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Ina Steiner EcommerceBytes Blog
News and insight focusing on ecommerce.
by Ina Steiner, Editor of EcommerceBytes.com
Fri Dec 7 2012 17:17:34

What Could eBay Do to Better Protect Sellers?

 By: Ina Steiner
Sponsored Link
One bad buyer can cost a seller money and ruin his or her reputation, so what is eBay doing to protect sellers? You can find out on Thursday when eBay hosts a workshop to tell sellers how eBay protects them when things go awry.

I'll be interviewing eBay Director of Seller Protections Rich Matsuura on Tuesday in advance of the workshop, and would like to know what questions you have about seller protection, Feedback, Detailed Seller Ratings and other aspects of selling.

Here are details of the eBay Seller Protection program, and, as a refresher, here is a link describing the circumstances under which eBay will remove feedback. What do you think? Are there other cases where they should be willing to remove negative feedback left for a seller?

eBay also now grants sellers automatic 5-star ratings "for great service." For example, "When you offer free shipping and we know the buyer chose that option, you'll get an automatic 5-star rating for Shipping Cost." Have you been eligible for any of those automatic 5-star ratings, and if so, what has your experience been in using them?

Let me know what other challenges you face and what questions you have for eBay, and I'll review them before speaking to Rich Matsuura.

Update 12/11/12: Podcast interview is live on the Ecommerce Industry SoundBytes. Will be making available a transcript of the interview. Thanks for all the great comments and questions!
Comments (133) | Leave Comment | Permalink
Readers Comments

Perminate Link for What Could eBay Do to Better Protect Sellers?   What Could eBay Do to Better Protect Sellers?
by: Duke This user has validated their user name.
       
Fri Dec 7 17:48:44 2012
My question is, why does eBay give an automatic 5 for no communication?  No communication is NOT always good.  And if eBay is checking my Messages to see if emails or off-site selling offers are included, why can't they check the communications between me and the buyer to see if there is a problem or that it's a shipping message or compliment?    

Most of the messages I get from the buyer are either pre-sale questions or post-sale "thank you" or "I left feedback".  I would think the fact that I answer quickly and politely should give me an automatic 5.  

I also send the buyers a personal messsage that their payment has been received and the item it shipping.  I had stopped doing that when eBay touted their new improved end of auction emails as I didn't want to spam the buyers with too much email.  Yet my communication DSRs took a huge hit.  When I started sending the message again, DSRs went back up.  Again, that I take the time to do this, doesn't that mean I'm going above and beyond?  Don't I deserve a 5 star more than the seller who doesn't say boo?  (And I know I can circumvent this by sending a direct email, but still...)
Perminate Link for What Could eBay Do to Better Protect Sellers?   What Could eBay Do to Better Protect Sellers?
by: mjr55 This user has validated their user name.
       
Fri Dec 7 18:30:41 2012
I think they've done a lot better job protecting sellers with some of the automatic 5 star ratings. However, I still think something needs to be done with feedback in terms of not allowing buyers to leave negs if they have not contacted the seller about the issue (similar to how they de-score INR/SNAD cases where the buyer didn't contact seller or didn't give seller enough time to reply). By implementing this policy for feedback...it's only going to make sellers feel even more protected and it's going to make sellers resolve issues (even when buyer hasn't opened case) and that, in turn, will give buyers more piece of mind.

Perminate Link for What Could eBay Do to Better Protect Sellers?   What Could eBay Do to Better Protect Sellers?
by: happyharry This user has validated their user name.
       
Fri Dec 7 19:37:55 2012
Ebay have absolutely no interest in the protection of sellers.

We run multiple business accounts on ebay and quite truthfully are sick and tired of the treatment we receive.

We have just been suspended from selling for 1 month due to 2 buyers (I with 7 FB P Rico and the other with 0 FB Spain) buying international mailed items and then giving low DSRs due to delivery time!!!!

This account was a TRS account with over 2,700 FB and NO negs/claims etc So yes ebay really helped us loose sales for 1 month at the most important time of year.

On a brighter note our Amazon sales have already broken last year’s superb results.

Ebay are smoke and mirrors and basically of no real importance anymore
Customer service and protection sellers are basically foul language to ebay
Perminate Link for What Could eBay Do to Better Protect Sellers?   What Could eBay Do to Better Protect Sellers?
This user has validated their user name. by: Ric
       
Fri Dec 7 19:44:43 2012
One of the biggest abuses sellers experience comes at the hand of eBay itself.

