On the * a buyer reports that all negative, neutral and low DSR ratings that they’ve left in the past year for fellow sellers have removed.
The seller estimates that they’ve spent around £10,000 in 300 transactions in the last 12 months and claiming some missing in transit, damaged on arrival or shortages which led to them opening 7 resolution cases on eBay. eBay emailed the buyer explaining this warning of possible account limitations if this behaviour continues.
The email received from eBay
“Dear xxxxxx
To keep eBay a fair and safe marketplace for all members, we routinely review buying and selling activity. In reviewing your account, we found:
— An unusually high rate of claims and a pattern of filing claims on higher value items with evidence of intent to keep the item.
Because of this behavior, we’ve removed from related seller profiles any neutral or negative Feedback, and any low detailed seller ratings left by you within the past year. Please be aware that if this activity continues, you may be subject to a range of other actions, including limitations on your buying and selling privileges, and suspension of your account.
If you have a problem with a transaction, we encourage you to contact the seller first to work out a solution.”
The seller claims that it’s a relatively low number of problems out of the total number and value of transactions, but as other PowerSellers point out if it was 7 cases out of 300 selling transactions it’s likely that the seller account would have been limited.
What the buyer in question didn’t reveal isn’t how many cases they opened, but the number of negative and neutral feedback they’ve left or how often they’ve dinged seller with low DSRs when leaving feedback. I imagine if they’ve opened 7 resolutions against sellers it’s possible that they have left even more less than glowing feedback in total.
Seller reaction
Sellers on the thread on the PowerSeller board are largely supportive of eBay’s actions, whilst expressing sympathy in this particular case. It’s welcome news that eBay are actively monitoring feedback, whether it be by manually reviewing upon receipt of a complaint from the feedback recipient or from automated monitoring.
When questioned the buyer also revealed that they have on 3 occasions requested a partial refund as an alternative to returning an entire order. They explained this is mainly for short shipments.
Tamebay take
We’re with the majority of sellers in approving of eBay’s actions. It’s good to see them protecting sellers against serial leavers of poor feedback.
We’re well aware that some types of product are more prone to problems than others. In the past I’ve purchased power cables on eBay, but due to the number of low quality cheap imports (definitely not CE standard) cables I received I simply stopped buying them on eBay. I like eBay, if I could I’d buy everything on eBay just because it’s easy and I have eBay and PayPal accounts. I’ve purchased everything from £1 items right up to motors costing thousands of pounds on eBay, however there are however a few rare types products that it may be best to source elsewhere.
It’s worth remembering that for every buyer there’s also a seller and some of us are both. I buy and I sell and embarrassingly, despite my best efforts to give what I think is superb service, I have to say some of the sellers I’ve purchased from give much better service than me. Just as some sellers are better than others, some buyers are better than others.
Your thoughts
We love to know what you think of eBay removing feedback left for sellers. Do you have a high incidence of disappointing buyer experiences on eBay, or are you like me and are in the main ecstatic (or at least satisfied) with your last few eBay purchases?
*eBay PowerSeller log in required
22 Responses
I am truly happy that ebay is monitoring buyers as well as sellers and is willing to take action against anybody who is, shall we say, bending if not actually breaking the rules.
Earlier this year I had a transaction go “pear shaped”. It was partly my fault(We were in the middle of a major overhaul of our storage facilities and because of that stock had been moved to other places and while it could be found there were items that we could not immediately find). So I asked the publisher to send them out. He did although it introduced a delay into the transaction.
The buyer took maximum advantage and even though both I and the publisher apologised for the delay and he has had the books the buyer has jumped up and down and made all sorts of allegations. He claimed non receipt(the day after he was told the delayed shipment had been made) and also left foul Feedback and DSR’s.
Of course ebay has totally backed the buyer and has used this one transaction out of all the other many transactions that have gone perfectly to hit me hard not once but on several occassions. Also ebay has refused to audit this transaction no matter how often I have asked. The only replies I have had from ebay are very silly standard emails telling me to try harder. But that was why we were overhauliong our storage facilities in the first place so we could improve our service to our customers.
I am now sick and tired of being kicked in the teeth and knifed in the back by ebay over this. So next week I am going to start to set up my ebid account.
Surely ebay knows that a serious problem such as the one that we have suffered deserves to be audited. After all if the buyer is out to cheat me it is likely that he will also cheat other sellers. But every time we have tried to bring this to the attention of ebay all we get is the silly standard emails. Doesn’t ebay have a Fit for Purpose Customer Services Department? rather than just somebody only interested in sending out silly standard emails?
I still hope that ebay does in regard to my transaction and the buyer what this posting says that they have done in regard to this other buyer(maybe its the same buyer?). In which case I would hope that ebay will take steps to compensate me for all the punishment that I have suffered at ebays hands this year.
7 problems in over 300 transactions [average £33 each], does not seem alot frankly.
Removing feedback, DSRs, etc’ is one thing, but for ebay to actual make allegations, must be something that ebay seem to be able to prove as serious & factual.
I think if I was this buyer, I would spend some time going through all these incidents & clearly & concisely showing the facts & fire it off to ebay.
We have said for a long time INR claims on ebay should be monitored by ebay, some sort of reporting platform purely for this should be available.
Many buyers are just plain dismissive to INR claims, with comments like;
‘Get over it, its only £2’
‘You cant prove I’ve received it, it’s not tracked’.
‘Poor customer service’ [even though I could not be bothered to reply for over 2 weeks<<add by us].
Finally, I see this as another reason to keep buying & selling accounts separate.
rather than alienate buyers, reduce the impact that unbalanced DSRs can have
Is that always true? In my case I sold 3 books to the same customer. The transaction had some problems due mainly to the major re-organisation that we were in the middle of. However the books were sent to the customer by the publisher. So he received the 3 books. But he deliborately left 3 separate Feedbacks and DSR’s one for each book so that he had maximum impact(Feedback Abuse?). So I have 3 Negative Feedbacks and 3 sets of foul DSR’s. But every other Feedback I have is Positive although I have been told by ebay that the DSR’s are not all 5’s. Yet my negatives are not from several buyers and what if I had sold the customer a number of 99p books(and I have several listed) could I have 6 negative Feedbacks and DSR’s all because a £5-94(6 at £0-99peach)sale went pear shaped or even that having received the books the buyer decided to get his money back by clainming INR. After all that is what happened to me in regard to the above Book Order.
The business closed down years ago. What is remaining is the large accumulation of stock that I have to get sold. So I am no longer a business but a Private Seller. It comes to us all sometime. Only a Bookseller has boxes and boxes of books to sell and they all take time. Obviously I could just advertise on ebay 5,000 assorted books(as some do when they retire) but in my case I decided to sell the remaining stock myself(as the receipts from the sales represent my pension
Not sure if clearing old stock makes you a “private seller”. Sounds like a bussiness to me.
If I was profiling my most suspect buyers, then those also selling on ebay would be at the top of the list, even above newbies. As a top rated seller, even though I have feedback of 400 plus per month most of the year, I still live in fear of feedback abuse, and I also lose more than is comforatble on refunds. Welcome news ! and clearly I was not the only one with a story to tell.