Sorry to beat the dead horse and all, but let me tell y’all what my current rating from ebay is on my seller performance:
Your buyer satisfaction rating is “Needs work.”
That is a direct paste from my Seller Dashboard. Now, let me paste my actual stats on their new, ridiculous DSRs categories, as of today.
Item as described – 4.9
Communication – 4.7
Shipping Time – 4.7
Shipping and Handling Charges – 4.9
Yep, I need work. Obviously I need to spend more than the two or more hours a day I already spend simply answering emails from current clients, former clients, and potential clients (the majority of the latter never, of course, become actual clients who spend any money at my store. yet I answer their questions anyway). I answer individual emails, I answer all ebay messages and questions, plus I have a blog to point people to for FAQs. But my communication need work, according to ebay.
I’d like to see them do better. (FYI, they don’t. If you as a seller ask them a question, they take more time to respond than I do to my questions, and I don’t have anybody working for me.)
Obviously my buyer satisfaction rating “needs work.” Because even though I make each oil, powder and incense in small batches, with utmost attention to detail, this is obviously not enough for some people, who both want personal attention AND want speed. Hey, wake up. You want fast, go to somebody bigger. You want attention? You’re in the right place. Don’t expect Disney-world here, guys — I’m one person, shipping over 200 items a month. and I’m still paying personal attention to each one. The day I have to stop doing that is the day I go out of business on ebay, ’cause it won’t go out with my name on it unless I prepared it myself.
You know, one of my favorite bead suppliers on ebay is closing her doors in a week because of abuse she has received at the hands of clients who have the power to fuck with her DSRs even while she has no power to complain that they took a month to pay her for their purchases. I can get where she’s coming from. She cannot leave neutral or negative feedback for a customer that decided it was ok to take 3 or four weeks to pay, despite the fine print when you click the “buy it now” button that says something along the lines of “I have read the item listing details.” Assholes never read the item listing details. And with ebay’s new policies, one asshole among a hundred reasonable people can truly fuck with a seller. I’m sorry to see this seller go, I really am. She’s lovely, she has great stuff (and has for TEN YEARS), and she’s always gone above and beyond in her customer service to me (and thousands of her other satisfied, reasonable customers). She is a really good example of how ebay’s new policies are biting the hand that feeds. She has been around too long to feel she has to take abuse at the hands of irrational people. I pray that she finds greener pastures, and I am sorry that ebay is driving away some of my favorite sellers.
Big Lucky Hoodoo 