Inconsistent customer service hampers sellers every time they face it.

Ambiguous written policies lead to inconsistent enforcement.

Issues such as what constitutes feedback extortion confounds sellers the majority of the time. Policy says one thing, agents interpret it another and sellers end up on the short end of the feedback abuse stick.

eBay needs to review it's many ambiguous policies, clarify them and then reeducate customer service so that outcomes are consistent.

Sellers often get no satisfaction on a first contact but are then able to recontact customer service and get the proper outcome from a second agent.

Another improvement in Seller Protection would be to require buyers to submit photographs when filing cases for SNAD or damaged items. Buyers should be required to include photographic evidence when filing claims that clearly depicts how the item they received differs from the sellers description and photos or show the actual damage an item sustained in transit. This would eliminate a significant number of fraudulent buyer claims which would benefit sellers as well as eBay.

Perminate Link for What Could eBay Do to Better Protect Sellers?   What Could eBay Do to Better Protect Sellers?
by: happyharry This user has validated their user name.
       
Fri Dec 7 19:52:45 2012
Plus to add..ebay customer service, I am so tired of not even getting replies to questions relating to bad buyers....on the account we have just lost for 1 month I personally sent at least 5 messages asking what the problem was before I received a generic idiotic reply telling Me how to improve ratings ??????? like we are school children just starting out...We are a  professional internet business thats been selling on line almost 17 years

We email every buyer on order dispatch

Include Note in every package

Include a free gift in every
package

Have staff just to answer ebay messages

Process all orders with in 3 hours
Dispatch 7 days a week twice a day (postal pick up)

So please ebay where do we go wrong? As I would love to know how we can improve our business
Perminate Link for What Could eBay Do to Better Protect Sellers?   What Could eBay Do to Better Protect Sellers?
This user has validated their user name. by: iheartjacksparrow
       
Fri Dec 7 20:13:06 2012
"how eBay protects [sellers] when things go awry."

I laughed so hard I had tears in my eyes.
Perminate Link for What Could eBay Do to Better Protect Sellers?   What Could eBay Do to Better Protect Sellers?
This user has validated their user name. by: Anonymous Annie
       
Fri Dec 7 20:18:18 2012
I have a feeling that this is a cynical and insincere PR stunt. Nothing will happen. Nothing will change. eBay execs and policy-makers have made it abundantly clear where they stand on these issues. They've stubbornly refused to change or moderate for years. YEARS! Why in the world should we believe that they're concerned about this now?  
Perminate Link for What Could eBay Do to Better Protect Sellers?   What Could eBay Do to Better Protect Sellers?
This user has validated their user name. by: Ming the Merciless
       
Fri Dec 7 20:21:13 2012
When a buyer files an INR, SNAD, or damage report, ebay should require them to submit photos AND cooperate fully with the seller if recovering insurance if applicable.

Further ebay should caution buyers that filing false claims can not only result in being NARUed but if USPS handled the shipping, they are committing the crime of postal fraud which could be an imprisonable offense.

Failure on the buyer's part to provide clear evidence to support their claim invalidates their claim and their ability to leave feedback.

If a buyer breaks an item after receipt, that is NOT the responsibility of the seller.

Buyers not returning the exact item shipped are committing postal fraud, and this common practice makes a good case for using invisible ink, minor engraving, or recording serial numbers.

If the truth about some buyers is "negative," so be it. Seller should be to state in a buyer's NON RECIPROCAL feedback that the buyer didn't pay for the item, returned the item, or returned a different item.

While many of us realize that the following is a foreign concept to ebafia management, the truth is the truth.
Perminate Link for What Could eBay Do to Better Protect Sellers?   What Could eBay Do to Better Protect Sellers?
by: genejhsn This user has validated their user name.
       Web Site
Fri Dec 7 21:55:36 2012
eBay is going to tell us sellers how they are protecting us? This is purely fatuous. If eBay WERE protecting us , they wouldn't have to TELL us they are protecting us, they would DO it. After Adelphia Communications went bankrupt and we all lost our jobs, I wondered where the idiots in the management who always had miserably ignorant ideas and worse policies would ever find employment again so they could continue to victimize people who should be able to depend on them. Obviously they obtained positions at eBay and are victimizing us.
Perminate Link for What Could eBay Do to Better Protect Sellers?   What Could eBay Do to Better Protect Sellers?
This user has validated their user name. by: Ric
       
Fri Dec 7 22:09:36 2012
@ Annie

I agree 100%... hollow promises, window dressing, ambiguous policies, are the direct result of decision makers who have no experience doing what they do for a company they know almost nothing about.

