Following on from yesterday’s announcement on eBay.com, eBay UK have put out their own .
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.
15 Responses
The sectors I sell in have little or no stroppy buyers. I sell volume and myself and all my competitors were in no danger of losing PS status or being suspended.
If these measures increased the buyers trust in Ebay then I would get more buyers which is all I realy want.
So lets get these reversals reversed 😀 😆 😀
We’ve also recently received lots of feedback from sellers about the Seller Non-Performance programme’
finally realised that those with lowered searches as a result of only ‘good’ (4)marks from a buyer are simply sitting it out until search is back to normal, hence costing Ebay listing and selling fees for the period.
Why have a 5 star system where 4 is ‘good’ as far as the buyer is concerned, and yet under 4.4 average makes you a bad seller in Ebay’s eyes?
nope these changes need altering
we are long term sellers with many ids and lots of experiance,
yet we were nervously looking over our shoulders with this seller non performance thing,
surely that was the wrong atmosphere to trade in
@ Swan, you might think that, but as only the last 30 days are now taken into consideration, if you had a family crisis or other situation that caused you to list and sell less in any one month, you would still have been liable to suspension due to a couple of learner buyers leaving neutrals, thinking that they were indicating their satisfaction.
Personally, I don’t know that it mattered if neutrals were counted in feedback or not, they could simply have decided not to count them for SNP purposes.
Unreasonable suspension was the worrying thing, feedback percentages are really just an ego boost – not that I don’t LIKE an ego boost now and then… 😀
@ Sue: “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’.”
I saw that too. Some people will never be happy without something to gripe about. Is it just an English thing, or an eBay Powerseller thing?
Damn 😡
I was looking forward to my competitors being kicked out of the the PS programme next week.
I dont think they know what they are doing, wildly pulling levers.
I think that search demotion for non performing sellers will come in October, they wont kick you out the PS programme , they will just demote your items.
search demotion is already in. i slipped below 4.4 for despatch times, as I waited for cheque clearance so was marked low by one buyer. I only list around 12 items per month so was easy to slip below 4..4 threshold mark. As a result my next listings never made the front page, So i have sat it out until under 10 ratings for the month and my DSR is now unrated and I start afresh with proper search standings.
Not being able to show how you feel about someone who has messed you about and cost you a lot of money and time is another brilliant idea from Ebay. This means that someone can buy your product fail to pay, Leave you neg feedback through absolutly no fault of yours and you cant do anything about it. To retaliate just because someone has left you Neg is wrong. But to show you honest opinion about a buyer should be allowed.
Where is Ebay going with this. I am fortunate, I still have 100% but Im sure I have a competetor that would love to ruin that for me. Try and Email Ebay and what do you get, yes a generated answer and no discussion whatsoever. 2 replys is the most you get from Ebay because being Ebay they dont make mistakes and then they just wont reply to your emails at all. The Ebay/Paypal goalposts move in their favour all the time and The person selling a product should have the option of accepting Paypal or not.
You can choose if you accept all other methods of payment, but then Ebay/Paypal dont benefit from the other methods.
The words Snout and Trough come to mind.
Sue.
I agree we all try things in our own business. The difference with eBay is that when they try things they can and do seriously affect other peoples businesses.
The fact that they can be so far off the mark with the recent changes shows a complete lack of understanding of how selling really works on the site.
It shouldn’t have needed a hue & cry to get them to change their minds, and they don’t deserve any thanks for doing it. It should never have happened in the first place.
One thing is sadly lacking in the recent announcements, a little word starting with s and ending with y. In their arrogance they have done serious harm to some sellers who didn’t deserve it. I think they owe them a huge apology but even now eBay is so arrogant that it won’t think it has anything to apologise for. It will no doubt be expecting thanks for listening.
As for griping, I’m quite happy to not gripe unless there is something worth griping about. It’s an English thing. It can’t be a Powerseller thing cos I’m not one any more.
I’m sure not happy for eBay to take away the loaf and I’m not going to thank them for giving me some crumbs back.
Sue,
Also agree with you about trying different approaches in business, however(and its a BIG however) the cynic in me thinks that the decision was pretty hard nosed in fact.
The reason being, that the reforms were meant to create incentives through the discount scheme for larger sellers, but the introduction of neutrals in feedback percentages has meant that the majority of big sellers have actually fallen foul of the changes and have ended up with higher fees and lower positioning in search.
At eBay towers the penny must have dropped and this is the real substance behind the decision vis a vis ‘listening’ to the views of the rank and file of sellers.
Nevertheless, the turnabout is an encouraging development even if it just means that the big cheeses at eBay towers are beginning to realise that they may not know better than anyone else.
Sue,
Also agree with you about trying different approaches in business, however(and its a BIG however) the cynic in me thinks that the decision was pretty hard nosed in fact.
The reason being, that the reforms were meant to create incentives through the discount scheme for larger sellers, but the introduction of neutrals in feedback percentages has meant that the majority of big sellers have actually fallen foul of the changes and have ended up with higher fees and lower positioning in search.
At eBay towers the penny must have dropped and this is the real substance behind the decision vis a vis ‘listening’ to the views of the rank and file of sellers.
Nevertheless, the turnabout is an encouraging development even if it just means that the big cheeses at eBay towers are beginning to realise that they may not know better than anyone or everyone. The skill of management has more to to with taking the right decisions for the greater good rather than simply doing what you personally think will work best.
Does anyone think that neutrals not being counted is going to be the first step in removing the neutral completely?
I very much support the notion of tweaking, I just wonder why it takes them so long to do so. I also see nothing wrong in changing policy after implementation but some of the problems were predicted months before the changes.
Improving the buying experience is something I support, but you do that by ebay policing their site, not by automated targets that you can’t quantify.
DSR’s and feedback scores shouldn’t matter in all reality, buyers should be able to make their own mind up. Not delivering items, selling fakes, selling items not as described, that’s seller non performance and that’s what ebay should be targetting and they should be targetting that based on evidence, not DSR’s. Someone who doesn’t despatch for three days isn’t a bad seller, someone who doesn’t despatch at all is a bad seller.
Then the feedback issue, MFW should have been replaced, not abolished.
Site improvement is good, high handed wiping out of sellers accounts is not the same thing.
“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”
Great it seems eBay do get the message eventually when enough people make enough fuss, so everyone must keep on at them about this useless new search system. They have yet again forced this through against opposition and in a very deceitful way with hidden or missing opt out links…
THE OLD SEARCH WORKED FINE !!!!!
I’m voting with my feet, and will not list anything untill the new search is ditched
If eBay is that concerned about sellers, selling products, then why do they put Google ads at the bottom of the page……You know the answer to that..MONEY
I was looking for a pair of Reebok trainers and at the bottom of the page….guess what…….loads of ads for Reebok trainers from all the major stores…….So thats how eBay care about sellers
It would not surprise me, if eBay now earned more money from Google ads, than they do for selling/listing fees.
Imagine over 100,000 people just clicking one Google ad on eBay per day at say 10p a click….The mind bogles.
eBay is still one of the most searched terms and they are now using this in a big way to advertise Google on eBay, People are trying to sell a product and at the bottom of the page is loads of Google ads advertising the same product…….I thought eBay was a auction site, made big by US… the sellers and the buyers…..
It is time for US all to show eBay who made them, that we are not taking all this crap anymore and stop selling & buying for a month or close our accounts down.