eBay.com have announced improvements in protection for sellers, specifically from buyers who are more troublesome than should be expected.
On eBay.com they’re promising five star DSRs not only for verified free post (as is now the case on eBay UK), but also for despatch time.
If you sell on eBay.com and eBay can verifiy that free shipping was given then you’ll get an auto five star for the P&P charge DSR. In addition if you specify one day handling time, upload tracking information by the end of the next business day after the buyer’s payment clears, and eBay knows your package arrived within 4 business days then you’ll also get an auto five start DSR for despatch time.
It’s worth noting that the auto despatch time is almost certainly limited to carriers that are integrated with eBay (USPS, UPS). That means it’s unlikely to be introduced in the UK in the near future.
There’ll also be a new reporting hub where sellers can report poor experiences with buyers. The information won’t be visible to other site users eBay will be able to use it to take action which could include buyer suspension or restrictions and their feedback and Buyer Protection cases removed from your account.
There will also be some updates to protect sellers against opening resolution cases too soon. Additional checks will be in place to ensure a reasonable window of time for delivery before a buyer can open an eBay Buyer Protection case for an item not received or item not as described. When sellers upload tracking information and delivery is confirmed, buyers will not be able to open a case for item not received.
Even some opened cases will be removed from sellers performance records. Any escalated case found in the seller’s favour will not count toward seller performance requirements. For Item Not Received cases, your seller performance requirements will be protected if you uploaded tracking information to eBay before the case is filed, ideally within 24 hours of the buyer making payment.
It’s great that having increased buyer protection and seller performance standards over the last few years that eBay at last seem to be realising that sellers also need additional protection. Whilst measuring seller performance makes sense, the standards are often perceived as draconian and weeding out buyers who have unreasonable expectations is a very welcome move.
18 Responses
The fact that they are doing this just highlights further how shit the whole system is.
If eBay want to encourage sellers to keep investing in eBay then they need to stop treating us like shit. The end.
So basically:
All opened cases will count except cases which shouldn’t have been opened.
All low stars for P&P cost will count except those which shouldn’t have been given.
All low stars for despatch time won’t count if it was in fact not only despatched but delivered in good time.
But apart from that, it all sounds a very robust and reliable scoring system.
None of this is great at all! It just complicates the simple proposition of buyers and sellers.
It serves / propogates sitewide mistrust.
If eBay did proper overtly covert stuff it would not be required.
Actually it doesnt protect the seller when the seller needs it most. You can fill all the requirements and ship the item off 1 hour after payment but if the post office takes a week+ to deliver it, you can still get a 1 or 2 DSR. When you need protection most is when things beyond your control go south.
I also dont like that you are required to have a 1 day handling time to qualify for the 5 stars. I have a 2 day handling time set because it is always possible to miss the carrier or have everyone buy on the same day, or not be able to do it on ONE specific day — OR have just one package and it is specified ground so the post office wont pick it up for you. 90%+ of what I ship goes out in a day, but I dont qualify for ANY protection.
At any rate I see it as a “nudge.”
They want people to reduce their handling time to next day shipping. (IE ship 6/7 days)
They want people to stop sending things surface and only send things air.
—
Kind of like the other DSR “nudge” where they want people to offer free shipping.
There’ll also be a new reporting hub where sellers can report poor experiences with buyers. The information won’t be visible to other site users eBay will be able to use it to take action which could include buyer suspension or restrictions and their feedback and Buyer Protection cases removed from your account
This should have been introduced as soon as the right for sellers to leave negative feedback was withdrawn. Too little too late as always
When will they make it easy to upload tracker numbers? I have not got time to do it one at a time.
That is the real issue. To enter a tracker number one at a time is a pain in the ****! This is a totally inapropriate solution for anybody but a very small business. The tracker number should only be required in the event of a buyer complaining goods have not arrived. Otherwise a dsr 5* score should be automatic.
i send everything out thats small items via royal mail first class. I dont get a tracking number. Am i going to have to scan an upload my proof of postage receipts from the post office? Its a good idea ebay, not good enough though. 1 out of 50 people leave a 1 or a 2 an i lose my ebay account.
Hi
new to ebay and am confused by one thing re DSR’s it state % and 3 count is that 3 in a year or per 100 or something else
anyone help me
thanks
Any tracked postal system costs money. Unless you include this in your price, you can’t have free postage, can you?
Therefore you either get your 5 stars for postal rates OR for postal time. Go figure.
Just shows how crap the DSR system is!
eBay should remember that they make ALL their money from sellers, not from buyers.
For every £100 taken by a seller, about £15 will go to eBay and PayPal.
For every £100 spent by a buyer, nothing goes to eBay.
It would be nice is this was acknowledged… sellers put in a huge number of hours and can get a lot of grief from buyers. Currently, the whole experience is heavily weighted in favour of the buyers which is a very bad business model for eBay… I’m not surprised that they’re having to change the system.
Aren’t they the same £100?
You and I care about sellers because that’s what we are. However, without buyers we are nothing, no matter how good a seller you are.
The system can sometimes feel heavily weighted in the buyers favour, BUT only when it doesn’t go your way…not such a problem when the buyers are paying their money is it.
Ebay’s business model relies on the seller. Ebay provides an environment in which people with goods can provide them for sale – a shop if you like. Ebay is the landlord and takes a cut. If the merchant renting this shop space regularly gets burgled, it’s the landlord’s reposnsibility to ensure the shop is secure. Nor is it particularly sensible for the landlord to ‘dis’ his tenants to the customer. The customer, well they can go and buy their stuff from any number of outlets.