So.. I am below standard and it's my third cycle..

[briggsandstonewell]

When i first started getting used to Ebays selling platform and fees, i made a few mistakes. I also had been asked to cancel a few orders before i knew the "right way" to do it. I just now started getting the hang of it, and i'm doing pretty good now, because i tend to learn from my mistakes. Unfortunately, my mistakes were made in June of last year and they won't be falling off before they give me the boot. I just don't understand why they beat around the bush and make it seem like you're not going to be permanently banned for making these mistakes, but then it's a surprise throwing a seller away party when you're doing pretty good. If i would have known i could have been permanantly banned from doing so i would have been extra cautious. Perhaps it was in the guides and books i overlooked. It's hard to get out of the red zone, and for the longest time i didn't know that i would be permanantly banned from being a seller if i was in the red zone. They said, "changes"...
Anyway, it was fun. I do understand that i am a percieved liability, and i make a terrible business partner. All of you on the seller hub have been so supportive throughout this entire venture. If you're in the same boat as me, i have to say that it's time to explore other avenues and perhaps it's for the best.
I have 2 more days to make a few more sales in hopes that they see and decide that i am doing better and that will keep me. 

Has anyone ever actually been able to pull themselves out of this and how? 
Share your story, your rant, your rave. 
 

[plumbingspecials · Accepted solution]

The three most important things to stay above standard are:

1. Make sure you ship all of your items on or before your handling time. This means, if you only make one trip to the Post Office or the UPS store every week, you will want to use 5 Day handling. If you can go every day, use one day handling. This is important for your shipping metrics. In addition to shipping in time, it is of utmost importance to upload your tracking information immediately, and have it scanned by your carrier that day.  Tracking is YOUR protection as a seller. 

2. Always resolve disputes (cases) on your own. Even if you have to refund and take a loss on that item, do not let eBay resolve any of your cases. Try communicating with the buyer to resolve the problem, just do not let eBay close a case for you. This is a defect on your seller's account.

3. Do not cancel an order unless the buyer asks . If they ask you to ship to any other location than what is on their finalized order, you can cancel for this reason, too, because you will not have protection from Paypal if you do not ship to the address on the transaction.  If you cancel for either of these two reason, make sure you have a message in the eBay messagin system to verify the cancellation. Do not cancel for being out of stock. This is a huge defect.

Remember to always keep up on policy changes, because there are many and often and although some might not even pertain to you, it is beneficial to know how it all works as a whole. 

also, do not spend too much time worrying about feedback because eBay does not use this for your rating. Feedback is only for other members' information. If you keep your buyers happy, they won't give negative feedback. Do not let buyers intimidate you with feedback to get something from you. This is a violation and you can report them for it. That's another discussion though.

[blsky520usa1]

If you can find a group in your city or town, or a Power Seller that may guide you, it will benefict your performance, coming soon is eBay Open held in Las Vegas Nevada, you will learn new things is not free but worthed, education is essential, if you can not make it this year, they are held anually. When conductin your sales keep in mind the Buyer is #1, Then eBay, and we sellers at last, because without 1 and 2, we sellers couldn't exist. Cheer up, there will be better times.

[mommadukestreasurehunt]

I too am learning. I was wondering the other day if on the 30-day reviews of an account a real human reviews it or if it just goes thru the system. I can see how easy it would be for a computer system to mark something as a demerit on somebody's account, however, it would take human reasoning to understand it is not a demerit at all. Prior to my coming here, I never used eBay before .... so this is a little bit of adventure. I approached this as eBay would be a great place to learn about e-commerce, but after reading your story, I don't think they offer any type of "introduction or grace period" to new subscribers to learn all the ins and outs of the back panel. I'm confident you'll be back. Don't give up.  

[auventera]

You have 99.3% positive send only 1 negative feedback in 12 months. 

[briggsandstonewell]

You guys are really great, and i thank you all so much for your support and valuable guidence in this. I sure hope i can climb out, i am confident and i really hope that ebay understands and gives me another shot. 🙂 

Have a good day ya'll 

[fine_find]

If you don't get another shot at this particular store, there is still hope for you. I was told this some years back in a conversation with a representative of eBay. I was asking basically questions trying to learn as much as I could. I was told that if you did loose your store you would have no choice than to end it. Then they said, you will never be able to open another account under that name again ever. Here's the interesting part. If you want back on eBay, you have to start completely over by opening another account with a different variation of your name. A new bank account with that name also as well as PayPal account connected to it. In other words, this name you chose and account are gone forever, however, you can open another account and start again. That means you would need to go to the trouble of setting up everything again. Your bank can help you with adding another account and credit card which would need to be connected to PayPal. I don't know for certain that you can still do this or not, you could call and ask eBay. I'm sure they will tell you whether or not you can or cannot. It's worth a shot if you wish to try again. Sorry you didn't read the rules a little closer. If you are allowed to do this, I would make it a point to read everything on eBay and pay close attention to everything you do from then on. Good luck.

