Performance reviews are ridiculous. I think it’s time to find a different platform

[mittenkeepsakes]

I have amazing reviews. I’m just a small one person store trying to help my parents sell some collectibles. 
I had no idea that a water leak that damaged a few items would put me in such a hole with performance that I can’t recover and my fees are now 20%. Not worth it. 
I had to cancel 3 orders because of water damage. Thought I was doing what’s right.  I had one cancellation because a buyer requested it and I thought I was being nice. I had zero clue when I started that it would drop my rating score. And one because when we went to ship the item it was broken in the box. Our fault. 
I tried to appeal, all denied. 
So 5 defects and I went from top rated to below standard and even with 130 great orders I can’t get back to good status. 
Are the other selling platforms like this? 

[goclunker]

I work for a reseller as my job, and sell my own stuff on ebay. They sell on Amazon, believe me, it is much, much, much worse than ebay.

Sadly, I don't know where else to sell. Offerup, marketplace and CL are worthless.

[simba6]

The one the buyer requested should not have lowered your rating. You did select buyer requested it.

The others are a problem.  eBay gets testy about failing to ship after a buyer pays.  It can get much worst too.   Sellers can get a lifetime ban from selling over that.

Don't know about all the other venues but, the river is even worse on sellers.

[chapeau-noir]

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@mittenkeepsakes wrote:

I have amazing reviews. I’m just a small one person store trying to help my parents sell some collectibles. 
I had no idea that a water leak that damaged a few items would put me in such a hole with performance that I can’t recover and my fees are now 20%. Not worth it. 
I had to cancel 3 orders because of water damage. Thought I was doing what’s right.  I had one cancellation because a buyer requested it and I thought I was being nice. I had zero clue when I started that it would drop my rating score. And one because when we went to ship the item it was broken in the box. Our fault. 
I tried to appeal, all denied. 
So 5 defects and I went from top rated to below standard and even with 130 great orders I can’t get back to good status. 
Are the other selling platforms like this? 

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We can't answer questions like that here (against the rules) but there is plenty online with a little research on your own. Unfortunately, having that many major defects in relatively few sales would pretty much wreck you on just about any platform, despite accidents happening and it being understandable. But as for eBay - the site doesn't adjudicate for the millions of sellers it has - it would soak up too many resources. Pretty much yes/no and that's it. 

But people have worked their way out of the hole before, too.

[stuff4divas]

@mittenkeepsakes  an internet search will show u the numerous online platforms u can sell from

[12345jamesstamps]

The key is the seller working it out with the buyer...not through eBay or 'cancel 3 orders'.

If a seller has other items for sale...offer a replacement with a higher value...or a partial refund and still send item out for 'proof' item is damaged. It's work with the buyer.

[fbusoni]

@mittenkeepsakes 

You have a lot of nice things.  I'd suggest lowering the prices a bit to move them and bring yourself back up to top rated status.  

The grass is not greener elsewhere.

[mittenkeepsakes]

Thanks. I’ve run 20-30% off sales. Which does help.  I’ve lowered the prices to the lowest that I can. I have hundreds more to list but I’m not I want to do the work for almost no return. 😞 
I look up solds and list for under the latest selling prices. It’s just not a busy time for my product. It picks up in July and steadily increases until Christmas. 

[mittenkeepsakes]

Now I can’t even run a store sale because they suspended my campaigns. 
Basically you need to improve your seller status but we take away all the ways you can do it. 

[fbusoni]

@mittenkeepsakes 

Sorry you have to endure this.   eBay runs on computers and artificial intelligence, which does not have a heart and cannot exercise judgment. 

I have no experience with what you are going through and thus cannot offer any unique insights.

Other than to suggest that you may have to take some losses over the short run, unless you want to wait for July.

Have you thought about contacting Facebook/eBay and chatting with one of their reps?

[chapeau-noir]

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@mittenkeepsakes wrote:

Thanks. I’ve run 20-30% off sales. Which does help.  I’ve lowered the prices to the lowest that I can. I have hundreds more to list but I’m not I want to do the work for almost no return. 😞 
I look up solds and list for under the latest selling prices. It’s just not a busy time for my product. It picks up in July and steadily increases until Christmas. 

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That may be what you have to do - just keep listing and take a bit of a hit to get people in the door - you won't get anywhere in your task simply refusing to list as standing still and waiting, as you know, won't help. Below Standard disallows campaigns, but with tight inventory control you can work your way out of this, particularly as it seems in the next several months you'll be hitting a good season for your sales.

[susanb1872]

You have very nice Hallmark ornaments. I did notice that one might be in the wrong category. The Disney Pirates of the Caribbean ornament looks to be in the Home & Garden>Holiday&Seasonal Decor>Ornaments category rather than Collectibles>Holiday & Seasonal (or maybe Disneyana). Sorry you had all those problems.

[chapeau-noir]

It's definitely a bummer. I lost several thousand dollars worth of inventory some years back to a undiscovered leak in my storage area. Fortunately, none of it was listed, but it was a really bad hit nonetheless.

[gurlcat]

I don't understand how the 3 water damage cancellations happened.   -I'm picturing a shelf or bin or where my actively-listed items are.  A buyer makes a purchase, but when I go to retrieve it, I find that it was damaged from a water leak, so I cancel the sale and apologize to the buyer.  

But then .... I would immediately assess the other items in that location, and end the listings for any/all other damaged items, before anybody can buy them.  In other words, why did you let it happen the 2nd and 3rd times?   How many more of your currently active listings are damaged and unsellable? 

You say, "I had no idea that a water leak that damaged a few items would put me in such a hole with performance" ...... but you surely knew that you would have to disappoint each subsequent buyer of damaged items; you just didn't realize it could harm your account.   As a frequent buyer here myself, I can tell you that a cancellation can be more than disappointing; after I spent a long time searching the site and comparing items, maybe even passing up offers or auctions that I could have selected instead, then think I'm done and it's just a matter of waiting for the item to arrive .... only to find out I have to start all over again.  And by the way, depending on the buyer's payment method, it may be days before they have the money back. 

That is why it doesn't take many cancellations to ruin your status.  eBay doesn't want that kind of experience to be commonplace for buyers here.  There are a lot of other choices, and for many buyers all it takes is one bad experience before they've written off the entire platform forever.  EDIT: Oh and by the way you're extremely lucky to still have nothing but "amazing reviews".   In addition to service demerits, cancellations are feedback-eligible to the buyers you cancel on. 

[meme6253]

Pretty much sums it up, between a rock & a hard place, You have sank but not completely sunk, keep trying & Best of Luck!