I am a top rated concierge seller with 100% positive feedback and have been for years. I want to break down the predatory eBay service metric scam for you. On your seller dashboard if you click on "performance" and "service metrics" you will see a chart of "item not as described" and "item not received". What is so predatory about these metrics? eBay claims that they will review and possibly remove these defects if you report a buyer for improperly filing there return claim. That is completely false. I have always reported buyers who misuse the return feature on eBay and have never had a defect remove. That is because this is a scam for eBay to charge 50% more on your final value fees and remove any top rated seller discounts for the category you are selling the products in that receive the defects. This 50% increase will go on until you drop down into what they consider "industry standard".
I sell a lot of clothing, I take actual photos of all my items, pictures of all the tags inner and hang tags. I also purchase all my items directly from manufacturer outlet stores in my area. They are all 100% authentic. You would be amazed how many defects I get from buyers opening return claims for "doesn't seem authentic" or "doesn't match description or photos" because they say the color is different. Or, they just select one of those without even paying attention when the item may have just "not fit" or they just "did not like it". The worst thing is I offer free returns with all these items. I am not fighting these returns and provide a return label but these defects still post and count against my account. eBay claims that all your peers are under the "same standard", so essentially you are telling me that eBay is screwing all sellers with this policy. This is what happens when a company is publicly owned and is struggling to show year over year growth. They come up with predatory policies to increase profits and shareholder value while decreasing the profits of small business owners like myself who use there service daily.
Even more ludicrous is the "item not received" service metric. Basically if you ship an item to a buyer and the tracking shows as delivered sellers have always been protected and they still are as far as monetarily on that purchase. What is ridiculous is that eBay actually counts that "item not received" against your service metrics even when the post office scans the package as delivered. I have absolutely no control over USPS delivery scans outside of my local post office that I work with. Even more absurd I was told by an eBay concierge representative that I should find another shipping company to work with. Last time I checked there were three options UPS, FED-EX and USPS. The lowest cost most reliable option is USPS.
You would be surprised to see how many buyer with "no feedback" file these return request for "items not described" or "doesn't seem authentic", etc. These are brand new accounts or people with only a few feedbacks opening claims against someone who has been a top rated seller for 15 years. New account should have this feature unavailable, especially when it comes to sellers who have showed consistent behavior of exceptional service year after year.
I am sure this is not the last time you will hear about this topic.
