Seller Performance Deficits are Out Dated
As a brick and mortar multichannel retailer that has over 25 years in retail, I want to raise a concern about eBay’s current out-of-stock (OOS) defect policy — specifically the 0.50% threshold. In traditional retail, an 8–10% OOS rate is considered standard due to common challenges like supply chain delays, inventory syncing issues, in-store walk-ins, and human error. eBay, however, applies an extremely strict <1% threshold, penalizing sellers for a situation that is often out of their direct control.
This becomes even more difficult to accept when compared with eBay’s far more lenient allowances for actual service failures — such as late shipment (3%) and late tracking uploads (5%). These are fully within the seller’s control. Sellers — not carriers — are the ones responsible for physically preparing the order, uploading tracking, and ensuring timely drop-off at the carrier facility. Carriers have one job: deliver the package on time and validate tracking updates. The majority of defects in the “tracking uploaded late†and “shipped late†categories are the result of seller delay, not carrier fault. To suggest otherwise misplaces accountability.
Meanwhile, sellers who are transparent about a legitimate stock discrepancy — often caused by cross-platform demand, miscounts, or POS sync lag — are penalized more severely than those who simply delay shipping or upload tracking after the fact. That discourages honesty and encourages gaming the system to avoid defects, even at the expense of the customer experience.
There is a better path. eBay could:
Raise the OOS defect tolerance to 2–3%, still below retail norms but far more realistic.
Differentiate between seller-initiated, timely cancellations and those escalated by buyers.
Focus educational efforts on syncing best practices, rather than penalizing sellers acting in good faith.
Sellers aren’t asking for a free pass. We’re asking for policies that reflect how retail actually works. Good sellers want to meet buyer expectations — we just need eBay’s performance metrics to align with the operational realities of honest commerce.
farmalljr
·1 year agoI'll add if you look at the OP's neg feedback, this seller is getting what they deserve. Several complaints about cancelled orders because the seller did not like the selling price. Lots of complaints about misdescribed items, and broken items.
Again, IMO, sellers who exceed the OOS standards, should be suspended. From the feedback of the OP, I feel like this would be better for eBay and other sellers. Making an occasional mistake is one thing. Making mistakes on a regular basis makes a bad experince for buyers. Sellers who constantly goof up and do shady stuff, are doing no one any favors. Penalty fees, IMO, aren't doing a good enough job. Suspend them for 30+ days and the next time, give them the ban hammer. Like it or not, if it were not for buyers, sellers would have no reason to be here. Allowing poor sellers to muddy the platform does nothing good for the buyers or fellow sellers.
jonathanbrightlight
·1 year agoI didn't even look, but you're right, there's serious issues there that have nothing to do with them truly being Out Of Stock on items, and all or almost all of which were very much "in the seller's direct control" (to quote the OP).
This one stood out to me:
I looked at the listing, and found this:
So they lied in their response to the feedback, and fully deserved that particular negative feedback.
This looks like a case where eBay is very much getting it right in imposing penalties on the OP.
farmalljr
·1 year agoOn eBay the buyer pays in advance for an item. When OOS, the seller refunds. Buyer is irate because they PAID for something the seller basically said they had, but did not. Tying up buyers funds and making them frustrated.
Buyer walks into the store and finds the item OOS, they go somewhere else. They did not prepay, and probably are disappointed, but it would be less likely to make them irate.
If a seller here crosses into a high OOS rating, IMO, eBay should just suspend their account. As unfair as some may see that opinion, think how ticked off the buyer is that got told, "oops, I don't have any. You'll get your money back in 1-2 weeks" Sellers should have a MUCH better idea about their inventories if they want to sell on other platforms online. A buyer that searched for an item they wanted or needed, wasted time ordering and paying here, only to have to wait a week on a refund it find it someplace else. That buyer is UNLIKELY to trust this platform again next time they need or want something. Without buyers, sellers have no one to sell to. Doing things that discourage buyers to buy here should have serious consequences. It is damaging to ALL sellers.
powell-collectibles
·1 year agoImagine going into a brick and mortar store, and finding an item that you really want. You pick it up off the shelf, take it to the cashier, pay for it. Then, the cashier tells you that it isn’t available. He’ll send a refund to you in a few days. That’s the equivalent of when you are out of stock on eBay.
slippinjimmy
·1 year agoWhy would you have a high Out Of Stock problem? I can only think of one thing, you must have very poor inventory controls.
Your comparison to B&M retail is just silly. In traditional retail a customer comes into a store, sees what is available, picks it off the shelf and heads to the cashier.
On eBay a buyer searches for an item, sees it is available, goes to checkout, pays and only later is told "sorry but I don't actually have what I offered for sale". Can you not see the difference?
In addition, we have eBay sellers who will make a sale, after the buyer has paid they will vet the buyer and decide "I don't like this buyers address" or "this buyer once left a negative feedback" or "I sold this elsewhere and never shut down the eBay listing" or as happens frequently with Auction listings "the bidding didn't reach the amount I wanted so I'm going to cancel".
For sure I'm not perfect, I've sold things and could not ship, either because I can't find the item or because I made a mistake in listing something I only thought I had available. These events should be extremely rare, so rare that they do not exceed eBay requirements. If they happen frequently you need to improve your systems to prevent this situation from occurring.
stainlessenginecovers
·1 year agoNobody should have ANY OOS on an internet/online platform.
If you're OUT- end the listing.
Simple.
Similar to the 'retail' world you are experienced in, SELDOM do they advertise items in their 'weekly flyer' or ?? that are OOS.
When that does happen (VERY rare- 20 years big box retail mgmt experience here to, Electronics Big Box, Home Improvement Big Box) then customer gets a 'raincheck' but if they drove there JUST for that item, they are also NOT happy and could cost you more than the 5%, if they 'yelp' it to the world.
jonathanbrightlight
·1 year agoUnlike a physical retail store, you shouldn't have to deal with things walking out the door without being paid for, or some of the other stocking issues that can cause OOS issues. I don't think we've cancelled an order for being out of stock or damaged in almost, if not more than a year. If you're having to do that regularly, something about your process may need to change. eBay is not going to change their requirements, though.
12345jamesstamps
·1 year agoSelling items in a store where the items are probably still on the shelves...thus when customers walk -in and buy the items and then you have someone on eBay buy the same items...sometimes it can be 'out if stock'.
That's a disappointment to someone shopping on eBay.
There's no disappointment to a customer walking into your store and not seeing the items on the shelves.
Best to actually put aside items that you are selling on eBay so there is no 'out of stock' that happens.
And maybe have only one person do the shipping solely 9 to 5 within 3-5 business days.
simba6
·1 year agoPart of that problem is sellers used to abuse it to cancel sales if they did not like the selling price. eBay tried many things to stop that but nothing worked. So, they got very testy about it. It can be a hardship on legit sellers but the bad ones caused it. Same with the 12 hour cutoff to end a listing.
dhbookds
·1 year agoMight be considered if Ebay was short of sellers, but they aren't. Their primarily goal is buyer satisfaction and Out of Stocks don't fit into that equation.
tarotfindsandmore
·1 year agoYou do realize you're on a community selling board and that no eBay employee will ever see that, right?