"Fallen PowerSellers Get Temporary Amnesty"

So you are now saying, if someone buys 5 item from you now over a month and the last one don't turn up and he blames you, you will get 5 neg because he is upset and you will not get back into being a power seller for over a year, so what's stopping them from emailing you and saying "send me some free stuff or I will neg you"

This could be an uphill struggle, in 60 days time the percentage could fall even further if the 60 days which will drop off the other end contained no negs. or neutrals. Well done Ebay the Law of Unintended Consequences strikes again.

I really dont understand Neural means NEUTRAL which is not good not bad...so way does it count as a negative?? There are many buyers that pay with paypal but dont understand that if coming from a bank takes a while to clear Then complain about postage time I have 2 negatives from ITALY buyers asking for seamail then after a week place disputes after a month negatives then after 4 months aplogize..to late then..now I am to scared to place disputes on non payers to get refunded because they can negative me...

Well, this has left the people who try hard to expand to the level of powerseller to an all time low. Things that happen are not always the responsiblity of the seller. The post office hires many incompetent people.
I just recieved a package that had been returned to me over a year and half ago. Where it was is still a mystery. Why they did not deliver it is again a mystery. One package I sent to Austria, landed in Australia, took 4 months to get to right location. Sent another package to address 3 times before it got there. And, this is my fault? E-bay lately is mass confusion. I no longer ship to international because Paypal is way too expensive, and, if insured, this takes over 3 months to process the insurance claims. E-bay now charging over 12% on store sales, than another high charge due paypal. In this economic era of E-bay, only people making money is post office and E-bay. Then, E-bay adds again to the misery.
I just recieved a negative feedback because I returned money from some entry that appeared twice and already sold. When, you enter a product, it does not always show up. And, if you have multiple items, you have to wait until the search works which most of the time does not, so item is entered twice instead of once. You can tell that most of this monitoring is outsourced because no one knows how to complete anything. And, if you complain, all they do is scrutinize something you have listed for over a year, and, suddenly, only because you complained, they suddenly remove the item. Very frustrated. Very.

I am not sure what eBay was thinking when they made this change. The only non-positive feedback I ever received was from a brand new user who jumped the gun without ever contacting me first to resolve an issue. (Which wasn't an issue to begin with) I, we (every seller) will never see 100% positive feedback if new buyers are able to drop neutral or negative feedbacks on a whim.

This new feedback thing is ridiculious, non paying bidders are up and I use to never have NPBs. They dont even have an incentive to make contact, this one's a "shoot yourself in the foot" for e bay. I am seriously considering leaving e bay for good...

I didn't think the system was broken, so why change it. Not being able to give feedback to buyers is crippling, and the new way of calculating the feedback rating is very poor. I had a seller who gave me retaliatory feedback more than 3 months after the transaction and crippled my 12-month score, but they deserved the feedback I gave them.

This whole new rating scheme - or should I say SCAM is 100% anti business - Raise our costs of doing business so eBay makes even more money off our backs... them come up with this China Egg (it will never hatch)sceme to allow us to get discounts on the selling fee.... in the mean time, give sellers FREE RANGE over sellers! What ever will eBay do when buyers have NO ONE to buy from--- suggestion - FIRE the dufas that thought up this scam... if it goes all the way to the top then get rid of "her" too!.... by the way - HAVE you heard ANY positive feedback on this KRAP??? I sure havent -- does that mean that eBAy rate "unacceptable" in their own rating system?

After 3 weeks and ignored reminders, I used eBay's dispute console to report non-payment. The buyer (who admitted check was lost) left neg fb BECAUSE I used the dispute console. I requested eBay to remove it and I was told, sorry, can't--doesn't meet our removal criteria... !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So let me get this right... a Buyer can renig and there's nothing we can do except graciously let them cost us more money with negs.

Wow... great business model.

