Perplexing track record for TRS

[packratville]

Just searching for an item tonight and checking the solds to get an idea of the going price. One of the sellers I ran across has a 95.7% feedback score. For the month, there have been 1257 positive feedbacks, 21 neutral, and 66 negative. Other than one apparently misguided negative thanking the seller for a good product, nearly all the negatives are for receiving new items in used condition or items not received because the seller cancelled the transaction. There were a lot of angry customers. Of course I don't know how many total transactions the seller had for the month. But the seller is a TOP RATED SELLER WITH HIGHEST BUYER RATINGS.

My confusion is that I've seen posts from sellers who have been here forever and had 100% feedback and all positives, yet maybe they cancelled a couple of listings or got a couple of defects because eBay had to step in. I think they usually had a decent number of transactions too, though not in the hundreds or thousands. Despite their track record and 100% feedback all indicating excellent customer service and happy customers, they were booted off eBay.

I just don't get it. And it's not an aberration because I run across it quite a bit.

[fisstan0]

eBay should get rid of the top rated seller program all together. It means nothing now that feedback doesn't count as a defect.

I don't think the average buyer knows how easy it is to achieve TRS status and they put their trust in a badge that means nothing.

[southern*sweet*tea]

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@ted_200 wrote:

When my last non-performing seller refused to ship, they lied and said it was "buyer requested cancel".  I was sort of shocked to see that eliminated my ability to leave f/b for the transaction, so they got off scott free for not shipping. 

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I've left negs for all three of my lying, canceling non-shippers from the FB forum.

See if you can leave it here:  https://www.ebay.com/fdbk/leave_feedback?   or

https://pages.ebay.com/services/forum/feedback-login.html

[annindallas]

Heres what happened to me. It was about two months ago.

I really wanted the novel, " A Gentleman in Moscow".

I dont care about badges. As long as the seller doesnt have 0 feedback, I scan it briefly, check to see if the delivery is more than two weeks......and buy.

Having been a seller who skidded her car around on icy roads in order to meet her shipping promise, I never want to put a seller in that position.

If I saw GD on something I wanted, Id pass. No one needs to die to get me my item early.

Anyway, back to the book. About ten days pass. She messages me thats shes out of stock. She seems nice. Very apologetic. Its okay, just wish she told me sooner. Money is refunded.

Almost immediately I get an apology from ebay and an additional $10 in my paypal account. Seller is simultaneously no longer a registered seller.

Over a book! A ten dollar book!

I still dont have the book. Im afraid of what will happen next to some poor seller.

[nobody*s_perfect]

Very likely the ten-dollar book was only the last straw for that seller.  You don't know how many other "out of stock"  defect points she might have had.  Those often don't show up in feedback.

She seems to have not been strategic at all about avoiding the defect point she got from your transaction -- she could have drop-shipped that title to you from some other seller. In the ten days that she kept you waiting, she even could have even ordered the book from somebody and then shipped it to you.  

It seems to me that this seller had problems beyond just this one out-of-stock item.

[lindyslucky]

We buy some on the big A.

we rather often get "sorry out of stock, we apologize"

We still buy there and it looks like others do also.

We really think "out of stock" is not such a big deal.

Like going to a shoe store and finding they don't have your size.

Oh well.

We as sellers don't do it.

Just another weird ebay metric.

[missjen831]

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@southern*sweet*tea wrote:

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@ted_200 wrote:

When my last non-performing seller refused to ship, they lied and said it was "buyer requested cancel".  I was sort of shocked to see that eliminated my ability to leave f/b for the transaction, so they got off scott free for not shipping. 

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I've left negs for all three of my lying, canceling non-shippers from the FB forum.

See if you can leave it here:  https://www.ebay.com/fdbk/leave_feedback?   or

https://pages.ebay.com/services/forum/feedback-login.html

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^^^^ Going through the feedback forum is the only way to leave feedback when the seller cancels the transaction. Not sure why but ebay removes the feedback links from the listing & purchase history when the transaction is cancelled.

[luckythewinner]

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@lindyslucky wrote:

We buy some on the big A.

we rather often get "sorry out of stock, we apologize"

We still buy there and it looks like others do also.

We really think "out of stock" is not such a big deal.

Just another weird ebay metric.

---

A big difference between Amazon and eBay is that eBay has auctions and Amazon does not.

And unfortunately, in the past many sellers on eBay misused "out of stock" as an excuse to cancel a sale when they did not like the ending price of an auction.

eBay clearly has decided that when a buyer wins or purchases an item, eBay expect the seller to have it in stock - which is perhaps one small way that eBay is not trying to be "just like Amazon".

[southern*sweet*tea]

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@lindyslucky wrote:

We buy some on the big A.

we rather often get "sorry out of stock, we apologize"

We still buy there and it looks like others do also.

We really think "out of stock" is not such a big deal.

Like going to a shoe store and finding they don't have your size.

Oh well.

We as sellers don't do it.

Just another weird ebay metric.

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Ebay isn't Amazon, and it's not weird.  Ebay expects sellers to have the item they're listing in stock and available for purchase.  Period.

[buyselljack2016]

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@packratville wrote:

Well, I see a lot of them. It's hard to believe this seller and others can jump in fast enough to avoid eBay intervention, but I guess that's the key.

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I believe the minimum time before eBay can get involved is 3 days (72 hr 

+1 second). ( and that my be "business days")

Not at all difficult for a seller to take care of the situation in that amount of time.

[annindallas]

You may be right. She didnt seem like a smooth professional. She may have been drop shipping from Amazon.

There are dropshippers who are truly disabled and this is the only way they have an income.

I just dont see why its so urgent that i get an item immediately.

