Ebay sent me a "Top Rated Seller" Certificate...

notwilight

a
Unfortunately, before the certificate got here, I lost the rating as too many buyers rated my shipping slow, even though I ship every day and have replaced registered mail with express mail.

SoCal seems to have released a lot of postal employees as evidenced by the long lines at the post office. I guess first class just ain't fast enough to make ebay buyers happy.

--Jerry

ebaytrader

<< <i>a
Unfortunately, before the certificate got here, I lost the rating as too many buyers rated my shipping slow, even though I ship every day and have replaced registered mail with express mail.

SoCal seems to have released a lot of postal employees as evidenced by the long lines at the post office. I guess first class just ain't fast enough to make ebay buyers happy.

--Jerry >>




We'll shortly be loosing a TRS on one of our accounts for shipping & handling charges...except we ship for free with that account and have for over a year.

Coinlearner

....Received the same,a couple months ago,then lost it. Hope it does not return,as my ratings have gone up since.(1 4.8,rest 4.9)...Maybe the buyer sees that "Certificate" and expectations go unrealistic.

Broadstruck

OPA

<< <i>a
Unfortunately, before the certificate got here, I lost the rating as too many buyers rated my shipping slow, even though I ship every day and have replaced registered mail with express mail.

SoCal seems to have released a lot of postal employees as evidenced by the long lines at the post office. I guess first class just ain't fast enough to make ebay buyers happy.

--Jerry >>



Unfortunately, Registered Mail..aka Snail Mail...has a history for only being slightly quicker than Pony Express Mail. ( maybe that's why PCGS decided to drop that service for most of their return mailings) A majority of consumers have no clue why it takes so long. When mailing coins, changing over to First Class Package, Priority or Express Mail, should resolve your issue.

Russ

I'm currently one ding away from losing TRS. I didn't get no stinking certificate, though.

Russ, NCNE

wondercoin

"Priority" registered mail has been taking 10-15 days to and from S. CA this year at times. Many times, the market has changed dramatically (up or down) by the time the package arrives.

Good job on your TRS award!

Wondercoin

notwilight

I actually switched away from registered mail several months ago when I saw the negative effects. So it is not that.

I did sell some presales of Silver eagles so the buyers may have counted the time waiting for the coins to get here against my shipping.

I don't think it matters much but I don't really know if I'm losing sales or not. I've been buying some golf clubs on ebay and they are counterfeited so I do look at seller's feedback and reputation so Top Rated Seller is a positive there. This morning I bought from a guy who wasn't top rated but had good feedback.

--Jerry

19Lyds

"Why should I buy from Top-rated sellers?
Top-rated sellers have a track record of providing great customer service to eBay buyers. eBay regularly reviews the performance of these sellers to confirm that they continue to meet the program’s requirements."

Kinda makes the sellers on this "auction venue" sound like a shopping mall.

wondercoin

Really... if you pay with Paypal (and use your credit card), does it add much to deal with a TRS? The buyers have "all the power" anyway - no? I have heard of buyer(s) successfully reversing their purchases simply because the market changed over a 20-30 day period after their buy and they were not going to make the "killing" they originally anticipated. Makes it kind of hard to sell bullion related (or fast moving market) products knowing what the buyers are capable of. Why do these buyers really even need to worry about buying from a TRS too? I have spent a ton of money on ebay in the past month and the thought of buying from a TRS has NEVER crossed my mind.

Wondercoin

19Lyds

<< <i> I have spent a ton of money on ebay in the past month and the thought of buying from a TRS has NEVER crossed my mind.

Wondercoin >>



Me too!

I look at the product then look at the shipping. If the item warrants it, I'll look at the feedback but generally speaking, none of that really matters since I am, after all, just shopping for a good deal.

Unfortunately, that stupid TRS can also affect your discounts and I'm still very angry at eBay over shifting the power to the folks that don't pay eBay's bills.
Its my opinion that when a new venue gets established, ebay WILL go bye bye and few folks will miss it.

PawPaul

<< <i>a
Unfortunately, before the certificate got here, I lost the rating as too many buyers rated my shipping slow, even though I ship every day and have replaced registered mail with express mail.

SoCal seems to have released a lot of postal employees as evidenced by the long lines at the post office. I guess first class just ain't fast enough to make ebay buyers happy.

--Jerry >>




.....I hate it when sellers come on here and whine for sympathy when they cant ship on time .

doh

.

ctf_error_coins

My "As Described" rating is 5.0 which by far is the most important. My lowest rating is for shipping which is a 4.8.

I am not a TRS, I guess, because I do not ship for free as shipping costs me money.

As I said, the "As Described" is really the ONLY important rating.

notwilight

I currently have 4 cases open in ebay. A buyer in Italy bought 4 coins, I shipped them in one package, and it hasn't showed up. The first I heard of him was an open case on ebay (not paypal). We have been going back and forth quite professionally but it is starting to look like it isn't going to show.

He has no idea he has done anything negative to me. He seems to think that is how he is supposed to talk to me and it isn't worth my time to try to explain otherwise.