What happened to caveat emptor? Reading all of everyone's posts and learning of this new socialistic policy just takes the wind right out of my sails. Neutral is supposed to mean neutral. I have some buyers that have not paid on their items, and now I'm supposed to just kindly let them walk away because I don't want to get a neutral or negative. I shouldn't have to feel afraid to sell on eBay because of now worrying about neutrals as well. Most buyers don't realize that a neutral is now a negative. If eBay wants to stick to this new policy, at least put up a big warning pop up to the buyer that leaving a neutral now adversely affects the seller's score. That is the very least they could do for us sellers that bend over backward for our buyers, living in contant fear of our ratings being lowered, and those of us who are power sellers, losing our power seller status. I would bet if Wal-Mart were a seller on ebay, they would be hard-pressed to keep their score above 98%.

I too am confused at why eBay have made this ruling. Sellers have always been at the mercy of the buyer (viceversa too) but have weighted it against the seller with this as they have no 'clout' to fight back... I and other sellers I know, have had buyers stating that items are damaged when received snd demand refunds postage included, when nothing was wrong in the first place, they just didnt want it after all, bought it for a special occasion only, or it didnt fit even when you request several times inthe listing to 'please measure yourself and compare the actual measurements of the item.' The list is endless. One seller I know, who is a worrier, is now scared to sell items because of negative feedback and her reputation and I know the goods she sells are of a very good quality.
Dont eBay know that some people are downright nasty and can ruin an otherwise perfect sellers reputation, (and I know that a very high % of them are). EBay make a fortune out of us, and I know by keeping records that they make more out of me than I do!! Then there is paypal,, that is another story. It is correct when someone on here said that soon there will be no decent sellers on board, we wont be able to keep the prices low, because with costs etc. and having to refund to the nasties who will take advantage of the feedback rules, the quality of merchandise will undoubtedly drop. Are they digging their own (and our) graves????

GEED IS GOOD to a POINT! ---Ebay has crossed in to the ZONE of negative returns..... I for one am PERPLEXED

quote:

Originally posted by KG:
What happened to caveat emptor? Reading all of everyone's posts and learning of this new socialistic policy just takes the wind right out of my sails. Neutral is supposed to mean neutral. I have some buyers that have not paid on their items, and now I'm supposed to just kindly let them walk away because I don't want to get a neutral or negative. I shouldn't have to feel afraid to sell on eBay because of now worrying about neutrals as well. Most buyers don't realize that a neutral is now a negative. If eBay wants to stick to this new policy, at least put up a big warning pop up to the buyer that leaving a neutral now adversely affects the seller's score. That is the very least they could do for us sellers that bend over backward for our buyers, living in contant fear of our ratings being lowered, and those of us who are power sellers, losing our power seller status. I would bet if Wal-Mart were a seller on ebay, they would be hard-pressed to keep their score above 98%.

WALLMART would NOT sell on ebay --- --- would blow their thin margin to haties... Sam Walton would roll over in his grave if the BOZO's at ebay gave him a poor rating..............

Can you just see it now---uh Walton... you did not get a 4.7 or higher so we will have to cut your ratings and search settings--- uhh... your feedback is below 95%---- tough luck, you can't be a power seller anymore---LOL Walton can't be a power seller---can you imagine??????... and oh yeah--- since you are not a power seller any more.... NO discounts on our OUTRAGEOUS new selling fees!!! --- in other words F U

while I'm blasting--- F - EBAY!

My feedback was 100% positive for over 3 years, all of a sudden I have 99.4 because of 1 neutral posted by a woman who chose to not pay the insurance of $1.40 on a very fragile item...which I packed very well.Of course someone at the post office must have SAT on it or something, anyway she left neutral about 8 months ago..now I have lost my 100% which was a selling point for me..I am very dissapointed with Ebay..I don't know if I will be selling anymore .

