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.

Do you have some Auctiva listings that will NOT allow changes to the description or extra shipping information field? I did. And I didn’t want to have to completely relist all the items. Need to know how to change those ‘locked’ Auctiva listings to comply with Ebay’s new rules?
Here’s what I did. There may be an easier way, but I haven’t found it. Ebay’s system would not allow changes through the bulk change process. These listings kept coming back as problems. So here is what I did:
Step 1: Go to your ‘My Ebay’ page. Click on ACTIVE LISTINGS. (narrow by category if you’d like)
Step 2: At the end of the individual listing, click on the drop-down arrow at the end of the line under the “Action” column. (Usually the first option in this box is “Send to Online Auction”.)
Step 3: Now RIGHT-CLICK on “Sell Similar”. Select “open in new tab” or “open in new window” so that it will be easy to go back to the original listing if necessary.
Step 4: Go to the new tab or window and make the necessary changes to your listing to comply with Ebay’s new rules. (I also changed the price by .01 or to an odd amount so that I could know at a glance which is the new listing and which is the old listing when I went later to delete the old inaccurate listing.)
Step 5: When finished with changes and the new listing is complete, go back and delete the old inaccurate listing. Note** You WILL incur listing fees again through Ebay because you are creating a new listing. If you are making these changes in store listings, the cost will be minimal as compared to having to completely relist the item anyway.**

Hope this helps someone. If you have any questions, please ask.