Anyone else having issues with service metrics, specifically INR?

[handsonthewatch]

Seems like no one wants to talk about this. Ebay reps have no clue. They always think you're referring to your seller levels. " you're top rated. Why are you complaining?" 

No. not seller levels. Service metrics. 

this is a horrible system and makes no sense except to punish small sellers, which ebay hates more and more.|

It compares to peers? When this first started, my peer average was 0%, for the first 4 months. meaning not a single one of my peers, had a single case, in an entire year. And  this kept on for 4 months straight. I complained so much, that I think they changed it. Next time, my peers had , <.10%. Which can still mean 0, because 0 is less than .10%. Now it hovers around .1-.2% That is one TENTH of ONE percent. meaning, if you have 1000 sales a year, you have one single case open. Per year

I talked to all the peers I knew, as my community is tight knit, and I couldn't find anyone with such a low metric. The POST OFFICE has a loss rate of 1%. Of every 10 cases, 2-3 of them are buyers who made a mistake, or someone stole their delivered package, or they wanted to do a return and or claimed they only received 2 of the 3 quantity in the package.  All these are obviously won in my favor. Yet they still count. None of these cases could have been prevented, so how is it that my peers average 1 case in 1000. Meaning half average less than that. 

And they will never tell us who our peers are.  Or how they are calculated. My account has been destroyed for 2 years now. I can't get out of it. They won't even tell you what amount of cases you need to get down to, because it's ever changing. I sell about 1000 items a year. I'd have to sell 25,000  items to get to .13%. But who actually knows how many I can have, to not be in the very high. What's not very high compared to .13%? 

And I can't sell more things, because my account is throttled. My shipping times are extended. I'm garbage when it comes to search results. So every month, I sell less and less, and every month, my percent goes up, because 1 of 900 is higher than 1 of 1000. 

[handsonthewatch]

and no, this is not my main account. Just one I'm using for the forum. 

[handsonthewatch]

No one? 

[simply-the-best-for-you]

No.  I do not have this problem.  Been selling since 97.  Have had 1 truly lost pkg in all that time.  

I get an INR once or twice a year, usually b/c someone jumped the gun or a misdelivery.  I have never had one that stuck.  They have all closed in my favor due to tracking.  

Are you using USPS tracking?  Or do you use another carrier or the eBay envelope? 

[handsonthewatch]

I think you might be misunderstanding. No offense meant here either. I'm not referring to truly lost packages. Yeah that happens sometimes. Again, post office has a 1% loss rate. And that was before covid. I ONLY use tracking. I only ship through ebay bought and printed labels. USPS, and bubble envelopes. Based on my peer metrics, if I have even ONE single case open PER YEAR, I'd be a higher percentage than my peer average. 

I have misdeliveries. I have accidental cases. I have cases somehow open before estimated delivery. And yes, I also have real cases too. And I win 95% of them. of the 5%, I can usually appeal, because they end up getting delivered. And then once in awhile, it just disappears. But this has nothing to do with winning cases. If a case is open, for any reason, that's that. 

You know how ebay doesn't allow more than one feedback per buyer per week? Why is that? Because a buyer can destroy your feedback score otherwise. And yet, if I sell 10 items to one buyer, and it's paid in one transaction, and I ship it in one package, and that package is late? that's TEN CASES OPEN and they each count individually. If I wanted to, I can do very bad things to my competition, but thankfully I'm a good person. But there are bad people too. 

I had one guy go after me. I proved it. His accounts went away. And yet all the cases still counted, no matter how many people I complained to. Service metrics is a farce. And there is no way my peers have an average 1 case out of 1000 per year. 

[simply-the-best-for-you]

No offense taken, but you asked if people are getting INR's & I answered.  To me, there are 3 legit reasons for INR's 1-lost pkg, 2-misdelivered pkg, 3-unreasonable delivery time expectation ie; jumping the gun.  I answered that for me, that I only get a couple a year & I've won all of them.   

If you win them, they don't count against your metric, so yeah maybe I don't understand.  If you are winning 95% & so they don't count, what is the issue?   I get that you feel the peer threshold is unfair & transparent, but seems that most aren't any problems maintaining it, which brings me back to why are you?  No disrespect intended, but what are you doing that is causing you to go over the threshold if you aren't having legit INR's? 

Unfortunately, most of eBay's metrics are not transparent 😞 

[handsonthewatch]

That's what I meant by misunderstanding. I'm not talking about INR's in general, but specifically service metric INR's. 

That is where the misunderstanding always comes in, with sellers and even most CS agents. Winning them has nothing to do with service metrics. GETTING THEM is all that matters. I am top rated. All my seller level %'s are great. Late shipment is .91%  Tracking uploaded on time and validated is 98.56%, and that's actually low for me. I am maintaining those thresholds just fine. I win my cases. But we are talking about service metrics. And ebay doesn't care if you win your cases. They only care if you GET cases. For any reason. Even if buyer closes it literally seconds later because it was by accident. 

I mean, it's not like if you go to contact seller, and want to ask them a question about the item deliver, it pushes you into opening a case instead.... You know, the ebay that keeps saying how much they want buyer and seller to communicate. I've had cases and I asked the buyer " why did you open a case?" and they say " what do you mean? I didn't open a case. I just wanted to message you". and boom, that is a defect on your service metric. But ebay doesn't call it a defect. defects are only in the seller performance. 

Please go into your seller hub. Performance. Go to left menu and click on service metrics. That is what I"m talking about. Most sellers that have issues with this, complain about INAD, because when they get too many OPEN, ebay charges them an extra 5% FVF. But no one pays attention to the INR metrics, because they don't see how much it actually costs. 

