ebay's Ranking Algorithms Are A Joke!

[gamersbaystore]

As part of ebay Open 2022, director of product management & search, Pravesh Katyal, explains how ebay is further punishing sellers ability to rank based on aspects that remain completely outside of their control.

Katyal explains the more SNAD and INR claims you receive, the lower you will rank.

Too bad sellers have no control over the garbage estimated delivery dates ebay gives to buyers. ebay ignores sellers shipping policies, including handling times, and ebay is the one who decides what the estimates are.

What Katyal is saying is the more buyers who lie about the reasons for their returns, and open cases for INR's as a result of ebay's incompetence, the lower sellers will rank as a result.

I have been hammered with constant item not received claims this entire year! All orders were shipped within my stated handling time, all were received by buyers.

How are we supposed to avoid INR's when we haven't an ounce of control over what the delivery estimates are?

And let's face it, buyers are rarely ever honest about the reasons for their returns.

So this explains why my store has been trashed in search this year and I'm getting practically zero traffic. All those INR's have destroyed my business, and at no fault of my own. I've tried extending my handling times, ebay just ignores it.

Remember sellers, ebay says its your fault ebay lied to your buyers with junk delivery estimates.

Here's the video where Katyal explains how ebay is further trashing its sellers:

Fundamental Training Session: How to Make Search and Promoted Listings Work for You 

[eunster1313]

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@vintage_sterling_spoon_rings wrote:

Not sure what (or where) the 'Buyer Level' page is or even how it affects sellers. I looked for it but it seems you need to be renting an 'eBay Store' to get one.

I only spend about 5 hours a week on my eBay account but by being retired and having time to address each and every sale when it happens I've never seen any of the problems being talked about in this thread.

Guess there are advantages to being a 'little guy' here on eBay.

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(Not sure what (or where) the 'Buyer Level' page is or even how it affects sellers.)

There is no Buyer Level Page.

[gamersbaystore]

I checked and I have monday thru friday set as working days. I've tried playing around with these settings, it doesn't seem to make any difference.

You can find the page by clicking summary, account, then scroll down and click shipping preferences.

[vintage_sterling_spoon_rings]

Thanks 'eunster1313' I'd never heard of it either until someone posted a screen shot of it on page 5 in this thread.

[eunster1313]

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@vintage_sterling_spoon_rings wrote:

Thanks 'eunster1313' I'd never heard of it either until someone posted a screen shot of it on page 5 in this thread.

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That was me that posted it. 

[vintage_sterling_spoon_rings]

Pardon my asking but if you posted it... Why are you now saying that it doesn't exist?

No need to answer, it doesn't matter in my eBay world, I promise I won't look for it again. ☺

[gamestoysandmorestore]

Ive been getting lots of returns for items "not as described" or "does not fit"
Computer games that will not work on new PCS-buyers fault
Clothing that buyer claims is 2 sizes too small for them- buyers fault
Such examples should not hurt your search ranking but they do. My sales die off if my return rate goes above 1 percent at any time. 
As for promoted listings. I can list 20 new items without promoted and will not even get a single view for 2 or 3 days. And these are like commonly sold items such as supplements or video games. I try 2 percent and traffic barely comes in. 
Every time they do a system update or seller update my views and solds go drastically down.
With ebays stock so low right now they need to figure out how to retain their sellers or ebay will be a sinking ship. 

[elizabeth@ebay]

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@iamonourside wrote:

I beg your pardon elizabeth@ebay  but your contention that rankings are not affected by individual instances of item not received directly contradicts the presentation by the manager of the ranking algorithm that was the subject of this thread.

You state:

1. Ranking doesn’t get impacted by these one-off used cases, unless a significant portion of buyers complain that they don’t get the item on time, we don’t hold it against the seller."

In contrast, Mr. Amit Sharma, stated beginning at time stamp 7:07: 

"Last is really the customer service that you provide which gets reflected in your history. So any escalations like item not received, item is not accurately described or any of the former bad buyer experiences impact your ranking in a negative way,"

I believe you are thinking only of the way fee penalties are assessed only after 10 reports of SNAD.

Why would you interject information so emphatically? Was Mr. Sharma being sloppy in his information?

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Hi @iamonourside. Thank you for sharing your feedback on this. The response provided was coming directly from the team regarding this issue, but I'll be sure to pass this back to them. If they provide a response, I will be sure to reach right back out to you. 

[ckimodog]

@vintage_sterling_spoon_rings 

I did that to my mail carrier.  She tore it up and threw it in the street. 

[vintage_sterling_spoon_rings]

ckimodog wrote: I did that to my mail carrier. She tore it up and threw it in the street.

Time to go to your local post office and file a complaint.... And no Christmas tip for the carrier.

[ckimodog]

@vintage_sterling_spoon_rings 

I have had a few carriers do this.  I had another one who when I asked if she could scan my packages for me (very politely)  she ignored me and kept talking on her phone to her boyfriend who she was screaming at...  Nice huh? Last year I had a great carrier but she transferred to another area that was closer to home.  I used to give her homemade salsa just being being so attentive.  I really appreciated her because I know these couriers have a lot going on.  They're working the 3 times the routes  that they used to have and that's a lot of work.  Some times my mail doesn't get here until 8:30 PM and it's worse during the holidays.  Many of these postal carriers are contract labor and work only seasonal like the holidays. 

[katzrul15]

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@pjcdn2005 wrote:

@katzrul15  Thank you!  I looked at that page earlier and I had missed it.

Hopefully the op lets us know if that might be the problem. 

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You are welcome - took me 2 tries as I missed it at first also!

[katzrul15]

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@ckimodog wrote:

@vintage_sterling_spoon_rings 

I did that to my mail carrier.  She tore it up and threw it in the street. 

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@ckimodog 

Wow.  HC route carrier!  (Might need more fiber in their diet.  Yikes!)

[critical_hit_gaming]

THIS^

I live two blocks from the post office. Some days I am a nice guy and package orders and get them the same day because I want to go for a walk and figure my customers might appreciate the quick packaging and delivery (which they do). This sets a precedent that shortens my expected delivery times and I noticed that I started to get REALLY short turnaround times for orders, especially on Friday-Sunday purchases. I have 1 business day handling, but Mr. Niceguy's fast shipping has caused stupid delivery times. So now I just have to let my customers wait it out over the weekend, which is fine because that's how it should be.

I like to have great customer service, my shop is 100% rated with incredibly happy customers. I pay for that happiness, and it causes problems down the road. Get a seller in the management at eBay, it's stupid to not have someone who has been in the seller trenches representing us at board meetings. 

[mr_lincoln]

@eunster1313 

Spiced Goose!!!  Sounds good to be honest.  Last year I did the Turkey for Thanksgiving on the low and slow cooking method ... overnight at 250 F ... the meat literally fell off the bone and was more tender than shorter higher temp methods.

I could see doing that with a goose too ...

Mr. L

[glasser]

Big disconnect here. On one hand they are saying here is how to improve your search results. OTOH, they are saying no worries you can now buy the top 4 slots and there will be more and highlighted PL in search results. They didn't indicate how hard they enforce integrity of PL to what is actually being sold.  Amazon is littered with irrelevant results because they don't enforce that. Because eBay has a financial stake in pay per click relevance to results may not be top of the list.