What's worse than being unable to leave a difficult buyer on eBay negative feedback?
How about not getting your money until you make them happy?
Check this out. Ebay owns Paypal and with that connection, they've decided to implement a new policy to hold back a seller’s access to their eBay auction payments — in certain cases.
DSRs ~ The Magical Mix
Starting in mid-May, sellers will no longer be able to leave buyers negative feedback.
However, buyers can rate transactions based on various aspects of the sale: item description, communication, shipping time, and shipping & handling charges. This works on a 1 to 5 scale, with 1 being the lowest and 5 being the highest rating. The average of all ratings is displayed on the seller’s feedback profile page.
As a seller, your Detailed Seller Ratings are too important to ignore. Poor DSRs are likely to have a real impact on your bottom line.
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A buyer filed a dispute with me last month. It involved a claim of non-receipt.
I sent the padded manila envelope to Canada with a Shari Lewis Lamb Chop Hand Puppet inside on Feb-11th — within a day or so after receiving payment through Paypal. The package eventually arrived at its destination on April 8th.
Certainly, the buyer had every right to be upset. But the issue of slow-moving mail is not all that uncommon. While waiting for delivery, the buyer filed a complaint with eBay — even before making an attempt to commnuicate with me directly.
The recipient was very pleased and excited when the puppet finally arrived, And, although I was given glowing feedback, the buyer hasn’t yet taken the time to close the dispute.
The slow arrival of Lamb Chop wasn’t my fault. But the open dispute will affect my DSR.
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One of the consequences a seller with a low DSR may have to deal with is “Big Brother” Paypal stepping in to mandate buyer satisfaction.
When PayPal temporarily holds a payment, the amounts held appear as pending in your PayPal account until they release the funds.
When will PayPal release the payment hold on an eBay item?
Your funds will be released after 21 days. Funds may be released earlier when one of the following occurs:
-- The buyer leaves you positive feedback on eBay
-- 3 days pass after they confirm the item was delivered
-- 3 days pass after they confirm the item was delivered
If you receive a dispute, claim, chargeback, or reversal on a transaction subject to the eBay item hold, Paypal may hold the payment until the problem is resolved, even if the claim, chargeback, or reversal occurs after the hold is released.
This is all part of an ongoing effort by eBay to “improve the buyer experience”.
But, this is where I believe the "buyer-comes-first" mentality goes too far.
By all means, to be successful in business you should treat your buyers fairly. If you make a error on an item description or fail to pack an item sufficiently for shipment, do the right thing and refund the buyer's money. However, it's my opinion that refunds should be issued at the seller's discretion and according to stated policies on the seller's eBay listing pages.
If eBay had any serious competitors online — comparable in traffic and sales — I’d feel safe to bet that a good chunk of their sellers would flee.
But the reality is that there is no other online selling environment in existence today that has anything close to eBay’s advantage. The fact is, they get far more traffic — and being on eBay results in more sales.
So what it all comes down to is this: If you want to play, you're going to have to play by their rules.
For more information on eBay's Detailed Seller Ratings:
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