Everyone who sells on eBay has been well aware that for several weeks, eBay has been doing lots of suspending of accounts for seller non-performance and at the same time offering wacky explanations for doing so. It has resulted in alot of complaining (which, of course, is helped along by eBay’s award winning customer disservice) and bad press, so it looks like they are trying to do some damage control. Philipp Justus, eBay’s Senior VP of Auctions, posted an announcement on a couple of days ago in what appears to be an attempt to soothe people’s nerves.
Here is the announcement, editorial commentary flanked by double bars:
***A Message from Philipp Justus – Understanding eBay’s Seller Non-Performance Policy Enforcement***
August 13, 2007 | 10:51AM PST/PT
Philipp Justus
Hello everyone…We’ve been sharing our plans with you to reignite the core marketplace and improve the buying experience. Some may wonder what this means, but, really, the “buying experience†is a combination of many different aspects of the marketplace. Over the last few months, you’ve heard from a number of marketplace teams who are working on significant projects like Finding, for instance, to make finding items easier and more exciting for shoppers. We’re investing in auctions, as well as other core areas of the site. Across all these efforts, our goal is to thrill and delight both our buyers and our sellers, and to make eBay the best shopping destination, on and off the internet. (Learn more about what’s in the works at www.ebay.com/sneakpeek.)
While improving functionality on the site is critical, a big part of the buyer experience is in our sellers’ hands. We recently launched Detailed Seller Ratings (DSRs) to give buyers more information about the kind of service they can expect from a seller. DSRs add transparency to the marketplace by giving buyers a sense of how accurately sellers describe their items, what their shipping times are like, whether previous buyers have felt their shipping & handling charges are fair, and how they handle communication during the transaction. The majority of our sellers deliver a great buyer experience, and now it’s even easier for them to differentiate themselves from those that do not perform as well.
The vast majority of eBay sellers deliver consistently positive experiences to buyers. However, a very small minority — just 1% — of sellers currently cause fully 35% of bad buying experiences. This small minority not only damage their own reputations, but also indirectly damage all of the good sellers who benefit from a strong and vital eBay marketplace. To address this problem, we have begun enforcing our Seller Non-Performance policy in stricter ways than in the past by considering a seller’s buyer dissatisfaction rate.
New enforcement of eBay’s Seller Non-Performance Policy
There are currently two types of input from buyers which we use to measure a seller’s buyer dissatisfaction rate: the percentage of negative and neutral feedback they’ve received and the percentage of Item Not Received complaints filed against them. Sellers who have demonstrated buyer dissatisfaction rates greater than 5% within a 90-day window are now subject to temporary 14-day restrictions in the form of selling sanctions or reduced listing volume. Sellers with dissatisfaction rates that are 10% or greater are now subject to indefinite restrictions until they improve their buyer dissatisfaction rates to less than 5%. In both cases, sellers are given instructions on how to resolve their open disputes and take other recommended actions to in order to regain their full selling privileges. (Please read Seller Non-Performance policy and our Frequently Asked Questions for more information.)
So we are counting Item Not Received (INR) complaints, sounds fair. But what about when the seller has a tracking number and signature of the buyer, showing that the item was received by the buyer, yet the buyer has left the complaint open and is not responding? Yeah, eBay’s “recommended action” is that you contact the buyer again. eBay gave me a 90 day restriction. Philipp mentions only indefinite restrictions and 14 day restrictions. Apparently this announcement doesn’t cover the whole story. Not getting the whole story from eBay is, of course, nothing new.
More about Feedback and DSRs
Some of you have asked why neutral feedback ratings have become a part of measuring buyer dissatisfaction. Through our quantitative research as well as many conversations with community members, we have found that neutral feedback is most often an expression of deep buyer dissatisfaction. Therefore, leaving it out of the calculation would mask a significant part of the issue. Ultimately, only positive feedback is an indication of satisfied customers.
Hey Philipp, what about buyers who don’t leave any feedback at all? What does that indicate? An increasing number of buyers only leave feedback when they have something to complain about, as nearly all sellers have observed. So if neutral feedback is really negative feedback, why have neutral feedback at all? Why not just have positive and negative? Many buyers leave a neutral feedback comment when they are neither pleased nor displeased with a transaction (a truly neutral feedback comment) so why are these counted against the seller?
