Got slammed at eBay again
 

I got an "item not received" case opened last night, claiming that the buyer tried to contact me with no response. It's true, he sent me a message through eBay at 1:37 am, then open the case 4 minutes later at 1:41 am.

The problem is that even with a successful resolution, eBay will have PayPal freeze payments for three weeks, since the case gives the impression that I'm at high risk for PayPal chargebacks. The thing is that this never used to happen to me at all, then about 6 months ago I started getting a rash of unreasonable complaints.

In the past 6 months I've gone from being both a Power Seller and a Top Rated Seller with a 100% feedback rating, to a below average seller. Today they're limiting my listings and freezing my payments. Honestly, I don't know where these buyers come from.

You add justification to my post in the "Ebay's at it again" thread. Ebay is killing itself.

How totally frustrating. I sell a little on ebay. I hope this never happens to me.

I bought a dress on Nov. 30th and still don't have it. The seller keeps telling me that they mailed it on Dec. 2nd, but then NOTHING. It's VERY fustrating.

I am usually against filing with paypal for claims, but I think I'd would have already filed in this situation.

A month to ship????

Nevada,

I'm not sure where they come from either.

Just a few weeks ago, some dude bought an item from me, and filed an item not received. I ask him to confirm his address, and he was mad that I had not known that he had moved.

I was stunned that ebay ruled in my favor....really, really stunned.

Are you sure?
I've had a couple of "item not recieved" disputes filed this year, and while they froze my account during the disputes, as soon as it was resolved my account was normal again...

It's a new policy. A dispute will now result in your payments being held for 3 weeks, or when positive feedback has been received for the item. You will be reevaluated in 35 days to see if the hold will be lifted.

Low DSRs can now result in your being limited on how many items you can have listed at a time. They normally limit it to 5 items.

I love buying on Ebay
I hate selling on Ebay

I have so many problems selling I can't stand it anymore...

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.

My thoughts as well !!

I have had something like 15,000 eBay transaction. Could basically count on two hands the number went bad for one reason or another.

I only leave feedback if the buyer has 10 or less FBs.

I've only had 5000-some odd, but that's been my experience, too, Ken. I can think of exactly 4 truly bad transactions with buyers.
I don't know if that's dumb luck, karma, my sales demographic or a combination of all three. But so far, for all of her faults and foibles (and yes, it's a MUCH different place than it was 12 years ago!), I'll stick with eBay.
It's still the best show in town because as crispin just pointed out: I love buying on Ebay
You're not the only one. I can't afford to ignore that market...

Okay, let me get this right...

If someone files a dispute over an item, is paypal freezing your entire account, or just the amount that is being disputed?

Recently, when I had an item disputed over 'not received', paypal froze that $7.00 transaction until they ruled in my favor.

In my experience (over 20,000 transactions and a top rated seller) that sellers who get restricted never get restricted due to just bad luck. This transaction mught have gotten you restricted but you would have had to have had a history prior to that to have it implimented upon you.

One of the things I do on eBay is to avoid using an unpaid item for a buyer. Rather I do it as a cancel a transaction/payment not received. It gives the buyer a graceful way out. If you don't eventually respond/pay up you can close it and eBay will refund listing commission (but not listing fees) and the buyer likely receives a strike from ebay.

Nevada,

I'm now reading your OP in a new light.

I shipped out an item that the buyer ordered. In essence, he ordered the WRONG item for his needs.

I promptly replied to his emails, and then picked up the phone and called him and offered a full refund. That guy kept me on the phone for 36 minutes at my expense, so I could listen to him ramble on and on and on about the differences between the 1984 and 1985 model year of Chrysler that dude has.

I was very patient, as I always am in business situations, recapped the entire thing, and this morning, that dude left me a neg!!!!!!! URGGGHHHH!!!!!!!!

I am a top rated power seller with 3300+ FB, and just got my first neg!!

URRRGGGGHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!

I quit selling on ebay because it stressed me out to no end that I could possibly get negative feedback. Haha. Guess I'm sensitive.

My dad, however, has been selling there for 13 years, power seller, etc. He was given 1 neg feedback once- like many of you, had absolutely NOTHING to do with how he handled things. Some buyers are just nuts. They order the wrong thing- that's your fault, apparently. Idiots. I think he said that the neg feedback went away a year later and it now shows him at 100% again???

