eBay

longtimealaskan · ‎04-26-2018

Top rated seller status is over-rated. IMO it isn't worth striving for. Ebay gives the seller a miniscule discount but strives to take the TRS status away for asinine reasons. If there are any ebay staff monitoring these forums you are welcome to take my top rated status away from me as well, and I wish you would. It is a farce. I gained a Power Seller status but pulled all of my listings and let it expire. There are too many strings attached to these labels an ebay is a pain in the a-- regarding their asinine policies.

Why do I feel this way you may ask? The TRS seller works his tail off making sure everything is done right. Then something goes wrong. In my case the USPS lost a package. Not my fault. Wrong! According to ebay it is my fault because I chose the shipper. My response to ebay was Fine! You tell me which shipper has never lost or damaged a package and I will promptly switch to that shipper. I got no response from ebay. I wonder why. So ebay in their infinite wisdom gave me a defect because, in their opinion, I chose the wrong shipper. They said the defect didn't really affect me. Then why give it? I didn't lose the package. The cost of the item was refunded to the buyer. The item was insured so I got paid by USPS. But ebay still gave me a defect. In my opinion ebay itself operates with a huge number of defects.

Ebay has dinged me for returns. I have never, ever had a return wherein I had an item returned to me. On two occasions a buyer bought an item from me and while packaging the item for shipping I noticed a minor flaw. I immediately contacted the buyer in both cases, explained about the flaw, and asked if they still wanted the item or a refund. In both cases the buyer took the refund. In neither case was the item ever shipped. So where in Hell is the return ebay dinged me for? I'm assuming ebay in their infinite wisdom views a refund as a return, even though the items were never shipped.

My question for ebay: What in Hell did you want me to do? I found the flaw before the item was shipped. The buyer was given a refund. Did I do something wrong? Was I supposed to ship a flawed item and hope the buyer would miss the flaw? Why do I get dinged for returns for an item that was never shipped? Ebay does so many stupid things it is unbelievable. They promote top rated sellers but do everything they can, using asinine reasons, to take the staus away from a seller once the seller has top rated seller status. So please just take my top rated status. I won't miss it a bit.

Here's another little goodie. If I look on my dashboard it shows 1 return between May 2017 and April 30, 2018. When I click on the button "see details" it shows no returns over the period of 18 months. I'm getting dinged for a return this past year but according to ebay I have had no returns for the past 18 months. So which is it ebay? Creating fictitious returns, as Trump would say "Fake News"! is another example of ebay striving to take the TRS status away. Take it. Please, just take it. It isn't worth any extra effort on my part going forward. Ebay 's over zealous rules and "Fake News" is more than I want to deal with.

vintagecraze50 · ‎04-26-2018

You're welcome! Do not get discouraged, it can happen too easily and melt your dreams--do your best always and roll with the punches. I am certain you have had many wonderful sales and pleased buyers.

mod-designs4u · ‎04-26-2018

I just got the TRS and Powerseller status and I don't put much weight on it. The only indication of the status is on the Feedback and Me link and there's no exposure in the search results and listings. Ebay used to include "Top Rated Seller" and "Powerseller" in the search results. Now you have to be a "Top Rated Plus" seller to get the status included in the search results (it appears that my ranking in the search results has improved, though). This program is Ebay's way of trying to get all sellers to accept 30 day returns and do free shipping. This concept works fine for large businesses who do high volume but not practical for the small business. I sell used vintage items and I examine all of my products under a spot light with a magnifier to make sure the condition description is correct. My worst fear is selling something and then noticing an additional flaw upon packing the item. Yikes! My second fear is accidentally breaking the item while packing it. A few years ago I accidentally broke a drinking glass for which was part of a set. The customer was cool about it and I gave him a refund...this was before Ebay invented the "return penalty" for the defect calculation. The irony is that Ebay wants sellers to accept returns but we get dinged on the Performance Standard for doing so.

castlemagicmemories · ‎04-26-2018

@bubbleman2010 wrote:
The return you're looking for is hidden on the top bar clear over to the right it has a CK or something wierd like that. If you get involved with ebays secret illuminutti you can get a 20% discount and don't have to do all the circus dog jumping they require. To gain access to the illuminutti you'll need to know the secret hand signal and their theme song....

Theme song~"illuminutti"~perhaps "You Light Up My Life"?

castlemagicmemories · ‎04-26-2018

Some buyers feel the TRS means nothing, you have no greater chance of a successful transaction than you do with the rankest amateur newbie seller.

If you do get a not as described item, with the damage obscurely seen in the picture, and you contact them, you may get treated to a string of abusive, hostile, profanity laced message, topped off with a false abusive negative feedback comment in a positive format.

tellmemama · ‎04-27-2018

@longtimealaskan wrote:
By the way, the flaw was a teeny tiny hairline crack about .25 inches long. I had to look at it with a magnifying glass before I could tell it was actually a flaw. It is doubtful the buyer would have noticed it. I saw it when I was packing it and under the right kind of light I saw something that caught my attention. As I said I couldn't tell it was a flaw until I used a magnifying glass. I've never had a buyer tell me I missed something. Would you have caught such a miniscule flaw?