Donahoe's handpicked management team absorbed from outside of eBay are doing little more than going through the motions of looking like they want to help sellers only to string them along until they are finally discarded in favor of the big box sellers John Donahoe covets.



Perminate Link for What Could eBay Do to Better Protect Sellers?   What Could eBay Do to Better Protect Sellers?
by: Truk This user has validated their user name.
       
Fri Dec 7 22:25:12 2012
Seller Protection as far as I can tell is all lip service

Even if your issue with a buyer clearly falls within ebay's guidelines

They don't live by the rules setforth in their own TOS

Really is there a seller out there left that has any trust left that ebay will do the right thing anyone?
Perminate Link for What Could eBay Do to Better Protect Sellers?   What Could eBay Do to Better Protect Sellers?
by: dans parts This user has validated their user name.
       
Fri Dec 7 23:37:09 2012
Almost a year ago, I lost a SNAD case.  Of course, it also resulted in lousy DSR's for it, which haunt me to this day (no TRS = lower Search).

Item was a pair of headlight lenses for a Morris Minor (an English car).  They are oval, not round.  Buyer, IN THE OPEN CASE, states he bought them based on my measurements listed in the auction.  I did NOT have any measurements at all listed in the auction description, since any collector buying these for the proper car, will already KNOW they are oval, not round.  He wanted round ones for some dumb hot rod garbage he was building.

So, how did eBay protect me in this situation?  I even filed an appeal, and lost that.  The Buyer stated a bold-faced LIE, and one that eBay had the means to 100% VERIFY who was telling the truth, and they didn't bother.  They forced a refund, and the idiot returned them, so I listed them again, and got double his bid price.  I win (I guess) a battle ($$$), but I lose the war (DSR's).

Protecting Sellers?  Seminar is nothing but a con job/snow job to quiet us down for a while, and waste some of our time better spent listing more auctions.
Perminate Link for What Could eBay Do to Better Protect Sellers?   What Could eBay Do to Better Protect Sellers?
This user has validated their user name. by: Sandymenu
       
Fri Dec 7 23:50:45 2012
If eBay permits buyer/seller feedback to be withdrawn or revised by going through the linked process for mutual agreement, then what eBay NEEDS TO DO is not only revise the buyer comments but REMOVE the Neutral or Negative icon AND revise the DSR rating once BOTH parties Mutually agree. It is really quite stupid to see a buyer, leave a negative comment, then agree to have revised and still see the bad ICON (Neutr-Neg) on the sellers profile. WHO CARES what the buyer revised comment, it is that rating a seller is stuck with for an entire year!

That's what eBay can do for sellers: if the bad buyer comments are revised/ deleted, then so should the icons and rating!
Perminate Link for What Could eBay Do to Better Protect Sellers?   What Could eBay Do to Better Protect Sellers?
This user has validated their user name. by: Sandymenu
       
Sat Dec 8 00:42:09 2012
What Could eBay Do to Better Protect Sellers?

eBay can also STOP allowing buyers to leave their own outside links on seller feedbacks.

Lord knows, if a seller did this, they would be kicked off eBay.

Just this past week alone, I've already seen more and more of this happening. Just take a look at many seller feedbacks from their buyers. The buyers are advertising their OWN outside links to their webstores at seller's reputation.

Most current one spotted today:
See ALL of the BUYER's Feedback Left Others (see the sellers item # 281026198531) and then notice that BUYER (helen....) has left OVER 25+ positive feedbacks to her sellers with a thanks and leaves her '' Visit my website @ ''...

Now if that's not valid proof of ABUSE (as a member in general) and eBay allows it} why you ask?

Perminate Link for What Could eBay Do to Better Protect Sellers?   What Could eBay Do to Better Protect Sellers?
This user has validated their user name. by: Sandymenu
       
Sat Dec 8 00:46:40 2012
Update: Not, the seller is helen....the BUYER feedback abuser is "wattsbran6"...
Perminate Link for What Could eBay Do to Better Protect Sellers?   What Could eBay Do to Better Protect Sellers?
by: bitbybit This user has validated their user name.
       
Sat Dec 8 01:09:39 2012
Ina, could you ask if a buyer communicates with a seller either with a question before or after a sale, even if it is a positive communication, will sellers listings be subjected to decreased visibility. It just seems whatever sellers do is held against them.

