Just another eBayer to consider blocking

lsutigers1973 · March 4, 2009 11:47PM

I accept a best offer on a card on Friday the 27th. He pays that night. I ship Saturday morning. He receives card yesterday, 3 business days later. He leaves feedback and my DSR's on on shipping time and S&H charges drop from 4.9 to 4.8. SHIPPING WAS FREE YOU PR1CK!! I know this doesn't sem like a big deal, but eBay gives a tiny discount to sellers with DSR's of 4.9 or higher.

Almost forgot to mention the user name, mkmsportstown. He's also a small time seller on eBay. Think I will go buy some cheap items from him.

nam812 · March 4, 2009 11:49PM

I believe that those discounts you mentioned are only for powersellers. Still doesn't make what he did right though.

DoctorK · March 4, 2009 11:50PM

I offer free shipping and generally ship out the next day via USPS priority and my shipping and handling rating has dropped .2 points over the past month. I believe we may have to start paying the buyer for the right to ship to them.

lsutigers1973 · March 4, 2009 11:54PM

<< <i>I believe that those discounts you mentioned are only for powersellers. >>

That is correct but I will be at the end of this month if my sales this month equal the last 2 months.

rube26105 · March 5, 2009 1:00AM

20% and up off you bill, + ebay referral credits, and free shiipping $ off= alot off my bill- id tell him to sit and spin like i did fundinger, they say you cant tell who left it, it dont take a brain surgeon to figure it out,do they think were all as dumb as axtell or something

RonBurgundy · March 5, 2009 1:13AM

Blocked.

diamondman · March 5, 2009 3:08AM

Let me play devil's advocate: was it your year to date DSR that fell or your last 30 days?, either way it is possible, that your DSR dropped because the person or persons that left you a 5 star rating disappear after a year on your 12 month avg/and your 30 day avg is affected the same way. I have watched a few times were my DSR rating dropped because I lost like 15 or 20 transactions at one time (over a couple days) 12month/30day avg. I am not saying you are wrong, but maybe it was not the specific buyer that caused your drop. (just a thought)

quote from fleebay:
The detailed seller ratings table shows the seller’s average ratings and the number of ratings they’ve received. Average ratings are computed on a rolling 12-month basis, and will only appear when at least ten ratings have been received.

storm888 · March 5, 2009 3:15AM

Some caution..........

I and others have played with the DSR "formulas" and have
come to a couple of conclusions:

It is NOT ALWAYS possible to identify the buyer who left a
low score subsequent to a drop in the numbers.

Obviously, this is especially true for medium to high-volume
sellers.

It is VERY possible that one or more series of "5s" may drop off
the 12-month calendar contemporaneously and coincidentally
with the leaving of the most recent FB/DSRs.

In a number of reported cases, buyers/sellers working together
with T&S have been told that the buyer suspected of having left
a low-DSR#, did in fact NOT do so.

While it would seem that the 12-month number of transactions
displayed would coincide perfectly with the dropping off of a rating
that boosted a DSR score, EBAY says that is NOT the case. A
score can change, while the gross total of transactions displayed
remains the same for up to 24-hours --- perhaps longer. (The
same circumstance may visit BOTH the 30-day and 6-month totals.)

A tiny-volume seller can often pinpoint the leaver of low numbers,
but there is NO absolute evidence that there is a foolproof way to
identify the cuplprit. Large-volume sellers have an even harder time
figuring out "who done it."

Identifying the right buyer is mostly guesswork, and gets little help
from ordinary math or from EBAY's formulas.

..........................
..............................
..................................

The snapshot days for calculating discounts are NOT always the same.
There seems to be a 72-hour window, that may or may not be connected
to EBAY's ability to deny discounts based on a temporary slippage in a
seller's average.

I certainly would NEVER put it past EBAY to make their snapshot calculations
at the moment it was most advantageous for them to do so.

/////////////////////////////

Any suspected buyer may have left bad numbers; and, he may not have done so.

mtcards · March 5, 2009 3:22AM

DSR's are just another confusing way ebay is trying to make it look like they are doing something positive on their site to hide the fact that the majority of their site is so FUBAR.

grote15 · March 5, 2009 4:44AM

It is VERY possible that one or more series of "5s" may drop off
the 12-month calendar contemporaneously and coincidentally
with the leaving of the most recent FB/DSRs.

That is an excellent point. Since ebay now only counts rating received over the last 12 months, it is indeed impossible to tell for sure if this buyer hit you on the DSR unless ALL of your seller ratings have come within the last 12 months. This is different from the old way with feedback % which was cumulative, and not restricted to only those feedbacks received within the last 12 months.

storm888 · March 5, 2009 5:17AM

"...it is indeed impossible to tell for sure if this buyer hit you on the DSR unless ALL of your seller ratings have come within the last 12 months. ..."

///////////////////////////////////////////////////

For clarity:

DSRs only go back 12-months.

That does not matter.

Because none/one/ten or ANY number of DSR ratings can drop off
at the same time a suspect buyer leaves #s, there is absolutely NO
way to "know for sure" who hit you.

Also, if more than one buyer leaves #s at about the same time, simply
looking at "the last FB name" tells you nothing. The displayed numbers
are NOT always "updated" in real time. They could be dumped to the sellers
dashboard in bulk after hours or a day+.

We simply do NOT have enough info on how the scheme works, to be
able to place the blame WITH CERTAINTY.

