Service Metric Scam with Proof

[sneakerzium]

eBay has charged me an extra 5% in seller fees since August first, they claimed it was because of the high item not described rate, I have downloaded the report and proven to them that half those cases should not be counted against me. If they were removed it would not put my May- July rates as "very high item not described."
The fact is these shoes are BEING AUTHENICATED BY eBay, and when they mess up the buyer is upset and opens a return case and I'm being penalized for it. According to ebay's  2019 policy sellers are protected against this, but none of the cases are removed for me even though it was a false return, detailed in this link are the cases highlighted in yellow that should have been removed along with added notes.  The link is downloaded report on excel with all the cases that should have been removed,  for example  a lot of them were like this

"We're issuing the buyer a refund for this case. You don't need to do anything else. This case won't be included when we evaluate seller performance. Note: It may take up to 24 hours for this information to be updated in your Seller Dashboard. Outcome
You were not found at fault."       "We automatically denied the return because it is outside of your return policy and the item successfully passed through our Authenticity Guarantee Authenticity Guarantee process. This case will not affect your seller performance. You do not need to do anything else." 

Yet, I am still being counted for those cases towards my service metrics. This is a huge issue on eBay's part and I feel like I'm being scammed, an extra 5% on all my sales is a lot, because we do over 6 figures, a month...

The fact is EBAY AUTHENICATED these shoes then sent them out to the buyer so it is proven those were false returns. 

[sneakerzium]

https://docs.google.com/spreads heets/d/13VjCzRw4akxXXHCTIvLcvOysfmZpdfmczCqpxp714so/edit?usp=sharin...

https://pages.ebay.com/seller-center/seller-updates/2019-fall/seller-protections.html

"

Return shipping label credit for false “item not as described” claims

If you are a Top Rated Seller and a buyer falsely claims an item was “not as described,” we’ll protect you on eligible transactions. If a buyer falsely claims an item was “not as described,” we’ll reimburse your return shipping label cost up to $6 per return. You’ll receive the return shipping label credit on your monthly invoice. We’ll also automatically remove any negative and neutral feedback, defects, and open cases in service metrics.   The last line is important..... regarding service metrics 

[bbravo65]

...many posters in here suggested contact eBay CS through Facebook for better services...did you try it yet...???

...I have ever done that as I always sucked up my lost over bad buyers, then I cut down my listings in expensive items...(and I don't have an account with Facebook, but also don't have any desirable feelings to create one either...)

...5% for a number with 6 figurines is thousands of dollar...eBay, again, skillfully pickpockets sellers...

[ittybitnot]

The fact is EBAY AUTHENICATED these shoes then sent them out to the buyer so it is proven those were false returns. 

@sneakerzium 

Perhaps I am not correct, but I was under the impression that this metric counts ALL not as described claims simply because they were filed.  It doesn't matter if they were filed in error, or what the outcome of the claim was.  For example, a buyer can file a claim against you when they really meant it for another seller.  Even if they close it out, it is still counted just because it was opened in the first place. 

In your example, if you were not held responsible  for a SNAD due to the Authenticity program, the fact remains that the case was opened, and thus counted. Again, "who was at fault"  or the outcome of the claim doesn't matter.  eBay's 'logic' was that you are judged/compared to your 'peers' where the same thing is likely to happen to everyone and thus balance out.  The indication that you are "very high" is supposed to mean you have more issues than others in your group (with the inference that something is wrong with how you do business) .  Whether that is based on fact or your bad luck is immaterial. 

If these sorts of issues have landed you in final value fee punishment camp, then you can try to request assistance from eBay, but I would suspect the program, as they say, "is working as intended."   I would not try to deal with this with the regular low tier customer service.  

https://twitter.com/ebaysneakers

or the Send Message button here

https://www.facebook.com/eBayForBusiness

[sneakerzium]

Yes, I've contacted them already they are still awaiting response from the back end team, it has been over a week. I think they are trying to see if I have any recourse legally, because eBay simply just does not care and will screw over sellers. 