[frodobagginskennedy]

This is so wrong. EBay tracks by IP address as well. Plus the new account would be circumventing a block which is also against the rules.

[fine_find]

I don't know if it's wrong or not, that's why I said to check with eBay about it. However, when I was told this, it was a very different eBay back then. I have never had any reason to either question this nor to try it out, and, I hope I never do. But if I did, I would do as I suggested and call eBay and ask. There are a lot of things on eBay that we neither know nor understand, and this may be just one of them.

Now, is this wrong?? Yeah, I personally think it is, but it isn't my call to make.

[ladyofthelot]

You sound so smart, and so willing to learn, that I can't believe you are either a bad business partner or a liability to the community! There's not a seller on here who never made a mistake. I just went through a month-long opera about having swapped two peoples' jewelry and sent them to each other. One customer was understanding and the other not. Awful, awful, because what the customer says goes. I had to bite down hard and be very deferential when I felt like crying, because after all, it was my fault--what a dumb rookie mistake! And I'm not a rookie! And of course I wanted to say things like, "haven't you ever made a mistake??"--but what would be the point? I have to be professional, but they can't expect me to be Macy's. Anyway, as you see we all get into deep water. I've never been red-zoned, but I think it's unnecessarily harsh that it takes a year to get out of it. Unless you sent a customer a moonshot of your a$$, I can't imagine penalizing someone who is making a good faith effort.

My suggestion, before anything more happens, is that you make a phone call and ask to speak to an ebay rep and explain what you wrote about here. I know they ve already heard it, but get it onto the record again that you care, that you've learned and and will continue to learn, and that you'll be a model bayer if allowed to keep your username and status, etc. Otherwise I think another bayer said it best: start again. It means three months of aggravation as you get up to speed, but you did it once and you can do it again. Don't be disheartened and give up. You are actually the kind of motivated seller now that eBay loves best. I see I missed the 2-day window, but I'm gonna check what you sell and if I can help you with a sale, I will. Best of luck! "Illegitimus non carborundum"--J

[disneyshopper]

You have 85 listings running, so things aren't all that bad.

I was a below standard seller a couple of years ago, and restricted to 10 listings per month.  At the time I had about 350 listings and paying for a Premium store.  As the listings ended, I could only stand by.  No ability to relist, still being charged for the store (I committed to a year subscription)  I figured I'd wait until the bad DSRs fell off.  ebay used them for seller performance back then, but people told me that wouldn't work, because as the bad DSRs fell off they wouldn't be replaced with good ones if I did list items to see.  So, I found some items to list for $5 with free shipping.  Great.  7 sold the first week.  Now I have to wait until the next month before I could list another 10 items.  This went on for several months until I became an above standard seller, but I still couldn't list more than 10 items.

So I finally took the plunge and called ebay.  My first phone call since I started selling on ebay.  I waited until Monday and called as early as I could to get a rep in the USA.  My account restriction was removed in a couple of hours.  So it can be done!

[bgrignon]

Good News, your neg and 2 neutrals will be falling off your report at 12 months pay period. That will give your ratings a big boost and allow you to shine. Best Wishes

[thatsallfolks]

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@bgrignon wrote:

Good News, your neg and 2 neutrals will be falling off your report at 12 months pay period. That will give your ratings a big boost and allow you to shine. Best Wishes

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eBay doesn't use feedback to evaluate sellers.

[points13]

Your past the 2 days you said you had and your items are still up and you are making sales. Thats good news I hope.

[scrubmart]

I have been selling on Ebay since 2005. Ebay made some changes last year and I failed to update a couple listings with my proper handling time. This caught up to me a few months ago when I was notified by ebay that my account was in danger of being below standard. I corrected the listing issues early April, but it was too late.

After a month of being below standard, I have realized that I am screwed on ebay until all of the late shipments drop from my score.

It is impossible to Sell more items and give great service when my listings were being suppressed by ebay. My sales were down 70% the first month of below standard. I started listing items as Auctions and also ran a 30 day markdown sale. This turned out to be pointless because my listings, some were 5 years running with several variations, were not getting any visibility.

I started listing all of my inventory onto another marketplace where I have been selling for about 4 years. The only items left on ebay were items not in the other market's catalogue. I am down from 200 listings on ebay, to only 24. I also lowered my Store Subscription package to the minimum.

My sales on ebay for the past week are $0.00. 

I will just have to wait until next year before getting serious about selling on ebay again.