But I don't have time to chase the TRS cert right now. Ebay has earnings forcasts and to meet them they have to give out only so many FVF rebates. So they will keep inventing hurdles to jump over until they reach the Wall Street estimates. You don't have to be best, you just have to be in the top X % that gets it. However, they've created as system that seems to favor chance...

One other thing, I see sellers with poor feedback and poor customer service attitude with the TRS badge and I can't figure it out.

So I'll keep providing good customer service, reasonable shipping, and fast shipping and even if I don't get TRS I should have mostly happy customers.

--Jerry

derryb

Secret to success in protecting your rating is to make sure your customer knows that you are and will be completely at their service until item is in their hands. You do this with communication.

jessewvu

I stopped shipping outside of the states several years back because of items going "missing". Not worth the hassle to me. Good luck on the claim.

mrpotatoheadd

<< <i>Secret to success in protecting your rating is to make sure your customer knows that you are and will be completely at their service until item is in their hands. You do this with communication. >>

My last three eBay disputes, I found out when the buyer filed a PayPal claim. They refused to respond to my emails in any way, shape or form throughout the whole dispute. And I'm in the middle of a new one just this week.

Kind of hard to "do it" with communication when the buyer won't communicate.

derryb

<< <i>

<< <i>Secret to success in protecting your rating is to make sure your customer knows that you are and will be completely at their service until item is in their hands. You do this with communication. >>

My last three eBay disputes, I found out when the buyer filed a PayPal claim. They refused to respond to my emails in any way, shape or form throughout the whole dispute. And I'm in the middle of a new one just this week.

Kind of hard to "do it" with communication when the buyer won't communicate. >>


The communication I'm referring to takes place before any disputes. Your communication with a buyer should not begin after a dispute has been filed, it should begin immediately after the sale. When a buyer knows you are at the other end of the keyboard or at the other end of a telephone ready to provide service they are more likely to come to you first with a problem. Buyers like to feel comfortable after they have paid a total stranger a bunch of money. Your mission is to make them feel comfortable as soon as possible.

mrpotatoheadd

<< <i>The communication I'm referring to takes place before any disputes. Your communication with a buyer should not begin after a dispute has been filed, it should begin immediately after the sale. >>

Auction buyers get an email within 10-15 minutes of the end of the auction. Store and BIN buyers get an email as soon as possible after their purchase, never more than 24 hours later (I can't sit online 24/7, waiting for people to buy stuff). These emails have all the info they need to pay for their purchase, along with contact info in case they have questions or problems.

Every buyer gets an email when their payment is received to let them know their item is shipping either that day or the next, again, along with contact info in case they have questions or problems.

Every package mailed contains an invoice which includes contact info in case they have questions or problems.

What else can a seller do? And no, I'm not going to call them all up on the phone to chat.

JamesMurray

<< <i>a
Unfortunately, before the certificate got here, I lost the rating as too many buyers rated my shipping slow, even though I ship every day and have replaced registered mail with express mail.

SoCal seems to have released a lot of postal employees as evidenced by the long lines at the post office. I guess first class just ain't fast enough to make ebay buyers happy.

--Jerry >>



Ahhhh . . .. free lavvy paper

derryb

<< <i>

<< <i>The communication I'm referring to takes place before any disputes. Your communication with a buyer should not begin after a dispute has been filed, it should begin immediately after the sale. >>

Auction buyers get an email within 10-15 minutes of the end of the auction. Store and BIN buyers get an email as soon as possible after their purchase, never more than 24 hours later (I can't sit online 24/7, waiting for people to buy stuff). These emails have all the info they need to pay for their purchase, along with contact info in case they have questions or problems.

Every buyer gets an email when their payment is received to let them know their item is shipping either that day or the next, again, along with contact info in case they have questions or problems.

Every package mailed contains an invoice which includes contact info in case they have questions or problems.

What else can a seller do? And no, I'm not going to call them all up on the phone to chat.

My last three eBay disputes, I found out when the buyer filed a PayPal claim. They refused to respond to my emails in any way, shape or form throughout the whole dispute. And I'm in the middle of a new one just this week. >>


Four disputes against you as a seller? I'd change something in the way I did business. Maybe it's more than a communication problem.

mrpotatoheadd

<< <i>Four disputes against you as a seller? I'd change something in the way I did business. Maybe it's more than a communication problem. >>

Oh, good grief. The post office loses packages occasionally. Send enough packages, and some of yours will get lost, too.

edited to add... I posted my method for communicating with buyers above. Care to take a whack at where it's lacking?

edited to add even more... there wouldn't have been *any* disputes against me if the buyers had written to me with their problems. But that's not what eBay wants, now, is it?

derryb

I send my fair share of packages, mostly registered. Guess I've been lucky not to have lost a one. If you are communicating with automatically generated messages, you might consider turning them off and using a more personalized message at time of sale, shipment, etc. This way you can address your customer by name and thank him for his specific purchase. Buyers just want to rest assured that they are dealing with a sincere, honest seller. Anything you can do to put them at ease after the sale will be in your favor if problems do arise later with the transaction. I believe most disputes are filed prematurely out of fear of being ripped off. Timely, personalized communications helps to reduce that fear.