Maybe. Maybe not. But that isn't the point. Our jobs as sellers is to be the eyes and hands for the buyer since they cannot physically see or touch the item. It's very possible the buyer may not have seen the flaw either. Again, not the point.

The point is you decided how to handle it without giving the buyer any input. A better approach may have been to contact the buyer with apologies and photos of the crack asking how s/he would like to proceed. The buyer could have been searching for it for a while and might have still wanted it. Or s/he may have had a different resolution be it a cancellation, a partial refund, or a ship it anyway.

Now you'll never know.

Joe

longtimealaskan · ‎04-28-2018

Thank you. I understand exactly what you are saying. It's presumably in ebay's best interest to have top rated sellers and I understand those sellers should be held to a higher standard but it seems that ebay willing throws top rated sellers under the bus. I got my defect because of a combination of things: the USPS lost my shipment and ebay customer service gave me bad advice/wrong information. I said I was a top rated seller. I actually am a top rated plus. That shows how little attention I pay to ebays games. I'd rather they just removed that status like they did my Power seller status when I pulled all my listings. The return penalty is silly. In real life/in real stores people return things. I'm not aware of any penalty associated with returns at genuine stores. I'm not aware of penalties associated with online stores other than ebay. It's apparently an attempt to make them look better than real stores except the sellers are probably the only ones that are aware of it.

I can't search for my own items. The search shows I have no listings. It's a flaw in ebay's listing program. I've gone round and round with ebay and they won't accept that the problem is on their side. They always tell me they can find my listings. They tell me it's my computer. They tell me I'm not searching properly. Whatever excuse they can find. I finally determined that the flaw relates primarily to Alaska listings. I opened a second ebay account under a different name in a different state and zip code and can find my listings. I found that I can change the zip code in one of my listings to an out of state listing and can find my listings. I told ebay what I found and they said they would look into it. That was months ago and they've done nothing to fix the problem. Yet they are quick to throw a penalty at me if I do something they deem as wrong.

I sell on ebay but I don't feel I owe ebay any particular allegiance. I owe my allegiance and honesty to my buyers. I would never knowingly/willfully cheat anyone. But I really dislike the games ebay plays and the fact they do not treat sellers equally.

longtimealaskan · ‎04-28-2018

Hi Joe,

What you said isn't true, at least if I correctly understood what you said. When I found the flaw I did contact the buyer and explained about the flaw I found. I did apologize. And I did ask the buyer if he still wanted the item or would like a refund. The only decision I made was to contact the buyer and explain the problem. The buyer made the decision, which is the appropriate way it should be done. So yes, I do know. I did not offer a partial refund because it didn't occur to me.

zirkni · ‎04-28-2018

I find in business it is best not to take problems personally and react emotionally or get angry as you seem to be. IMHO TRS is a program more targeted at making buyers feel assured or secure purchasing on eBay than as a reward for good sellers. I agree some of the reasons for failing to attain or losing TRS seem strange. As long as you are still achieving a reasonable sell through. Don't wory about it. In terms of what most buyers care about and what I care about as a buyer are (1) feedback and (2) evidence in feedback ratings of shipping time (3) and items as described. I could care less as a buyer if the person I am buying from is a TRS.

One thing I think eBay could improve is to weight feedback higher than analytical shipping metrics such as tracking numbers in awarding / withdrawing TRS status. Not every single product sold on eBay merits tracking. I may be wrong but I think that TRS evaluation takes into account the portion of your sales that have validated, timely uploaded tracking numbers. It does not make sense to pay extra for tracking if you are selling certain classes of items (I am not sure how the shipment of digital goods are "tracked" for example). A better way would be just to consider buyer feedback. For example if you had > 99.9% postive feedback you would automatically become a TRS. That's it. Keep it simple.

I think part of the reason why eBay becomes so complicated in its design and implimentation of policies and programs is because it is an older internet company with a lot of middle management who need to justify their jobs. There is probably a team of people just in charge of the TRS program. If they simplify the criteria for the program they may jeopardize their positions.

One way to correct this would be for large / instituional activitist shareholders to demand that eBay become more streamlined in its policies...because as your post shows they often tend to frustrate people more than improve the buying or selling experience. Feedback alone is sufficient to determine if a seller is good or not. Why complicate things more than that?

In my experiece Amazon is even worse in terms of "crazy" policies.

longtimealaskan · ‎04-28-2018

I agree with you that TRS is aimed more at the buyer than the seller but why does ebay seem to go out of their way to damage a seller's TRS? You are correct. I am angry. That's why I don't want the TRS+ status. I think ebay has more to lose than I do. I'm not doing this for the money. I'm doing it to sell things I've accumulated over a lifetime and no longer use or want. And I like trying different things.