[sneakerzium]

Right but, my volume in comparison to my peers is almost 10x the amount, I am ranked 9 out of 500,000 sellers in the shoe category and I get no special treatment whatsoever. The only thing is a I get a lot of impressions/traffic on my listings because I have so many good ones. The average for this month for everyone is 2.32%... this shows how flawed the system actually is. I average 2.19%-2.47% every quarter. The previous average for everyone was .81% it seems as if the volume has actually caught up. Pretty sure I'm just being targeted half of these cases are like I described, not my fault at all. And compared to the actual volume we do  it is closer to the true average than my peers. The system is very flawed, and I would bet there are other bigger sellers suffering from the same thing but do not even notice that they are being charged an extra fee. 

[sneakerzium]

tyler@ebay  brian@ebay  any response to this, are you able to help?

[valueaddedresource]

tyler@ebay  - there is a serious conflict of interest here that eBay needs to address ASAP.

The Authenticity Guarantee FAQ for Sellers explicitly states eBay provides automatic protections for INR service metrics - why does this not apply to INAD Service Metrics too?

https://pages.ebay.com/authenticity-guarantee-sneakers-seller/#faq

Also per the terms of authentication, the authenticator is supposed to check not just for authenticity but also to make sure it matches the listing details.  That's why eBay backs sellers up on "final sales". Once they have passed authentication they are de facto "as described" - that's the whole point of the program.

This seller has shown the cases were closed in their favor for exactly that reason - they were found not at fault because the shoes passed authentication.

eBay rightfully protects sellers' INR Service Metrics due to delays at the authenticator because that is outside of the seller's control - clearly demonstrating that eBay absolutely has the ability to adjust these metrics, when it suits them to do so.

Of course, INR service metrics penalties only add time to the shipping estimates, not an extra 5% in fees to eBay's bottom line.

INAD claims filed after the item has passed authentication are also outside of the seller's control and according to several other parts of the terms for authenticity guarantee should not be the seller's responsibility at that point.

The fact that eBay provides Service Metrics protections for authenticated items in cases where they have no financial gain, but refuses to do so in cases where there is financial benefit to eBay looks pretty unethical from where I'm sitting - and I'd bet the FTC might have some concerns about it too.

[valueaddedresource]

tyler@ebay  this seller should also be protected under the Top Rated Seller protections.

These cases are clearly false SNADS.  The shoes passed authentication on the way to the buyer and passed authentication on the way back as returns - meaning the authenticator verified the shoes were in fact as described.

On top of that, some of the cases even have notes from eBay in the service metrics report that say things like:

"The case was decided in your favor. We determined that the item is as described. We closed the case without any refund to the buyer. This case will not affect your seller performance. Any feedback left for this transaction will be removed."

"We automatically denied the return because it is outside of your return policy and the item successfully passed through our Authenticity Guarantee process. This case will not affect your seller performance. You do not need to do anything else."

"We changed the outcome because the case was opened for the wrong seller or item. This case will not affect your seller performance, and any feedback left for this transaction will be removed."

It is beyond ridiculous that eBay refuses to do the right thing here.

[autochopperz]

EXACT same issue with us...less than 400 sales a year (about 300 now) , but a few crap returns that never were returned. So ebay stepped in and decided in our favor because they never returned the items .  So in the last 12 months I had 17 cases open and supposedly closed in our favor.

Well if you look at the open cases/resolved  you will see that some cases show that they are still opened...

When they clearly say on details that the were resolved.

So I feel that Every time we list items , they take like 2 weeks before even getting 1 view , then every item only gets 1 or 2 views a day .....very limited.

Some of our view counts were around 60 views a day on popular items.

One thing I will say positive about this is that ,  all our items sell with just 1 click when it eventually gets seen.

I just learned to live with it.

Keep listing up ,take better pictures , clean your items as if they are new.

But don't lower your price thinking it will generate a sell , it wont.

Sales = number of listing÷365× 30, or something like that.

All I know is 1 Item sells every day for past 2 years.  Not a coincidence.

And that's at throttled

[dolcetreasures]

Every NAD I received in the past year had been bogus, nevertheless eBay still hold every NAD against the seller and the service metrics remain despite claims otherwise. It’s making this place even more untenable. But I think they know that and that’s exactly what they want….

[kh-vince]

Hi everyone,

Due to the age of this thread, it has been closed to further replies. Please feel free to start a new thread if you wish to continue to discuss this topic.

Thank you for understanding.