OT: Losing Top-Rated Status on eBay

brendanb438 · March 21, 2011 7:59AM

Hey,

I was wondering if there is anyway to tell who exactly left you a 1 or 2 for the stupid 5 star ratings on eBay? I just got hit hard this week and will lose my Top-Rated Status if I don't figure out who the hell did this. What is even better is I received nothing but positive feedback this week with everyone really happy about what they received.

I hate eBay.

Aric · March 21, 2011 8:33AM

That sucks. Same thing happened to me in January. Here's how you can check the stars that people left you. It took me a while to figure this out.

1. Go to your dashboard.
2. Click the "Reports" link that is beneath the Transactions number in the "Seller Performance Numbers"
3. Create Report
4. Change "Report Type" in the pull-down menu to "Item Numbers"
5. Type/Copy-Paste in the item numbers for the items you are interested in. (This part could take awhile if you are doing a large amount of numbers)

Here's the bad news, the only feedback that can be changed is negative or neutral, regardless of how they rated your stars. So even if you figure out who it is and even if they say it was accident, they can't change it unless they left you a negative or neutral. My buyer said he dinged my stars on accident. His accident cost me $32 in fee discounts for February.

Also, ebay only updates seller performance numbers once a month, on the 20th and it is for the period ending the previous month. You said you got hit hard this week but the low rating could have been given any time in February.

Hope this helps.

brendanb438 · March 21, 2011 8:42AM

Lol. eBay is a damn joke. I spoke to a very polite rep on the phone who has zero power of course and she told me not only the exact date of when the 1 or 2 was left from the 2 buyers this week but she if slipped up and told me one of their names.

I am screwed, they left me positive feedback and can't correct the DSR rating as mentioned. F eBay I am done with you after the next 2 weeks.

Gonna cost me about $65 in fees this month. Still at a 4.9 overall for the category someone screwed up in but eBay won't do shiat.

CollectorAtWork · March 21, 2011 8:49AM

Yea, the only way I can think of is to do the Reports as described before. I hadn't thought of doing the way the previous poster said, and that's probably a good idea. I've gotten one 1-2 star rating for shipping costs, and I have a strong suspect on who it was. Basically, I did the reports for time ranges and narrowed it down to a month where the issue happened. At that point, you might just see what sold during that time, and see if there is anything that stands out. For example, someone who left a positive and just said "thanks" would be more suspicious than someone who gave gushing feedback. Buyers with little feedback are also extremely suspicious. Also, you need to take an honest look at your listings to see if there is anything that buyers could be annoyed at. For me, I had shipping for graded cards at $4 a slab. After I got dinged, I realized that was an iffy shipping cost, and dropped it to $3, and I've been safe ever since. Obviously any times cards are returned, there is danger, or if you don't offer returns, any time where the item you sold, and the customer might be unhappy, there is risk. For example, I strongly believe I got dinged when I sold a 69 Topps Wilt Chamberlain that was creased. I put in the listing the card was creased. I had big scans both front and back showing the crease. Still, the card ended up selling more than I expected. My shipping costs were a little high, so I have the feeling that the buyer was a bit unhappy when he got the card, and wanted to take it out on me some way. I did have one buyer neg me accidentally. He was a repeat buyer so I was really surprised. I messaged him nicely, and he said he made a mistake, and he withdrew the negative. Unfortunately, I'm almost positive you can't withdraw low DSR's. Usually you need multiple 1/2 DSR's to lose Top Rated, so hopefully this is something you can recover from.

hammered · March 21, 2011 9:06AM

I was demoted from silver to bronze status for awhile. During that time, no one would hang out with me and my wife wouldn't sleep with me.
Fortunately, I regained my silver status and life is good again.

brendanb438 · March 21, 2011 9:12AM

What sucks is I am getting DSR feedback from about 1 in 5 people and this month 3 people decided to piss in my kool-aid to ruin my rating (well drop me to an overall 4.9 but still kill me). It is all good I will just start to charge more for shipping to make-up for what I am going to lose, I was already taking a loss on what I was charging for shipping but now with this and eBay taking a cut of shipping fees WTF is another $2 on top of my current shipping costs per auction. Also I guess I am done letting people combine shipping. Out of my last 40 auctions to be completed about half of them were combined in some manner and I was letting people add each additional auction's shipping for free beyond the first.

eBay congrats on making things better as always.