The new feedback system is put into place only to make ebay more money. It makes no since what they are doing except to make 4% more money on there sellers. They want you to get bad feedback. Ebay knows that most of the buyers leaving bad feedback are new or don't know what they are doing. They do not screan there buyers or even make sure they have money to buy things on ebay. They don't care! It is only set up so they could raise the fees and make you think you had to work harder to keep these unqualified buyers happy! This is pure greed that is all it is!! Like a dummy I am still trying to sell on here..I am getting really tired of it though!! More hard work more money for ebay!! It is so crazy just like the price of gas...and we keep driving!!

I had 3 Neutral's as a seller and all due to Paypal or Ebay's software failure in terms of the price of shipping. I saw that when they paid for the item, they overpaid and I refunded asap the over charge to all customers! Three of them left me a neutral, 20 did not. However, they the customer, the 3, never noticed I refunded thier money and they left the neutrals. When I asked them to remove it, all 3 were new to computers and could not figure out HOW to remove it and after 3 weeks, I gave up, at the time it did not effect my rating. NOW it dropped it from 100% to 98.9 and I worry every day that some customer will do the same, or the post office will deliver late or break the item and so on. I never worried before, the new ebay system created fear in the seller and thousands are very unhappy and looking to sell elsewhere. I do not want to go elsewhere.

Leave eBay? Any suggestions WHERE you get the same publicity, same sell-through rate, less fees, more support???

I tried Sell.com. Even though I'm a PowerSeller on eBay, I'm a newbie on Sell.com. It's been 2 months and the 3 items I listed (under $150 each) haven't so much as had a question!

I don't know if you guys know about Craigslist.com. It's a selling platform that has absolutely no fees. Local buyers.

I've had limited success selling on Craigslist. Either the buyer is a scammer. Or the buyer asks a bunch of questions and doesn't want to see the item. Or the buyer wants to see the item then doesn't show up. Or the buyer wants to see the item but doesn't want to pay for the item. Every once in a while, they surprise me and just BUY IT - no hassles, cash up front, all smiles.

Any suggestions where everyone's getting better results than eBay?

www.superspecialsparkles.com

REPEAT OF MY RECENT POSTING ON THE POWER SELLER FORUM:
I do hear what you say - and yes, I too felt that "perhaps" this would be good for sellers overall--- afterall, I have seen at least one self important seller blog that anyone that did not instantly give a buyer positive feedback just as soon as they paid for the item was somehow dishonest--- that those sellers were actually holding buyers feed back for ransom and that the high feedback ratings across eBay were bogus--- and apparently there was a lot of concern over this.... I do not mind not being able to neg a customer - I can still withold feedback and I can still make comments.

What bujo66 said above is incorrect also... buyers can NOT get away with not paying - we STILL have the NPB tool and buyers do get restricted when they don't pay...... they still must complete the contract. Ebay must be sure that buyers that do not pay and have an NPB on an item CAN NOT leave feedback - that would be essential for the system to work.

What irks me about the new system is not the above--- it is the ridiculous numbers you have to have to get 5% or 15% discount on the way out of line selling fees... with NEUTRALS being counted as NEGS...(could be hard to maintain PS status) and needing 4.8 out 0f 5 across the board to get your discount - eBay is effectively throwing the screws at us sellers --- I thought that having 4.9, 4.8, 4.7, 4.8 was a great accomplishment - in ANY other mdia or venue, such a score would be considered GOLD - but not with eBAY --- I have ONE score under 4.8 and I am SCREWED... did you get the feeling that eBAY wants to get sellers to stop charging shipping fees because THEY cant get FV fees on shipping..... The whole thing need to be re structered so as to be a lot more fair to sellers - specifically on the issue of fees and discounts... by the way, I do appreciate not haveing to pay for gallery and the lower listing fees... just dont like being raped on the back end!

If you think you can justify the new fee/discount structure - go ahead and try... we are all listening.

