Performance standard change

[golfingaddict]

My concern and questoins relate to the tracking upload/validation change from 90% to 95%.

If everything goes well, this does not see like a big deal.  I strive for 100% as promised in my listings.

However, there are times that things just don't work like that.

1. I currently have a late shipment/scan transaction that has brought down my percentage.  Customer support has finally admitted that there is a problem on their side and the tracking information didn't get captured on time and caused the late shipment to be recorded on my account.  Even though I can clearly see the ship on time, tracking validated on time right on the order details page,  transation is held against me as a late shipment and CS tells me that it cannot be removed and I should not "worry" about it and to call back if it causes me to lose TRS.

2.  We live in an area that has been hit with some severe winter weather and my carrier has been unable to get to my street on several occassions this winter.  Of course these are minor weather issues that cause me grief but are not serious enough to affect a widespread area.  I was able to hike 1 mile (with packages) to meet the carrier but this is just an example of weather or things out of our control affecting that upload time.

Severe weather, floods ( even in San Jose) happen.  We can do our best but sometimes things happen.

3.  Saturday, I shipped about 30 packages and the carrier picked them up (all orders from Friday afternoon to Saturday afternoon) but it was a new carrier and some of the packages did not record a scan until Sunday afternoon.  Why? I have no reason.  I watched the carrier pick up the packages.  I shipped on Saturday to get a jump on things and I have to worry that they will be counted against me because the scan was not on time? 

4.  Low volume sellers do not seem to have much leeway when it comes to losing top rated seller for late scans or no uploads.  Is this 95% going to unfairly disadvantage smaller sellers?  Is it really going to take only one or two late scans to bump a low volume seller out of trs?  

Ebay, Can you discuss how this is going to work and help me understand this new metric?

[baggs-2024]

.

[raquel_bayarea]

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@lloydsteventaylor wrote:
Why is not 90% good enough ? What is the logic for goinvto 95%?

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@lloydsteventaylor  and @baggs-2024@baggs-2024

We are continuing to make sure that the Top Rated Seller expectations are in line with buyer expectations. Buyers are passionate about having tracking and expect tracking information on every purchase they make. The increase to the tracking upload requirement for Top Rated Sellers reflects this demand.

[lloydsteventaylor]

how did you determine that 95% of buyers want tracking?

[baggs-2024]

@raquel_bayarea

I did not ask about tracking. I do not ship through ebay and I NEVER upload tracking, because ebay penalizes me if I ship early.  I do not and will not ever chase any carrot on a stick that cannot be achieved without selling my soul. 

I did ask a question above though, that I am sure many are waiting to know the answer to. Thanks for your time, PLEASE answer it, not just type the canned response from teh policy, as it is not clear.

[raquel_bayarea]

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@baggs-2017 wrote:

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@baggs-2017 wrote:

Does this apply to every listing on US ONLY searches?  Or sellers located in the US Only?  Or items located on the .com site?  Does a US seller mean only one that sells items located in the US?  So that would apply to ANY seller that lists item listed as being locatedin the US?   Please clarify this statement, in plain English.

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Can someone answer my other question? Thanks.

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@baggs-2024 For Performance Standards changes, both the Tracking threshold requirement and Final Value Fee discount apply when your customer's location is in the US. If your question is not about the Performance Standards changes and one of the other updates, please let me know.

[baggs-2024]

So these rules only apply to BUYERS located in the US?  I'm sorry, how does that work?

[raquel_bayarea]

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@baggs-2017 wrote:

So these rules only apply to BUYERS located in the US?  I'm sorry, how does that work?

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@baggs-2024 Please let me know that we are talking about the same topics:

1. Final Value Fee Discounts applied in the eBay Top Rated Plus Program

2. Tracking Upload Requirement that is one of the requirements to qualify for the eBay Top Rate Plus benefits. 

General Link to detail both the Top Rated Plus Program and the Tracking Upload Requirement: http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/top-rated.html#benefits 

If we are both talking about the same thing, the Top Rated Plus program is a benefit program offered to sellers. The benefits in the Top Rated Plus US program are applied to transactions when the buyer for your item is in the US. 

[athomemarket]

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@athomemarket wrote:

A large portion of our not uploaded / late / no scan transactions are due to local pick ups or items originally listed with UPS shipping being switched to LTL to save the customer money. This puts us below the 95% threshold. Will eBay manually remove these transactions if given evidence that this was the case?

There is also a thread on the powerseller forums that all LTL shipments for some sellers are being counted against the metric. Per eBay, this should not be happening and so far no one has been able to determine what is causing this.

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Can I please get an answer to this? I haven't finished going through all of our transactions but so far about 45% counting against the metric are due to the above, which according to eBay should not count. Thanks.

[lv-direct-deals]

That is not true. It has to have the scan within the time frame. I uploaded within the designated timeframe and mailed it ---actually put it in the box myself. The pot office was very busy and did not scan it until after midnight and those packages affected my percentage ---even though I uploaded tracking and even though customer received their package within the stated time.

[golfingaddict]

And not a single ebay employee has stepped up to explain why I have to live with a bad shipping mark becasue of an ebay gllitch and clearly No one gives a darn.

And this is why we do not trust your words

We do the right  thing and still we are punished.

and eBay changes the percentage and it only hangs me more.

