Dealing with defects

[cohunt]

Up until a few weeks ago I was a Top Rated Seller and then I caused myself a problem.  One example, I sold a fruit jar, packed it and placed in mailbox where rural USPS driver picks up.  Entire process is very successful, normally but this day a tractor pulling a large machine struck the box, threw the boxed jar into the road and ran over it.  I heard the bang and found the mess.  I immediately told the purchaser what had happened and causually mentioned that the lid and clamp survived.  She wanted them so I canceled her purchase, listed the lid and clamp which she bought along with 3 additional jars.  All good UNTIL I clicked OUT OF STOCK rather than Buyer Requested.  That seemed to work well and that button seemed most truthful of the selections offered.

Over a few weeks three more weird things happened , each was quickly and easily resolved with happy buyers and each time I incorrectly clicked the same bad button.  Suddenly I noticed that I was downgraded to above standard and found out shortly that it is costing me about 3% higher fees as a result (over 60.00 so far this month).  I attempted to resolve the issue through ebays established process and wrote detailed accounts of each event and sent that in.  Shortly I received a rejection notice of my request done by a bot at just a few second intervals.  Obviously none were even read and their sweet message reads No Appeals.  I have spent a considerable time attempting to resolve this to no avail.  So I screwed up although no one suffered and three of the buyers left good feedback.  BUT, now I am paying the higher fees with no hope of getting back to Top Rated Seller because it would take 800 transactions within a 12 month period for the process to cover those 4 messups of mine and I only sell about half that per year.  MY reason for this message, is there any way to contact  a living person who is actually an employee of eBay who might be able to resole this matter? or do I simply quit eBay, clear out my stuff, set up another account and start over?

[coolections]

IN all those cases the buyers did NOT choose to cancel. You WHERE out of stock so you chose the right thing.

[cohunt]

I did not explain all 4 cases.  In two cases, the buyers were so excited with their purchase that they sent a message describing their intended use, I replied that the item purchased would not result in a satisfactory desired outcome, suggested a different item which they purchased and later gave good feedback.  I clearly should have used the seller requested to cancel option rather than the out of stock option.  If you check my feedback as a seller you will be impressed and that is because I am a mentor as well as a seller.

[puckbun_33]

This is why you never meddle with the buyers...let them use your stuff the way they want

[pburn]

So, return circumstances and details aside, you used the OOS option as the reason for all four cancellations? Do I understand that correctly?

[cohunt]

At the end of my rather long presentation I ask two simple questions, I was hoping that someone would offer helpful advice relating to those questions.  My 78 plus years of interpersonal  relations do not need corrections at this time.

[cohunt]

That is correct, and in so doing gave myself 4 defects because I did not even know what a defect was.

[pburn]

Hmmmm. 

Well, I suppose, in a way, depending on how you look at it, I can see why eBay would not accept the explanation that you meant to use "buyer requested" as your reason for cancelling the transactions. If they did, then anyone who found themselves in the same circumstances could claim they had made a mistake in choosing that option. 

As you know, not all eBay members--buyers or sellers--are honest.

To answer your two questions, though, you can still attempt to contact customer service through the appropriate prompts on the Help & Contact pages. There should be an option, at some point as you progress through the pages, to have eBay call you, IF you choose the right options. I see that if you click on "selling fees" as the topic you need help with, there is an option labeled "Have us call you." It currently has a 37 minute wait time.

https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/selling-fees/selling-fees?id=4364&from=ContactUs

Otherwise, you can contact customer service reps via:

private message on Facebook: www.facebook.com/ebayforbusiness

direct message on Twitter: www.twitter.com/askebay

[cohunt]

I can see why you are ranked high in most helpful.  I am feeling rushed, last year at this time I listed and sold a half dozen items that are expensive to me and which ranged from 700-1200 bucks and I was planning on doing so again until I discovered the fee jump that my screw ups caused.  Would you suggest that I set up a different  seller account rather that fighting an unresponsive eBay?