If eBay had their own feedback rating you would think it would be at about 1% based on all the unhappy sellers and bad experiences. So what perplexes me is why so many people (especially PowerSellers) continue to sell on eBay if their experience is so bad. The other thing that really is hard to understand is how anyone can actually make a decent hourly wage selling on eBay. I am talking about all the sellers selling one of a kind type merchandise. There is no way to prove this but as hard as full-time eBay seller's work, I would think with that kind of outstanding work ethic, they could make a lot more money working fewer hours by doing something else (almost anything else).

quote:

buyers can NOT get away with not paying - we STILL have the NPB tool and buyers do get restricted when they don't pay...... they still must complete the contract.

Of course they can (get away with not paying) what's a little restriction for a while, assuming they even care, you could only force someone to pay by personally taking them to court and suing them.

There is no stringent enforcement by eBay or PayPal beyond petty wrist slapping !!

Greedbay is now heavily loaded in favour of the buyer and your feedback rating will probably depend as much on the products you sell and the age group of your customers than anything else.

I have generally sold to older collecters and had few problems, with younger buyers highly variable from the polite to the obnoxious the latter, are those who think they have a right to play with auctions without any intent to pay and are stroppy to requests for payment.

Now we have no defence against them.

I guess you are right - it must depend on what you sell and who your customers are -- My NPB is less than 1% -- I might get a NPB once everyt two or three months... And when thay don't pay, I just relist the item---- TRY that kind of ratio in a bricks and mortar store---

That all depends on how 'automated' the seller is and how "one of a kind" all of their items are --- I have quite a few items that are not one of a kind and those are easy to list through an automated inventory control program... it is the one of a kind that I need to list that is very time consuming. If all I had was one of a kind, I would rathr wokr as a buss boy or something. --- as to why we are all STILL here. global exposure and reasonably good sell through rate is great - best there is. I sell stuff to Australia, France Singapore.... WHILE I sleep - 24/7 can't do that in bricks and mortar - and my margin, while eBay does indeed seem to take more and more of it, is FAR FAR FAR BETTER than if I had a bricks and mortar. Retail margen is around 5%.... what do they call it, "Black Friday"... the day after Thanksgiving, when the average retail store gets in the black.... I am in the "black" all year.

My gripe with eBAy and what I hope they will adjust is to balance this fee/discount thing out and be a little more realistic with this "nuetral counts as a NEG" stuff, and the 5 star rating system.... they need to refine it so that when BOZO's hit you wiht wrongful feedback or nasty ratings, it does not put your profits in a tail spin for the month - or longer. - As I said, I do like the aspect of not paying gallery fees and lower listing fees - that was an improvement, the counter balnace was way to high FV fees... and this messed up discount structure which appear to be designed to no let sellers have a discount. (an now they are talking about 20% if your ratings are 4.9.

Ebay... my sugestion is to provide a sliding scale not 5% 15% and now 20%, but a 55 through 25% --- perhaps start the discount at a much more realist "GOOD" number --- if you have color in any part of 5 stars it means that some buyers are giving 5 stars and think your service is top - 5 stars SHOULD mmean something, IE: 4.1 or better you should get a discount.... How about 4.1 = 5%; 4.3 = 7%; 4.5 = 10%; 4.7 = 15%; 4.9 = 20% --- and perfect 5.0 = 25%

I know eBay is not listening and will never do this, but it is what I think they should do if they don't want to destroy their seller base all together.

There is a forum I found on the internet that is free, and helps with Ebay, PayPal, business and the law. Just post any question, the experts will answer it if it has not already been answered!

The forum has a lot of expert advice on it. http://www.modeeworld.com/forums I found advice there about how to avoid EBAY suspensions, get past PayPal limitations, also lots of detailed help on creating your own business, getting past trademark violations, VERO and lots more. Plus general advice on how best to sell on EBAY, what sells the best, how to get the best price for your product, really everything related to EBAY and internet business.

Also advice about how EBAY really works and how PayPal really works. The inside scoop.

Beautiful forum. I was made a moderator of the forum and I love it!