There is another issue that has been overlooked so far in this discussion, and that is that DSR are not compulsory. That means that not everyone who leaves feedback also leaves star ratings.
A very large proportion of buyers leave feedback because they want to make sure that they get feedback themselves, to demonstrate what good buyers they are by having large feedback scores after their names (since the 100% rating for a buyer has become completely meaningless). So, feedback, while not compulsory, is very common.
But leaving DSR with your feedback is optional. We have watched this very closely and we have discovered that satisfied customers, particularly repeat and regular ones, rarely bother to leave star ratings - they just leave positive feedback.
But people who are unhappy about something (even if they are unhappy with themselves for having bid too much, or people who are unhappy that the post office charges too much or takes too long to deliver) will almost always leave star ratings. So, the star rating results are heavily skewed towards the less happy or unhappy buyers.
How heavily is this skewed? We calculated it out – only 35% of buyers who left us feedback over the last 12 months bothered with DSR!
What is more, if you compare our very positive feedback messages and our relatively poor performance in the star ratings, it becomes patently obvious that it is the buyers with some sort of complain who leave star ratings, while the buyers who are perfectly happy couldn’t be bothered with the stars.
Since these ratings contribute to your standings as far as the eBay search engine is concerned, and can contribute towards your status as a power seller (and, as pointed out above, can contribute towards fee advantages in some cases), it becomes even more important that they should measure what they set out to measure – yet they simply don’t!
eBay is letting its best sellers down in a major way here!