eBay

checktwelve · ‎07-14-2017

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.

checktwelve · ‎07-14-2017

To all who took time to contribute ... thanks for the reality check. I'm simply spoiled (prior military) where one of our community values is 'Integrity First' - trusting others to be honest and forthright. Well - all of your inputs hit me upside the head. I especially liked the waiter analogy ... how many grumpy, hating-life customers would be 100% satisfied ... yes, I know ... they're out there. The next 'eBay is not the real world' was another gem. My condolences to those who encouther such imbiciles, and my apologies for not 'getting it'. I presume it is proper to not divulge a seller's defect rate, and perhaps it's even old school to post customer reveiws ... hmm. Yelp, Google, Angie's List, Handymans Reviews, and even the BBB use variations of the familiar and somewhat useful five-star with comments. Even those retailers I mentioned include product reveiws I've found useful in buying equipment or higher-value items such as a lathe, hedge trimmer, baby crib, etc.). I guess the adage 'Buyer Be Wary' is universal and timeless. Perhaps, in our lifetimes, as big data analytics progress, we'll be able to distinguish between honesty & dishonesty, quality & junk, and whether products, services, manufacturers, sellers, or buyers are true. Thanks again to all who joined the dicussion. I'll continue to be wary and do my purchasing homework and will give less than perfect report cards the benefit of remembering the 'Two Percent' rule I learned as a young Lieutenant.

midohioimports · ‎07-14-2017

@checktwelve wrote:
To all who took time to contribute ... thanks for the reality check. I'm simply spoiled (prior military) where one of our community values is 'Integrity First' - trusting others to be honest and forthright. Well - all of your inputs hit me upside the head. I especially liked the waiter analogy ... how many grumpy, hating-life customers would be 100% satisfied ... yes, I know ... they're out there. The next 'eBay is not the real world' was another gem. My condolences to those who encouther such imbiciles, and my apologies for not 'getting it'. I presume it is proper to not divulge a seller's defect rate, and perhaps it's even old school to post customer reveiws ... hmm. Yelp, Google, Angie's List, Handymans Reviews, and even the BBB use variations of the familiar and somewhat useful five-star with comments. Even those retailers I mentioned include product reveiws I've found useful in buying equipment or higher-value items such as a lathe, hedge trimmer, baby crib, etc.). I guess the adage 'Buyer Be Wary' is universal and timeless. Perhaps, in our lifetimes, as big data analytics progress, we'll be able to distinguish between honesty & dishonesty, quality & junk, and whether products, services, manufacturers, sellers, or buyers are true. Thanks again to all who joined the dicussion. I'll continue to be wary and do my purchasing homework and will give less than perfect report cards the benefit of remembering the 'Two Percent' rule I learned as a young Lieutenant.

I have to say, I'm pretty impressed with your response here. A lot of people show up here with a pretty close minded point of view... and every issue is a new hill to die on, so to speak.

I mentioned waiting tables, but what I didn't mention is that everyone makes mistakes. I once switched shipping labels between two packages, for example. The difference is in the seller being willing to acknowledge a mistake and make it right. Also, there are plenty of times that the seller has no idea that there is a problem until they see the negative feedback....although that may have changed, I think Ebay encourages buyers to contact their seller first before leaving a neg.

wolf*song · ‎07-14-2017

To be fair, there are plenty of nasty and/or unreasonable sellers on Ebay, too. 😉

wolf*song · ‎07-14-2017

Funny, I bought a baseball card lot a few weeks back (then went back for another, more expensive lot from the same seller), for 5 bucks and change. The money was going to help a little league team pay for equipment, uniforms, meals, etc, and you know I'm all about that karma and keeping my chi in balance. 🙂 The listing states you'll receive 100+ cards from varying companies, and you're guaranteed a certain amount of cards pre-1979, die cuts and inserts, and on the 5 buck lot at least one of the "pic" cards (the 15 buck lot includes 5 of these cards), which were cards shown in the pictures that may be more collectible than the others. However, the pic cards included Mantles, and signed balls, and jerseys, and you can see where this is going...

I couldn't believe the number of negative reviews saying that what was promised wasn't received. I saw the words "scam" and "rip off" and "bait and switch". Unreal. My comment was positive, and said "Complainers r trying to get rich off a $5 set of cards..." A reasonable person would understand that if it were that easy, the team wouldn't need your measly 5 dollars to continue playing.

Get a grip, friends and neighbors. Feedback sometimes means as much as what comes outta the business end of a bull.

partial*eclipse · ‎07-15-2017

@mr_lincoln wrote:
@partial*eclipse
@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
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 ...

The first link that I gave is from the very first year of the TRS program, so many or even most of the policies are obsolete. For instance towards the bottom of your box is a reference to DSRs, which are no longer used in determining TRS stats. I just wanted to show that feedback had originally been mentioned. Both feedback and DSRs are subject to abuse by sneaky buyers.

rolenboy01 · ‎07-15-2017

You DO NOT become a Top Rated Seller by being a scammer unless you are a chinese seller of course but most of them aren't really scammers they just sell poor quality products, so if you see "Poor Reviews" they are usually extremely picky people or scammers completely lying out their teeth.

luckythewinner · ‎07-15-2017

@wolf*song wrote:
The money was going to help a little league team pay for equipment, uniforms, meals, etc, and you know I'm all about that karma and keeping my chi in balance. 🙂
{snip}
the pic cards included Mantles, and signed balls, and jerseys,
{snip}
My comment was positive, and said "Complainers r trying to get rich off a $5 set of cards..."

But on the other hand, not everyone shopping on eBay is looking to keep their chi in balance or to be philanthropic to little league teams.

Some people are simply looking to receive what was being advertised, and it sounds like this team had no business showing rare and expensive cards in the pictures if the buyer wasn't going to receive them.

tunicaslot · ‎07-15-2017

I'm all for truth in advertising but really had these buyers read the description - it's like a lottery. You're taking a gamble on finding a gem in the pack - but meanwhile - you're helping out a good cause. Many people these days are very shallow and it's all about them.

Back in the day - people use to be able to see the whole picture - these days folks can't see farther than the end of their noses.

wolf*song · ‎07-15-2017

You DO receive one of the "pic" cards. There are many, MANY pictured, most spread out all over a table. Not only that, but as the packs with those cards go out, the pictures are updated to reflect what's left.

People don't read the listing, or they don't understand it. My "pic" card was a Diamond Collection card with Luis Severino. It's not an expensive card, it's worth a few bucks, but I was happy to have it. I forgot to mention that every pack sold after 6/17, I think, included an Aaron Judge rookie card. Those two cards alone were worth the price of the set, and anyone who bought a pack after that date should be one happy camper, considering where Judge is headed this year.

Lack of common sense and/or reading comprehension caused this seller to receive negative reviews, and nothing else. No one was ripped off, or was a victim of bait-and-switch. They didn't get a signed Mickey Mantle card and, ahem, cried foul. 🙂

Anonymous · ‎07-15-2017

Because even eBay with its pro-buyer stance they realizes there are three sides to every story... The buyer's side, the seller's side, and cold hard facts. Also certain categories have a very high percentage of unreasonable, immature or scammer buyers whose expectations cannot possible be met. Slow courier service, buyers not reading listings or even understanding what they are ordering.