Anyway, its not a moment I feel good about. Dont want to repeat it.

But i dont want to buy the book from some gigantic seller just because they can survive a hit.

[ted_200]

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@missjen831 wrote:

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@southern*sweet*tea wrote:

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@ted_200 wrote:

When my last non-performing seller refused to ship, they lied and said it was "buyer requested cancel".  I was sort of shocked to see that eliminated my ability to leave f/b for the transaction, so they got off scott free for not shipping. 

---

I've left negs for all three of my lying, canceling non-shippers from the FB forum.

See if you can leave it here:  https://www.ebay.com/fdbk/leave_feedback?   or

https://pages.ebay.com/services/forum/feedback-login.html

---

^^^^ Going through the feedback forum is the only way to leave feedback when the seller cancels the transaction. Not sure why but ebay removes the feedback links from the listing & purchase history when the transaction is cancelled.

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We went down this road on another topic a couple of weeks ago.  There was no way to leave feedback, no matter how I tried to go about it.  I don't know if that's something new or what, but NONE of those options would let me leave f/b.  The only course of action was to call CS, and I just wouldn't do it. 

[tunicaslot]

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@lindyslucky wrote:

We buy some on the big A.

we rather often get "sorry out of stock, we apologize"

We still buy there and it looks like others do also.

We really think "out of stock" is not such a big deal.

Like going to a shoe store and finding they don't have your size.

Oh well.

We as sellers don't do it.

Just another weird ebay metric.

---

Totally agree - I often get OOS from Kohl's, Penny's, Underarmour - what's the big deal - I get back online and order elsewhere - as long as I'm not charged or in Ebay's case refunded within a couple  of  days - I'm good. I know OOS upsets some people - I'm more upset getting up and going to pick up a sale item on Sunday at 9 AM only to be told - the item isn't in stock until Weds when the delivery truck arrives. Sitting on the computer and getting OOS is nothing - hurrying my tail and driving to a store on a day off only to be told the item isn't in stock until Weds is another thing.

[ted_200]

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@tunicaslot wrote:

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@lindyslucky wrote:

We buy some on the big A.

we rather often get "sorry out of stock, we apologize"

We still buy there and it looks like others do also.

We really think "out of stock" is not such a big deal.

Like going to a shoe store and finding they don't have your size.

Oh well.

We as sellers don't do it.

Just another weird ebay metric.

---

Totally agree - I often get OOS from Kohl's, Penny's, Underarmour - what's the big deal - I get back online and order elsewhere - as long as I'm not charged or in Ebay's case refunded within a couple  of  days - I'm good. I know OOS upsets some people - I'm more upset getting up and going to pick up a sale item on Sunday at 9 AM only to be told - the item isn't in stock until Weds when the delivery truck arrives. Sitting on the computer and getting OOS is nothing - hurrying my tail and driving to a store on a day off only to be told the item isn't in stock until Weds is another thing.

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eBay is Sybil.  THEY are the ones who decided OOS is a hugemanatee, but now they've fixed it so the seller can lie and not get in trouble for it.  These are the same people who said high shipping charges are the #1 reason people quit buying, and then they turned around and put a 10% surcharge on shipping charges. 

For the record, OOS is a different thing than seller non-performance on an Auction.  Either eBay doesn't know that, or they don't care.  Or maybe they just changed their mind again.  OOS isn't flavor of the day today, now it's Free Returns.  They've got MORE personalities than Sybil - and none of them are nice or competent. 

[tunicaslot]

Ted I agree - but we all have the choice to stay or leave. I think many of us are more upset because we see buyers going to other sites - but it's not because of Ebay or it's sellers - it's just how business works. You have to be on your toes, you have to adapt - you have to change as the buyer mindset changes - but like sellers not putting their eggs all in one basket - Ebay seems to do things to attract a certain type of buyer and DOES put its' eggs in one basket. 

Many of the new sites were mobile app only - now some have opened up to include laptops and PCs because they saw how much business they were losing by not offering their services to those who are tech challenged, older or not well enough off to afford smart phones - but at least the one site has not caved and has very strict rules concerning returns. 

Their marketing team stinks - Ebay is one place where people can go and find just about everything - but it's not marketed as such and hasn't been in a long time. Short 15 minute spots - used sports equip when kids gear up in the fall for football, strategic ad placement on other vlogs, blogs, or forum sites pertaining to the subject matter it promotes.

They focus on metrics which can be as false as surveys depending on who's answering the questions or making that SNAD complaint. I never ever look to see if a seller is top rated on these other sites - I don't know if they have designations and I'm selling on the one. The bottom line is that as a seller - my item sells and as a buyer - others have confidence in the venue.

[ted_200]

Ted I agree - but we all have the choice to stay or leave. I think many of us are more upset because we see buyers going to other sites - but it's not because of Ebay or it's sellers - it's just how business works.

Well, but it is because of eBay often.  Buyers of vintage jewelry, for example, have shown up on another site (the one I put my vintage jewelry on after I gave up trying to sell it here) because a lot of sellers of the goods those buyers want put those goods on that site.  At start up, when that site caught on and didn't end up dying after 6 mos. like so many others, virtually all of the sellers were either former or current eBay sellers.  Sellers of vintage clothes and toys (examples of both post here regularly) did the same thing, and there are now active markets on that site for those goods too. 

It didn't have to be that way.  Some of those sellers eBay had kicked off eBay already (and they weren't all "bad" sellers), others quit because they refused to do business with PayPal anymore, and the enormous fee hikes during that period drove other active eBay sellers there.  eBay was the bomb, no one wanted to be going anywhere else until eBay started "fixing" it.