eBay Sellers Complaining of Crackdown

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AuctionBytes Blog
News and insight focusing on
ecommerce and the online auction industry
by Ina Steiner, Editor of AuctionBytes.com

June 25, 2007

eBay Sellers Complaining of Crackdown

By: Ina Steiner

Mon June 25 2007 15:06:13

Sellers are reporting that they are being targeted by eBay for seller nonperformance ("breach of non performance policy"). While this may or may not reflect a new policy, it seems the level of enforcement has increased in the past week or so. As with other recent Trust and Safety initiatives, eBay has not announced anything about it, at least from what I can see.

Here's an example of just one of many threads about the issue.

As you can see, this seller has no telephone number to contact eBay. It appears to me that recent T&S initiatives (beginning last fall) have increased the demand for customer support, but from my understanding, capacity has not increased.

Making the site safer by cracking down on sellers sounds like a sensible idea, but eBay sellers know that unscrupulous buyers can give them unjustified negative feedback. By going purely on raw feedback, and not taking into account circumstances like deadbeat and newbie buyers, some good sellers may get caught in the net. And as usual, sellers are left wondering if eBay exempts their top sellers from such crackdowns.

I have inquiries pending, in the meantime, let me know if you have been affected by this issue by posting a comment below, or calling the AuctionBytes Hotline (see this page for the toll-free).

Comments (179) | Leave Comment | Permalink

Readers Comments

eBay Sellers Complaining of Crackdown

by: otispd

Fri Aug 17 11:36:49 2007

I do not trust anything eBay tries to do. They seldom benefit the seller unless they see extra ways to increase our costs.

eBay Sellers Complaining of Crackdown

by: Sue

Fri Aug 17 11:37:09 2007

Ebay new rules are unfair. I have an overall rating of
Feedback Score: 8260 Ebay new rules are unfair. I have an overall rating of
Feedback Score: 8260
Positive Feedback: 99.5%

Members who left a positive: 8300
Members who left a negative: 39

All positive Feedback: 10823

And I must say every negative feedback I have received has been un justified
Some of them have been from buyers who NEVER PAID, OR WAS UN HAPPY EVEN THOUGH THEY GOT EXACTLY AS DESCRIBED. Some of the negatives have been saying item is great and still leave a neutral or negative.

I do not know what or how the start rating is measured or even how you find it how do you find the numbers of 5,4,3 how do you rate the stars rating when all it gives you as numbers?

I think ebay needs to allow sellers to rate the buyers same way buyers rate sellers and allow sellers to see who rates them in the stars ratings.
Positive Feedback: 99.5%

Members who left a positive: 8300
Members who left a negative: 39

All positive Feedback: 10823

And I must say every negative feedback I have received has been un justified
Some of them have been from buyers who NEVER PAID, OR WAS UN HAPPY EVEN THOUGH THEY GOT EXACTLY AS DESCRIBED. Some of the negatives have been saying item is great and still leave a neutral or negative.

I do not know what or how the start rating is measured or even how you find it how do you find the numbers of 5,4,3 how do you rate the stars rating when all it gives you as numbers?

I think ebay needs to allow sellers to rate the buyers same way buyers rate sellers and allow sellers to see who rates them in the stars ratings.

eBay Sellers Complaining of Crackdown

by: johngalt

Fri Aug 17 11:40:52 2007

I find it extremely ironic that the company with the WORST customer service in the world is now holding it's sellers to a higher standard. Either I'm getting negative feedback from non-paying bidders after a dispute is closed or getting spammed by Chinese who bought only to get my email address (and also don't pay). Ebay won't do anything to stop it. So while it concentrates on improving the "buying experience," the selling experience continues to deteriorate. Ebay has to be the worst managed company in the world. Hey, at least we have Skype! Will it ever improve?? Who is John Galt?

eBay Sellers Complaining of Crackdown

by: miss fuss

Fri Aug 17 13:03:55 2007

i saw the writing on the wall when eBay instituted FB 2.0 & its DSRs. i'd been buying and selling there for over seven years. it used to be fun--i was a happy buyer AND seller. as eBay instituted more and more draconian dictates, making its customers (the sellers) the bad guys, i let the last of my auctions end this spring, and haven't bought or sold there since.

yes, i need the money my eBay sales brought me. and i'm still working from home--i'm just not paying eBay to do it.

eBay Sellers Complaining of Crackdown

by: amie skelton

Fri Aug 17 13:05:26 2007

I am a buyer who is clad to see something done . Buyers who do not put a reserve get less than they want for an item wont insure and do not send the item. Then we buyer have to fight to get our money.Then the sellers who want your feed back but wont leave it for buyers. This is a give and take situation. I give the sellers take and I for one think sellers should be punished. I canseled a few bids and got slamed so why not the sellers to!!!

eBay Sellers Complaining of Crackdown

by: Jeff D

Fri Aug 17 13:19:38 2007

It's about time. As an owner of two stores I get so tired of being the most honest guy sometimes. I compete in the toy/game and media categories. I work hard to list ONLY items I have in stock and I ship within 2 days using the fastest shipping methods. I have 100% on both of my stores.

