaluate your seller performance


All I can say is WTF are they talking about? See for yourself.

http://pages.ebay.com/sellerinformat...standards.html

The extended holiday returns is another winner.

Surprisingly, I believe the new "defect rate" is actually a good thing for sellers. The extended Holiday returns is most certainly not.

Ebay went to hell a long time ago and I'm so glad I don't sell on there anymore.

I think this is good. I had some moron leave me a '1' for communication when he asked me "Do you combine shipping" and we responded "yes we do!". Ebay FINALLY fixed something!

PS - the extended holiday returns is stupid. It gives buyers during that time, a chance to flip our cards for free. If they can't find a buyer, they simply return the card.

Will they have their own "defect rate"?

This part is the funny one:D
" the top predictors that a buyer will leave eBay or buy less: "

1) Ads that effectively disable the back button. Unless you block them then going back only takes three clicks instead of 60. (Partly fixed for IE11, and not a problem with firefox.)

2) "best match" --I've never been able to figure out just what the heck they're matching the items with. It's not usually my searches.

3) Stuff posted outside the proper category. pre 1942 is when the card was made, not when the player pictured on your reprint played.

4) removing the sections for memorabilia for a wide range of sports and putting them all under "other" Which seems to be the category if you want "fitness" magazine pinups or NFL calendars. (which really should be under football-NFL)

5) Blocking international listings unless it's from some place in China trying to sell the same knock-off stuff for a dollar less than the other places in China.
If I want that junk I'll go to Wal-Mart.

Steve "complying with the rules this time" Birmingham

Last week they called me to offer tips on selling...(I'm a top rated seller and have been for 6 or 7 years)....I just laughed when they said I should list at 99 cents with free shipping.

Dan, I bet if you listed everything at a penny with free shipping, your seller ratings would be through the roof!

Crazy stuff. The defect rate things seems like a good thing to me - perhaps this is a prelude to their adding something that penalizes sellers whose auctions have characteristics that indicate shill-bidding. But if that happened, the 99 cent straight-auction guys that ebay wants to turn Dan into, would quickly go out of business.

My email said that I have to change all my listings starting on November 1 to allow for returns by Feb 1 to keep my discount on my fees. On January, I can change them back. It is only 2500 listings, so that won't be too bad.

I didn't notice this part - not a good thing. Next they will be forcing us to send pictures of ourselves in the shower in order to keep our discount.

You can change the return policy in bulk on ebay or I assume they'll have another update where you can update this in TurboLister. I don't anticipate that being too difficult.

However, this holiday return policy is nuts. This policy is just matching what many large internet retailers including Amazon provided this past Christmas season, so it is not something completely new. However for small time ebay sellers like me, it will be difficult to keep the funds from all holiday sales available for nearly 90 days in case a buyer wants to return the item. In addition, buyers can try to flip the item for a higher price, and if it doesn't sell, just return it. Or price compare where if the same item sells later for a lower price, return the higher priced item. Somewhat good for the buyer, bad for the seller. It'll be interesting to see what some of the major consignors like PWCC and probstein123 do since it is very likely that they will have paid out their consignors during this time, but then could get a return. I think PWCC already says that their return policy is not a no questions ask return policy, but only if the item does not match the description in the listing. This may be something that more sellers turn to, such as you can only return a graded card if there was a defect in the card that did not appear in the scan and was not described in the listing. Another strange thing about the holiday return policy is that you can return an item for as many as 90 days after purchase. Yet, you can only log an ebay case for only 45 days after purchase (and leave feedback). How are you going to return an item or leave feedback after 45 days (and before 90) if the seller suddenly reneges on allow returns through end of January?

The defects predicators are the following:
◦Detailed seller rating of 1, 2 or 3 for item as described
◦Detailed seller rating of 1 for shipping time
◦Negative or neutral feedback
◦Return initiated for a reason that indicates the item was not as described
◦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
◦Seller-cancelled transactions

Previously DSR's for 1,2 were flagged for item as described. Therefore, ebay is toughening up on this policy where even 3's are a strike against a seller. For shipping time, the policy is slightly more lenient as 2's no longer count as strikes. And as others have said, communication and shipping fees are no longer flagged. I'm assuming that this will lead to many more sellers increasing shipping fees across the board.

Another thing is that most returns can be thought of as strikes also since returns initiated for item not as described or seller-cancelled transactions are flagged. Therefore, if a buyer returns an item because of buyer's remorse, a seller will likely be flagged for this.

Top rated sellers will need to keep the defect rating below 2%. This does provide more leeway than the previous 0.5% .

As a seller, I'm not really sure whether I like these new changes. The holiday return policy, I definitely do not like. The new defect rating, I'm not sure. It seems like it would be easier to maintain the Top Rated status, but I'm not positive. Will have to see how it plays out.

I just think it should be the way it use to be. Buyer leaves neg if unhappy. Seller leaves neg in return. Simple and end of story.

I do not like this holiday rule at all. It might just be a good idea to sell my cards elsewhere during the holiday season. Or just take a break from selling during that time period. Wait till the holiday season is over and then start selling again to avoid the 90 day returns.

What is next? Lifetime guarantees on everything I sell? :eek: