Ebay moving the goalpost with service metrics

[lasantino]

hello,

a couple months ago.  3 months ago I had 3 returns opened up as not as described that were all clearly buyers remorse.   This put my seller metric into the very high category.  

I talked to various ebay reps til I was blue in the face. Some told me the would descore the incorrect returns from my service metric, some told me nothing could be done. I wasted hours countless hours.

2 months go by. I haven't had any  not as described returns opened.  I was checking my projected service metric on the days  leading up to the 20th of the month , which is the date they rescore the service metric.

every single day , the 16, 17 ,18 , 19, 20th.  all  of the projected service metric ratings showed I would be moving down to the high category. (from very high)  this would remove the additional 5% final value fee ebay has been assessing my sales.

Today, I went to verify that my service metric was now down to high.  Lo and behold. the metric is still in the VERY HIGH category.  This is impossible, nothing has changed.  I took a screen shot before the 20th showing the percentages and the projected service metric.  ..

Has anyone else had this happen..   Obviously, I will reach out to customer service. However, I'll just get a callback with someone either telling me what i want to hear or not what i want to hear.  Whatever they say will have no bearing on reality.  Noone that can actually make adjustments to a sellers account is available by phone anymore.!

[jonathankirkland]

Did you fail to comply with those cases and let ebay step in?

If so, you should never, ever do that. And if you did that 3 times you are very lucky you're able to continue selling here at all.

You must ALWAYS comply with a case no matter what it is. The buyer can claim 'not as described' and you're forced to accept the return. 

I'd suggest checking out the following 3 links and be sure you understand them backwards and forwards, especially the first one:

eBay Money Back Guarantee

https://pages.ebay.com/ebay-money-back-guarantee/

Selling Policies

https://www.ebay.com/help/policies/selling-policies/selling-policies?id=4214

Managed Payments

https://pages.ebay.com/seller-center/service-and-payments/managed-payments-on-ebay.html

If you want to further educate yourself as to how ebay works inside and out, I recommend spending any free time you might have just reading threads on this forum. Look at some of the issues that may arise or you think may apply to you and read how others handle them and the knowledgeable community here helps guide others to solve their problems.

PS: Calling an ebay CSR is useless, stop wasting your time there. The best way to get real information is by contacting them directly via their official ebay Facebook page.

Good luck.

[jonathankirkland]

Oh forgot this one which may be of particular interest to you if you have not seen it.

Service metrics policy

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

We evaluate your metrics and peer benchmarks on the 20th of each month.

• Sellers with 400 or more transactions during the last 3 months are evaluated on their transactions during the previous 3-month period
• Sellers with fewer than 400 transactions during the last 3 months are evaluated on their transactions over the previous 12-month period

[48hrs-clothing]

Check the current rate ( Period) this is normally 3 months and should be reading March 2021 to May 2021.

I know that eBay also calculate these metrics covering a whole year and this may read March 2021 to May 2021.

As far as these metrics are concerned I for one think this is one of the worst policies that eBay have as no seller can ever guarantee that buyers will not open a SNAD be it genuine due to sellers error or to obtain goods and services that buyers are not entitled to. 

To my mind NO seller will ever knowingly misrepresent an item as they are fully aware of eBay's MBG therefore they have nothing to gain and everything to loose including 2 way postage and long term defects. 

By opening a FALSE SNAD case buyer gains by not paying return postage and eBay gains by charging additional fees and cynics will say that as eBay have a financial benefit then why would they not encourage/ reward buyers who make such claims as stamping it out will cost eBay money.

Good luck with eBay's CS as to best of my knowledge they do not have the tools to remove or correct these metrics and nor do eBay's numerous teams including resolution/ dispute specialists.

If a buyer opens a case of SNAD and in their messages admits that they made an error and selected wrong reason then CS can make changes, corrections and or adjustments to seller levels but the defect  on your seller metrics which leads to additional fees can not and will not be changed, corrected or adjusted.

CS will genuinely tell you that they agree that SNAD is not genuine and they have removed the defect on seller level and they are sending a detailed message to their back of house technical team to see if defect on seller metrics can be removed but sadly nothing will change.

[forward-motion]

I can say it seems they are not getting it right. Back in February I got in the very high category. I since made several changes but I knew I would have to wait until things cleared out. However, after that one time it has come down to the high category. Now according to the report I have 13 returns that are not as described. But the metrics say 9. To top it off the next month projection says I will be in the very high at 13, but every month comes around it is still at 9. So I'm not complaining of course, but I don't understand the math. 

[jonathankirkland]

The more I think about it the more I am leaning toward free returns really being the only way to go if you plan to sell here long term/regularly... seems it just avoids headaches all around for everyone.

[valueaddedresource]

@lasantino  - were there previous cases also on your metrics you didn't mention or just those 3?

One of the protections eBay supposedly built in to the Service Metrics measurement was that even if you were "very high", if you have less than 10 individual cases or less than 1%, the penalty is not supposed to be applied.

However, I know of one seller who was not receiving that protection in the case of being Very High for INRS, so I'm curious if you had less than 10 cases total in the period being measured for your metrics.

[gracieallen01]

I really find it difficult to understand why so many people believe that talking to an off-shore, hired out, 3rd party human telephone answering machine, who is supposedly going to have access or the ability to change settings, numbers or AI decisions of an ebay seller account, will accomplish anything that might be to the detriment of the ebay business model, in any possible way.  I don't believe there is enough oversight in the world to have ebay allow a third party call center any control over, or access to, anything that happens on the platform.  A 'call back' if anything, may let an ebay approved person respond to a problem, once they can find, contact and schedule somebody to assist - if they could over-ride the 'bots, AI and pre-set designs.

[bigdeals.etc]

A concierge rep recently told me that the ONLY time ebay removes a seller metric ding is when the buyer who left it has been suspended. This likely relates to the 2019 Abusive Buyer policy. From what I know, that policy was the only way ebay removed the dings. In order for eBay to deem a buyer as abusive, a seller would have had to report the buyer to eBay thru the proper online channel and stated their case. Upon review and if the buyer is deemed as abusive, they will get suspended and thus any seller metric dings (as well as defects/feedbacks) will be removed. If an agent tells you they’ll remove the ding for you, they are likely lying.

This is what he told me and I kinda believe him. Moral of the story… report your buyers if they do anything inappropriate. 

[gracieallen01]

Yes, reporting situations and behavior, from what I've seen, is about the only situations where CS may be helpful, and little is ever going to be done if the reports aren't made - just correctly passing along information, hopefully.  Accomplishing anything having to do with policy, metrics, financials, specific information, etc., not so much, if anything.

[48hrs-clothing]

Free returns means increase in selling prices penalising decent honest buyers.

Increase in prices means more regular fees for eBay and none of this disturbs or bothers me if eBay state that if you offer FREE returns then buyers are not allowed to open SNAD case and no defects on your seller metrics and potential additional fees. I don't believe eBay will do this.

One of the largest online independent seller who operates in Europe as well as North America (Revenue to end Feb 2021 $2.6 Billion) that currently offers FREE returns is considering withdrawing Free returns.

[luckythewinner]

Ebay moving the goalpost with service metrics

This is impossible, nothing has changed. 

Based on your title, you have already recognized that something did change - the metric you are being measured AGAINST. 

The metric measures you against a peer group, and that group is ever-changing. 

[zamo-zuan]

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@valueaddedresource wrote:

@lasantino  - were there previous cases also on your metrics you didn't mention or just those 3?

One of the protections eBay supposedly built in to the Service Metrics measurement was that even if you were "very high", if you have less than 10 individual cases or less than 1%, the penalty is not supposed to be applied.

However, I know of one seller who was not receiving that protection in the case of being Very High for INRS, so I'm curious if you had less than 10 cases total in the period being measured for your metrics.

---

As I've documented elsewhere, in Feb this year we had under 1% and "Very High" for INR, which should have made us ineligible.

I confirmed with eBay that they DID INDEED give us the service metric penalty, extending all of our items handling times, at this time. 

They recognized the error but had no way to remove it. They told us that if the penalty expires March 1st (as the Jan 20 review goes in to effect Feb 1st, Feb 20 review goes in to effect March 1st) that we would know for sure if it was the service metrics or not. Sure enough, March 1st came, and everything went back to normal.

So it seems there's a glitch in eBay's system somewhere that is giving the penalty to people who should not be eligible!

[lasantino]

Um, i know how ebay works,  I've spent countless hours reading these message board and years as a seller and buyer.   I'm sure you meant to be helpful, but your words came of as patronizing. 

[katzrul15]

@lasantino 

Have you had more metric impacting issues other than the (3) you mention?  Based on just what I can view from your past 30 sold(s), it would appear there must be others relative to the percentages outlined?  Your FB shows 1 more recent neg and you show 2 FB revisions.  Are you certain your SNADs are all Buyer remorse driven?  

It is tempting to reply to a negative - but both replies would make me not want to shop with you as a Seller.  You may be customer-centric, but it does not "read" that way.  There are some great ways to explain your position as a Seller on this claim gone awry and still communicate to a new prospective-buyer that as a Seller, you really did attempt to work it out with your Buyer.  You may very well have - it just does not read that way.

Selling higher-end clothing, shoes, accessories is a tough category to begin with.  Do you have the ability to list or move some items at a lower price-point to drive some of your metric percentages to a more favorable level between now and July 20th eval?  Doing so and increasing your overall number of sales is about the only way to work to "right the ship", unless you have some that are about to fall off the metrics from the prior 12 months.

Good luck!