Ebay Seller Extortion Fees
Recently my seller rating was lowered to Below Standard, and now eBay is charging me an additional 6% in fees because of it.
I spoke with someone from eBay customer service, they didn't seem to care, told me to keep selling to offset the ratio, and just absorb the additional fees until the rating goes back up.
As of 10/9/25 I had 151 active listings. As of 10/10/25 i have removed all my listings and refuse to use this company to continue to sell.
24 comments
ten_o_nine
·11 months ago@knightp252013
Looks like you've got a couple of options that might align better with eBay's business. You could either ensure your items are authentic or clearly disclose that they're Fake or replicas. If you choose to sell Fakes or replicas, make sure to follow eBay's guidelines and be transparent in your listings.
If not, it might be worth considering other platforms that cater to your business model. Either way, transparency is key.
tobaccocardyahoo
·11 months agoIt appears that you and Ebay would agree that it is time to move on.
The extra fees due to Below Standard performance and the restrictions which come with them, are just a way of encouraging you to decide to leave.
Your feedback makes it clear that were Ebay not less willing than other marketplaces to show sellers the gate, you would not have had this choice.
bonjourami
·11 months ago"As of 10/9/25 I had 151 active listings. As of 10/10/25 i have removed all my listings and refuse to use this company to continue to sell."
Looking at your feedback, I would say Ebay got this right.
jonathanbrightlight
·11 months agoTheir feedback percentage isn’t awful, but once I read the feedback, most of it about counterfeit products… I definitely don’t think this was eBay’s fault.
mam98031
·11 months ago@knightp252013
To ride this out without trying to resolve it, you will need to stay off Ebay selling for a minimum of several months. Some of the Defects or Dings you got would have to fall off due to age. Up to 12 months.
The answers are in the numbers. Since you won't be adding transactions because you closed all your listings. You have no way to dilute the numbers.
Because you didn't know about the rules on the Statistics of sellers, Does NOT = Ebay did you wrong or that they are extorting anything from you. Apparently you made a choice to not learn about this and likely ignored notifications from Ebay that the health of your account was nearing trouble.
I've always advised sellers to always review their Seller Dashboard and the Service Metrics number at a minimum of once a week. This is so the seller can be as proactive as they can to keep anymore Defects or Dings applying.
Ebay did exactly what they said they would do if a seller gets too many Defects and/or Dings in the Service Metrics.
If you feel there is a site out there that will allow you to do whatever you want, I wish you the best of luck.
The better way to handle this is to relist your listings. Do better than whatever got yourself in this trouble so it doesn't happen again. And concentrate on getting more sales. Lower $$ values is best if you can so your fees are hard to take. You need to dilute the numbers.
Please consider that things could have been worse for you. From your feedback, it appears you are selling some fake items. If that is correct, that can cause you to lose your account for selling on Ebay. And if those Labubus are not authentic then you are using Keyword spamming by putting the trademarked in your title.
So to figure out where to go from here accurately, we need to know what you did that caused you to get dropped below standard. Too many INADS, too many Defects for cancellation due to OOS or damage, too many claims that you didn't process in time before Ebay had to step in, etc. Look at your Dashboard and the number in the Service Metrics and see where the problem is. It will help us to help you.
iamalwaysright
·11 months agoSounds like a darn fine CS agent you spoke to there. Great advice. Top Notch.
FYI, I wasn't being sarcastic.
iamalwaysright
·11 months agoLol extortion. Like I hate how McDonalds extorts money out of me in order to get my Happy Meal. 🤣
ittybitnot
·11 months ago@knightp252013
Actually, higher fees are just ONE the things eBay does to you if become below standard. You can view them here by scrolling down to the section "What happens if you are Below Standard".
https://www.ebay.com/help/policies/selling-policies/seller-standards-policy?id=4347&st=3&pos=1&query=Seller%20standards%20policy&intent=Below%20standard%20&lucenceai=lucenceai&docId=HELP1272
Weird thing to me was always that there was never a "standard" rating. The only choices are 'above' or 'below'.
kandf_vintage_finds
·11 months agoSorry this happened to you.
13 negatives in one year? Shame on you!