[pburn]

Well, you may certainly do that, but keep the following in mind:

• Your feedback will go back to zero and your feedback percentage will go to 0%. That may affect some buyers' decision whether to buy from you.
• eBay will consider you to be a new seller, with the chance of a low selling limit (in both dollar amount and number of listings).
• The proceeds from your transactions could be held for 21 days, since you'd be considered a new seller.
• Sellers who appear to be new are often targeted by scammers trying to get items for nothing with off-eBay transactions. As long as you're aware of the different scams, you can ignore them, but they're annoying.

In the end, it's a decision you have to make yourself, based on what's best for you and your business model.

Good luck!

[luckythewinner]

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@pburn wrote:

Well, you may certainly do that, but keep the following in mind:

• Your feedback will go back to zero and your feedback percentage will go to 0%. That may affect some buyers' decision whether to buy from you.
• eBay will consider you to be a new seller, with the chance of a low selling limit (in both dollar amount and number of listings).
• The proceeds from your transactions could be held for 21 days, since you'd be considered a new seller.
• Sellers who appear to be new are often targeted by scammers trying to get items for nothing with off-eBay transactions. As long as you're aware of the different scams, you can ignore them, but they're annoying.

In the end, it's a decision you have to make yourself, based on what's best for you and your business model.

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Over the last year I created a few new accounts, and none of them were subjected to holds and they had very healthy (four or five-figure) listing limits. So it seems to me eBay was able to make the connection between my older accounts and my new accounts and recognize that I was not a "new" seller.

HOWEVER, eBay does have a policy that you cannot create new accounts in order to circumvent policy consequences on your account:

Not allowed

Registering new accounts or using other existing accounts to avoid buying and selling restrictions or limits or other policy consequences.

https://www.ebay.com/help/policies/identity-policies/multiple-accounts-policy?id=4232

I'm not sure how that would apply to your situation, though, because your new accounts would also be "Above Standard" at the start. So you wouldn't be gaining anything directly, although it might technically give you the ability to regain Top Rated Status more easily.

[pburn]

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@luckythewinner wrote:

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Over the last year I created a few new accounts, and none of them were subjected to holds and they had very healthy (four or five-figure) listing limits. So it seems to me eBay was able to make the connection between my older accounts and my new accounts and recognize that I was not a "new" seller.

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That's not everyone's experience.

[cohunt]

Thanks to both of you for the thoughtful responses, both are HIGHLY ranked for that reason, obviously.  This is really frustrating to me because I am generally really careful and my stuff is always as good or better than advertised.  Just for kicks, take a look at the last 30 days seller feedbacks for an example. I caused my own problem due to pure ignorance of the danger of tapping the OOS button.  I suppose somehow I should have known that it would blow my account up but I did not. Sucker should have a red do not touch warning.  I am waiting for a callback and am hopeful that a real person will take 5 minutes to investigate and find that not only was no one injured but all but one benefitted and the other instantly got his money refunded. Wish me luck.

[southern*sweet*tea]

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@pburn wrote:

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@luckythewinner wrote:

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Over the last year I created a few new accounts, and none of them were subjected to holds and they had very healthy (four or five-figure) listing limits. So it seems to me eBay was able to make the connection between my older accounts and my new accounts and recognize that I was not a "new" seller.

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That's not everyone's experience.

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My last seller account had a 100 item $500 limit when I opened it.

[luckythewinner]

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@pburn wrote:

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@luckythewinner wrote:

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Over the last year I created a few new accounts, and none of them were subjected to holds and they had very healthy (four or five-figure) listing limits. So it seems to me eBay was able to make the connection between my older accounts and my new accounts and recognize that I was not a "new" seller.

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That's not everyone's experience.

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It may have helped that all 8 of my eBay accounts have the same name, address, phone, paypal account, bank account, SSN, and credit card backing them up.  

And perhaps things have changed over the past five years.