Buyer Protection cases penalize eBay sellers even if resolved happily or false in the first place
(The Whine Seller Blog)

eBay sent out a seller update out earlier today and most of it was “Yes, yes. Fine, fine.” Then I got to this part:

New seller standard: Buyer Protection cases counted along with low DSRs. You’re on the right track!

Opening a case with the eBay or PayPal Buyer Protection program is a clear indication of buyer dissatisfaction, especially when the buyer tries and is unable to resolve an issue directly with the seller. That’s why, starting in September, “item not received” and “item not as described” cases will be considered along with low DSRs to evaluate and reward seller performance.

The “You’re on the right track” bit is because I currently meet this requirement.

Um…. I’ve been selling on eBay for many years now and I have had lots of buyers start “Item not received” or “Item not as described cases”. But here’s the thing, eBay. Of all of those, only five were actually buyers whose item didn’t arrive or wasn’t as described or who had a problem at all for that matter.

All the others. Let me repeat, ALL THE OTHERS were buyer who opened the case because, as they told me, “They weren’t sure how else to email the seller to ask a question.”

So if this is going to count toward my freaking DSRs, are you going to make it clearer what the process is for? Better yet, is there going to be a way for buyer and seller to amicably close the case if it was started under newbie confusion?

Read the ENTIRE article here.

Quick summary and thoughts on eBay’s Summer release (aka the 10.2 release)

Yesterday (April 27, 2010), eBay announced the set of changes that will roll out this Summer (July 27, 2010) – this is their second set this year and they are already talking about a third set coming in the Fall. I would classify this release as very incremental – nothing earth shattering here, but as a package there are some good improvements that have a (hopefully) minor impact on sellers and a large positive impact on buyers.

Read the complete article here:
Quick summary and thoughts on eBay’s Summer release (aka the 10.2 release)

If you read many Ebay seller boards, many sellers feel the following way about eBay’s feedback and DSR systems.

Buyers don’t pay Ebay a cent to buy an item. Sellers spend tons of money monthly, and have very little to no control over who purchases from them and how they treat us as sellers. Most are honest buyers, but of course, a few “bad apples” abuse the current system to try and get free products and the seller is left to deal with the crazies or live with ‘bad feedback and dsrs’.

The biggest aggravation of Ebay is Feedback and DSR ratios. A real turn off is the fact that Ebay has forgotten who pays them!! We, as SELLERS, are their customers, who pay eBay money in the form of fees and subscriptions, and thus account for their revenue. Ebay, it seems, considers the buyers as their customers and sellers as middle men.

Ebays DSRs are unfair. I absolutely despise Ebay’s DSRs. Ebay tells the buyer that 4 stars is good service, yet 4 stars will lower your listings rank – yep, go from raised to lowered in one fell swoop! And the buyer may not even be aware that they did.

If the DSR is going to effect your listings, (higher or lower), then the seller should be able to see which buyer left what ‘stars’, to enable the seller to know what to improve upon their services or they would know what they are doing correctly. If you could see the buyer id that left the lower rating, you might at least be able to figure out what happened. Without knowing what happened or what they weren’t happy with, it’s hard to improve service. My rant for the day…