Thoughts eBay 2014 Spring Seller Release

Thoughts eBay 2014 Spring Seller Release

I am going to post my opinion on the spring seller release. 2014 for eBay and what I take from it and what we can all do.

I will say this.  Every time eBay has made a change I might complain to them and they listen and sometimes have fixed it or I have worked around it.  Every change has affected my business and has been better for my business.

1. The parameters set with the new rule of 5 (for eTRs) and 8 (for other sellers) is to protect small sellers from being kicked off of eBay by one, two, three, or four buyers.  This is huge.  You need five (or 8) unique buyers to lose status. You could fall below 2% defect rate but the 5/8 rule is taken into account and you won’t lose it without both.

2. Percentages vs number of cases.  It is 2% of your evaluation period and the 5/8 rule combined.  So if you are a medium seller like I consider myself I have 1500 transactions in my 3 month evaluation period I need to have 30 defects to lose top rated (2% of 1500).  If I have 30 defects I should not be a top rated seller in my opinion.  For those with 12 month evaluation you have to have under 2 percent for eTRs but keep in mind it has to be from five buyers.  So say you sold 100 items and got 4 defects you would be at 4 percent but you only had 4 unique buyers and would not lose eTRs.

3. I like that a negative or a neutral revision counts as a defect. There was still something wrong with the transaction.  Last year cs was given more leeway to remove feedback.  If your customer writes and said I messed up that is removable.  So revised feedback is a defect.  Removed feedback is not a defect.   I left a negative and was offered money to change it.  The seller had 775 revised feedback at the time.  This is a great Policy for me as a buyer who had a bad buying experience.

4. Cancelled orders by seller.   This will be great for buyers who has had Christmas and holidays ruined because a seller was out of stock and cancelled my order.   Keep good control of your inventory and now make it a priority to check your listed and to organize it and fix listings while you are at it.   If a buyer writes and says my cat bid you can 1. Cancel and chose buyer changed mind or bid by mistake or 2. Let it go to UPI.  UPI will refund your fees.  Griff is saying if a cancellation closes without buyer canceling then you won’t get back your fees.  UPI is my path.

5.  Item not received.  This is my ONLY issue and feel there is a really good resolution.  The times eBay gives to get a package to a customer is many time unrealistic and needs to be reevaluated.  A buyer can now open a case one day after the item is supposed to arrive. First of all most buyer have no clue they opened a case they just want to check tracking and since eBay tracking is not in real time they don’t see the most current information. If the item arrives the next day and is closed by the buyer the seller gets a defect.  If a seller calls and takes time away from listing and work to call cs and say hey it arrived then it is not a defect.   I can’t track 30 to 50 packages a day on a daily basis x 6 days a week as suggested, especially when eBay is behind on tracking.  My suggestion for a solution is to have real time tracking (current) and when a buyer opens the where is my item eBay shows the updated current info to the buyer and then says. Do you still want to open a case?   Case has to be used since most buyers think they are just asking a question and not opening a case.  This will make opened cases go down immediately if eBay will provide current tracking and not two days ago.

I feel I can show my item was scanned at my post office within my one day handling time I should not get a defect.  If the buyer gets the item, is happy and closes the case that should not be a defect.

6.  We have about a month to get our seller standards views and I suggest waiting to see where we each stand.  We can then have the time to go through and analyze what is up

7.  This is good and very thought out but I do see some pain points. This is great for small sellers and I encourage you to not worry about it until you see the real numbers.  Kim said it well about the emails sellers got that said projected past shows you would not be in compliance.  Projected is the key word here.  You have some time.   Work on those.

8. eBay changed my life. I love what I do.  I have the freedom to voice my opinion and I have to say I truly 100 % believe that eBay listens to buyers and sellers in these cases.

Visit the eBay site here on the update to be current  eBay Seller Update Spring 2014