Here's why I am happy Ebay is tossing the losers...if you want to list items you don't have, fine...but learn to RESPOND TO CUSTOMERS when you don't have it...Refund quickly, etc.

When I see these media sellers listing products from Alliance, B&T or Super D's catalog (oops, did I give away your secrets?) why not post that you need to outsource the product and it isn't in hand? I have it in hand and you wouldn't BELIEVE how many emails I get from prospective customers asking me if I physically have it. What the heck is that? Proof too many have hurt Ebay with their greedy tactics. No wonder you people sell below cost and jack up the shipping. I get what you are doing. I don't/won't do that...it's immoral.

As for shipping, what is up with sellers who charge $5-7 for shipping a CD or DVD? I've got an idea...why don't you STOP demeaning the true value of the items? I know why...you don't have it in stock whereas sellers like myself carry it and therefore need to turn it around quickly to pay for it and collect our profits.

Enough...I am so glad that Ebay is removing the loser sellers. My business has jumped and allowed me to stock many more items to sell. It's not hard to take care of the customer. How come after many thousands of orders I haven't run into any of these evil buyers? Not once...seems to be an excuse for bad behavior on the part of sellers who can't empathize with customers who want their items in a reasonable amount of time and expect you to have the item the minute the paypal the money to you.

Yep, I've bought from each of you and many leave me cold. No emails to tell me if it's shipped, false promises of first class mail and late shipping because you either don't have it or are too slow.

Shame on you.

eBay Sellers Complaining of Crackdown

by: Pat

Fri Aug 17 13:23:51 2007

Each of these sellers has a feedback rating of 99.9, but who would you rather deal with - the seller with 2,640 feedback and 1 negative, the one with 26,480 and 32 negatives or the one (powerseller) with 264,800 and 320 negatives? Feedback percentage scores can only tell us so much.

eBay Sellers Complaining of Crackdown

by: hilsshop

Fri Aug 17 13:37:28 2007

You all need to do what one seller does to keep your account. She is on her 3rd or 4th Id now as Ebay suspended the rest previously mostly for not sending the items. doggydesigns If you leave her a neg she leaves you one and then emails you if you remove hers she will remove yours. Many of the items she sells are also copyright infrigment also. This has all been reported to Ebay many times but because she lists 4000-7000 items monthly they just ignore it. Counting the ones she had removed by the buyer she has right now 163 negs and 113 neutral for the past year. 5242 sales and still a rating of 99.4 and a power seller.
I had her suspended for a short period once long ago for copying my auction pictures and using them.I finally totally changed what I was selling so buyers would not confuse me with her. At one time I was a power seller and even though I am disabled and Ebay was my only source of extra income I found I was paying them more then I was making and have decided it is a waste of my time. Now I sell only stock left over for less then I paid wholesale or items from around the house. I also gave up my website which had all the leather goods I sold but no longer sell.

eBay Sellers Complaining of Crackdown

by: koen

Fri Aug 17 13:58:24 2007

I'm almost a platinum powerseller so I have some experience in the ebayworld. Multiple times ebay's ''Trust and Safety''-guys have suspended my listings and deleted all older similar transactions in my selling manager account WITHOUT EVEN A WARNING. Major administration problem! In the end it turned out they were wrong and they offered me 6 months free membership on the selling manager program. I lost some thousands of euro's and that was their reaction. I mean, where's the union here? I don't want these almighty desk guys to be able to wrek my store when they want to. I want to have rights like my neighbour who runs a small grocery store. I pay taxes the same way he does so am I not entitled to stability when I do everything right? I love the ebaysystem but us VAT-registered sellers should have more rights when it comes to suspending and such.

eBay Sellers Complaining of Crackdown

by: Jeanne Barney

Fri Aug 17 15:12:44 2007

I wish that eBay would crack down on deadbeat BUYERS! I am so tired of getting stiffed by people with high feedback ratings - high, no doubt, because sellers are afraid to leave negative feedback for fear of retaliation.

eBay Sellers Complaining of Crackdown

by: Ed

Fri Aug 17 18:39:17 2007

Another bad idea since anything that requires ebay support will always result in the wrong people getting targeted and not getting the help they need. It's a good thing ebay isn't required to meet the same standards they set for everyone else or the site itself would be suspended 99% of the time. While i've never had a problem with a bad seller i've been ripped off by ebay many times and even a BBB complaint won't get any satisfaction as ebay refuses to resolve the issue and just has the BBB close the case. It's about time ebay was monitored and shut down for non-performance when they don't meet the standards everyone else must comply with.

eBay Sellers Complaining of Crackdown

by: Cowbell

Fri Aug 17 18:56:49 2007

Before I began selling CDs, I checked out the big guys to see what their negs were about.

