eBay UK is starting to open up a bit more about what it does to protect sellers from buyers and how it might well have protected you already. It’s all welcome news.
eBay say that around 30k sellers each month are now being helped by the new measures they’ve put in place to protect sellers from unfair buyer behaviour. Crucially, this information relates to the DSRs, and defects, buyers can potentially levy against sellers.
Here’s one example of new information that eBay have published that demonstrates how they are operating. This info of from the new Seller Protection help page:
- New detection methods help us identify high-risk buyers who might be bidding on several similar items at once. We’ll take action before the non-payment even happens.
- We identify buyers that haven’t paid so we can automatically remove any negative or neutral Feedback and low Detailed Seller Ratings they might leave for you.
- When an unpaid item case closes without payment, we’ll block the buyer from leaving Feedback and add a strike to their account. This can lead to buying limits or suspension.
How might you know whether you have benefited?
Have you checked out the Seller Protection part of your seller dashboard yet? Last week, eBay emailed thousands of sellers alerting them to this enhanced information.
Needless to say, these data will differ from seller to seller but it’s good to know that sellers can know access the info to show that, in the background, the eBay wheels are whirring to take the sting out of some seller experiences automatically.
It’s unreasonable to expect that eBay might lay bare to all exactly what their processes and practices are in this programme of proactive activity against poor buyers. But it’s clear indication that it’s something that is going on behind the scene and resources have been allocated.
eBay have also released a PDF guide to what they’re doing
I can well imagine some eBay sellers judging these measures to be weak, too little and too late. But I think that may well be an ungenerous assessment. In any case, having the dashboard with an indication of how many times a seller has been protected, must put an end to the perception that eBay never find for a seller or protect a seller in cases that involve a dodgy buyer.
That said it is a little frustrating that we don’t know more about those incidents. But it is also understandable.
Rather like the secret service in a nation, exposing and making public processes, rules and indeed successes, could hamper future efforts. It seems to me though that eBay is on the right track.
43 Responses
elvis lives
They have been doing this for ages. And its more or less only for NPB. So its more or less automated.
90% of non paying biders can be blocked in your setting in ebay if they have X amount of strikes anyway.
you should also be able to block if they have open/closed disputes
Giving the power to the seller to block buyers via more complex criteria would be a lot more helpful.
Especially with the new returns rules. To have the power to block buyer by the amount of returns/neutral/negs etc Cause lets face it if the buyer makes ebay money at the expense of the seller then ebay do not delete the buyer.
You should also be able to block by open/closed disputes.
Ebay doesn’t do anything. For years I’m having a problem buyer. He creates a new account buys a few items with me and other sellers and never pays. Just a few months later he creates anohter account and starts all over again.
A 0-feedbacker with easily 10 strikes on his account. However all these accounts stay active. The only way to protect you from Ebay is to leave Ebay.
I agree gutspiller.
These “protections” might keep the “average” buyer in check … the ones who just don’t know the rules, and who don’t know about DEFECTS or how things work on eBay.
But the true scammers learn to adapt very quickly to new regulations and systems, intended to protect Sellers.
They know exactly what it takes to get a reimbursement out of eBay’s pocket, while leaving Defects in their wake.
And any protection that exists doesn’t go nearly far enough. If a scammer buys 10 items and claims the Seller only sent one of them, eBay will always take their side.
If a scammer c&p’s your description and then systematically lies and says that each of the points in your description is completely false, eBay tells the Seller, “You can’t prove what you sent them, so we have to side with the Buyer.”
If a competitor wants to organize a few friends and bomb your account, eBay does nothing to stop it, and says, “There’s more where you came from.”
More bollocks from the monster.
Lets see how many sellers feel “protected” in August!!
Put the protection in the sellers hands. Give us full control. Ban by region , postcode negs, neutrals, disputes and returns . There is no need to hold this back from the seller other than for eBay’s own greed.
There may be a case for sellers not being able to use such a vetting criteria properly but that’s the sellers problem.
This is not new. Basically eBay have updated their policy wording to now include that they remove defects. Everything else has already been in place and it’s simply spin to make it look they’ve improved something.
Interestingly, I see from your screen grab that eBay are protecting 30,000 sellers each month.