EBAY has fully acknowledged that they have used measures to prevent
the ratings from being "transparent." They have said they are looking
at ways to make the ratings more transparent.

///////////////

Many sellers have contacted buyers to discuss the issue.

Dear Buyer:

Thank you very much for your recent order.

In an effort to improve customer service, I carefully monitor my DSR
ratings.

In the event that I earned fewer than 5-stars in any category on our
recent transaction, please let me know in what areas I need to improve.

Your help in this matter will be of great service to me, and I will be grateful.

Thanks very much.

Respectfully,

seller

.....

Not all buiyers respond, and not all buyers respond "honestly."

Some do respond honestly, and when they tell you they left "all
5s," they can often be believed. (This is proven by the note I made
regarding the "sellers/buyers working together with T&S." Often,
the suspect buyer simply "did not do it," according to T&S.)

///////////////

The final solution is to GET RID of the DSRs and put the FB scheme
back to its general historic mechanics.

Retaliatory FB by sellers and NPBs can simply be removed.

A couple more failed quarters by JD could well do the trick.

cardfan07 · March 5, 2009 5:33AM

Makes me wonder why any buyer should GET to choose any DSR rating for shipping and handling charge when shipping charges are set to zero. Can't do any better than that. I would suggest that eBay would do themselves a favor in automatically attaching a 5 to any free shipping item, just to get more people to potentially ship for free.

On a side note, I am amazed that you get to leave any feedback at all when shipping charges are plainly stated in any auction/BIN. If you don't like it, move on. You shouldn't get a chance to see the amount, pi$$ and moan about it, buy it anyway, then get to ding me on my shipping charges. System seems a tad broken to me.

That's my opinion. I never leave anything less than a 5 for 4 sharp corners for example....I know what they charge. I'm ok with it. If they raise their shipping fees, I decide if the card is still something that I want. And if it is, I really lose all arguments for shipping cost complaints. Could just be me.

BassPro77 · March 5, 2009 5:36AM

Come on Bill,

tell us how you really feel about it

tyweb1 · March 5, 2009 11:23AM

The 12 month DSR's only drop out late Monday night into Tuesday morning. Small sellers like myself can check indeed, by monitoring closely as was already mentioned. I also offer free shipping and have had the ocassional tool leave me 4 stars on shipping.

IchiroDeported · March 5, 2009 12:48PM

exactly why you shouldnt charge for free shipping; your giving away money and playing Ebays game. In the past year I have raised my shipping costs, never offer free shipping and my DSR's are all 4.8 and 4.9's I'd rather have the money in my pocket than give it away for some fantasy rating.

vintagechris · March 5, 2009 8:03PM

<< <i>exactly why you shouldnt charge for free shipping; your giving away money and playing Ebays game. In the past year I have raised my shipping costs, never offer free shipping and my DSR's are all 4.8 and 4.9's I'd rather have the money in my pocket than give it away for some fantasy rating. >>

Agreed! I am at 4.8 or 4.9 and do not ever offer free shipping.

nightcrawler · March 5, 2009 10:45PM

Free shipping is like the old saying... no good deed..

People suck, but they suck so you gotta cut em a little slack.

stevek · March 5, 2009 11:36PM

What P*es me off about the DSR is that there can be a 4.899 or whatever the "ratio" is - I haven't looked at my exact rating lately, and ebay still lists that publicly at 4.8 - I mean get the F* outa here...round the dam thing off to 4.9 for crying out loud.

WinPitcher · March 6, 2009 12:34AM

I think some here worry about the silliest things.

4.8 4.9 does it really mean that much to you that you will stress over it?

Steve

cardbender · March 6, 2009 12:42AM

<< <i>

<< <i>exactly why you shouldnt charge for free shipping; your giving away money and playing Ebays game. In the past year I have raised my shipping costs, never offer free shipping and my DSR's are all 4.8 and 4.9's I'd rather have the money in my pocket than give it away for some fantasy rating. >>

Agreed! I am at 4.8 or 4.9 and do not ever offer free shipping. >>

Exactly. For cards, I always charge a shipping fee since it's an actual expense of doing business. I still qualify for their scam discount every month anyway.... luckily I guess.

Ebay just wants sellers to offer free shipping so they can take a final value fee cut out of the entire amount and not just the bid amount.

If you crunch the numbers and do enough transactions in a month, it doesn't pay to offer free shipping. At least not in the collectibles category.

With the state of the economy, ebay should roll back fee's. That might actually entice sellers to list more items, which would help ebay's bottomline in the end and also provide more choices for buyers.

I don't mind all the DSR ratings, I just don't like the anonymous drilling you can get over doing nothing wrong on the transaction.
How's a seller to improve their customer service skills if they don't know when or where they screwed up?

How can a seller be fairly rated on shipping speed, when after the item is mailed, they have zero control over the post office's ability to deliver the goods timely? I just don't get it. I could see a rating for speed of shipment if it was related to only the date of payment vs. the date the item is actually postmarked.

How about a DSR for packaging? Most sellers really let this area slide in their customer service skills.

rbdjr1 · March 6, 2009 2:20AM

I believe certain buyers are marking those ratings on the left (the lowest), thinking they are giving you the highest rating.

If we can elect President Bush mistakenly, via a ballot that confused seniors in Florida, what can we expect from an ebay rating service, that does not account for dyslectic buyers?

rd

Just another eBayer to consider blocking

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