TRS and Removing Negatives

Here is a photo of my current DSRs.

I believe that to be a TRS, eBay should really be looking at the total ratings, the 4.9s and 4.8s that I have achieved in the past twelve months. I don’t think that they should be looking so harshly at those low 1s and 2s.

In the past three month’s rating period, I am being judged on 934 transactions. I got 10 1s and 2s in Item as Described which at 1.07% puts me in jeopardy of losing my premium eBay store (and we aren’t even discussing TRS yet).

You can have no more than 1.00% of 1s and 2s in the Item As Described category to be a premium store owner. You can have up to 2.0% in the other three categories and not be in jeopardy but Item As Described is looked at very seriously. And I do take it very seriously. I never misrepresent my items.

Losing my premium store would be a disaster to my bottom line. If I were demoted to a basic store, my insertion fees for a GUC (good until cancelled) listing would go from 5 cents per listing (I have over 6,000 listings) to 20 cents per listing. That translates from a current $300 per month fee to a $1200 per month fee. This got my attention!

I have to tell you that this did ALMOST happen to me several months ago when I got 20 1s and 2s in shipping time. I quickly got that fixed and to give eBay credit they do give you 60 days to get it taken care of before they demote your premium store to a basic store. So if this happens to any of you, don’t panic–you have some time.

Luckily, I got that fixed but now I was in a quandary. How do I fix item as described ASAP? I pulled up my recent feedback and I saw the culprit who had put me over the 1.00% level. I couldn’t believe who it was.

Remember that “eBay Deal of the Day” satellite radio docking system that I thought I was so smart to buy and resell?

See this listing here.

I had bought it before Christmas as an “eBay Deal of the Day” for $12.99, which included shipping. I sold it for over $20 plus $14.95 in s/h/I charges. Then I received an email from the buyer saying, “It looks used and you didn’t say in the description what systems it works with.” I could smell trouble. I immediately emailed and said:

I am very sorry about this. We did open it to answer some questions about the item for other customers. It is brand new. I will immediately refund your entire purchase price with shipping and you can keep the item.

I refunded all his money that second, including s/h/i. The guy still left me negative feedback. Are you kidding?

So, I decided I would go in and ask him to revise his feedback rating.

Here is the link the the customer support page. Type in ‘revise feedback’ and follow the links to check and see if you are eligible to ask for feedback revisions. eBay has a limit on these based on your total transactions and how many days ago the feedback was left.

Here is what that screen looks like.

I had already asked for him to revise his feedback, so on the screen capture above, it shows that currently I am not eligible to have any feedback revised.

It turned out that the buyer was nice enough to revise the feedback. What a relief! Here is what his new and revised feedback reads.

When I saw that he had revised it, I quickly went to my seller dashboard to make sure that the low 1 or 2 was taken away from my Item as Described DSR. Guess what? It was still there. Not cool! I was very vocal about this at eBay radio last week. I truly believe that if a buyer revises his feedback to a positive based on a seller going the extra mile that the low 1 or 2 DSR should also be retracted.

In any event, those low 1s and 2s in Item as Described will be falling off soon and I should be fine in the next evaluation period (end of this month).

Let’s also look at my numbers in relation to TRS.

As you can see, the only category that I qualify for Top Rated Seller is in communication (you have to be at .50% or less in all 4 categories). I am very close in shipping time and not too bad in shipping and handling charges either. So, to end on a positive note, we are making progress! YAY! I will continue to work with my buyers to make eBay a very positive place for them to purchase and I know that you are all doing the same!

Happy eBaying!

Lynn