Below standard

[dutchmex74]

I’m an eBay seller/buyer for the last 23 years. I never had any issues with my buyers. I always resolve any issues they had with the product they bought from me, so they are satisfied with me and eBay. Basically trying to  provide them a great experience with eBay. Last year, I was remodeling my home. I took some stuff to a storage facility. Including the items I had listed to sell on eBay. I had to cancel a few orders because I couldn’t find them. Probably got lost. I didn’t knew it was going to affect my defect transaction. I was very upset about this. I didn’t knew they treat this like you are selling counterfeit items. Basically I feel treated as a criminal.  All my metrics had been excellent. Only this few cancelation I had. Ebay restricted my account that I haven’t able to sell that much. Causing me to have below standard for more than six months. Because of this I can’t increase my sales in order to boost the transaction metrics. Why they measured this way for smaller seller? I find it is more to improve the metric for a smaller seller than a bigger seller that has hundreds of selling items per month where if I’m lucky I can sell 5 items per month. Why they don’t take in consideration other factors? I find it unfair. Also when I go to the seller dashboard it says below standard, but if I get evaluated today I’m top rated. I try to speak to an agent and see if they could do anything about it, but they say no. Why they couldn’t evaluate me today?  Why I have to wait another month even though it says that if I get evaluated today I’m top rated?

 

Very confusing. 

[luckythewinner]

I didn’t knew it was going to affect my defect transaction.

Not knowing the policy does not change the policy.

I didn’t knew they treat this like you are selling counterfeit items.

They didn't "treat this like you are selling counterfeit items". They treated this like you failed to meet the criteria for "Above Standard". 

Basically I feel treated as a criminal.  

You shouldn't feel treated as a criminal. You should feel treated as someone who failed to meet the criteria for "Above Standard", which is what happened. 

All my metrics had been excellent. 

Having had metrics in the past that used to meet the criteria for "Above Standard" does not change the policy. 

Why they couldn’t evaluate me today?  

Because the policy has always been to evaluate sellers once a month. 

[stainlessenginecovers]

Not knowing that you cannot just 'cancel' items being listed/sold on ebay with serious consequences is like not knowing that you cannot fish without a license simply because you didn't know. 

Kinda like a 'too bad so sad' issue. You are disappointing customers with your cancellations and that is a BIG no-no on ebay.

Now you know.

You simply have to slowly sell and work through it over the next few months or year. 

By the way, it's fair because that is the rules here. 

[ten_o_nine]

From a policy perspective, eBay's metrics are designed to ensure a high level of trust and satisfaction across the platform. However, it's possible that these metrics might not fully account for exceptional circumstances, like lost items in storage, which can impact smaller sellers disproportionately.

I hope eBay would introduce more nuanced evaluation criteria, allowing for consideration of individual circumstances or providing clearer guidelines on how to recover from issues like this. 

[mam98031]

@dutchmex74 

Having great feedback is not enough.  Clearly you are unaware that Ebay hasn't used feedback in their evals of sellers in a very long time.  Years.  

Ebay evals ALL sellers on the 20th of each month for the period ending the previous month.  Whatever they come up with on the eval will be effective the first of the following month.

Now you need to ALWAYS watch your Seller Dashboard at least weekly so you can be proactive and see a problem coming, so you can try to resolve it before the eval.  You also need to watch your Service Metrics number.  These are the two ways in which Ebay tracks sellers and ranks them.

[annadryl]

In ebay's eyes, customers paid you for something that you offered (it was up for sale) but you didn't provide it for them, more than once. That leaves unhappy customers that might take their business elsewhere. Sellers that DO come through are the above average sellers.

Stuff happens sometimes and maybe an item gets lost etc. but that should be super rare. 

[mam98031]

Due to those cancellations is what got you here.  The way to work out of this is more transactions to dilute the numbers.  From what you showed us, you are just barely below standard, so do everything you can to pick up more transactions before the end of the month.  Run a sale, post things you know sell quickly, reduce pricing, whatever it takes.

Now make sure you get a firm grip on your inventory vs what you have up for sale.  You can not afford any more cancellations because you can't find the stuff.

Just learn and move on.  You will be fine.  

[iamalwaysright]

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@ten_o_nine wrote:

From a policy perspective, eBay's metrics are designed to ensure a high level of trust and satisfaction across the platform. However, it's possible that these metrics might not fully account for exceptional circumstances, like lost items in storage, which can impact smaller sellers disproportionately.

I hope eBay would introduce more nuanced evaluation criteria, allowing for consideration of individual circumstances or providing clearer guidelines on how to recover from issues like this. 

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Mmmm respectfully I'm not sure I agree with this. I don't disagree neither because I don't think I have enough info about the issue. I feel that the idea that a seller should never cancel a sale due to not having the item (for whatever reason) is Online Selling 101. Call me a hard-xxx but I think a good seller should know this before selling anything online. It just shouldn't have to be tolerated.

