Could this be a glimmer of hope for “dolphin” sellers caught in the net of eBay’s Seller Non-Performance Policy? Pink Richard Ambrose posted on the :
On the subject of SNP, the first sellers who were restricted as part of the tougher sanctions are coming to the end of their restriction period. Some have been suspended permanently, some have had their restrictions lifted. Having studied this first ‘wave’ we’ll make some tweaks to the way the programme works – most importantly, we’ll re-introduce a warning period rather than continuing with immediate restrictions.
While it’s always dangerous to extrapolate entire eBay policies from what Pinks post on message boards, in the absence of any official announcement on recent changes to SNP, that’s about all we can do.
This looks, in fact, like a great improvement to the policy. If the new criteria for warnings are the same as the old criteria for suspension, sellers with just one or two problem transactions may get a warning, but they shouldn’t go on to get a suspension. If warning period and SNP calculation period are both thirty days (which is a reasonable assumption), bad feedback and DSRs will have rolled beyond the radar, and PayPal disputes should have been dealt with.
Sellers will also have the opportunity to increase their numbers of positive feedbacks by selling more while they’re on a warning; though some will question why they should give more money to a company that’s threatening their account, others will welcome the opportunity to save the account by any means necessary.
As always, more details when we get them; if you’re one of the affected sellers, please leave us a comment.
Thanks to Dave in the forum for the heads up.
14 Responses
Too late for so many sellers already affected and much too late to restore seller confidence. 😥
Hi, i was one of the sellers who fell under the dreaded SNP , which i thought wasn’t justified but hey its good to take a step back sometimes and review the way business is conducted on Ebay. I am due to get my account back on the 20th of june (hopefully 😕 ) and have polished my business model as it seems the only way forward. Ive been on ebay for a over 7 years and all these new changes always shock me, I knew ebay would “tweak” this SNP policy because as far as i can remember all that matters to Ebay is the money coming in and last month they lost around £8000 in revenue from me, their loss. My account was put on SNP for minimal issues, my account was not even under the percentage set, but they took other things into account, like 1 item not received which i sent ages ago, and client was not in to receive it. Its an appaling policy and Ebay will lose money if they keep up this kind of behaviour. Tamebay is a revolution for Ebay news and i welcome it completely. I have also started my own webstore at http://www.tronec.co.uk as you cant just rely on Ebay. Good luck all.
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It’s nice to hear a positive story come out of this fiasco. 😀
Tamebay is ESSENTIAL reading for all web-based sellers. 😎
I don’t mean to be rude Mr Patel but with feedback of 97.3% and DSRs of just 4.0 for P&P and delivery I hope you have been polishing up on your customer service and will be making sure your products are in stock before selling them on ebay.
Ebay closes accounts daily with ambiguous or no reason. It takes a lot of work and proof to get back on and get back to business, if you can get back to your home business. It is very easy to violate an eBay listing policy guideline or the Seller Non-Performance Policy without knowing it. There is a site though, that may help http://www.suspended-from-ebay.com
To be honest I think the whole thing needs revising.
Everywhere else in the world, businesses and trust is built up over time and long standing customer service should be taken into account.
On eBay are you are only as good as your last 30 days. If you are a low volume seller it can only take one idiot buyer to get you restricted, and even a period of grace isn’t worth the bandwidth it takes up.
It’s almost impossible to run a business with the constant possibility of restriction or suspension every 30 days.
The previous years of good customer service count for nothing in this brave new world of eBay.
While it’s always dangerous to extrapolate entire eBay policies from what Pinks post on message boards, in the absence of any official announcement on recent changes to SNP, that’s about all we can do.
And that sums up what is worst about the SNP policy: its opacity.
Even if I don’t entirely agree with the argument that complete transparency would allow circumvention and manipulation, I can see the logic in the argument.
However, the constant changes to the policy, none of which are ever formally announced but merely leaked in dribbles, leads to the suspicion and despondency that is abroad at the moment.