Time to take responsibility for you own store and quit blaming eBay.
inhawaii
·11 months agoYou wanted to fall below standards and not suffer any consequences?
wirkaholic
·11 months agoDon't take this the wrong way, but 10 Negative and 4 neutral in a 6 month period was probably the reason.
They actally gave you a break. Usually that is a suspension. Those fake Labubu's is what hurt you. Yes, it would take it a year to fall off your metrics but with the new feedback system you might have been able to still operate.
Unavailable member
·11 months ago@wirkaholic
You are incorrect…
eBay doesn’t suspend sellers for receiving bad feedback, feedback never comes into play as far as service metrics, seller dashboard/performance ratings for US sellers.
eBay may suspend sellers for too many out of stock cancellations …
Too many NADS…
Too many cases closed without a seller resolution.
Not getting Tracking uploaded on time and validated
wirkaholic
·11 months ago@ebooksdiva Wow! Thanks for correcting me. So you can have all the unsatisfied customers you want and still operate? That's scarry.
I see what your saying. For some reason I thought feedback was in there. It's been a long time since I've really looked at it. When the metrics first came out I had a couple Out of Stock dings. I ramped up my business but didn't do a good job at keeping track of multiples. Long story short ...I learned about Metrics and fixed the issue. Not a single one since then. (knock on wood)
Learned a little today.
jonathanbrightlight
·11 months ago@wirkaholic
It would be very difficult to have a poor feedback history but not meet the criteria for Below Standard, though I suppose it’s possible. The criteria are not subjective like feedback, though.
mam98031
·11 months agoEbay evals sellers every month on the 20th of each month for the period ending the previous month. Whatever the eval shows, will be effective on the Seller account on the 1st of the following month.
Ebay evals us for Defects that ONLY appear on the Seller Dashboard.
Ebay evals us for Dings in the Service Metrics
You can be in trouble with the Dashboard and NOT in the Service Metrics. Or you can be in trouble with the number in the Service Metrics and the seller Dashboard is absolutely fine.
hartungcards
·11 months ago"As of 10/10/25 i have removed all my listings and refuse to use this company to continue to sell."
Well, that's one way to offset the ratio until the rating goes back up.
mam98031
·11 months agoNot much of a strategy or plan. To have the numbers change, they would have to wait several months or more. Because the offending Defects or Dings in the Service Metrics would have to age off their account.
iamalwaysright
·11 months agoHa ha yea that's true. It might be the better choice for the OP depending on how they operate while trying to volume out the defects. They might get more defects in the process and dig themselves into a deeper hole.
It's like my grandma's seller rating will never fall down to below standard because she doesn't even know how to use a computer.
bonanza125
·11 months agoNot extortion it's policy. When clicking submit listing you agreed to it. You didn't specifically state what exactly was the reason your seller rating went below standard. Due to the multiple reasons why it would go below standard you might have made a mistake in not doing something as another person pointed out for reason why.
kibble-net
·11 months agoSkill issue
luckythewinner
·11 months agoRecently my seller rating was lowered to Below Standard, and now eBay is charging me an additional 6% in fees because of it.
That happened because you either (a) failed to resolve buyer disputes; or (b) unexpectedly cancelled transactions (or both).
I spoke with someone from eBay customer service, they didn't seem to care
I would not expect them to care. The penalty fee for being Below Standard is specifically intended as a consequence for sellers who do not meet their standards.
told me to keep selling to offset the ratio, and just absorb the additional fees until the rating goes back up
Their advice was essentially correct. That is really the only way to get back to Above Standard.
As of 10/9/25 I had 151 active listings. As of 10/10/25 i have removed all my listings and refuse to use this company to continue to sell.
IMHO that is what the penalty fee is mean to do - either to push you to improve, or to push you to leave.
fern*wood
·11 months agoOnly you know if you would be able to solve whatever the problems were that caused the downgrade. Maybe those problems won't happen elsewhere.
monica-sells
·11 months agooodly enough, that is the correct response (from CS)
you look pretty active and busy...did you have too many "out of stock" items or something that was affecting your metrics? It is all "fixable"...
stainlessenginecovers
·11 months agoThat is obviously your choice, a bad one at that. The 6% is much fairer than just being kicked off the site never to be allowed to sell again.