Also the real destroyers of sellers it seems are the DSRs. So even if ebay ''protects'' the seller, what are they going to do about the DSRs? How will a seller know if DSRs have been removed since everything is hidden? When is ebay going to be transparent?  Ebay seems to follow ''If it walks and talks like a duck, then it must be a cow''. What I really mean is ebay's credibility is shot.  
Perminate Link for What Could eBay Do to Better Protect Sellers?   What Could eBay Do to Better Protect Sellers?
by: JOHNNY MASADA This user has validated their user name.
       
Sat Dec 8 02:51:53 2012
I am asking that those that take the time to post here can take the time to participate in this workshop

Here is a rare opportunity to air your grievances, or a better word may be, your concerns.

So be proactive, sign up, ask your questions.

Don't be reactive to a bad situation ask questions which are prepared,  be clear and concise

As hard as it is, keep emotion out of it but be passionate.
Make a Point.

   There are really smart people with lots of selling experience here' thousands of years worth.

Make a statement that is a recommendation not a attack


You all know what is not working, articulate that - make your suggestions based on fact, current fact- not the Good Ol Days.

  ''Really is there a seller out there left that has any trust left that ebay will do the right thing anyone? ''

  Yes, there is. Me, I think as of right now, there is hope.

''Mistakes were made, there were excesses''  
Perminate Link for What Could eBay Do to Better Protect Sellers?   What Could eBay Do to Better Protect Sellers?
by: fordat1 This user has validated their user name.
       
Sat Dec 8 05:10:12 2012
Fire the entire Board and replace them with folks who want the small sellers on eBay and don't go out of their way to SCREW US.

But, let's be honest your interview will lead to NOTHING, they have proven time and again they don't give a damn about the small sellers, they don't care and you'll know the person you are interviewing is lying to your face because his lips are moving.

the DSR's are pure rubbish,they change the their rules at at the drop of a hat,etc.

The company is dishonest to the core and to be honest you are wasting your time talking to this person, He'll lie to you as the day is long.

On the other hand, AMAZON is working out for my company so much better then eBay.

So feebay can burn in hell as far as I'm concerned.



Perminate Link for What Could eBay Do to Better Protect Sellers?   What Could eBay Do to Better Protect Sellers?
This user has validated their user name. by: eBankrupted
       
Sat Dec 8 05:26:29 2012
Thanks for keeping the eBay community safe and informed?

If professional sellers cannot give a buyer a negative; an anonymous 'PITA rating' could prove a serious buyer from a jackhole fraudulent slanderer.

Buyer 'PITA rating *****'
Let us be fair. As a seller, I would love to give 5's to my buyers, although there's always that 1=3 buyer who finds one thing wrong and turns that into 3 things to extort a refund. Pain In the Assets = PITA ratings for buyers!

Recent Yelp and Angie's list defamation lawsuit awards have proven that buyers are not always angels when giving feedback online.

Sellers should have some public outlet before initiating a defamation lawsuit, such as giving buyer PITA ratings, before juries award $750,000 defamation awards to buyers leaving bad ebay feedback that unfairly destroy businesses.

In related news; ebay has failed sellers who cannot afford anonymous DSR ratings that are slanderous and untrue, so ebay had better be prepared when sellers now sue buyers for one-sided bullsh*t feedback comments AND DSR ratings. Lawsuits lawsuits lawsuits result when sellers can't neg bad buyers with a PITA rating.
Perminate Link for What Could eBay Do to Better Protect Sellers?   What Could eBay Do to Better Protect Sellers?
This user has validated their user name. by: Anonymous Annie
       
Sat Dec 8 10:41:08 2012
Some questions about the ''automatic'' DSR's.

1) Assuming that a seller has met all the criteria to qualify for an automatic 5-star DSR... under what circumstances is that score actually posted to the seller's account?

-- Automatically? Regardless if the buyer leaves feedback or not?

-- Only if the buyer leaves feedback (pos, neg, or neutral?)

-- Only if the buyer leaves positive feedback?

-- Only if the buyer leaves feedback AND takes the time to leave at least one other DSR score?

2) Why have feedback for buyers AT ALL? It's completely meaningless and a waste of my time to leave it. ~ If it's ''necessary'' only because it's a throwback ''legacy'' or ''tradition''... perhaps eBay should consider an option that sellers could enable... one that gives AUTOMATIC feedback upon payment.

It could be a phrase that the seller enters just ONCE (or a feedback comment that's randomly selected from a set of phrases that the seller has pre-defined.)

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