Punished for a year for being a good seller

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The third Top Rated Seller evaluation has just taken place but if you are a low volume seller there probably is no change – You are still being judged on your performance from up to a year ago.

High volume sellers (over 400 items/quarter) are being measured on DSRs from the last three months – that’s DSRs left since the TRS program was introduced. However low volume sellers are being judged based your feedback over the last 12 months, that’s feedback from well before the TRS program was announced.

If you are a low volume seller then low DSRs received as far back as December last year are being counted to penalise your position in search, and from January will bar you from access to the highest discounts. Even though at the time you received them eBay was telling you that you were doing a great job and rewarding you with discounts, those same DSRs are now penalising you.

Low Volume Seller Punished for Low DSRs Prior to TRS announcement
Low Volume Seller Punished for Low DSRs Prior to TRS announcement


Welcome to nine months in purgatory. No matter how much you have raised your game and improved your selling standards, every low DSR received in the last 12 months is still being counted against you. Even if you have an unblemished record with no low DSRs in the last three months you’re going to be punished for your performance before eBay changed the rules.
 
The only way for a low volume seller to lose older DSRs is to increase the number of items they sell to over 400 in a three month period. That will raise them into the volume seller qualification and they’ll be measured over just the last three months DSRs.
 
Six months ago eBay were telling many low volume sellers that because their average DSRs were above 4.6 that they were doing a great job. These same sellers are now being retrospectively told that they were actually bad sellers and that they will now be penalised for a whole year. Some sellers have adjusted their business to eliminate low DSRs in the last three months but it’s too late to wipe out low scores from up to a year ago.
 
So if you are a low volume seller what are your DSRs looking like? Do you have any low DSRs in the last three months? Are eBay continuing to penalise you for DSRs received before the TRS program was announced?

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