Seller Performance Level

[elizabethcoggannumismatics]

Hi:  Has anyone approached ebay asking for a reconsideration of the Seller's Performance rule that states the status will be updated at the 1st of the following month from the date your assessment was re-evaluated.  

If someone has gone from a Below Average Standard and improved to Above Average Standard, that means that their selling fee percentages have come down, BUT if my assessment was done, say, on May 20th, based on ebay's policy, my lowered selling percentages will not go into effect until June 1st.  Which begs the question, WHY would I want to sell anything between May 20th and June 1st if I am going to be assessed such high selling fees.  Why not just put my store on vacation until June 1st when my lower rates will be in effect.  

To me, it seems like when your improved status is instated, so should your selling fees that match that improved status.  Otherwise, as I said, there is no incentive for me to sell anything until my fees are lowered 2-3 weeks after my improved status.

has anyone else had this problem and is there are solution?  I put in a call to ebay to speak to someone in management to see if this could be manually changed.

[robbie31415]

So don't sell anything until June 1st.

Or don't become below standard in the first place.

The time frames are what they are. You have to wait until the 1st.

[orangehound]

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@elizabethcoggannumismatics wrote:

Which begs the question, WHY would I want to sell anything between May 20th and June 1st if I am going to be assessed such high selling fees.  Why not just put my store on vacation until June 1st when my lower rates will be in effect.  

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The timelines are what they are. They are not going to make an exception for you.

So, in the meantime, it seems that you have a plan.

(P.S., if you were to list your items with 30-day free returns, you would activate some eBay seller protections ... I would think that important, given your high-value items).

[tobaccocardyahoo]

The timing of the reevaluation of seller performance differs by seller.

Today is the day they evaluate mine.

As for ceasing to sell until you are evaluated, that might reduce the number of sales which are used to calculate the percentages which impact the effect of a fixed number of defects.

[mam98031 · Accepted solution]

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@tobaccocardyahoo wrote:

The timing of the reevaluation of seller performance differs by seller.

Today is the day they evaluate mine.

As for ceasing to sell until you are evaluated, that might reduce the number of sales which are used to calculate the percentages which impact the effect of a fixed number of defects.

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The eval date for ALL sellers is the 20th of each month for the period ending the previous month.  The findings of this eval is effective the 1st of the following month.

For example, the eval that happened yesterday, May 20th, was for the period ending April 30th and effective as of June 1st.

Now there are a few exceptions to this rule.  Here is part of the policy.

What happens if you are Below Standard

If your evaluation on the 20th of the month shows that you are not meeting our minimum standards, we may put limitations on your selling activity until your performance improves. To see what you can do to bring your level back to Above Standard, read our article on Monitoring and improving your seller performance.

Some limitations are applied straight away after the evaluation, while others take effect from the 1st of the following month. If your seller level improves at a future evaluation, the same time frames will apply for limitations to be removed.

Directly after the evaluation:

• Your items may be placed lower in Best Match search results
• Your selling limits may decrease
• You'll be blocked from using Promoted Listings, and won't be able to create new campaigns or edit existing campaigns
• Funds from your orders may be placed on hold until tracking information shows that the item is on its way to the buyer
• You'll be unable to deduct an amount from the buyer's refund if an item is returned used or damaged

From the 1st day of the month following the evaluation:

• You may be charged higher final value fees. For full details, please see one of our fee pages:
  • Selling fees
  • Store selling fees

If your account has been evaluated as Below Standard for more than 2 consecutive months:

• We may downgrade your Store to the Basic level
• We may place selling restrictions on your account and related accounts, or restrict you from registering a new account

https://www.ebay.com/help/policies/selling-policies/seller-performance-policy?id=4347#

Here is a bit more info from this policy.

All sellers are required to maintain the following minimum performance standards for their listings on eBay.com within their evaluation period:

• Cases closed without seller resolution: No more than 2 (or 0.3% of transactions)
• Transaction defect rate: No more than 2% of transactions

We evaluate your performance on the 20th of each month based on your recent sales, and assign you one of the following seller levels:

• Top Rated means you're exceeding our performance expectations, as well as having an established sales history and complying with other eBay policies
• Above Standard means you're meeting our expectations
• Below Standard means that your performance has fallen below our minimum standards and as a result, we may place limitations on your selling activity, including charging higher final value fees, until your performance improves

If you are Top Rated, this will be shown in your feedback profile. Otherwise, other eBay members can't see your seller level.

@elizabethcoggannumismatics 

You should find this information helpful too.

[mam98031]

@elizabethcoggannumismatics 

The answer to trying to fix this issue is NOT to stop selling.  I would imagine that you are eval'd for the previous 12 months as it doesn't appear that you have enough transactions on a regular basis to be eval'd for the previous 90 days.