Before they "gave" me that status I worked to give my buyers the best service I could. I still do. The TRS+ status hasn't changed how I work for my buyer but it has changed my relationship with ebay. I was a happier ebay seller before ebay "gave" me the TRS+. I would like to go back to that. I will still do what I am doing now, what I've been doing since I started selling on ebay, working for my buyers. That won't change. As I said earlier, I owe my allegiance to my buyers, not ebay. The piddling little benefits from having TRS+ means little to me. It would mean more to a large seller. I'm not a big seller so I make a couple of dollars a month more from ebay's discount. I was actually suprised when ebay gave me TRS+ and a Power seller because I'm not a big seller.

johnsonsales-wisconsin · ‎07-10-2018

"Top rated seller status is over-rated. IMO it isn't worth striving for. Ebay gives the seller a miniscule discount but strives to take the TRS status away for asinine reasons. " I have to disagree. Yes, the discount is minuscule and not worth all the effort it takes to maintain TRS, but the better visibility in searches can make a big difference. My sales have tanked since I lost the rating on my heavier items that I simply can not offer free returns on.

hillbillymedia · ‎07-10-2018

I have about 1000 items listed. I have seen, on my seller dashboard, only 3 qualify for trs discount LOL. I don`t intend to change much of the way I do things if I don`t have to, mostly because it`s always worked for me. I`m about as happy as I`m capable of being and my customers have, with a few exceptions, been happy. I just do the best I can and if a problem arrises I fix it to the best of my ability or come here to ask for advise. I try not to let ebay get under my skin too much but I think I fail at that more than I suceed as of late. I am lucky, I have the best customers I could ever hope for.

"There`s always barber college" - Dalton - Road House

castlemagicmemories · ‎07-10-2018

@longtimealaskan wrote:
Hi Joe,
What you said isn't true, at least if I correctly understood what you said. When I found the flaw I did contact the buyer and explained about the flaw I found. I did apologize. And I did ask the buyer if he still wanted the item or would like a refund. The only decision I made was to contact the buyer and explain the problem. The buyer made the decision, which is the appropriate way it should be done. So yes, I do know. I did not offer a partial refund because it didn't occur to me.

But without offering that, you were basically expecting the buyer to pay full price for something that you admitted had a flaw; a partial refund would have been your way of acknowledging that and that you did not expect the buyer to pay the price of the item that you presented as being flawless. That partial refund may have meant a happy customer, who might buy from you again, due to a positive experience. I understand there is no guarantee that the buyer may have accepted a partial refund, she may simply have wanted to cancel, but that choice was never offered to her.

castlemagicmemories · ‎07-10-2018

Many buyers don't think TRS means anything due to bad experiences and some actively avoid TRS seller for the same reason.

With all due respect, I am not sure why offering a partial refund did not occur to you when you say here that you worked to give the best service to your buyers that you could. The best service is offering the buyer choices, not just send or cancel, IMO.

Sorry this happened to you, OP, wishing you the best in the future.

luckythewinner · ‎07-10-2018

@johnsonsales-wisconsin wrote:
"Top rated seller status is over-rated. IMO it isn't worth striving for. Ebay gives the seller a miniscule discount but strives to take the TRS status away for asinine reasons. " I have to disagree.

I also disagree - because for me the TRS shipping discounts dwarf the TRS+ fee discount.

I have a TRS account and a newer non-TRS that hasn't hit the transaction count yet. On my TRS account, I pay $1 to $3 less per package for every First Class International package I send and it goes straight into my pocket.

That savings on shipping costs vastly outweighs the 20 or 30 cents I would earn with the TRS+ discount, and is primary reason why I strive for TRS. With the number of international sales I get, I would be a fool not to.

castlemagicmemories · ‎07-10-2018

@slippinjimmy wrote:
My question for ebay: What in Hell did you want me to do? I found the flaw before the item was shipped. The buyer was given a refund. Did I do something wrong? Was I supposed to ship a flawed item and hope the buyer would miss the flaw? Why do I get dinged for returns for an item that was never shipped?

They would like you to find the flaws BEFORE you list an item not after it's sold!

You got dinged BECAUSE you didn't ship, a buyer looked, found, bought, paid and then was disappointed when you canceled. If you don't think that's "doing something wrong" you need to think about how a buyer in that situation would feel.

Many sellers think like this, though. They consider they did all they can because they refunded. They don't think that doing all they could would have elminated the problem before it began (inspecting the item carefully to avoid finding a roblem prior to shipping), or that it was a negative experience for the buyer who decided to buy THEIR item, but came up empty handed, with wasted time and disappointed expectations.