subject: How eBay's Feedback Policy Affects You As A Seller [print this page] How eBay's Feedback Policy Affects You As A Seller
ABOUT ME - If you are wondering what makes me an expert, or why I am writing about the details of policy on eBay, I will tell you a little bit about me and my story. In 2006 I was working as an ESL Teacher in Thailand. My salary was nothing to write home about, and I was looking for a way to earn extra money. I knew that there may be a potential to earn money selling products made in Thailand on eBay to customers overseas. I quickly learned that the demand for these products was greater than I realized. I was able to earn more than 400,000USD over the past 4 years on eBay. It is unfortunate we may see a drop in sale this year due to new eBay policy, and with all the new policies and changes it is likely that I will not be selling on eBay for much longer. I will share with you some of my experiences with eBay and how their new feedback policy has affected my business.
EBAY FEEDBACK POLICY - In 2008 eBay launched a controversial new policy that sellers can no longer leave negative or neutral feedback for buyers. Now in the past, both buyers and sellers could leave each other feedback for the transaction. Now that customers can leave negative feedback for sellers, and they know that the seller can not leave them anything but positive feedback, buyers can feel free to leave as much negative feedback as they want. This has angered sellers and sparked protests, and calls to boycott eBay all together. This policy was designed to improve buyer satisfaction, however by making it easier for buyers to complain, the result has been that there are more complaints. It is only common sense that customers will complain more if you make it easier for them to do so. Now that sellers can only leave positive feedback, feedback for buyers has no credibility whatsoever.
DETAILED SELLER RATINGS - Part of eBay's recent strategy is to also have a 5 star detailed seller rating for various criteria such as: communication, item as described, shipping time, shipping charges. This is another example of giving the customer more options to complain. Now a customer that can be very satisfied with the transaction as a whole, can leave positive feedback, but leave a lower DSR in any of the other categories. Having low DSRs can result in selling limits, or an outright suspension of a sellers account. So believe it or not, a seller can have thousands of successful transactions and 100% positive feedback without ever receiving a negative feedback, but low marks on shipping time, or shipping charges can result is a suspension. I am a little confused as to why customers are asked to rate a buyer based on the amount of money they are charged for shipping, because the cost is listed and they are aware of this before they purchase the item. They make a decision to purchase the item knowing the cost, why would you give them an opportunity to complain about it later. The answer is that eBay is tying to force sellers to offer free shipping. This is a hidden way to increase fees payed by sellers. Of course the more sellers that offer free shipping, the more buyers will begin to expect this. And this is the only way you can get top marks in this category of detailed seller ratings. The problem is, you have to pay for shipping, because in the real world shipping for free doesn't exist.
INTERNATIONAL SELLERS - All of eBay's policies seem to favor American sellers, for example the DSRs for shipping time and shipping charges. It is simply a fact of life that it will cost more and take longer to ship an item from overseas to the USA. Unfortunately customers will leave detailed seller ratings based on a comparison with domestic sellers. So if they are used to receiving items from domestic sellers in less than 1 week, and the cost is only a few dollars, they will feel less than satisfied about waiting 2-3 weeks for delivery from overseas and shipping charges that are double or triple the price. So why do they buy these items from overseas then? The customers buy items from international sellers for less than half the price of what it would cost them to buy the same item from domestic sellers. Reasonable people should take things like this into consideration, however not everyone is reasonable. There seems to be no protocol for a fair way to evaluate international sellers without bias. Another problem for international sellers is that unfortunately we live in a world where a certain amount of racism exists, so when a racist individual buys an item from an Asian, or anyone they perceive to be of a minority, they will not treat these people with the same degree of respect that they treat other people. This became very clear to me when I opened an eBay account registered in Thailand, many customers assumed I was Asian. I noticed a major increase in abusive emails from buyers. Often buyers would send me rude emails in pigeon English, assuming that I was not capable of reading and writing at the same level as them. This is a difficult issue but it is something that eBay should try to address.
EBAY SELLING LIMITS - In October 2010 the Internet has been exploding with complaints from sellers about eBay's new selling limits. The forums and chat boards are alive with discussion about this new policy. The policy is that new sellers can now only have 10 transactions per 30 day period, until they establish a good selling history. Now it makes plenty of sense to limit new sellers, and not to allow new sellers to jump on eBay and sell as much as they like. I am a little concerned that the limit of 10 items is so little that you can not even establish a selling history. You need to be able to sell in order to establish a selling history. It may take up to 1 year before new sellers have achieved the selling history eBay requires in order to have enough transactions to make a living. New sellers are not the only sellers affected, power sellers with thousands of feedback and years of selling history are also in some cases limited to 100 transactions per 30 day period. Now for people that sell low cost items this is not enough sales volume to earn a living. Many sellers may be forced off eBay and it may be time for them to get a 9-5 job. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that these selling limits are going to cause a catastrophic loss in revenue and sales commission for eBay. It may be all part of an elaborate plan, as it seems that the face of eBay is changing forever.
