Got slammed at eBay again

ErinP · #41 02/04/11, 04:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nevada

I have no way of telling. DSRs are anonymous.

Sort of...

I don't have the link handy since I've only used it once (knock on wood, I've only gotten a couple of 1s&2s). But there's a trick to figuring out who left your dings.
Search the forums or the Guides.

The couple of people who have left me my dings were blocked immediately. I don't want to run the risk of letting them ding me again. At least not under the same ID.

Patt · #42 02/04/11, 05:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hippygirl

I stopped selling on Ebay when they changed the feedback policy so that you could give only positive FB. Don't get the wrong idea...I only ever had to leave negative FB once, but I could see the writing on the wall. I mean, if a seller can't leave a neg when deserved, that just opens the floodgates for less-than-honorable buyers to do as they will. I've also heard since the FB policy changes that a lot of sellers don't even get FB any more.

Don't care for all the drama of selling on Ebay...there are other venues.

Same here and I don't bother buying there anymore either. Really stupid that they took that route!

**clovis** · #43 02/04/11, 11:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SurvivalBus

I have found a few sellers that pay people to corrupt other sellers ratings and file bogus claims, I had it happen to me years ago but with ebay/Paypals policies now a days its cake to ruin someones good name. Ebay is like going into a casino, you know your gonna loose, but you still play, LOL

I've often wondered if this practice ever happens.

Just think, if you are going head to head with other sellers offering the same merchandise, and your competition has deep pockets, what would keep them from buying $500 worth of stuff from you, just to leave you bad DSR's, filing claims with ebay and leaving negs?????

Nevada says he was once clearing $100 a day on ebay. An unscrupulous competitor with money to burn could look at the expense of burning him as a business expense. So, if you spent $1,000 to get him kicked off ebay, and you now have the entire market and all the profits to yourself, wouldn't it be worth it in some people's eyes?

SurvivalBus · #44 02/04/11, 11:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by clovis

I've often wondered if this practice ever happens.

Just think, if you are going head to head with other sellers offering the same merchandise, and your competition has deep pockets, what would keep them from buying $500 worth of stuff from you, just to leave you bad DSR's, filing claims with ebay and leaving negs?????

Nevada says he was once clearing $100 a day on ebay. An unscrupulous competitor with money to burn could look at the expense of burning him as a business expense. So, if you spent $1,000 to get him kicked off ebay, and you now have the entire market and all the profits to yourself, wouldn't it be worth it in some people's eyes?

thats American Business 101

ErinP · #45 02/05/11, 09:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by clovis

An unscrupulous competitor with money to burn could look at the expense of burning him as a business expense. So, if you spent $1,000 to get him kicked off ebay, and you now have the entire market and all the profits to yourself, wouldn't it be worth it in some people's eyes?

Which is precisely why you stay on top of your DSRs.
I check mine every couple of days.

Nevada · #46 02/05/11, 11:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by clovis

I've often wondered if this practice ever happens.

Just think, if you are going head to head with other sellers offering the same merchandise, and your competition has deep pockets, what would keep them from buying $500 worth of stuff from you, just to leave you bad DSR's, filing claims with ebay and leaving negs?????

Nevada says he was once clearing $100 a day on ebay. An unscrupulous competitor with money to burn could look at the expense of burning him as a business expense. So, if you spent $1,000 to get him kicked off ebay, and you now have the entire market and all the profits to yourself, wouldn't it be worth it in some people's eyes?

They wouldn't need to spend anywhere near that much to slam me. That $100/day came from selling 20 to 25 CDs for $5 each. I made that much because the product I sell is virtually free (about 15 cents).

My DSRs were slammed by getting 4 DSR ratings at 1 or 2 in October. That's all it took to get me banned. 4 low ratings for $5 products isn't much, and they could have asked for their money back.

With large volume sellers like I was, I was an easy target. It doesn't matter how good your DSR average is, 8 low DSRs a year will still get you banned. As you can see in the chart I posted above, the low DSRs I received in October didn't lower my average much at all (I still had a 4.71 average for that category), but taking 8 low DSRs for 482 transactions still gives them justification to have me banned.

The fact is that eBay wants low-price sellers to be gone. They make a lot more money by selling higher priced products. If someone buys OpenOffice from me for $5 and is satisfied with it, he isn't going to be looking to buy Microsoft Office or Works. Getting rid of me is just good business.

Likewise, if you are selling a used kitchen mixer you found in your basement for $10, that takes a potential sale away from a vebndor selling a new one for $50. It's just good business to get rid of you too.

ErinP · #47 02/05/11, 02:35 PM

For the other vendors, yes, that's true.

But eBay makes their money off of anyone who sells. Anyone. And a high volume seller is paying a lot of fees.

I just don't see why they'd want to lose that.

Nevada · #48 02/05/11, 03:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ErinP

For the other vendors, yes, that's true.

But eBay makes their money off of anyone who sells. Anyone. And a high volume seller is paying a lot of fees.

I just don't see why they'd want to lose that.

I think they look at it as there being a finite number of buyers for any given product. If the used mixer for $10 isn't listed, then that same customer is going to consider the new $50 mixer. I think eBay looks at the $10 used mixer sale as a lost opportunity to sell a new mixer and earn the commission on a $50 sale.