The former biggest one-cent seller (cough) got neg after neg for poor communication, rudeness, non-receipt, and poor descriptions.

Best research I ever did. They began to care about feedback once the percentage was displayed, and goosed it up a bit.

A huge seller can simply make the decision not to fill 1% of orders and maintain a 99% rating. Interesting thought, isn't it?

eBay chased me away when they pulled my store out of the search, and are now only about 10% of my sales.

I have nearly 15,000 feedbacks, with 17 negs. Three I earned by making errors in the orders. (I fixed the problems, and considered the negs harsh, but they're entitled to their opinions.)One guy was a whacko who honestly did not know where he lived. One was left five minutes after purchase with no explanation. One was someone who mistook me for Jay and Marie!

The rest were NPB's calling me a liar. Several got their strikes removed by "responding." Apparently, the "check is in the mail" defense is proof enough for eBay.

Instead of the bottom sellers, eBay could take a look at the TOP sellers. If they did a little math, they would notice that the top three sellers have collected more negs in the last year than all the 2-perecnters combined.

itrimming, eforcity, accstation, and moviemarz have alienated 11,000 eBay buyers in the last 12 months.

Funny, but somehow I suspect they, and their millions in fees, will be immune from this witch hunt.

eBay Sellers Complaining of Crackdown

by: Patricia

Fri Aug 17 19:31:28 2007

I don't know what to make of all this. I've been selling on ebay for many years now - almost from the beginning and still have clean feedback. (I can tell you I've eaten plenty of costs in order to try to keep it clean - no excuses - its part of doing business) However I'm seeing stories about ebay wielding a heavy club and it doesn't seem fair. I know the main bad sellers and fraudsters are still in place and selling. As with everything ebay has done in the past this doesn't seem to be well thought out or fair and certainly doesn't seem to be administered fairly. I believe they need some sort of punishment policy to get sellers in line but not what they're doing. It should be automatic listing suspensions - a few days first -then if no improvement a week suspension -then a couple of weeks then permanent. If the first few suspensions don't impress on a seller that he has to improve his feedback then he should be suspended permanently. I don't believe in clubbing him to death with the first blow and then expecting him to improve immediately or be gone! Like everyone else has said, its their turf and they can get downright rude - I've seen that plenty of times over the years. I think at this point they are desperate...revenue is falling along with core listings. They're losing money and they really don't know what to do to gain their buyers back. I'm afraid they feel sellers are a dime a dozen and they're willing to sacrafice them in order to give buyers new confidence in the site.

eBay Sellers Complaining of Crackdown

by: Jerry C.

Fri Aug 17 19:51:46 2007

This is an interesting topic. Ebay sent this blanket email to every seller as far as I am aware. This can have a profound impact on the eBay community. Let's call it an eBay shake-up. Not only will the great sellers tighten up their operations, shaving the bottom 2% means the filter will never go away. When you get rid of the bottom 2%, then there is a new bottom 2%. This means the bar will always rise on eBay. This is not always a bad thing in my opinion, but Ebays roots where established on amatuer sellers. By always raising the bar, you are creating eBay monopolies (for lack of a better term )and industries where companies can discount, ship faster and hire payroll for customer service. The amateur seller trying to get their feet wet will eventually disappear with this new formula.

You can see ebay changing their model right before your eyes and the changes are massive in scale.

I don't see Ebay as an auction site anymore, where you can bid and have fun finding items. I see it as a mass shopping portal, that wants its cake and to eat it too. Ebay has officially lost it's identity.

eBay Sellers Complaining of Crackdown

by: Jerry C.

Fri Aug 17 20:17:22 2007

To continue with my original post.

Ebay has effectively destroyed their feedback system. Anytime you make users afraid to use a system that can be used against them later will drive sellers away from feedback for fear of retailation feedback and being put on Ebay's virtual HIT LIST!

Where is the accountability for dishonest buyers?

