Slight Frustration with the Ebay Seller Rating System

[Broken Shakespear]

You just aren't happy with what your buyers criteria are, so you should either put him on your blocked bidders list, or move on...

Wow! What timing. I just received belated feedback today on a book sold two months ago. Here's the feedback:

 

"Great Books! Super Fast Shipment! Great Ebayer! Highly recommend!"

 

So then I look at my Detailed Seller Ratings and I notice my ship time had gone down to the point eBay gave it a red bar to note a drastic change from previous ratings (yes, they do this to sellers, just to give you an idea how serious they DO take it).

 

The package was mailed the next morning after payment, Priority with Delivery Confirmation, communicated that a shipment had gone out that morning, yet the score was low enough to make a significant difference.

 

It's like some have said on here. It is extremely difficult to maintain a high score, let alone a 5. I just want to maintain a high enough score to communicate I am a seller that cares about the buyer experience overall.

 

BTW Broken Shakespear, you're the same one that was complaining how mycomicshop banned you for complaining too much about their grading, and you wanted to be allowed to buy from them again. Now you come on here and tell people to move along if they don't like the eBay rating system?! How about be consistent in your practices.

 

You need to get your story straight,

 

First, I did complain about MyComicShop's grading and that I was banned. I was not banned for complaining too much. I was banned for utilizing their return policy too much. There is a difference. However, I never asked to be allowed to buy from them. It was something they offered to me after reading my comments, with zero prompting on my part. So don't make out like I was begging them or anything.

 

Second, I never told anyone to move along if they didn't like the E-Bay rating system. What I said was that e-bay hadn't defined what a 1-5 meant, so each buyer must arrive at that on their own. What I said was that if he didn't like his buyer's interpretation of what a 1-5 meant, he should just block that bidder, or otherwise move on. In a buyer pool of millions, you will find many interpretations of what a 1-5 will mean. You can't force everyone to accept your definitions of a 1-5.

 

If you can't see the difference between the two situations, I'm sorry. But they are not the same. I will also add that I personally think he would be wrong to block the bidder, but if he is going to bad mouth the bidder for giving his honest opinion, and he is so worked up that he needs to vent here, then it is probably the best thing to do for his mental health. I mean, he wouldn't want the same customer to come back and spend more money with him, because the buyer might give him 4's across the board again and that would be horrible.

[Broken Shakespear]

Thanks everyone for your comments. Sorry to hear about your situation Bosco685. It seems that you got jilted much worse than I did

 

My point was more along the lines that it seems a bit odd that someone would deliberately give someone less than 5 stars when they could see a long line of other ebay users who had given 5 stars. The standard was there to be seen if he cared to look.

 

I think it is unreasonable to expect to maintain a 5.0, so I don't know why you are getting worked up about it.

 

The 1-5 scale is a subjective scale, and people will always look at it differently. Maybe you think shipping the next day is exceptional service, and feel you deserve a 5 for doing so.

 

 

If the item was exactly as described, then giving less than 5 stars just seemed wrong to me, espcecially considering the quick turnaround time. My ebay listings, including this one, indicates a 2 business day ship time to be safe. Underpromise and overdeliver is the way I approach it.

 

The 5 star rating was important to me not only because of pride of service, but also because ebay gives a 20% discount to powersellers that maintain a certain star rating. Thankfully, I am still eligible for the discount even with his lower than 5 star ratings (wasn't like he gave me below 4 stars or anything).

 

No worries. The opportunity to vent a bit has allowed me to get over it and simply move on (thumbs u

 

Again, this is the information that E-Bay gives your buyer on how to rate you.

 

"The detailed seller rating system is based on a one- to five-star scale. Five stars is the highest rating, and one star is the lowest rating."

