TOP RATED SELLER with POOR REVIEWS

[checktwelve]

I'm losing confidence in buying products through eBay from other than 100% rated sellers. 

My question: Why doesn't eBay include buyer ratings and reviews as a Top Rated /Plus requirement?

There are many Top Rated and Top Rated Plus sellers with Postive Feedback ratings in the mid to high 90th percentile. Sure - with hundreds, if not thousands of transactions, you might have some unhappy customers; however, peruse Top Sellers with 97% or even 99%. ratings and you'll read 'junk' and 'no communication', etc. with lame seller comments or resolution. Top Rated critiera simply involves same-day handling,  tracking within one day, easy returns and 'easy' 30-day returns (buyer generally pays). There is also a 'defect rate' but it's not public. Why aren't eBay Buyers' opinions and reviews recognized and incorporated into the criteria? I think the answer is money - such entities generate huge eBay profit - and eBay is 'in the business of makign money'. Well - Costco, Kohls, Lowes, and most notably - Amazon strive for true 100% customer statisfaction!  eBay should take note of the competiton & hold their 'Top Rated / Plus' sellers to higher standards!  Let's band together and avoid those sellers with poor track records. 

[richard1rst]

All is not always as it seems at first.

I have received 6 negatives out of over 4100 leaving me at 99.8%.

For example, I got a negative feedback that read:

“did not receive. requested another did not get a good response.”

A week later the same buyer left the follow up feedback:

“I am trying to figure out how to change feedback.Was delivered to wrong address.”

I also received a negative feedback from a buyer in the UK:

“The worst service one can get Do not buy any of those seller otherwise you will”

Except he sent the feedback 10 days after buying the item. Any seller will tell you that although sometimes mail to the UK can be fairly quick, a delay of 10 days is not that unusual. The feedback was petty and premature. The package was delivered a few days later.

Then I got one that said:

“Item never received. Non valid tracking number listed. BEWARE of seller!”

Actually the tracking number was valid. It appears that the package was lost or misdirected and I issued a full refund.

I could go on, but the point is that although there are some legitimate negatives, you can not blithely assume that they are all 100 % accurate. Sometimes the buyer is just a "dick"

I am not ashamed of my record.

[duncanvr]

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“Item never received. Non valid tracking number listed. BEWARE of seller!”

Actually the tracking number was valid. It appears that the package was lost or misdirected and I issued a full refund.

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If only we sellers could control the speed and accuracy of the post but we can't. Sometimes stuff with tracking numbers goes missing and the post can't find the parcel. How many of these problems are to blame with the postal service and not the seller? Once we ship it we have no control with or without tracking anything can happen. Send item and say a prayer it gets there. Most of the time it does, when it doesn't its not sellers fault. I will use express courier on any expensive lots these days as speed for anything else sent from Oz can be 4 - 6 weeks.  

[gracieallen01]

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@checktwelve wrote:

I'm losing confidence in buying products through eBay from other than 100% rated sellers. 

My question: Why doesn't eBay include buyer ratings and reviews as a Top Rated /Plus requirement?

There are many Top Rated and Top Rated Plus sellers with Postive Feedback ratings in the mid to high 90th percentile. Sure - with hundreds, if not thousands of transactions, you might have some unhappy customers; however, peruse Top Sellers with 97% or even 99%. ratings and you'll read 'junk' and 'no communication', etc. with lame seller comments or resolution. Top Rated critiera simply involves same-day handling,  tracking within one day, easy returns and 'easy' 30-day returns (buyer generally pays). There is also a 'defect rate' but it's not public. Why aren't eBay Buyers' opinions and reviews recognized and incorporated into the criteria? I think the answer is money - such entities generate huge eBay profit - and eBay is 'in the business of makign money'. Well - Costco, Kohls, Lowes, and most notably - Amazon strive for true 100% customer statisfaction!  eBay should take note of the competiton & hold their 'Top Rated / Plus' sellers to higher standards!  Let's band together and avoid those sellers with poor track records. 

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By George, ya know, I think that should apply to buyers, too!

I think ebay should allow true and honest reviews of buyers! 

I think we could then all band together and avoid buyers with poor track records!

Since  Costco, Kohls, Lowes, and most notably - Amazon all strive for 100% customer satisfaction, ebay could be a pace setter and hold buyers to 100% REAL and HONEST reviews -

And, then, EVERYBODY would be happy! 

