Ohhhh, that makes me really mad, when did eBay ever notify the sellers that neutrals were going to count as a negative. I haven't had any but it is inevitable that it will happen at some time. I just don't understand the logic of eBay's upper management in making these kind of rules. How is it fair to a seller to make a neutral count as a negative AND not telling us that when they first made the announcement of the new Feedback policy. They are such a monopoly now they can do just whatever they want whenever they want and sellers have no choice but to sit back and swallow it. Aghhhhh!
If you think thats something. Yesterday, I was a 99.1% score. I had one negative from nearly 12 months ago that was about to expire. Today a buyer took it upon herself to fire 3 ngs at me and now I'm down to 98.1%. I've been selling on Ebay since 99. I had over 10,000 sales. Most of them bought about a 3 to 1 average. I think we all need to buy cheap stuff and feed everyone we buy from a negative and show ebay their new stupid system sucks. I guess this is their new fix to shoot themselves in the foot again.
Originally posted by Daddyo: Today a buyer took it upon herself to fire 3 ngs at me
Many buyers waited until Monday to "lash out" at sellers. There are links everywhere to feedback profiles showing all sorts of stupid reason negatives. Some personal favorites of mine were:
"Seller charged me $6 for postage, but flat rate is $4.80"
"There was a hair on the clothing I bought, that's gross"
"Item was smaller than it appeared in the photo"
Yea, these are great reasons to leave negative feedback and destroy sellers reputations and careers.
You haven't heard about the "used messy packing peanuts" neg? Now there's one to ponder over your next carefully packaged shipment as it goes out the door.
Danno
"Life is pain. Anyone who says differently isn't paying eBay and PayPal Seller fees."
"Item was beautiful as usual but my husband didn't like it"
And that was from a repeat buyer!
My sales have dropped by 50% this month so I asked ebay if they had altered the visability of my items. They replied saying "sorry you don't like the new feedback system"
I know they are messing around with the search system as well but if this goes on much longer I'm probably going to pack it in. I have over 5000 positives and 99.6% overall but for the last 3 months alone it works out at 98.5% and they are implying this is why they are punishing me. Unbelievable. On the UK powerseller discussion board they are going nuts and loads of powersellers are getting 1 month suspensions because their three month rate dropped to 95% due to too many neutrals.
On the UK powerseller discussion board they are going nuts and loads of powersellers are getting 1 month suspensions because their three month rate dropped to 95% due to too many neutrals.
Serves them right, they hide behind the so called respectability of PS status with initial high volume sales and high positive feedback count and then slide into complacency and don't care, so what mentality. I have only been conned by a PS in 500+ plus purchases.
The only things I dislike about the new system is the inability to red a bad buyer and I cannot determnine whether someone is trying to scam me or is genuine by their history.
This message has been edited. Last edited by: ChooChooGuy,
Posts: 1872 | Location: England, UK | Registered: June 13, 2007
I got nailed with 3 negs the morning of the changeover. They posted at 6:30 AM. They knew what they were doing when they waited for the opportune time to post them. So I get 3 reds and they get nothing. I fought back and gave them 3 positives and filled in, in Capitals to the last letter what I thought of them. In one instance I declared a name for them. They went nuts, emailing me, called my answering machine. I did not read the email and I threw out the message on a skip read. I did not want anymore of their negativity. So they have these big blocks on their feedback page. They also do a little selling. Now think of that. Maybe Ebay wants me to buy something to get back at them. Hummm? Why did I get 3 negs., because the bought one item and paid for it. Then bought 2 more items and I sent them an invoice for them. They did not pay. I sent them another invoice a few days later. They emailed and said they wanted a discount and why hadn't I done this automatically. So I adjusted and sent another one. They came back with if I had communicated properly with the invoice combo, I would have been paid sooner. So I sent out the items. That was April 12, 36 days ago on the 20th.
Ebays scam is to promote anxiety in buyers and they in turn put that anxiety on the sellers. Now the onus is even greater on the sellers only because as they state they want a safe environement for the buyer.
Ioffer is the next biggest selling site with about 3,685,634 actual auction pages compared to Ebays 14,553,532. But Ioffer is going up by about 15 to 20,000 pages a day and like I said Ebay is dropping by 100,000 a day. Actually they dropped by 125,000 today. This does not include store items pages.
Unfortunately, any comment that ebay feels is not a positive one in the buyer's feedback will be removed by them. So I would imagine your buyer's feedback will not show what you have written for very long.
The 'learn more ' is a link. If I saw that on a buyer's FB I would know the seller had a problem with that user, so it's almost as good as an actual neg. (almost)
I don't have the link handy at this second, but they've made it a policy violition to post negative FB remarks within a positive, so folks have to be careful what they write now.
______________________ Earn money while you shop! It's FREE!
I read somewhere in the policy flapdoodle that eBay has in its messages that the change in neutral value on your feedback was something to do with the comparative value of negatives. It was a complicated mathematical formula which made no sense to me. Probably doesn't to them, either.
