eBay won't tell you what impact going below standard has, their own team "has no idea".
This is from their own webpage.
Notice the constant usage of the word "may".
Why is this so ambiguous?
Does this give eBay the pretense to punish some who pay higher fees less?
Even their own emails mention this.
I've spoken to eBay on Facebook and multiple agents form the seller performance team.
1. Not a single person can tell me why they use the word may so much.
2. Not a single person can tell me if my search results were placed lower or not.
3. Not a single person can tell me the criteria of why one seller would be charged higher fees and some not.
Why was I placed in below standard?
1. eBay's own reps told me to "wait for a return to close" on where a buyer was trying to return a damaged lithium ion battery, which violates the hazmat policy of every carrier in the US. They failed to tell me that waiting would result in a defect.
2. While eBay's customer service admits I was given wrong information, they refuse to do anything about it, as well as refund me the 6% surcharge I endured during the time I was bellow standard, resulting in an extra $350+ taken in fees.
It is completely unacceptable that eBay:
1. Has no idea the scope of your own "punishment" will be.
2. Has no idea what exactly happened to your account when it goes below standard.
rugerskick
·11 months agoWell, heres my take. Its ebay. You're a seller. They are not seller friendly as a general rule. Just assume all the "mays" are "wills". Its gonna happen. May not all hit at once. But just assume its all going to happen.
reallynicestamps
·11 months agoIt's my experience that sellers receive negative and neutral FB from buyers who are too naive to use the Money Back Guarantee or too angry to negotiate a settlement.
So a negatives on FB indicates to me another dozen unhappy buyers who were able to win Claims against the seller.
To mitigate the harm of a negative or neutral FB, do not Respond. It will not make you look any better.
christworks
·11 months ago"May" is attorney-speak. Attorneys play a huge role in shaping policy, along with people in Trust & Safety, Risk Operations, etc. If one of those non-legal employees drafts up a policy with the directive "will," an attorney will replace that directive with the permissive "may" language. This gives companies far more flexibility, doesn't tie their hands as was said already, and allows them to use discretion and treat account holder's individually rather than collectively.
luckythewinner
·11 months agoWhy was I placed in below standard? ...
One defect did not put you below standard. All of them together did.
Had they approved the appeal when they WERE SUPPOSED TO, this would NEVER have triggered the final defect to put my account below standard.
If you were one defect away from elow Standard, you should have just refunded the buyer. Did you really want that damaged battery returned to you that badly?
It is completely unacceptable that eBay
1. Has no idea the scope of your own "punishment" will be.
2. Has no idea what exactly happened to your account when it goes below standard.
eBay does not care what you think about their policy. If I were you, I would simply assume that they will do everything they say they may do.
stephenmorgan
·11 months agoSomeone who is paying a lot in fees may be making a lot of sales. If they do get a Defect it may not harm their account as much as someone who has less sales.
Here is another "may" for you.
Read the Policy Enforcement section, it says
"We may choose to be more lenient with policy enforcement in an effort to do the right thing for both buyers and sellers. "
https://www.ebay.com/help/policies/member-behavior-policies/user-agreement?id=4259&st=12&pos=1&query=User%20Agreement&intent=arbritration&docId=HELP1313#18
5. Policy Enforcement
When a buyer or seller issue arises, we may consider the user's performance history and the specific circumstances in applying our policies. We may choose to be more lenient with policy enforcement in an effort to do the right thing for both buyers and sellers. The foregoing does not limit or impair our right to refuse, modify, or terminate all or part of our Services to anyone, or to terminate this agreement with anyone, for any reason at our discretion.
lacemaker3
·11 months agoYes, it is intended to be ambiguous. eBay doesn't want to tie their own hands.
You can add the word "probably" after "may" every where it occurs.
But, you were told why you are below standard ... "due to cases closed without seller resolution". That means that you made the buyers reach out to eBay to "step in and help", meaning that eBay had to issue the refund, rather than you refunding the buyers yourself.
From the same page as your screenshot:
quadcitypickers
OP11 months agoOh, I also forgot why I went below standard to begin with...
I appealed a defect related to an order:
eBay never responded to it.
I had to involve customer service, and it took them forever to admit they didn't followup within the 48 hours, and they did approve the appeal.
Had they approved the appeal when they WERE SUPPOSED TO, this would NEVER have triggered the final defect to put my account below standard.
Hence why I'm rightfully irritated. They failed to act in time, and yet I AM the one being punished!
onefootflipper
·11 months agoThe quick and easy answer to that is that the help document there is written that way so it doesn't have to be constantly updated every single time something changes behind the scenes. Many ebay documents like that have completely incorrect information in them because things changed and the document was never updated.
Your items MAY go down in search because it depends on how the customer is searching and how many results they are. If they are searching price lowest or highest first then your ranking is not going to change. You also may have the best possible match in all worlds and they are going to place you top anyway. However when the customer searches for "spark plug" it will likely push your individual spark plug listings down.
Hold and selling limits are going to be set by complicated formula that they certainly are not going to publish. You are high volume, they probably aren't going to hold a thing from you.
You seem to be very high volume, you are almost certainly just going to climb out of this with the next evaluation and probably never go below standard again.