One thing I have learned about all these changes is human behavior. People go through the emotions of Ebay change, then the reaction and finally acceptance. With all changes, we eventually accept it and Ebay knows this. They are well aware of the noisy period then the calm. They figured it out.

I am glad Auctionbytes is a voice for sellers. There isn't too much support anymore.

eBay Sellers Complaining of Crackdown

by: philby

Fri Aug 17 20:21:56 2007

QUOTE:
''e*ay will continue to evaluate your account on a monthly basis. Restrictions will not be lifted unless your buyer dissatisfaction rate is brought below 5%. Please note that failure to reach this level within four months will result in the suspension of your account(s).

Significant improvements to your customer satisfaction must be seen in order for us to consider reinstating full selling privileges. Please note that should these improvements not occur, eBay may be required to take further action.''UNQUOTE

Well, there you have it right there. The whole reason for the exercise. By targeting long term sellers with this action, and knowing full well how flawed the feedback and now the star rating system really is, the only way one can improve one's standing as a seller is TO LIST MORE STUFF, pay more fees...

It's now painfully obvious. D'oh! Had forgotten the Golden Rule: everything they do is about making money, and as a business one understands that. However, like any long term only game in town, they are drunk with power.

eBay Sellers Complaining of Crackdown

by: Glenn C

Sat Aug 18 06:16:33 2007

The Ebay user agreement is a contract governed in all respects by California law. Rules and policy are incorporated into that agreement when they are posted on the site. The new policy setting a higher standard for seller performance was posted on Aug 13,2007. Under California law a change to a contract cannot be made without consent. Consent cannot be given without notice. Moreover, Ebay is enforcing the higher performance standard retroactively, using data from transactions that were completed before the new policy was a part of the agreement. The object of a contract or any clause within it, may not be impossible. Last I checked, going back in time is impossible. The threat of a large class action lawsuit is very real.

eBay Sellers Complaining of Crackdown

by: Lisa

Sat Aug 18 14:55:11 2007

There's far too many sellers out there that intentionally seel junk or are just plain rude. But I fear eBay will do it in the usual hamfisted way.

eBay Sellers Complaining of Crackdown

by: Bambi

Sat Aug 18 20:23:14 2007

If this situation didn't have such dire consequences, it would be laughable. Suddenly you have people, who depend on all or most of their income from Ebay, shut down with no warning. The reasons given in the ''Alert'' are vague. And if you asked for clarification, you were lucky if you got the response that just repeated the same vague language.
The recent announcement about the crackdown did nothing but cause confusion and raise more questions.
What I would like to say to my fellow restricted and suspended sellers (especially the low-volume sellers)who are or will be affected by this new ''make it up as we go along policy'' is Ebay is concerned about it's ''BRAND'' which has taken a lot of hits recently. (Consumer Reports survey, VTech shootings, the recent report on CNN about ''Efencing'' and all of the other scams ASSOCIATED with Ebay'')
There ARE other options out there that may not be as big but could meet our needs. (Ewaey) is just one example!

eBay Sellers Complaining of Crackdown

by: Another wronged seller

Sun Aug 19 03:56:00 2007

I was recently restricted by the SNP ''policy'' as well. This policy is poorly conceived, horribly executed and non-existantly managed by t & S.

Following the 90 day average, I calculated at around 6.5% with no open disputes( 2 in the last 90 days for INR and both were received and the disputes closed) They also took down 123 store listings.

The only reason I fell into their net was because of the timing of the feedbacks. I don't sell the same amount year round so the feedbacks aren't left evenly year round either. Based on the 90 day averaging, I had just lost several hundred positive feedbacks because they were at 90 to 120 days at the time of the restriction. In fact another 120 feedbacks dropped off in the last 30 days since I was restricted raising my ''buyer disatisfaction'' rate to around 13% even though I had not gotten any more negs/ neuts since the restriction.

Also, at the time of the restriction they deleted 5 weeks of sales history. Every email I get tells me to go through the mutual feedback withdrawal process. Unfortunately, I can't seem to get anyone at ebay to understand that when they cancelled my listings and deleted my history, all the item numbers became invalid. When you try to put the item number in the mutual feedback withdrawal form, the item shows as invalid and won't let me proceed. Despite two appeals, 8 emails and 4 conversations with stores support, I can't get anyone at T & S to even comprehend WHY I can't go through MFW. EVERY subsequest reply I receive suggests AGAIN to go through MFW. Great job Ebay!

I am taking the time off to develop a new website to transition away from selling on Ebay in the future and I would encourage all honest sellers impacted by this to do the same!

Thanks INA, this site is a ray of sunshine! Pardon my vent!

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