Yeah.
eBay started that policy a couple of years ago. They only figure your percentage based on the current 12 months.
I've had a couple of negatives, but none in the last year (knock on wood). So I'm at 100%, too. :)

Since I last reported in about this I have risen above the DSR problems. EBay's robot that sanctions sellers completely lifted my selling restrictions. I enjoyed full listing privileges for about a week, when they shut me down again.

Yesterday morning I got an email saying that all of my listings were canceled and that I was restricted from listing ANY items for an unspecified length of time. I decided to look more deeply into my DSR's.

What I found was that the 12-month trend showed that 22% of my DSRs for "Item not as described" during October 2010 were below standard (1s or 2s). All other categories (shipping time, shipping cost, and communication) looked very good. I found that strange for a number of reasons.

• I have been using the same auction prose for about 7 years.
• The months leading up to October and after October showed good DSRs. Only October was hit, which was right after the new rules went into affect.
• If I had been dropping the ball in October you would have thought that shipping time & communication would have reflected that.
• There was no negative feedback "for item not as described" to match with the low DSRs, as if someone didn't want me to know who was doing it (DSRs are anonymous, feedback is not).
• I was both a Power Seller and a Top-Rated Seller just 6 months ago using the same item descriptions.

I concluded that there was a high probability of DSR fraud, possibly from competitors. I called eBay trust & safety to discuss the matter. The girl on the phone agreed that it looked suspicious and transferred me to someone who could reverse it. The guy the call was forwarded to was extremely nasty. He told me that eBay always investigated anything suspicions and they evidently found nothing, so I was restricted indefinitely. When I objected he told me that if I argued about it that he was going to expel me permanently. I asked to speak to his supervisor, and he hung-up on me.

I'm dead in the water today. I've considered buying eBay Stealth to learn how to get around this sort of thing, but I'm also considering getting completely away from eBay by doing something else. I just don't know where I'm headed right now.

I would call eBay back and explain what happened to you, particularly the rude agent.

I did. I called back to trust & safety but I didn't get anywhere with her. Evidently there a note in my account saying that they've already discussed the matter.

OK, try this. Get the address of eBay in CA. Write a letter to the Office of the President on your problem. Be very polite, but lay your story about. Besure to include your user name, name and address, e-mail addy and phone number. Also note you have been a members for X years and have done approximately $Y dollars with eBay in that time.

I considered doing that, but after reading about the class action DSR lawsuit I suspect it's a wasted effort. What I mean is, why would they do something for me that they refuse to do for people who have filed a lawsuit?

http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y10/m12/i23/s01

Note the similarity in the stories of the plaintiff's to mine.

• Max Garon is a Canadian seller of dog-training items. His eBay business was grossing over $300,000 per year, and he maintained an average feedback rating of 99.6%. Garon experienced problems that delayed his international shipments, and in February 2010, his DSR rating dropped below 4.3. As a result, eBay removed his listings from the site for over 2 months. As he began selling his goods again, his ratings rose above 4.3, but according to the lawsuit, eBay permanently suspended his account and those of his family on June 2010.
• Phil Lentsch is president of Office Dynamics, a professional printing and copying firm located in Tampa, Florida. The business also operated an eBay consignment business, selling items on eBay on behalf of consumers. A longtime eBay Power Seller with a 99.6% feedback rating, Office Dynamics charged all buyers a $2 handling charge. After the DSR policy was implemented, anonymous ratings caused his ratings in the shipping charges category to fall. The company lost its PowerSeller status in February of this year, had is account restricted to 62 items/day in September, and was indefinitely suspended on December 7.
• Ben Guz sold a variety of antiques through eBay auctions beginning in 2001 using eBay's Blackthorne listing software. Because of a glitch that caused Blackthorne to post duplicate listings for sale, Guz was forced to pay double listing fees for the same items and received negative reviews from disgruntled buyers. eBay permanently suspended Guz's account in 2007 and provided no explanation of why it closed the account.

Note that each case ended in exactly the same way my story ended, and was for exactly the same reasons and my case.