 

It doesn't even say what a 1-5 means. Again, maybe to your buyer, a 5 means that the item is even better than described. I mean, if someone tells you they are going to give you x,y,z and then they give you x,y,z are they really doing anything special? If they are only doing the minimum that they told you they would do, then why would you deserve the highest rating? If they delivered more than they promised, shouldn't they get a higher rating than if they only delivered what they promised?

 

This is just one way a person can look at it. There are many ways and E-bay has failed to define it and left it entirely subjective. For someone like me, maybe I give a 5 star on shipping if the seller uses a new box that I can reuse to ship one of my items (and save a buck or two). Maybe he only gets a 4 if it arrives in an old diaper box, but arrives quickly and intact. E-Bay has left the buyer the freedom to assign their own definitions, making it impossible to get perfect 5's.

[Boozad]

It doesn't even say what a 1-5 means. Again, maybe to your buyer, a 5 means that the item is even better than described. I mean, if someone tells you they are going to give you x,y,z and then they give you x,y,z are they really doing anything special? If they are only doing the minimum that they told you they would do, then why would you deserve the highest rating? If they delivered more than they promised, shouldn't they get a higher rating than if they only delivered what they promised?

 

OK I see your point of the 5-star system being open to interpretation by each individual user. But taking into account the amount of scammers on ebay, and indeed the amount of high dollar books that sell then I find this a bit of an odd view.

 

So if you drop big coin on a GA book that is described as a 4.5 no resto with an extremely detailed description of defects. You get the book and the defects look exactly as described, you forward the book to CGC and it comes back a 4.5 with no resto. I my mind that is a perfect 5 in description, the guy obviously knows how to grade and you've paid for exactly what you got.

 

Yes I know people will see things differently but I've never heard people running down Footlocker as they only got one pair of trainers when they paid for one pair of trainers, or McDonalds for only getting one Big Mac... etc. The comic book market requires people to be truthful to allow for buyers to feel at ease buying online, and honesty is paramount in any sale. If a book arrives on my mat exactly as described then that's a 5. If the guy decides to throw in three free books that's up to him, it's not what I paid for so I'll mention those in his feedback, that is what that is there for.

 

So to sum up when buying comics from ebay, if a seller promises xyz and you receive xyz then yes they've done something special. I can't honestly see how 'Item As Described' can be interpreted as 'Item As Described Or Better.'

[Bosco685]

You need to get your story straight,

 

First, I did complain about MyComicShop's grading and that I was banned. I was not banned for complaining too much. I was banned for utilizing their return policy too much. There is a difference. However, I never asked to be allowed to buy from them. It was something they offered to me after reading my comments, with zero prompting on my part. So don't make out like I was begging them or anything.

Get my story straight? If you go back to that thread, Conan and you both made it very clear you returned books so many times, they finally blocked you. That's why folks on here kept asking if you were not happy repeatedly, why keep going back?

 

Make up your mind, or at least be relatively consistent in your philosophy.

[Bosco685]

Thanks everyone for your comments. Sorry to hear about your situation Bosco685. It seems that you got jilted much worse than I did

 

Hey, if anything, it shows you there are sometimes worse scenarios out there with eBay where sellers have received quite a bit less of a rating than they deserved.

 

One board member was scammed on eBay where he mailed out a Fantastic Four 48 CGC 9.6 two years ago. The buyer states an empty box arrived, and then wants the seller to go along with this story by telling him to file a claim with the USPS so the buyer can get his money back (over $3,000).

 

The seller asked the buyer to mail him the box so he can see it for himself, gets the box and notices it is all his original tape so there is no way someone could have opened the box ahead of time. He tells the buyer he can't file a claim, and gets a negative. Even though he now had the original box to prove it had been weighed by the USPS with something in it and it displayed no signs of tampering, eBay wouldn't take any action on their own as they told the seller he couldn't prove this was the original box. There was no way to win as a seller in that environment.

 

That's one of the worst situations I've heard of that sticks in my mind how lucky I've been on eBay. It could happen to any of us. Be thankful!