[ittybitnot]

Winning them has nothing to do with service metrics. GETTING THEM is all that matters.

@handsonthewatch   

You would be correct.  This measurement includes them all, and the outcome is never considered.  You do not get them removed because the buyer filed in error.  It doesn't matter if the item was already delivered, or the buyer has you confused with someone else.  The "ding" remains. 

In viewing the policy pages, it appears that "very high" for INR does not mean you get put in final value fee punishment camp as you do for item not as described issues.  I went to check just to make sure.  The consequences for too many INRs is simply that eBay will "extend" your estimated delivery time.  I find it an odd punishment especially in light of carrier delays.  It sort of gives you,  the seller, some extra time to get the package delivered.  To me, it would be sort of a good thing.  It also odd that eBay would "prevaricate" about estimated delivery dates as well. 

The last time I looked at the policy page, there was mention of 'suppressing your items in search'.  That was ONLY FOR ITEM NOT AS DESCRIBED, and that no longer appears on the page. 

Consequences for Item not received: Time automatically added to buyer-facing delivery estimates for the shipping categories where you are currently evaluated as Very High

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

[yuzuha]

---

@handsonthewatch wrote:

Please go into your seller hub. Performance. Go to left menu and click on service metrics. That is what I"m talking about. Most sellers that have issues with this, complain about INAD, because when they get too many OPEN, ebay charges them an extra 5% FVF. But no one pays attention to the INR metrics, because they don't see how much it actually costs. 

---

You are incorrect-- if an INR case is filed but is closed in your favor because the tracking showed it was delivered, it does not affect your metrics at all. I have had two INRs filed in the past six months and both were closed in my favor because the tracking showed that the items were delivered. This is what my service metrics shows:

[handsonthewatch]

Yeah. No. I’m not incorrect. Sometimes they delete them. For whatever reason. Sometimes I’ve have them delete one that shouldn’t be deleted too. Sometimes if there are known shipping issues, they help too.   Other times I’ve had cases open by a guy I proved scamming me, with 7 accounts, all of which got suspended because he was scamming me. Didn’t budge. But here is an example of case opened after delivery. Yet still counting. Case opened over a month after tracking shows delivered. Exceptions do not disprove the rule. eBay, counts cases that are open. That’s literally in their rules. 

[handsonthewatch]

By the way. If you get even ONE case, your percentage will be TRIPLE what your peers AVERAGE is. Meaning your peers on average, have only .3 cases per year.  While you are doing great, other people aren’t so lucky. And there is no way every single person in your peer group is doing as good of a job as you. Also it really depends on your market. What you ship. How you ship it.  Get into higher volume, and it becomes a problem too. And you won’t be able to keep track of each and every transaction to make sure it is getting delivered and isn’t late. Sell a few things a week? A month? Yeah. Doable. Like I said, if YOU get even ONE case against you, your percent will be 3 times higher than average. And the problem? eBay doesn’t tell you what percent puts you in what range. Does being 3 times higher than your peers put you in the very high range? Who knows. eBay doesn’t know. It’s all fake behind the scene nonsense. I use USPS. Typically first class. My market almost all use that  as well. Post office he a 1% LOSS rate.  So cases will happen. 

[pjcdn2005]

@yuzuha @simply-the-best-for-you 

I have to agree with the op. EBay has stated that all  inr cases and nad returns are counted in service metrics except in specific circumstances.

Will all requests be counted in my metrics?

“Item not as described” return requests and “Item not received” requests won’t be counted in your service metrics in the case of an unpaid item, a buyer-requested cancellation, or when the item is sold in a category which isn’t covered by the eBay Money Back Guarantee.

“Item not received” requests won’t be counted in your service metrics if the item was sent through one of eBay’s intermediated shipping programs such as:

• Global Shipping Program
• SpeedPAK
• eBay managed Winit warehousing solution

If you ship your item within your stated handling time, but it arrives late due to carrier disruptions, site bugs, natural disasters, or severe weather, this will not negatively affect your seller metrics. Events like this are posted in our seller news announcements.

https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/selling/monitor-service-metrics?id=4785&st=12&pos=1&query=Monitor%...

[pjcdn2005]

I haven’t heard about others having problems with their INR metrics but I do know that quite a few have had problems with the NAD metrics.  EBay needs to be more transparent as to who they consider as your ‘peers’, Their peer comparisons  often seem to be unrealistic. 

[simply-the-best-for-you]

Perhaps I'm wrong, but I did not think they counted.  I admit that I do not look at these charts on a regular basis though.  I just looked now & my INRs are 0.00%, while the avg is 0.11% & my SNAD rate is .26% while the avg is .76%.  I did resolve my (fake) SNAD's, so I guess yeah they counted against me anyway.   Like I said, never been a problem for me.   I do remember when the peer rankings came out that there was concern they weren't transparent, but so much of what eBay does is not transparent (not saying that's right, just the way it is).  

I don't really remember how many INR's I had last year b/c usually my buyers just write me.   I think had 2 fake SNADs last year.  I guess I'll leave this to people with more knowledge than me on the topic as it's not an area I'm intimately familiar with.  Sorry if I was incorrect OP.  

[yuzuha]

When I received the emails that the cases had been closed in my favor, the emails specifically said "The case will not affect your seller performance." I should note I didn't contact eBay about the cases at all-- they closed out on their own because I had supplied tracking that showed the items were delivered.