/end rant

itzagoner · March 21, 2011 9:30AM

roflmao @ hammered.

one putz threw a fly in my ointment over shipping and POOF went the 20% discount.

i'll order one less Dynamite Roll next Sunday. meh.

bobbyw8469 · March 21, 2011 10:00AM

Griffins · March 21, 2011 10:56AM

While his prices are very high, I've always found Brian very reasonable to deal with. If he dinged you on the star ratings it would not be without reason.
I'd also be very careful of accusing someone of stealing on a public forum.

bobbyw8469 · March 21, 2011 12:01PM

Stealing = winning items for a really low price......it's slang, but you know what I meant. This isn't your 1st rodeo Griffins....you KNOW what I meant!! Come on now.....

Boopotts · March 21, 2011 3:13PM

<< Also I guess I am done letting people combine shipping. Out of my last 40 auctions to be completed about half of them were combined in some manner and I was letting people add each additional auction's shipping for free beyond the first.

eBay congrats on making things better as always.

/end rant >>

That should work out just great for you. Go get 'em, tiger!

Zixx · March 21, 2011 4:19PM

Actually, DSR's can be removed if the person who left them also left positive feedback and said nothing of any problem. I was hit by 11 or 12 1's or 2's all at once, when lo and behold, someone left exactly that many feedbacks. Forget the automated Ebay system--speak to person. They can remove the bad DSR's if the person leaves glowing feedback but does nothing to indicate any problem. Which is retarded . . . People leave positives--not negatives and not even neutrals, but positives . . . yet they bomb your DSR's?

I sell very low dollar items in volume(not cards), and I get tired of soooo many people that just buy items and instantly pay without trying to get the correct combined shipping amount. I've had people buy $25-50 worth of items and the shipping winds up being even more than the items. Yet they pay it! Of course I refund the difference, but when I have a dozen or so orders to package, I don't know if I miss one or two lesser ones where the buyer buys 2-3 items and it gets combined. Even if that happens, no one has ever sent me a message about it. And when I do correct and refund the difference with a note for explanation, no one has thanked me either.

Ebay's system for combining items is broken. If my shipping is say, $3 for the first item and .10 per each additional item, the invoice should pull from all items connected to a SINGLE invoice! Can that be so difficult? But no, people buy an item here and there from different lots and boom! the shipping amount is $6 and not $3.10 which it should be.

I guess I digressed there . . . The OP should call Ebay and ask to have them removed as part of Ebays policy to protect sellers. Mine were removed within 48 hours of my call.

Garabaldi · March 21, 2011 8:43PM

bobbyw8469 · March 21, 2011 8:50PM

Ebay shouldn't have to make you jump through hoops however to try to figure out who maliciously tried to damage your discount. My TSRs stars were dropped all because of one individual, who so happens to sell cards as well (SUBSTANIALLY higher in his store that I do via auction). That's one of the flaws with the TSR stars. Your competition can buy your wares cheaply, then affect your livelihood, hoping to drive you out of business! Ebay fixed some of that by not allowing buyers to ding your stars when you offer free shipping, and buy through their "click-n-ship" program, so they can prove you offered fast shipping. After one day in January, they all dropped off, and my discount was restored. Doing the reports is quite confusing for me, and of course, the more items you sell in a month, the more confusing it is. Even defendants know who their accusers are! If people want to leave glowing feedback while dinging your stars maliciously for no reason, I would like the option of blocking them to prevent them from winning any more of my wares!!! That's all I'm asking for Ebay......

TheHun · March 21, 2011 9:36PM

ebay .....

LMAO

WinPitcher · March 21, 2011 10:38PM

You can also lose it if people open cases against you for items not received.

So if you sell 4 items to a person, combine them into one invoice and they don't arrive

that person can open 4 cases against you and your Top seller BS is lost for that period.

At least it happened to me that way and I refunded as soon as I knew of the problem.