(snicker, snicker)

[partial*eclipse]

When the Top Rated Seller system was first introduced, feedback WAS one of the criteria, as well as DSR scores.  This led to an unacceptable rate of feedback extortion, once buyers realized how much was at stake for those sellers.  So now, the TRS criteria are factors over which the seller has some control, not the buyer.  Buyer satisfaction is included indirectly, as part of the "transaction defect rate."

http://pages.ebay.com/ne/en-us/sell/July2009Update/faq/index.html#1-3

http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/top-rated.html

[luckythewinner]

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@checktwelve wrote:
Why aren't eBay Buyers' opinions and reviews recognized and incorporated into the criteria? 

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They used to be part of the criteria.

But sellers on this board overwhelmingly complained this was unfair because this opened them up to extortion from buyers and sabotage from other sellers.

When they were finally eliminated as criteria, this was met with almost unversal praise from sellers here.

[pingpong517]

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@checktwelve wrote:

I'm losing confidence in buying products through eBay from other than 100% rated sellers. 

My question: Why doesn't eBay include buyer ratings and reviews as a Top Rated /Plus requirement?

There are many Top Rated and Top Rated Plus sellers with Postive Feedback ratings in the mid to high 90th percentile. Sure - with hundreds, if not thousands of transactions, you might have some unhappy customers; however, peruse Top Sellers with 97% or even 99%. ratings and you'll read 'junk' and 'no communication', etc. with lame seller comments or resolution. Top Rated critiera simply involves same-day handling,  tracking within one day, easy returns and 'easy' 30-day returns (buyer generally pays). There is also a 'defect rate' but it's not public. Why aren't eBay Buyers' opinions and reviews recognized and incorporated into the criteria? I think the answer is money - such entities generate huge eBay profit - and eBay is 'in the business of makign money'. Well - Costco, Kohls, Lowes, and most notably - Amazon strive for true 100% customer statisfaction!  eBay should take note of the competiton & hold their 'Top Rated / Plus' sellers to higher standards!  Let's band together and avoid those sellers with poor track records. 

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100% huh?  well if that all you think make them so goo..you don't have a real idea of what all goes into selling... face it... buyer can say anything and even use the feedback to get there wat...and not extortion, but they know that sellers fear the possible negative.... and scammers know it for sure, so have no care about giving it. AND remember a 97.3% seller is that till the neg falls off then they are 100% again...so did that mak a difference?  AND remember is is a % so high volume sellers will have more but and low vol sellers may have one, but the % maybe the same.... 

And if a seller really could control every possible thing, shipping( usps,ups,fedex) , a buyers "expectation" or change of mind, or a million reasons... anyways you get the idea....

NOW with all that said...I too look at the feedback and I will say I may shy away from anything under 95% +/-... looking at what what said makes the difference many times on the boarderlind ones( due to less selling etc..)... 100% is nice but i stopped losing sleep and worring about it...do my best to do what is right and if they are happy and feel thay have to slap me..so be it...

I have said this many times... it is EBAY, not a real world..no one will point and whisper at you... negative come and go...and almost nothing to little to stop them...even the very best of seller going to get one...and they will lose sleep....but 100% always...not as important as looking at the quality of the feedbacks...

[scribe.adept13]

Why aren't eBay Buyers' opinions and reviews recognized and incorporated into the criteria? 

Because everyone has an opinion - and sometimes that opinion is not based upon fact or actuality?

Feedback was taken into account back in the day.  And, as mentioned, the system was misused something fierce. 

It still is, to be honest, because eBay has skewed it 100% in the buyer's favor with its refusal to allow sellers to accurately reflect a buyer's part in the transaction.

We have over 17k feedback and are at 99.8% positive.  Most of the negatives received  were avoidable if the people working here then had been a bit more responsible or professional.  But think on this for a moment:  we were at 99.9% positive just a bit ago, had worked very hard to get there, and one negative took us down.  The negative was unwarranted, contained personal information which was inappropriate, and eBay actually removed the content.  But the negative did not technically violate any policy, supposedly doesn't count against us and was left.  We've had many positive feedback since then - and yet we're still at 99.8%

So while feedback is not a factor in the TRS program any longer, the buyers still have the ability to manipulate a seller's 'reputation' one way or the other while the seller has no method of doing likewise.

~M

[midohioimports]

Probably because you can't please everyone...and there are some nutty, unreasonable and flat out nasty people in this world and some of them buy on Ebay. Go get a job waiting tables or pretty much anything involving customer service. Come back after a year and tell me if your customers were 100% satisfied.