I wonder out of the sellers who have been slapped on the wrist for this violation, are there still many of them who haven't gotten the message and continue to do this? We've seen from time to time a seller who posts on here admitting to cancelling orders multiple times as if it's no big deal. A more lenient standard for "smaller sellers" would just invite more of this to happen. It would also cause the "middle sized sellers" to suffer the most. Too large for the benefits, too small to saturate it out.

[dutchmex74]

 I attach my seller dashboard because I thought other factors could be considered more important. Feedback is not something I mentioned. I’m a small seller. I’m not a store. So I don’t have that much experience of the things I’m supposed to look up. I always thought that as longer you list the item correctly, mail packages on time, have scan the packages you mail out, having no return i issues with buyers,  and resolve any issues you have with a buyer was more important that the cancellation of a few orders. I guess eBay has changed  over the years and I haven’t keep up. Thank you for mentioning the metrics. I was not aware you are supposed to check that too. 

[mam98031]

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@dutchmex74 wrote:

 I attach my seller dashboard because I thought other factors could be considered more important. Feedback is not something I mentioned. I’m a small seller. I’m not a store. So I don’t have that much experience of the things I’m supposed to look up. I always thought that as longer you list the item correctly, mail packages on time, have scan the packages you mail out, having no return i issues with buyers,  and resolve any issues you have with a buyer was more important that the cancellation of a few orders. I guess eBay has changed  over the years and I haven’t keep up. Thank you for mentioning the metrics. I was not aware you are supposed to check that too. 

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I'm confident you thought you were doing the right thing.  Ebay actually really dislikes sellers cancelling transactions because it is damaged or you are out of stock [oos].  Buyers get very disappointed as well, which is why Ebay doesn't like it.

It is all a learning process.  You are not down too far, you can pull this out.  You just need to make sure you only list things that you know you have stock on and try to get some transactions before the end of the month to dilute the numbers Ebay will eval on the 20th of October.

If you can't get enough by the end of the month you may have to put up with being below standard another month.  But you CAN do this.  Ask anything you need, we will help.  I'm off to bed right now, but I'm back in the morning.  I wish you nothing but the best.

[dutchmex74]

I had never been above standard. I always been a top rated, until I had those cancellations. Yes, I felt like a criminal for something I consider extremely harsh. I do understand that having items cancelled is not the greatest customer service but it doesn’t discourage the buyer. Specially when you contact the seller and explain to them the reason you cancel their order. They move on to the next seller. In fact I bought something and my order got cancelled. Did I got upset? No. I move on to the next seller I found selling the same item and I bought it again. I find the policy harsh because it can take a year to be a top rated. I will understand may be a 90 days restriction but a year? Not to mention the 6% additional fee eBay  charges you and  the additional  .40 cents fee for every item you list on top of the regular fees you already pay.  Do you think is fair paying those additional fees? How can you improve your sales, when eBay restrict you? I cannot post items because the limit amount and the # of items I can list a month are restricted. Even though it keeps saying I can list 250 item a month. Meanwhile they can take advantage in charging you additional fees for a year. How is that fair? 

[luckythewinner]

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I had never been above standard. I always been a top rated,

I never said you were Above Standard. But the fact remains that the only way to be below standard is to fail to meet the criteria for Above Standard. 

 I do understand that having items cancelled is not the greatest customer service but it doesn’t discourage the buyer. 

That is your opinion, and I disagree with it. 

eBay has statistical data from billions and billions of transactions that informs them about buyer behavior after a cancellation, and about how often a buyer involved in a cancellation reduces or stops his buying on this site.

And when that happens it erodes confidence in the site, which affects all sellers - not just the one involved in the cancellation. 

And eBay knows this by statistical analysis on those billions of transactions, not by making a guess based on a handful of transactions with one seller. 

Meanwhile they can take advantage in charging you additional fees for a year. How is that fair? 

It is not fair. It was never intended to be fair. It was intended to punish you and either (a) get you to stop, or (b) nudge you off the site. 

[dhbookds]

having items cancelled is not the greatest customer service but it doesn’t discourage the buyer.

Certainly disagree with that........buyers spend time finding "THE listing" they want, anticipate it's delivery, and are disappointed when it doesn't happen...  As @luckythewinner  points out.

It wasn't too many years ago, sellers were kicked off the site permanently if they had too many cancellations.....  The present system is a stand down from that.  

[soh.maryl]

You seem to be somewhat dismissive of the fact that cancellations are a problem.

eBay doesn't make light of disappointed buyers.  

[malvestore]

"ebay jail" number one selling rule : Never ever cancel an order, I already experienced this, and to fix it, you have to sell constantly with a pristine handling/delivery. A year will have to pass to get this fixed, sorry to say it but it happened to me once.