Seriously eBay? WTF???

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frankiefives

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So I wake up this morning and find an e-mail in my Inbox from eBay. Here's a portion of what it says:

"Dear frankie5s,


We're writing to let you know that your performance record as a seller was below the minimum performance standard required of all eBay sellers. As a result, your search placement will be lowered until your ratings improve. Also, funds from your sales may show as pending in your PayPal account and be unavailable for a period of time to allow for successful fulfillment.

Based on your ratings, we recommend you focus on charging reasonable shipping and handling, and shipping promptly and updating your buyers."

OK, so my ratings are as follows:
Item as described 5.0
Communication 5.0
Shipping time 4.9
Shipping charges 4.8

I charge $3 for shipping in North America which is pretty much the standard. I also add 50 cents per extra auction won

How exactly is that below eBay standards???? :| :| :| :|
 
sounds like ebay/paypal is trying more and more often to keep withholding funds from everybody. sort of like that steal a few pennies from here and there, except here, they eventually give it back but still probably rack up on the interest somewhere and keep "withholding" funds from other accounts on a rolling basis. they'd pretty much have an unlimited number of accounts to continuously withhold funds from.
 
Last edited:
Chris,
Problem isn't getting 3 stars, getting 4 lowers your ratings big time. And here's the problem:

4 Stars is considered shipping "Quickly" and charging "reasonable" shipping. If that is the case, 5 stars is only deserved when I give free shipping and basically get the package to him in less than 3 days

A 4.8 rating means in 10 transactions, I got 8 x 5 Stars and 2 x 4 Stars. How can they say that's below minimum standards???
 
Ebay is like a hot girl/guy turning ugly over time. 2001-2008 she/he was hot. Last 3-4 years turned very ugly, very quickly. You still call here and there to catch up though.

And thats why selling there has been in a decline the last three-four years. She/he got ugly.

My selling on there is only when something first comes out, or is a hot hot card selling high. Other than that I leave that ugly girl/guy (girl) alone.
 
Frankie, I have the same issue but i just ignore them. I still get hit against me for the ratings, which boggles my mind. How the EFF can I control shipping time????

Here is what i have.
Item as described 4.97
Communication 4.98
Shipping time 4.92
Shipping charges 4.96

I have absolutely no idea why I have a low shipping score charges score since I DONT CHARGE SHIPPING (Yelling at ebay fonts size)
I cannot control shipping time.

Here is how I look at it, I think everyone is getting hit with this message and if they penalize ALL sellers, it will all come out in the wash. We all will be reranked in the exact same spot as if we were not penalized.

I toss this email into my garbage and continue until there is something to actually worry about. They have no idea how they are messing with their "real" customer base will impact them. I am jsut waiting for a better solution to sell and I will jump ship in a heartbeat.
 
My father-in-law just went to open an Ebay account and paypal account. He phoned me immediately afterwards and told me that Paypal states that they will withhold funds until he has met all three criteria; 25 sales (something stupid like that), 21 days withholding funds and $250 in sales....I was shocked. He just wanted to sell a few records.....He was turned completely off by this and I think he just gave up...WTF is with that??? Thats a complete joke...I think paypal is going to put themselves out of business with that B.S. Anyone else hear of this???

It takes years for 25 sales....and I asked to clarify whether it was all or whichever was first and re-iterated that he had to meet ALL 3.
 
They have to recoup the money they lost from starting the free listings idiocy. The withholding funds scheme seems to be their answer.
 
vegaspuck said:
They should be required to show sellers who gave them less than a 4 star rating on any thing they were rated on. Making it anonymous leaves no opportunity for the seller to resolve any complaints the buyer had.
Click to expand...
Agreed, but the real problem is that NOBODY communicates anymore. It's so much easier to just make a few clicks to express your displeasure than actually tell the seller why you were upset.

Personally, I'd like to see eBay standardize shipping charges saying you MUST charge $X for shipping in this category. That way everyone is on a level field for at least one thing.
 
Keep in mind that if you offer free shipping you get a lot less traffic. Trust me I notice this but I still offer free shipping anyways. Only having to do a few shipments a week suits me fine as long as I am staying profitable. Most card collectors are looking for deals and it is no diff then someone walking by your display case, seeing a price on a card and they move on without asking you for your best price.

My two cents but i will keep with my free shipping service. Its working for me
 
I charge free shipping for everything. I do not want to get dinged 3 times. Sometimes if your lucky a buyer might come to you to see if you want to move it so they can get it a bit cheaper offline so you can save on some fees.
 
SkyFire47 said:
they eventually give it back but still probably rack up on the interest somewhere and keep "withholding" funds from other accounts on a rolling basis. .
Click to expand...

This is EXACTLY what they are doing. 100%, no two ways about it but this is without question their rational behind it (internally of course).
 
Here's my feedback and I don't get any discount, never have (The 0% is the % of 1 and 2 stars I've had)

Item as described 5.00 0.00% (0)
Communication 5.00 0.00% (0)
Shipping time 5.00 0.00% (0)
Shipping and handling charges 4.93 0.00% (0)
 
vegaspuck said:
I'm seriously thinking of going to the free shipping and just upping the price on all my items by $3. If a buyer isn't smart enough to realize that a card at $5 with free shipping is cheaper than a guy charging $2 plus $4 shipping...then that's his loss. That way sellers can't rate me on shipping fees. I actually lose money on shipping whenever I sell an ITG Ultimate or Cup card since I charge $3.25 to Canada and $3.50 outside the US. The average weight is about 4 ounces for those cards and it costs me more than what I'm charging to ship outside the US.
Click to expand...

I started doing exactly that 3-4 months ago, and Im selling just as much as I did with a shipping a fee. One thing I have noticed is that there is a lot of cards sold with only one bid, no bidding wars. But I post the card with saleprice Im happy with including shipping. So a bidding war is only a bonus to me. And the the big plus is that I always get 5 stars on the shipping. And thats really important.
 
frankiefives said:
So I wake up this morning and find an e-mail in my Inbox from eBay. Here's a portion of what it says:

"Dear frankie5s,


We're writing to let you know that your performance record as a seller was below the minimum performance standard required of all eBay sellers. As a result, your search placement will be lowered until your ratings improve. Also, funds from your sales may show as pending in your PayPal account and be unavailable for a period of time to allow for successful fulfillment.

Based on your ratings, we recommend you focus on charging reasonable shipping and handling, and shipping promptly and updating your buyers."

OK, so my ratings are as follows:
Item as described 5.0
Communication 5.0
Shipping time 4.9
Shipping charges 4.8

I charge $3 for shipping in North America which is pretty much the standard. I also add 50 cents per extra auction won

How exactly is that below eBay standards???? :| :| :| :|
Click to expand...


this is exactly what ebay tried to pull on me:foottap:
as a result i have not sold a thing on ebay since

i was soooooooo angry when it happened i called ebay to vent...
as a result of my venting they closed my seller account:devil: oh DARN!
I guess ebay dosent like to hear about how there screwing there sellers (and with no lube i might add)
 
We need someone with money to start a class action law suit as I am sure that the agreement we signed when we applied for Paypal did not give them the right to withhold funds based on scanty information! As a financial company they should have no say into the delivery method or issues. It is only a matter of time before someone leads the way and PAYPAL gets hit with a multi million dollar suite...

Between Upper Deck, Ebay and Paypal, the greed is rapidly killing the hobby. Time to revert to transfering funds through your bank account. A lot less hassle and its free. This is great for in country but I doubt we will ever see the day when we can transfer funds between countries via a bank. (but scarier things have happened!!)
 

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