Top Rated Seller Badge

[jbjunction]

I sell products that require a 2-3 day production time to personalize an item.  Does anyone know how I can maintain my top rated status? Can't find any info regarding listings that cannot be shipped in 1 day.

Thanks!

[luckythewinner · Accepted solution]

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@jbjunction wrote:

I sell products that require a 2-3 day production time to personalize an item.  Does anyone know how I can maintain my top rated status? Can't find any info regarding listings that cannot be shipped in 1 day.

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You are confusing two different things.

"Top Rated" is a status given to a seller for meeting certain requirements and is evaluated monthly. Top Rated does not require 1-day shipping. This status improves your listing scores in Best Match (it is debatable how much difference this makes) and gives you better shipping discounts.

"Top Rated Plus" is a status given to an individual listing by a Top Rated seller if it meets the additional requirements, such as 1-day shipping. This status gives your listing a badge and provides for a 10% discount on the item price portion of the final value fees.

You can be a Top Rated seller without having 1-day shipping, because that is not one of the requirements for Top Rated.

Your listing cannot be Top Rated Plus without having 1-day shipping, because that is one of the requirements for Top Rated Plus. 

[jbjunction]

Thank you so much for your quick response and explanation. I knew I had to be missing something. 

[Anonymous]

Top Rated Seller pretty much means nothing anymore. No recognition in search results, no badge, no discount. The only place a buyer can see you're Top Rated it is if they happen to look on your feedback page. To be Top Rated Plus and receive the previously mentioned things, you have to offer "Free Shipping", free returns, and at least 30 day returns. Many sellers won't jump through the latest eBay hoops and offer free returns because it will only increase returns and result in a bigger loss than if you were getting the FVF discount. So eBay found another way to F sellers dropping them from the Plus rating, in which eBay doesn't have to give out those FVF discounts to them. Every new eBay policy is meant for more $ for eBay. Period.

[castlemagicmemories]

Many buyers don't think TRS means anything because of bad experiences they have had with them.   They may have no greater chance of a successful transaction with a TRS than they have with a rank newbie.  In fact, some will purposely avoid a TRS seller because of their bad experiences.

[Anonymous]

The most problems buyers have are always going to be with the large TRS+ sellers that have hundreds or thousands of negatives on their account. But somehow they keep their seller status = they are making a lot $ for eBay. A lot of them don't care much about any transaction in particular and it doesn't matter if they give bad/slow service, wrong item, bad packaging, etc. because they're untouchable.

[castlemagicmemories]

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@Anonymous wrote:
The most problems buyers have are always going to be with the large TRS+ sellers that have hundreds or thousands of negatives on their account. But somehow they keep their seller status = they are making a lot $ for eBay. A lot of them don't care much about any transaction in particular and it doesn't matter if they give bad/slow service, wrong item, bad packaging, etc. because they're untouchable.

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I understand, but many of these aren't the mega TRS sellers~they are the smaller ones.  Their listings may be inaccurate, resulting in legitimate SNADs, but they may fight every return tooth and nail because they believe every buyer is a scammer and there is no such thing as a legitimate SNAD, even if the issue is seen in their (poor) pictures~even if you questioned the damage, and seller told you the item was fine.  Often this results in a string of abusive, hostile, accusatory, profanity laced messages designed to intimidate the buyer into abandoning the return.

[pcobra93]

More often this is the revere.....buyers are typically the abusive ones!!

[magnet40]

I totally agree. I have been a top rated seller plus forever and did everything to keep my status but the new requirement of offering free 30 day returns is just not worth it to maintain this status. We used to get a 20% final value fee then that dropped it to 10% and now they have taken that from us also with this new requirement. I now have changed all of my listing to no longer accept returns and have not noticed any change in my sales. I believe ebay has tried to put more money in their pockets and not only are the sellers losing out but I don't think they realize they are also hurting the potential buyers by the many top rated sellers plus who I am sure will do the same as I have and don't accept returns.

[castlemagicmemories]

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@pcobra93 wrote:

More often this is the revere.....buyers are typically the abusive ones!!

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It depends on which you are buyer or seller.

If a buyer, then it will be the seller.

[castlemagicmemories]

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@pcobra93 wrote:

More often this is the revere.....buyers are typically the abusive ones!!

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You might be interested in this thread by many well known Board regulars, mostly sellers, who detail the high percentage of SNADs they received as their purchases and the hostile, abusive "customer service" that ensued.

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/I-m-beginning-to-see-what-buyers-contend-with/m-p/27854770#M11...

Many of these have been on Ebay since its' inception and that loyalty was severely strained and in some cases, broken by these experiences.  Not saying there aren't abusive buyers but there are indeed abusive sellers.

[mexicanmarket]

Thanks! This is the answer I was looking for! 🙂