Detailed Seller Ratings are not used in our buyer dissatisfaction calculations currently, however, we expect them to become an additional input in our calculations in the future. We will keep you updated on adding DSRs as part of our calculations, and how they will impact a dissatisfaction rate.
Helping sellers improve their satisfaction rates and become successful is goal #1
Typical eBay spin. If their goal was to help improve satisfaction and help sellers better serve their buyers, they might not respond to requests for information by disconnecting calls or sending mindless automated replies to e-mails that are irrelevant.
Please know that our goal in restricting or sanctioning sellers is always to drive them to resolve their business challenges, improve their satisfaction rates, and remain in the marketplace as successful sellers. Our communication to impacted sellers spells out specific actions they should take to improve their rates, such as settling any open buyer dispute issues, refunding buyers when appropriate, asking for mutual feedback withdrawal when disputes have been resolved, etc.
Please remember that this new enforcement impacts the bottom 1% of current sellers, who cause 35% of the negative buying experiences on the site. The vast majority our sellers provide great buyer experiences by following these and other best practices:
- They accurately represent the condition, size, and quality of the item directly in the listing.
- They accept payment for an item at the end of a successful sale.
- After payment is received, they promptly ship the item with proper packaging.
- They proactively and professionally communicate with the buyer throughout the transaction.
(Please read our Seller Tips for more information.)
We’ve talked to a lot of sellers and other members about this effort, and it’s clear that many members understand the need for this enforcement and are supportive of these efforts. The whole marketplace, and especially the 99% of our good sellers, will benefit by cracking down on bad buyer experiences in this way.
Yep, most sellers (including this one) agree that something needs to be done. But the question is, was this half-baked idea (that you all implemented several weeks ago and are just now bothering to announce to us formally - coincidentally [or not], after my account was suspended) is what needs to be done.
It’s also clear we need to do a better job communicating with sellers on these issues, and helping them understand what to do to avoid problems, or resolve them after they’ve occurred. My hope is through better education and communication, those sellers who are impacted can change their practices quickly and as painlessly as possible for their continued success and the good of the whole marketplace.
Yeah, Philipp, you sure do need to improve communications. But I am going to help you all out in that regards. I think that by the time I am done pursing my issues on my account, you all might think twice before you screw sellers first, ask questions later and provide answers never.
Sincerely,
Philipp Justus
Senior Vice President, Auctions
Perhaps the most interesting part of this whole affair was the fact that they sent a message to several users (none of them restricted or suspended, yet) by eBay Messages but not by e-mail, calling attention to the announcement. Wonder why they did not send a copy to the e-mail address of the users as well.
The message above mentioned message, as forwarded by a reader of this site, reads as follows:
To: [Redacted]
From: eBay <mymessages@ebay.com>
Subject: Seller Update: Seller Performance Standards
Date: Wed, 15 Aug 2007 20:09:38 -0700 (PDT)
Dear [Redacted],
We’re writing to tell you about an important announcement we’ve made concerning eBay policies and standards for seller performance. eBay is taking steps to protect the interests of good sellers like you and the consumer’s overall experience on eBay.
First of all, we assure you that your current level of performance exceeds the standards. Congratulations and thank you.
Sellers are expected to perform in a manner resulting in a consistently high level of buyer satisfaction. If, over a 90-day period, a seller’s interactions with buyers result in greater than a 5% level of buyer dissatisfaction as evidenced by negative/neutral feedback and/or Item Not Received complaints, that seller will be considered in violation of eBay’s Seller Non-Performance policy. Note we’re currently not including Detailed Seller Ratings in the enforcement of this policy since they’re so new to the marketplace.
As a seller in good standing, you’re well aware that buyer satisfaction is vital to your continued success — and the continued success of eBay. Thank you for your solid track record and continued commitment to good customer service. We’re confident that enforcing this policy will go a long way to keeping eBay a great place to buy and sell for you and for all our users.
Sincerely,
eBay Trust & Safety
Needless to say, all of this violates the eBay User Agreement (which states that “Each of these policies may be changed from time to time. Changes take effect when we post them on the Sites.”), where they promised that they would announce new changes before they took place. This has been going on for weeks (that I know of) and maybe even months before this announcement was made.
Another eBay dirty trick, certainly not the first and likely not the last we’ll encounter.