It is also contrary to eBay’s own interest because if there is not sufficient transparency and unless there is an effective appeals procedure, eBay look to me to be more vulnerable to a successful restraint of trade challenge than they would otherwise be.
Speak my mind. Oh I would but I know it is just anger. Ebay have suspended me on this silly policy. They gave me 30 days to improve my customer satisfaction level and powersellers support tell me all I have to do is resolve some issues with buyers who left me neg and neutral. OK, Even though most of the comments were from idiot buyers, I will have to do it for the sake of my ebay account. Oh I forgot to mention, ebay restricted me from selling in the 30 days grace period so I was not able to gain any more positives other than the few outstanding orders with no Feedback left yet.
I made a few agreements with the not so idiot buyers who had negged or neutraled me to remove the feedback and before they had the chance to keep their end of the bargain and mutually withdraw, ebay changes the feedback rules and retires the mutual feedback withdrawal form. So now I have sent a load of stuff out free to compensate buyers and they cannot withdraw the ratings anyway.
Called ebay powersellers support who told me that they have retired the mutual feedback withdrawal thing and i should now ask those buyers to write to them telling them they are now satisfied. Like thats going to happen. I got to write to these people and beg them to go out of their way to email ebay and tell them how great I am etc. Thats realistic ebay.
Anyway, I thought ok. I did get a few more positives from those transactions outstanding, the majority of my feedback is wuperb and any fool who would read through it would see I was a genuine and trustworthy seller. I would have no problem.
WRONG. No I am suspended, Ebay refuse to respond to any of my emails explaining any of the above and ignore me like I have no right to support now I am suspended. When I login to ebay and click contact us, it takes me to contact powerseller support and gives me the phone number to call, I call them and they tell me to email as I am not entitled to phone support while I am suspended.
A company that suspends you for no justified reason then says you are not entitled to support while you are suspended. I am banging my head against a wall wondering why ebay act like they do and still stay in business. If any company can claim to make money from treating their customers bad, it is ebay. Speak my mind, I hate them right now.
Jim, what’s your user ID?
I see Jim has a feedback percentage of 97% with a total feedback of 4510, well below average suggesting its his poor customer service that got him suspended.
He also appears to have opened a second account to try and evade the suspension (now also NARU) which is strictly against the rules. I don’t think Jim will be getting his account back any time soon.
His feedback score is on his feedback profile page, just like everyone elses is, and no i don’t work for ebay.
Positive ebayer;
I cannot see anywhere ‘jim’ has posted his ebay ID, so please do tell us how you know his feedback score?…..His 97% rating…. & more importantly the fact he apparently has tried to reg’ another ID ‘to get around his suspension’ which is now supposedly ‘NARU’.
Not ebay, then where’s the info from……………………….
Gerry007: I simply went to Jim’s web ge, at the bottom of that page there is a company name, phone number and ebay userid in brackets.
As for the other account, the title of the webpage page if you google it is the same as another ebay userid, which was selling the same products, registered on the 12 May 08, which was just arround the time Jim’s first account got suspended. This account it now NARU.
I would post the userid’s but I believe it is against tamebay comment policy.
Hi there, just wanted to let everyone know that my Ebay account was reinstated on the 17th of june 2008 for marked improvements in feedback from buyers. GREAT! 😀
It seems that buyers have been given the holy grail , and they can do as they please, and sellers must perform well to survive. I have since made the following changes to my ebay site.
1. I am offering free postage, to make my listings more attractive and to help boost my dsr, the powerseller discount will reflect discount on pp, thats if Ebay don’t change the powerseller criteria.
2. I have plastered my phone number on my listings so buyers can call or find the number easily.
3. I have improved my shipping times and aim to get items out in 1-2 days after payment clears.
4. I have improved my returns policy and now will collect DOA items within the first 7 days.
5. Also when a customer has a problem , i will request the phone number and personally contact them to resolve the issue as ive found a simple phonecall can resolve issues better than email.
Thank you
Mr Patel
https://www.tronec.co.uk
ebay id : troneclimited