[buysmallthings]

Just recently, I noticed that my tracking performance was at 95% with eBay claiming one of my items was uploaded on time but NOT tracked by the post office - so I clicked on the tracking history in the MY EBAY section to see what happened, and lo and behold, the entire tracking history appeared showing at least 16 different tracking log ins by the Post Office.

Called eBay, pointed out that them that this package WAS tracked the entire way so why say it wasn't - asked them to remove this strike against my record.

I was told that there was no way to remove it, that it is a postal system issue with the system that eBay uses to connect with the post office.  I pointed out that if I could not challenge what was an obvious falsehood and if that falsehood was being used to impact my record and account, how can I fight back when eBay is wrong to protect my TRS status.

Was told that he would bring this to the attention of their tech people, got a call back saying not to worry about it that by the time I was re-evaluated, it would not impact my record.

This is all rubbish - and done intentionally to get away from having to give me any TRS discount.  At the moment, all it would take is one more inaccurate tracking (or lack of tracking) to stop my discount.

Something is not right on eBay and how come every single time that there is a problem with their system or something else, it ALWAYS only seems to impact the sellers - they lie, lie, lie and do not even have the honesty to correct a mistake that is obvious even when looking at their OWN record of tracking for this item that I sold.

The entire things makes me sick - and really makes me feel terrible about trying so hard to do everything right all the time - especially when I do everything right and it is never good enough for them.

[abidprice4u]

All this is kinda scary. I just decided to open a store  about 4 months ago. Now I am thinking about getting out  all together. I have done a Fast and Free because I chose not to.  Seems like this Company isn't about the small  person anymore.  Put your  shipping fee in with your   cost of item and   there is a higher amount they get.  Some how it all seems  to  help them and the bigger guy. This is not my job. I can do without it. It has been fun and extra money is always good, Im  thinking  about this a lot.  Some I don't understand.  I do understand greed.

[raquel_bayarea]

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@lv-direct-deals wrote:
That is not true. It has to have the scan within the time frame. I uploaded within the designated timeframe and mailed it ---actually put it in the box myself. The pot office was very busy and did not scan it until after midnight and those packages affected my percentage ---even though I uploaded tracking and even though customer received their package within the stated time.

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Hi @lv-direct-deals. The tracking requirement for a transaction relies on two components:

1. Timeliness: You upload the tracking number on eBay within your stated handling time 

2. Validity: A carrier scan at any time during the delivery process for the uploaded tracking number

The first component (you uploading the tracking number) is required to occur before the stated handling time but not the carrier scan. The carrier scan in your Tracking calculation is only for confirming the tracking number is a valid one. 

If you are seeing a miss on your dashboard related to a carrier delay, it could be a miss on your Late Delivery Rate and not the Tracking requirement. Let me know if this is where you are seeing it.  

[automotivepartsrecyclrs]

Use a scan sheet. It cured 99.9% of all our tracking upload problems.

[labs118]

@raquel_bayarea

Below post by @aquadreams1  was locked by Tinton
Raquel care to post a link that works?
your seller protection link does not work

@aquadreams1 and anyone who is experiencing an also unique situation where the Top Rated and Top Rated Plus program as a whole is not a perfect fit for your business, I recommend in your situation to take a look at what we do in protections today - this includes what information to have with you if you need to work with customer service directly. http://pages.ebay.com/seller-center/seller-protection/index.html 

aquadreams1 wrote:
My customers often request that they receive their package on a specific day.  I sell live, perishable marine-life for aquariums, shipped Fedex next day air.  I have a high late shipment rate, that i was only recently made aware of.  AFter a sale, we always contact the customer to find out when they will be home to receive the package etc.  Since we are shipping live items, the customer needs to be made aware of the arrival day, and often they ask for a later shipment.  Such as "please ship it on thursday, i have friday off and will be home to receive it".   So we oblige the customers request and end up with a late shipment defect. I've since adjusted my handling time to 10 days, to account for customers asking for us to wait before we ship.  However, how do i get the late shipment defects removed?  I don't have any negative feedback or poor ratings.  I was incurring these defects by working with the customers to get them their delivery on their desired day, and i'm now penalized for this.   My customer service is the best there is, and i'm being penalized.  please help!!  there must be someway to appeal and get this rating improved, since it's due to my customer's requesting specific delivery days.  IT IS IMPERATIVE THAT I COMMUNICATE SHIPPING TIMING WHEN MY CUSTOMER IS HOME SINCE I'M SELLING LIVE DELICATE CORAL & MARINE AQUARIUM FISHES.  I SHOULD NOT BE PENALIZED FOR THIS AND NEED THE DEFECTS REMOVED.  Thanks for helping
@aquadreams1Thanks for sharing this with us. You are absolutely doing the right thing by waiting to ship the orders per the request of your buyers. Continue doing this. 
 
I do understand that in your situation where you are shipping marine life, the actual handling time for you varies widely since you receive more requests from buyers to wait than average on the marketplace. We have resources available to protect you in your unique circumstance.
 
@aquadreams1 and anyone who is experiencing an also unique situation where the Top Rated and Top Rated Plus program as a whole is not a perfect fit for your business, I recommend in your situation to take a look at what we do in protections today - this includes what information to have with you if you need to work with customer service directly. http://pages.ebay.com/seller-center/seller-protection/index.html