Of all the mean things they've done to small sellers, that was the meanest. Those neutrals did not denote the dissatisfaction of a neutral; yet now it seems to. Buyers care more about your feedback than they do about the mathematical formula eBay used to dilute or ding it, and that's what they'll go by.
Go to item #280230016844 on eBay and you can see lots of folks pointing out all the fallacies in the feedback system and how eBay has exposed the small sellers to the whims of the marketplace.
Some people say, well, B&M stores get the same thing - I say they do not! Would they for a minute put up with the abuse, the thievery, the scams that go on on eBay and now are being sanctioned, almost encouraged, by the Corporation? No way. Stores have their own ways of protection. From time to time people find their way around them but not by threatening, intimidation, coersion, or any of the other methods to which we're all exposed and now have no defense against.
I can't believe eBay's stupid decision to make it that the buyer is always right and to stop sellers criticising the buyer. As for the silly comment about buying small items and leaving negatives to teach ebay a lesson, all that will do is destroy sellers feedbacks and annoy everyone, ebay wont do anything about it. eBay have absolutely destroyed the once trusted feedback system, now nobody can trust it anymore as sellers can't leave negatives for buyers so they don't know if the person buying is genuine or just a time waster and buyers don't know whether all them negatives the seller has received is due to people messing around. Unfortunatly now though the only way that eBay could revert this decision is to wipe out all feedback that has been left since the change over, or ask all ebay sellers and buyers to re-score all feedback that has been left. Ebay has just done exactly what that guy did when he said all his jewellery he was selling was just cheap rubbish (and then a few months later bankrupted his company because of his stupid decision). I'm probably going to ditch ebay and go to eBid who don't charge for selling items and still have a fair feedback system.
Originally posted by Daddyo: I got nailed with 3 negs the morning of the changeover. They posted at 6:30 AM. They knew what they were doing when they waited for the opportune time to post them. So I get 3 reds and they get nothing. I fought back and gave them 3 positives and filled in, in Capitals to the last letter what I thought of them. In one instance I declared a name for them. They went nuts, emailing me, called my answering machine.
A carefully worded positive-negative is a nice thought, and I do plan on doing it if it is warranted, however the real recourse that I will use is to file for my fees back. An underserved negative is worth getting my FVF's back and giving the buyer a strike against them.
A carefully worded positive-negative is a nice thought, and I do plan on doing it if it is warranted, however the real recourse that I will use is to file for my fees back. An underserved negative is worth getting my FVF's back and giving the buyer a strike against them.
Barparts, I'm curious how this would work if they have already paid you and you sent off the item and then they left the feedback.
If you want to check out announcements that are going on with eBay AND what other eBay'ers feel about these changes...it's always smart to check out the EBay Seller Central Forums
Keeps you the seller/buyer up on the latest announcements AND the opinions of others. (Of course there is the announcements page with eBay also)
My feelings are that we are heading towards a feedback system that is similar to Amazon's and eBay is easing us into the new standard.
I was told by an eBay rep that there were going to be six MAJOR changes to eBay before July/August that would rock the boat...majorly.
We've seen lots already...and more will come in the coming months.
There are no neutrals on Amazon. I also feel that when the rockin of the boat on eBay feedback/DSR rating comes to a slow-down...eBay will match Amazon's DSR rating almost to a T.
Gotta stay up on the changes that are going on with eBay..might not like them, but it is imperative that each and every seller keep up with the latest updates and announcements, rather than being caught off-guard.
I think it is a load of crap. If anything they should have the new neutrals count against you. a seller left me neutral after I odered 2 lots and assumed I would get a good variety, but most of the items were the same. i left 1 neutral and 1 postive for fast shipping and I got 2 neutrals for same day payment because I "complain too much" I think buyers are to quick to leave a negative, but I would have never left a neutral (I figured she might give me 1 back) had I known it was going to count against me!! eBay does suck. If I was not trying to be a stay at home mom then I wouldn't even sell on there. I would just have cheap yard sales or only list on craigslist, but I need to survive! I sold an item for .99 and I think I may have earned pennies on it. If not then it cost me to list it!
Posts: 6 | Location: Oklahoma | Registered: June 09, 2008
If you list a 99 cent item, and it sells, and you're paid by Paypal, assuming the postage is low, you net something like 27 cents. As postage goes up, that amount goes down since your Paypal fees include postage.
The last time I listed something to start at 99 cents was a few months ago, and I ended up netting about 10 cents. I figured the low start cost would "spur interest". It did not. I ended up the big looser. Due to the high postage cost on the item, I ended up with, like I said, about 10 cents.
10 cents. To shoot pictures, write a listing, package it, and take it to the post office.
What's YOUR time worth?
I will NEVER list another item for 99 cents. I don't start anything below $5, and most items at $9.99. Even at $5, you still end up with only a few bucks.