[usgamecollector]

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@checktwelve wrote:

I'm losing confidence in buying products through eBay from other than 100% rated sellers. 

My question: Why doesn't eBay include buyer ratings and reviews as a Top Rated /Plus requirement?

There are many Top Rated and Top Rated Plus sellers with Postive Feedback ratings in the mid to high 90th percentile. Sure - with hundreds, if not thousands of transactions, you might have some unhappy customers; however, peruse Top Sellers with 97% or even 99%. ratings and you'll read 'junk' and 'no communication', etc. with lame seller comments or resolution. Top Rated critiera simply involves same-day handling,  tracking within one day, easy returns and 'easy' 30-day returns (buyer generally pays). There is also a 'defect rate' but it's not public. Why aren't eBay Buyers' opinions and reviews recognized and incorporated into the criteria? I think the answer is money - such entities generate huge eBay profit - and eBay is 'in the business of makign money'. Well - Costco, Kohls, Lowes, and most notably - Amazon strive for true 100% customer statisfaction!  eBay should take note of the competiton & hold their 'Top Rated / Plus' sellers to higher standards!  Let's band together and avoid those sellers with poor track records. 

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because a lot of buyers leave bad feedback for no reason. Feedback is easy to see, that is why it's not included in top rated.

[deep-garnet-red]

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@luckythewinner wrote:

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@checktwelve wrote:
Why aren't eBay Buyers' opinions and reviews recognized and incorporated into the criteria? 

---

They used to be part of the criteria.

But sellers on this board overwhelmingly complained this was unfair because this opened them up to extortion from buyers and sabotage from other sellers.

When they were finally eliminated as criteria, this was met with almost unversal praise from sellers here.

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Just like buyers when they could no longer receive negatives.

[thatsallfolks]

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@checktwelve wrote:

Top Rated critiera simply involves same-day handling,  tracking within one day, easy returns and 'easy' 30-day returns (buyer generally pays).  

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None of those are criteria for Top Rated. They're for Top Rated PLUS listings. Different thing.

[deep-garnet-red]

I just shake my head when I see people come on here and advise against buying from any seller that has less than 99% feedback ratings. The percentage means nothing. It's just an indicator that one should look at the feedback more closely.

Years ago I bought a Stanley Kubrick DVD box set from China. The seller had a bunch of negs. Most of them were from idiots who complained that it took time for something to get here from China. The ones for the item I was buying claimed they were bootlegs. They weren't. They just weren't packaged for sale in the US. Awesome deal.

[mr_lincoln]

@checktwelve  What's good for the goose is good for the gander.  Since the current Feedback System is not balanced and in my opinion highly subjective it is, on a certain level, pointless.  At times when I have read NEG FB left for Sellers it boarders on juvenile and it is quite obvious those Buyer should not even be permitted to leave FB. 

1. Buyers are allowed to leave three (3) finds of FB for Sellers

2. Sellers are allowed to leave ONLY one (1) type of FB for Buyers

The other companies you mentioned are set up differently than eBay so there is no comparison.  eBay Sellers are for the most part all individuals.  Many do it part time.

The other issue is that Sellers keep getting held to higher and higher standards and the rules keep changing and becoming more complitcated.  But Buyers really don't care about the rules and regulations, they just want what they want when they want it and to pay as little as possible and a % of them are not above being dishonest and work the system so they get the item for FREE and then in some twisted and dimented way "twist the knife" so to speak in the Seller by posting neg FB. 

In  closing, I will agree that there are both good and bad Sellers & Buyers ... it is not a perfect world to be sure ... but the current FB system is just too antiquated, un-balnaced and subjective to accurately support the current online sales type venue.

[mr_lincoln]

@partial*eclipse

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@partial*eclipse wrote:

When the Top Rated Seller system was first introduced, feedback WAS one of the criteria, as well as DSR scores.  This led to an unacceptable rate of feedback extortion, once buyers realized how much was at stake for those sellers.  So now, the TRS criteria are factors over which the seller has some control, not the buyer.  Buyer satisfaction is included indirectly, as part of the "transaction defect rate." 

http://pages.ebay.com/ne/en-us/sell/July2009Update/faq/index.html#1-3

 http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/top-rated.html

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Thanks for the post but just want to clarify ... the links you gave, there is not a date later than 2010 so are these still in force or just an example you had to share from a historical standpoint.  The one point I find interesting is marked ...