Actually, ebay encourages buyers to work out problems with sellers before filing a dispute.

Here is my point: If one of my shipments did get lost my buyer would know that it was in fact shipped because I sent him tracking info when it shipped.
He can check the shipment on-line because I gave him the website along with the tracking info. If it didn't get to him in what he thought was a reasonable amount of time he would hopefully contact me first with the phone number I provided to him along with the tracking info. I truely belive that MOST buyers will treat sellers with the same amount of courtesy that the seller shows to them. Note that i said most buyers. There are exceptions, and you probably found four of them.

mrpotatoheadd

<< <i>I send my fair share of packages, mostly registered. Guess I've been lucky not to have lost a one. >>

If you're using registered mail, I'm not surprised. However, I sell lots of $50 and less coins. Try charging for registered mail delivery on them, and see how your buyers respond.

<< <i>If you are communicating with automatically generated messages, >>

I'm not.

<< <i>...you might consider turning them off and using a more personalized message at time of sale, shipment, etc. This way you can address your customer by name and thank him for his specific purchase. >>

I do.

<< <i>Buyers just want to rest assured that they are dealing with a sincere, honest seller. Anything you can do to put them at ease after the sale will be in your favor if problems do arise later with the transaction. I believe most disputes are filed prematurely out of fear of being ripped off. >>

Hard to argue with that.

<< <i>Timely, personalized communications helps to reduce that fear. >>

And what about my communications (noted in a previous post) leads you to believe that mine might not be?

<< <i>Actually, ebay encourages buyers to work out problems with sellers before filing a dispute. >>

I'm sure anything's possible, but my experience doesn't seem to indicate that that's happening with near enough frequency.

<< <i>Here is my point... >>

Here's my point- I've sent out over 15,000 packages since I joined eBay- all you have to do is look at my feedback to see that. So... do you *really* think I'm going to screw you out of your $25 coin, when everybody else (well, almost everybody) says "Fast Delivery, Highly Recommended" or something similar?

<< <i>I truely belive that MOST buyers will treat sellers with the same amount of courtesy that the seller shows to them. Note that i said most buyers. There are exceptions, and you probably found four of them. >>

The buyers I have problems with ignore every attempt I make to communicate with them in an effort to solve their problem. But then, they've really got no incentive to, as eBay and PayPal let them get away with ignoring me. I guess I'm just not trying hard enough, huh?

notwilight

<< <i>

My last three eBay disputes, I found out when the buyer filed a PayPal claim. They refused to respond to my emails in any way, shape or form throughout the whole dispute. And I'm in the middle of a new one just this week. >>


Four disputes against you as a seller? I'd change something in the way I did business. Maybe it's more than a communication problem. >>



Did you read far enough to see that it is one foreign package with 4 separate purchases in it? --Jerry

mrpotatoheadd

<< <i>Did you read far enough to see that it is one foreign package with 4 separate purchases in it? --Jerry >>

Actually, it was four separate deals. If I wrote my post such that it sounded differently, I apologize for the misunderstanding. There was no intent to deceive.

derryb

<< <i>My last three eBay disputes, I found out when the buyer filed a PayPal claim. They refused to respond to my emails in any way, shape or form throughout the whole dispute. And I'm in the middle of a new one just this week.
Four disputes against you as a seller? I'd change something in the way I did business. Maybe it's more than a communication problem.

Did you read far enough to see that it is one foreign package with 4 separate purchases in it? --Jerry >>


Did you read far enough to see that there are two different posters in this thread that mentioned having four disputes. My comment was directed to the one I quoted just above my comment.

derryb

<< <i> I guess I'm just not trying hard enough, huh? >>



Four disputes out of 15,000 packages is a pretty good batting average. Like I said, there are exceptions and you found them.

mrpotatoheadd

Not to keep beating a dead horse... well, just this once-



eBay and PayPal are the biggest impediments I encounter in dealing with buyer issues, as they continue to insist that buyers have no obligation to try to work things out with sellers.

Yes, this is exactly what the CS reps I've talked to have told me.

edited to add... Sorry for the rant. It just gets old hearing that "the customer is always right" and that if there's a problem, it's because the seller hasn't done enough to fix things.

Over and over and over again.

The fact of the matter is- sometimes, it really *is* the buyer's fault, and it's awfully frustrating having to keep dealing with the fallout when eBay/PayPal refuses to accept that fact.

BlindedByEgo

<< <i>Secret to success in protecting your rating is to make sure your customer knows that you are and will be completely at their service until item is in their hands. You do this with communication. >>



Sadly, not true. I'm going to lose my TRS next month because, while I am 5.0 on everything else, I'm at 4.78 on shipping, with 3 ratings below 3 stars.

This, while I ALWAYS charge less than actual USPS charges. Even when I shipped for free, my DSR for shipping was 4.8

So once I lose my TRS, I'm going to crank up my shipping charges to cover all of my costs... I've really given up playing eBay's unwinnable game for a 15% discount on FVF. I'll make it up in shipping differential, still within eBay TOS.

Not complaining, however. EBay is still the best, cheapest approach to lots of eyeballs for the average schmuck like me.