Obviously eBay is doing this for a business reason. I'm trying to get a handle on exactly why they are doing this from reviewing other cases. Is it because sellers are successful, because of their volume, because of their item prices, or for some other reason? I'm not studying this for idle curiosity. What I'm wondering is whether I'm doing something that's raining on eBay's parade, and if there might be some way I could continue to operate in a way that works for them.

By the way, even after getting slammed for "item as described" in October, my average of 4.71 in that DSR category is still above the overall eBay average of 4.68, and WAY above the minimum standard of 4.3.

http://windowrock.com/ave.jpg

As you can see, I'm suspended for the number of 1s & 2s, not for having a low overall average. I have no idea where the Shipping & Handling complaint came from, since shipping & handling is free for my items. That's supposed to be ghosted when shipping is free, but as you can see I still took a DSR complaint.

I'm as sure as I can be that this is DSR fraud.

It seems like if it has happened to you and these other...enough to form a lawsuit...then there are others! Have you been able to find a forum or blog or something else with other complaints? Maybe there is some advise there.
It seems to me if YOU are making money then THEY are making money so why would they want to shut you down??
Why shut down a business that does $300K in sales?? That is a lot of fees!

I've got a theory. I suspect that eBay is getting close to implementing their business "exit strategy". In other words, they will be looking to sell out soon.

In the meantime, they will want to exploit their customer base as much as they can. They aren't too concerned about losing customers, and they couldn't care less about losing sellers. They are partnering with commercial vendors like buy.com; offering them free listings and priority standings in search results. I suspect that's because they charge more for their items than the average eBay seller, so eBay makes more from each sale.

I was lurking.. but I've banned selling on ebay altogether. Just too many shady practices and redundant fees. I still buy occasionally.

g-r-e-e-d

I won't make a comment except to say that I am sorry that it happened to You Nevada , , but I have tried to warn everyone about " The New Fee-Bay " and their new policies to get rid of the little guy and replace them with good sellers like Toys R Us and all the China mega junk sellers.
I saw it happen to my neighbor , who now lives in Ca. and with His wife , are the stars of the new storage auction show on TRU TV .
Bob

Nevada
The rumors in the forums are that the Big Sellers like Toys R Us , are not even charged to list , If You want a good laugh , research T R U record on shipping , if at all , anyone else would of been long gone ,( Search under Jeffery or the Giraffe in the forums , as they delete them when they find them )
Bob
But Guess What ?
http://forums.ebay.com/db2/topic/Sel...Long/510285244
Lets see any of you get away with Toys R Us's Feedback LOL
http://toolhaus.org/cgi-bin/negs?Use...ed+by&ref=home

Just as an observation to the timing of these things, eBay has always hit me with sanctions right at a time when I was having some luck selling with increased volume. The sanctions seem to be tied to success. I don't think it's a coincidence either. I suspect that when an individual seller does well, he calls attention to himself; then eBay sees his success as taking customers away from preferred sellers that eBay can make more off of.

Nevada, can you set up another account, under a new name, and resume selling?

Did you lose your listings too? Did they delete them? If you have any in your past sales, it might be worth copy and pasting them for future use.

So this ISN'T the first time this has happened??

What does DSR stand for?

Deatiled Seller Rating. It includes ratings for item description, communication, shipping time, and shipping & handling fees.

I was doing really well when I got slammed with the DSRs back in October. I was on another surge when they first limited my sales in November, then I was on a surge this time. It seems that if my sales are down for some reason that they leave me alone.

There was a time when I was making $100/day profit (not gross sales -- profit) at eBay. It seemed to make both eBay and the other eBay sellers crazy. I would get nonsense complaints about my listing practices, and eBay would usually comply. One time I talked about it with Power Seller support, and she replied, "You can expect to get complaints when you are selling that many items." When I asked her what that meant she denied saying it, as if she had let something slip that she wasn't supposed to say.

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

So I assume you've been keeping close tabs on your DSRs since then, right? Ie, you probably know who left your 1s&2s?

I have no way of telling. DSRs are anonymous.

The people who left the bad ratings had to buy from you.
So they either didn't get the stuff or they are stealing from you.
Bummer.