Buyer never emailed me claiming the items were lost.

hammered · March 22, 2011 5:06AM

<< Actually, DSR's can be removed if the person who left them also left positive feedback and said nothing of any problem. I was hit by 11 or 12 1's or 2's all at once, when lo and behold, someone left exactly that many feedbacks. Forget the automated Ebay system--speak to person. They can remove the bad DSR's if the person leaves glowing feedback but does nothing to indicate any problem. Which is retarded . . . People leave positives--not negatives and not even neutrals, but positives . . . yet they bomb your DSR's?
>>

Why can't an overall positive transaction have one subcategory that is poorly rated?
I've left pos feedback while dinging a star. One time comes to mind, I bought a super nice partial set of cards which I was very happy with. But they took 4 weeks to arrive. The FB I left was good, comment was good, I gave him 1 star on shipping time, 5 stars on the others. I had no reason to leave a bad FB comment.
If buyers know that in order to leave a low DSR in a category, the FB comment has to match, I think you'll see a lot more negatives.

sportscardtheory · March 22, 2011 5:42AM

<< Actually, DSR's can be removed if the person who left them also left positive feedback and said nothing of any problem. I was hit by 11 or 12 1's or 2's all at once, when lo and behold, someone left exactly that many feedbacks. Forget the automated Ebay system--speak to person. They can remove the bad DSR's if the person leaves glowing feedback but does nothing to indicate any problem. Which is retarded . . . People leave positives--not negatives and not even neutrals, but positives . . . yet they bomb your DSR's?

I sell very low dollar items in volume(not cards), and I get tired of soooo many people that just buy items and instantly pay without trying to get the correct combined shipping amount. I've had people buy $25-50 worth of items and the shipping winds up being even more than the items. Yet they pay it! Of course I refund the difference, but when I have a dozen or so orders to package, I don't know if I miss one or two lesser ones where the buyer buys 2-3 items and it gets combined. Even if that happens, no one has ever sent me a message about it. And when I do correct and refund the difference with a note for explanation, no one has thanked me either.

Ebay's system for combining items is broken. If my shipping is say, $3 for the first item and .10 per each additional item, the invoice should pull from all items connected to a SINGLE invoice! Can that be so difficult? But no, people buy an item here and there from different lots and boom! the shipping amount is $6 and not $3.10 which it should be.

I guess I digressed there . . . The OP should call Ebay and ask to have them removed as part of Ebays policy to protect sellers. Mine were removed within 48 hours of my call. >>

I called and asked for them to do the same and they told me to buzz off. I told them that I have seen this happen before in person (my roommate) and have heard of it happening for others. They told me that it has never happened and that they don't remove DSRs under any circumstance. This is from the Trust and Safety "team" at eBay. I talked to around 4 people and they all told me the same thing. It was a very heated discussion, because they basically told me that something that did happen couldn't happen. eBay is a bunch of F-ing liars. Imagine telling someone that you know for a FACT that something happened, and they repeatedly tell you it didn't. F eBay. They have the WORST customer service I have ever experienced besides maybe Verizon.

Planemonkey · March 22, 2011 5:58AM

While I didn't lose any money from this I'll tell the story anyway. A guy bids on one graded card and then sends me this message saying "hey I just saw you live in Venice I live in Culver City can we meet in person so I can save you the trouble of shipping?" I reply I only do local pick up on heavy items. He wins the card and dosen't leave feedback. then next week buys another card and right after he leaves feedback my DSR is shipping has gone way down. I was about to win a card from him and give him one star but I figured just leave the idiot alone. Now if he cost me money I don't know if I could have stopped myself. OK end of rant.

brendanb438 · March 22, 2011 8:17AM

After ending my rant I should have not came back to this thread. I called eBay back again and got bounced around and finally got a rep who said they could "reach out" to the couple people who left me 1s or 2s this week and confirm it was an error and maybe, possibly, hopefully reverse this. Yeah right my money is on them not even trying to contact the sellers. I am not a high enough volume seller at this time for eBay to truly care, and I am only talking about $100ish a month in discounts overall but the bottom line is I feel like eBay is raping me again.

What really pisses me off is the woman I spoke to last night had no clue WTF she was talking about, gave me all wrong dates, and was absolutely worthless but polite.

eBay account seller since Dec. 1997. Told them if I lose my 20% discount because of their DSR system when the 2 people in question state they left me 5s and the written feedback is clearly positive I give up. (I had 3 people screw with me a month ago which got me to this position but I can't prove to eBay they hit my DSR stars out of spite so they won't adjust those).

Is it time for fantasy baseball yet?

SOM · March 22, 2011 8:30AM

<< During that time, no one would hang out with me and my wife wouldn't sleep with me >>

You're lucky.

