Errors in Seller Service Metrics - Extra 5% Fees

[luxurycitizen]

Hello eBay Community!

Please let me know if you've ever faced a similar situation and your experience.

We have had a number of cases where the buyer misused returns. We won these cases and received emails from eBay stating that "The case will not affect your seller performance.”

Yet, eBay's service metrics system still records these as defects on our seller account, which they should not have since we won these cases and eBay said it won't count against you.

Now, we're being charged an extra 5% in selling fees due to a metric that states that our 'Item not as described' is high. This already cost us thousands of dollars.

Contacted eBay and getting a run around such as "do not have a function to remove them manually" and "we encourage you to use the reporting process we have set in place for all sellers".  We have actually been doing this - we reported these buyers under Seller Protection policy and Abusive Buyer policies, but eBay still doesn't want to help us remove these.  We are losing an extra 5% in seller fees on every item we sell now because of this.

Can anyone help?  Is anyone in a similar situation?

Thank you all.

[stainlessenginecovers]

Try the reps at Facebook (ebay for business); you will 'leave message' and then get a response to 'sign in' to your account (this is normal)- they can take 10 minutes to 5 hours to 'get back to you' so you'll have to just 'leave the screen on'. 

[wastingtime101]

Go to your service metrics page here https://www.ebay.com/sh/performance/service-metrics . At the bottom you'll see the option to download a report. Download that report and it will tell you whether or not a transaction is counted. If you see something that says 'yes' under the column indicating whether or not it's counted towards your performance, and it's one of the transactions where you got an email saying it wouldn't count, then that's the info you need to take to customer service.

Edit to add: When eBay said it wouldn't count against you, they may have been referring to your seller dashboard cases closed without resolution defects, and not your service metrics. You'd have to look into those transactions and the communication from eBay.

[wastingtime101]

Read the Appeals section at the bottom of this page, and the linked seller protections page.

https://www.ebay.com/help/policies/selling-policies/seller-performance-policy/service-metrics-policy...

[greatmidwestcoin]

If all else fails, just bump your products up 5%. After reviewing the type of items you sell, I don't believe your clients will even notice.

[luxurycitizen]

That is exactly what we did. We downloaded the report and there are at least 4 cases that should not be there.  We won these cases and eBay told us we won and that they would not affect our seller performance, yet they do affect our seller performance and now we're being charged an extra 5% final value fees. (see attached image)

[luxurycitizen]

Thanks will try that and report on how it worked or not. Thank you. Never treid this approach yet.

[lakefor94]

@luxurycitizen 

What does not count against your account are the hits on Transaction Defect Rate.

The Seller Metrics is a different Metric. All cases files for INAD or INR count against seller metrics. Does not matter if they are resolved in Seller favor.

I have never been able to get one of those Seller Metric hits removed.  

Others mileage could vary.

Try what @wastingtime101 suggested and please come back and let us know what happens.

@wastingtime101  have you heard of cases where they removed hits from Seller Metrics?  

Just curious.....

[wastingtime101]

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@lakefor94 wrote:

@wastingtime101  have you heard of cases where they removed hits from Seller Metrics?  

Just curious.....

---

On appeal? Nope. Reps here have said you can appeal within 90 days of TX, but I never had any luck. Still, it's the only avenue we can suggest other than "suck it up."

I had INRs filed 2-3 months after the MBG window expired. eBay counted them on my metrics even though several reps said they shouldn't count. I had to wait for them to age off. If you're interested in the read: link

[ckimodog]

@luxurycitizen 

Sorry for your situation.  As others have suggested, you should try communicating via the Facebook link.  These are US CS agents who work for eBay and may better serve you.  Many positive posts with their ability to be helpful, including myself.  Here's the link:

https://www.facebook.com/ebayForBusiness/

Wishing you a positive outcome!

[luxurycitizen]

@lakefor94   But this doesn't make sense. If a buyer abused policy, made a frivolous and fraudulent return, we have won the case. Ebay specifically said that this case will not affect our seller performance.  Later, we find out that it did affect our seller performance and was recorded as a 'item not as described' on our account, which is false and we won the case and have proof of it, and now we have to pay 5% more to ebay on each sale.

What sense does that make?   None to me.  Am I not seeing something here? Why would we be penalized with an extra 5% in fees for something we're not guilty of?

Your input is appreciated.

[wastingtime101]

It doesn't make sense @luxurycitizen . I have false claims, found in my favor, counting against me right now, too. eBay's typical response is they compare you to peers based on several factors, so it's all about how you perform compared to your secret group of peers (sellers with similar items, similar sales volume, similar physical region, and similar seller policies).

[luxurycitizen]

But that's not how it should be. If ebay stated, and I quote their email here "The case will not affect your seller performance" they why is my account still affected by this case?  

They say you won't be affected, yet you are affected. 

[luxurycitizen]

Thank you so much for the link. I'll definitely reach out via that channel.

[ckimodog]

@luxurycitizen 

Please let us know the outcome.  Positive vibes coming your way.  😉