So if you stop selling now, you will be waiting a long time for the defects on the Seller Dashboard of the dings in the Service Metrics to drop off.  

Your path to working out of this is to have MORE transactions.  Sell more items so you can dilute the numbers.  Run a sale, list low $$ items and things like this.  You also may consider closing any current listings that are more expensive so you don't pay the additional penalty fee on the high $$ items.  Bring them back after you get all this under control.

The other thing you need to do is to completely understand what actually caused you to fall below standard.  Without knowing that, you are flying in the blind a bit here.  Don't assume anything, find out what caused you to fall below standard and then do everything you can to not allow that to happen again while you are trying to work out of this issue.

I wish you the best of luck.

Oh and my post to another member were I posted part of the policy Ebay has on this, should be helpful to you as well.

[elizabethcoggannumismatics]

They are nicking me with defaults because sometimes I use PayPal shipping to print off my shipping labels and forget to load the tracking #--just stupid stuff.  You would think they would look at the overall dollar volume of the seller, it's not like I'm selling .99c widgets, I'm selling coins worth usually a minimum of $500 and up!   I cannot afford to pay the additional 6% so I have passed on making the sales when people make offers, because I would lose money.  You would think they would work with people who are generating a lot of revenue for them. 

[elizabethcoggannumismatics]

Thank you for the feedback.  In my case, it is, as I would be losing money on the transactions since ebay is charging me 16% in fees.  I am selling higher ticket items at $500 up to tens of thousands.  Many times I am not even making 16% to begin with.  So I'm forced to sideline myself at this point.  I am currently above standard as of yesterday, but as we know, the reduction in fee percentages will not fall back to a reasonable level until June 1st.  

[elizabethcoggannumismatics]

understood.  It was a stupid reason to begin with that the penalized me--not having the shipping tracking info in the order, even though I shipped the package on time, because I didn't fill in the tracking details, I was penalized.  You would think they would focus on the bigger picture in terms of revenue I am generating for ebay. I guess not. . .short sighted in my mind. 

[chapeau-noir]

eBay cannot start making exceptions or every single seller who fell below standard would be clamoring for them - it would be an administrative mess with every single seller having an excuse. And where would the cut off for 'dollar value' be? It's a chance to clean up some business practices and get on a better footing.

ETA: I understand narrow margins, but you may be losing more money by refusing to sell, but that's your business.

June 1 is in 9 days so just keep going.

[elizabethcoggannumismatics]

people abuse the 30 day return privilege--look at the price of gold and silver.  All you need is a downward swing and someone returns the coin on day 29 because gold dropped $25/per ounce, say.  Now I'm in a tough position because the return privilege is too long, imo.  I have been doing this a long time and we would routinely have customers put an expensive gold coin on layaway--have the scenario happen that I mentioned above or an even bigger drop in gold and they would cancel their layaway, so we had to institute a restocking fee for a percentage of the sale just to cover ourselves. 

[elizabethcoggannumismatics]

Truthfully, I didn't even know there was an evaluation every month of my performance.  I am a one person operation traveling to trade shows, buying collections out of state, etc, and never did a deep dive into all of this until I saw how huge the fees were on one of my transactions, so that's my bad.  Live and learn as they say!

[lux.ra_14]

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@elizabethcoggannumismatics wrote:

They are nicking me with defaults because sometimes I use PayPal shipping to print off my shipping labels and forget to load the tracking #--just stupid stuff.  You would think they would look at the overall dollar volume of the seller, it's not like I'm selling .99c widgets, I'm selling coins worth usually a minimum of $500 and up! 

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eBay wants the tracking, and so do buyers at that price point.

Don't forget to add the tracking. Simple remedy, no?

[dacollectibulls]

So my drop off in performance is due to my canceling items that are out of stock.  My cancellation is just above 2% - what's my next step, sell sell sell and don't cancel? I'd rather stll a customer that I'm sorry, I'm out of stock and give them a full refund than screw them over. I think that's good customer service. What am I missing?

[mam98031]

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@dacollectibulls wrote:

So my drop off in performance is due to my canceling items that are out of stock.  My cancellation is just above 2% - what's my next step, sell sell sell and don't cancel? I'd rather stll a customer that I'm sorry, I'm out of stock and give them a full refund than screw them over. I think that's good customer service. What am I missing?

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@dacollectibulls 

The FIRST thing you need to do is get control of your inventory.  That should be your TOP priority or you will continue to have the need to Cancel due to OOS.  If you continue down this road, the sanctions Ebay puts on you will get more and more serious.  So while it may be time consuming, you really need to perform an inventory and adjust listings as needed.

Second is to run a sale or do something to generate more sales to dilute the numbers.  However if you don't get your inventory under control FIRST, you will likely just be hurting yourself and the health of your selling account.