Funny then, that on my dashboard they are protecting 60,000 sellers each month
Fudge, fudge, fudge
proof of the pudding and all that
we suspect there are few sellers who are confident or happy with ebay seller protection
My biggest wish would be that “opened INR cases” do not count as a defect when they are closed by the buyer as the buyer is satisfied.
When I look at my defect report almost all of the are INR cases opened and then closed 2 days later as the buyer had got the item or it was at the Post Office.
Unfortunately the buyer (who is a satisfied customer) closed the case as he was happy and we get a defect stuck on us which sits there for a year.
I would also like to request TB push Ebay on this change as this is what will damage most sellers.
Chris @ TB: Is there no way to put up some kind of petition to Ebay on this point?
We reported a scammer who had been claiming “empty packs” and “item not received” from almost every sellers. We reported him and next day he was no longer a registered user.
But the worrying part;
During a discussion with a very polite resolution team member based abroad, she commented that anyone making 10 to 15 claims will be deemed suspicious. We were shocked and immediately expressed our concern that, does this mean a scammer can get away with 10 claims in 60 days and it will be considered OK? Didn’t get a satisfactory reply.
Now really worried about what is going to happen from August.
On top of that you get a defect for putting up with this!
Till recent changes we were doing just fine and felt protected. These glossy charts and unverified figures can’t make us feel protected especially with new beat the seller policies.
Not effect me !.
Me Hong Kong.
Even me 97 % Feedback me no. 1 in search box ha ha ha. Beat UK seller price 10p, everytime !
NO FEE
BIG PROMOTION
NO UK TAX
My warehouse in London ‘really’.
Soon buy 1 bed flat London only 2 million Dollar and go up 1001 % one year !
.
Just under 2 years ago, we lost 1 of our ebay accounts as ebay deemed us (after 9 years) not fit to be a seller on ebay anymore.
Two years on, we are now 35% up on turnover, and we put all our energy into our own sites (we simply rely on google to show us in search results and are often high up on the 1st page). Amazon has been good for us too, we achieve better than 10-15% increase margins & no hassle with most buyers.
I am sad for the many sellers on ebay that come August, they are going to get hammered & hammered again by ebay buyers…
I sleep well at night nowdays.
A difference few changes can make,
Q: What did we see in the above picture of seller protection team few months ago?
ANS: Team of eBay protections team with “reassuring smiles” that they are here for us.
Q: What do we see now?
ANS: Few people from anti seller team “smirking”.
I do not see anything here new. Same old same old. I actually moved a lot off my stock away from ebay totally the other week. Buyer fraud on the site is becoming more and more of an issue.
we have no confidence at all in seller protection
when a buyer returns ,
because they failed to understand or read clear conditions/descriptions results in possible sanctions
Chris @ Tamebay
Is there a way we can “pin” this topic to the top of the page. It seems to be one of the most important discussions in the Ebay Category for a long time and something that is hurting all sellers and would be great if we can get more feedback on it and that Ebay may actually read it?
Thanks in advance
Just started work today and the alarm bells are ringing.
New Case: INR
Checking tracking I can see that there was an attempted delivery and the item is now at the Post Office awaiting collection.
Ebay thinks all buyers know that they should just email their seller if the item has not arrived.
In practice this is not how it happens. The buyer goes to “Help” and the first thing they see is “Item not received”
They click on this and there we go…. “open a case”
Now I have to wait 10 days and keep my fingers crossed that the buyer does not close the case so that I can pass it on to Ebay in 10 days for them to close so that the defect is removed.
This is the most customer unfriendly procedure that Ebay has ever created.
Normally we would just ask the buyer to close the case as they are happy and have received their item.
With the new system we then wait 10 days and pass it to “Ebay Small Claims Court”. The case will be decided in my favour and the Buyer will get a mail saysing “Sorry Buyer, we ruled against you, you have lost the case”.
I cannot understand how that is meant to be a “Better Buying Experience” as ebay is promoting the new seller standards to be.
We really need to all push Ebay that opened INR cases that are closed to the buyer satisfaction are NOT counted as a defect.
I would ask all sellers who have similar problems to bombard Customer Service so that they can see that this is a real problem and a complete thinking mistake by the top floor Ebay executives who thought this nonsense up.
Obviously the people who made this decision have never sold or bought on Ebay or maybe even never worked in Customer Support.
Anybody else think the same?