quote:Let's face it.. in reality ebay does not want us to get all 5 stars in every field. WHY?? YOU ask? Because then they pay out more of the 20% discounts.. so the more they encourage by their wording lower stars the less people get the discount.
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I had one question ship rate on something the other day BEFORE she bought I sent detailed explanation showing figures with ship rate, delivery confirmation, insurance and expenses for envelope, etc., I was actually losing about 10 cents on shipping. (I immediately blocked her.. as I find when they are hostile and her note was that best thing to do is just block them. .period).
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One of their people called me one day and during conversation I mentioned feedback and he said, well, yeah, it is unfair but it "only" stays on a year!!!
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She is still writing offering me less for shipping after detailed note.
1) That 20% must be an American thing - I am not aware of any discounts being offered here in Australia based on ratings. But the pro-buyer / anti-seller attitude of eBay is still the same. I wonder where they think the buyers will come from when they alienate all the sellers.
2) I had one potential buyer send me a query asking me whether I was "smoking dope"... he arrived at the conclusion that I must be high because of our shipping charge.
At least one other seller reported us for "fee evasion", because we allegedly inflate our shipping charges.
The truth? We actually charge about 5% less than it really costs us (and make no allowances for such intangiables as labour costs, etc, all of which nevertheless have to be paid for).
So, you are completely correct - some people have no idea.
3) The things eBay representatives say are at times highly amusing. I telephoned eBay only last week about a buyer who seemed not quite right (we suspected identity theft). The eBay rep's comment was "he has a 100% rating, so he must be okay".
When I pointed out that people who are only buyers cannot have any ratings other than 100%, no matter how good or bad they are, he acted as if he had never heard of that.
4) I also love these offers we all get from buyers - like "I'll pay you $xyz including shipping" for an article that that would cost more than $xyz in postage alone...