One thing's for sure, the deck is stacked against high volume sellers at eBay. I suspect that when the dust settles we'll learn that commercial sellers like buy.com & toysrus aren't banned for DSRs the same way.

Anak · #49 02/06/11, 07:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hippygirl

...Don't care for all the drama of selling on Ebay...there are other venues.

I have avoided selling on ebay due to anecdotes such as Nevada's. I would love to find another venue, but I am not aware of anything else with marketshare anywhere near ebay's. What else is there that compares?

ErinP · #50 02/06/11, 08:06 PM

Quote:

What else is there that compares?

Nothing.
Which is why so many of us have stuck it out with eBay for so many years.

**clovis** · #51 02/06/11, 08:17 PM

I've said it a million times, but I still can't believe that ebay is the only game in town. You would think that either a powerhouse dot com company or a little tiny start up would be giving them competition by now.

It is hard to understand that A&P was at one time the largest grocer in the world, and that Woolworth's was the dominate retailer. Will Walmart and ebay some day go the same way as A&P and Woolworth's? We can hope and pray, right?

willow_girl · #52 02/06/11, 10:01 PM

I have long felt that eBay's business model was such that they didn't plan to be in for the long haul.

That was back in the day when you could find dozens of listings, in broken English, for flat-screen TVs and digital cameras at ridiculously low prices. All posted by sellers with 0 feedback, of course. Payment by Western Union only!

Nevada · #53 02/06/11, 11:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by clovis

I've said it a million times, but I still can't believe that ebay is the only game in town. You would think that either a powerhouse dot com company or a little tiny start up would be giving them competition by now.

It's all about buyers. EBay's got 'em, nobody else does.

ErinP · #54 02/07/11, 09:32 AM

I remember Yahoo Auctions, Amazon Auctions, and several other fairly large spin-offs. None of them made it. I've never understood why.

Quote:

Originally Posted by willow_girl

I have long felt that eBay's business model was such that they didn't plan to be in for the long haul.

That was back in the day when you could find dozens of listings, in broken English, for flat-screen TVs and digital cameras at ridiculously low prices. All posted by sellers with 0 feedback, of course. Payment by Western Union only!

Nah... When eBay FIRST started, there was no way to do Western Union.
There were a couple of online payment options, one of which was X.com (or something similar) which morphed into PayPal, as well as the always popular, Money Orders.

Anak · #55 02/07/11, 10:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nevada

It's all about buyers. EBay's got 'em, nobody else does.

I think that sums it up pretty well.

I would love to find an alternative, but I just don't see it out there.

**clovis** · #56 02/07/11, 01:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nevada

It's all about buyers. EBay's got 'em, nobody else does.

You are correct. Ebay has the buyers.

Still, it is surprising that a major internet player, like Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, Amazon, etc., hasn't introduced a new auction format that is well managed and as perfect as possible when opened to the public. Yes, they'll have to advertise like crazy to get it going.

With ebay's total revenues of 2.2 billion last year, you would think that someone wants a piece of that pie.

Bandit · #57 02/09/11, 11:13 AM

It's all about buyers. EBay's got 'em, nobody else does. But do You really want the kinds of buyers that Fee-Bay seems to be attracting ?
I just checked in on the Fee-Bay Forums after My week long cross country trip , and the stories are getting worse , Power Sellers suspended after 10+ years with a perfect record , up till now with no answer to a communication e mail at 0 Dark Thirty .
It looks like if the new buyers see "No Tracking " on anything , it is suddenly a Item Not Received claim two minutes after You can't give them a tracking # .
Bandit

Bandit · #58 02/09/11, 01:31 PM

Be careful if anyone opens a case against You , it counts even if they close it .
http://forums.ebay.com/db2/topic/Sel...ated/510306147
http://forums.ebay.com/db2/topic/Sel...t-As/520258802 Welcome to the New FEE-BAY
Bandit

ErinP · #59 02/09/11, 07:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bandit

Be careful if anyone opens a case against You , it counts even if they close it .

Didn't for me.

I had a claim filed against me two weeks ago for an item-not-received. I did the same thing I would have done if she'd contacted me instead of ebay; I sent her a replacement.
Replacement received, claim closed.

I just copied this from my dashboard:

Buyer Protection cases Your percentage (count)
Opened cases 0.00% (0)
Closed cases without seller resolution 0.00% (0)

Nevada · #60 02/09/11, 10:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ErinP

Didn't for me.

I had a claim filed against me two weeks ago for an item-not-received. I did the same thing I would have done if she'd contacted me instead of ebay; I sent her a replacement.
Replacement received, claim closed.

I just copied this from my dashboard:

Buyer Protection cases Your percentage (count)
Opened cases 0.00% (0)
Closed cases without seller resolution 0.00% (0)

I got a complaint like that a few months ago, and was resolved almost immediately. Nothing happened for a few weeks, they I got a message that they would hold back paypal payments for three weeks. It got lifted after a month.

You may have gotten away with it, but again you might not. Strangely, it seems that they will be harder on you with the more sales volume you have.