When it happened to me, my wife wouldn't hang out with me and no one would sleep with me.

bobbyw8469 · March 22, 2011 8:47AM

<< Is it time for fantasy baseball yet? >>

Brendan...EBay has turned into an absolute joke. A total shell of its' former self, and what made it fun to begin with. Just when you think you have seen it all, BAM! Just give 'em 6 more months!!! I PROMISE - another BONEHEAD move is right around the corner!

bking · March 22, 2011 8:50AM

I've griped about this before, but lickily it's never impacted me. The idea that a seller has to maintain near-perfection, and that a single bad transaction (or even worse, a typo by a buyer) can cost them money without recourse is insane. A buyer should be able to use both feedback AND DSRs as a means of expressing their experience without it being such a life-or-death result.

itzagoner · March 22, 2011 9:00AM

<< I've griped about this before, but lickily it's never impacted me. The idea that a seller has to maintain near-perfection, and that a single bad transaction (or even worse, a typo by a buyer) can cost them money without recourse is insane. A buyer should be able to use both feedback AND DSRs as a means of expressing their experience without it being such a life-or-death result. >>

lick be a lady tonight
lick if you've been a lady to begin with
lick be a lady tonight.

bking · March 22, 2011 9:02AM

<< 

<< I've griped about this before, but lickily it's never impacted me. The idea that a seller has to maintain near-perfection, and that a single bad transaction (or even worse, a typo by a buyer) can cost them money without recourse is insane. A buyer should be able to use both feedback AND DSRs as a means of expressing their experience without it being such a life-or-death result. >>

lick be a lady tonight
lick if you've been a lady to begin with
lick be a lady tonight. >>

hehe.... wonder what's on my mind....

thunderdan · March 22, 2011 11:30AM

Please don't tell us. I still need to eat dinner.

brendanb438 · March 23, 2011 1:35PM

Finally got this issue actually taken care of. My top buyer while leaving me feedback on 14 items left me 2s on 2 of them in error. I had to argue with eBay to get them removed while they looked at my detailed messages back and forth with the buyer who says clearly that she left me all 5 stars and everything was perfect and they will buy from me again and again.

This wasn't good enough at first for the rep, I was like WTF do you want them to take a polygraph test? Waited on hold for 10 minutes and they finally removed them. What a fcuking joke. The written feedback on the 2 things in question stated this too "Fastest Shipping Ever!! Always a pleasure to buy from!! 5 star Seller! *****" and "*****GREAT SELLER!! JUST AS DESCRIBED! FIVE STARS*****"

The rep wanted me to clearly know too that they never remove these type of errors and this is the first time ever he has removed them. I am very thankful for his help but it is bullshiat still to have to beg for an error to be fixed.

Ironmanfan · March 23, 2011 9:03PM

<< Finally got this issue actually taken care of. My top buyer while leaving me feedback on 14 items left me 2s on 2 of them in error. I had to argue with eBay to get them removed while they looked at my detailed messages back and forth with the buyer who says clearly that she left me all 5 stars and everything was perfect and they will buy from me again and again.

This wasn't good enough at first for the rep, I was like WTF do you want them to take a polygraph test? Waited on hold for 10 minutes and they finally removed them. What a fcuking joke. The written feedback on the 2 things in question stated this too "Fastest Shipping Ever!! Always a pleasure to buy from!! 5 star Seller! *****" and "*****GREAT SELLER!! JUST AS DESCRIBED! FIVE STARS*****"

The rep wanted me to clearly know too that they never remove these type of errors and this is the first time ever he has removed them. I am very thankful for his help but it is bullshiat still to have to beg for an error to be fixed. >>

how does one leave 2's "in error"

come on

IMF

bking · March 23, 2011 11:19PM

<< 
how does one leave 2's "in error"

come on

IMF >>

It's easy. Many, many times when leaving feedback for multiple items I have misclicked the stars. Of course, I always check that stuff again BEFORE I hit the 'leave feedback' button, but it IS easy to fail the target practice that clicking stars can be when you're rolling through a screen full of items.

brendanb438 · March 24, 2011 7:47AM

<< 

<< 
how does one leave 2's "in error"

come on

IMF >>

It's easy. Many, many times when leaving feedback for multiple items I have misclicked the stars. Of course, I always check that stuff again BEFORE I hit the 'leave feedback' button, but it IS easy to fail the target practice that clicking stars can be when you're rolling through a screen full of items. >>

This and I have noticed sometimes too if I am using Firefox to leave multiple feedbacks that sometimes I will click on the 5 star and when I start to scroll down the page it changes to a 1,2 or 3 for no reason.

OT: Losing Top-Rated Status on eBay

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