How to close eBay.in using few thousand Rs. Management Wake up. READ!

[microscopesind]

This is my second post of the day.

Usually this time in the evenings i am on my laptop creating my listings, responding to buyers and preparing the order list for next day.
But today as my account has been restricted and i cannot list my products i had some time to think some more about the new ebay feedback policies and how it can effect eBay.in more that the sellers.

Ok I am not an expert and my calculations could be wrong but this is what i realised:
There are so many other e-com sites in India who are competing with eBay.in
eBay has now made their work much easier.
eBay.in does not have as many Titanium or Platinum Powersellers as eBay.com who individually sell hundreds or thousands of products each month.
I was going through the feedbacks of few powersellers and found that 90% of them have a monthly average feedback in the range of 20-100
So if a powerseller recieves 2-10 neutral feedbacks in a month his account can be restricted by eBay for future listings which is very discouraging and even closed in the future.

I believe every seller has some very low value items in his product range. This he usually lists either to achieve volume sales or a regular feedback.
These products are usually in the range of 10-500Rs.

So one has to simply register with his and his friends/employees ids as a buyer stay on eBay for few months. Be a genuine member, make some purchase using 1Re auctions or buy lowest priced items, get some positive feedbacks and then start targeting the powersellers who have lower number of monthly feedbacks.

Buy some low value items from him, pay using paisapay and simply leave a neutral feedback stating shipping delay, shipping damage or maybe he dint like the color.

(I am stating this because the ONLY negative feedback i have was because of an international shipping delay which is not in my control and the buyer is not responding to my requests even when i am offering him a refund)

So accumulate few neutrals for the targeted seller and get him off eBay.

And then move on to other PowerSellers

In the whole process of doing this he would hardly have to spend a few thousand Rs.

Earlier the buyers used to resolve these issues on their own using Mutual Feedback Removal or in some cases ODR India when the buyer would not respond.

But now as nothing is available the feedback policy would be hitting eBay.in more than the sellers as we sellers would still have an option to list on other sites.

eBay.in top managers have to realise that eBay.in is still in its in growth phase with only very few power sellers who are the major contributors to the monthly revenue for the company and a future asset.

So they have to work together rather against them.

And trust me there will be many competitors who would be eyeing this weak link of eBay.in and wont mind spending a few thousand Rs for the competition.

I strongly believe that new feedback policy is great for newly registered sellers but even for them the neutral/negative feedback should be personally checked for fraud if the seller files a complaint.

And for the powersellers i believe the good old feedback system where the criteria of 98% customer satisfaction with neutral being neutral and the option for Mutual Feedback removal incase of negative should be reinstated.

And the seller should have an option to resolve any complaint on recieving the neutral/negative feedback with the help of eBay.

If we can maintain 98% we can even 100%.

There is another way to improve seller feedback.

There are many buyers who dont leave a feedback either due to negligance or lack of knowledge.
I have set an automatic feedback reminder using Seller Manager Pro and inspite of that only 50% of the buyers leave a feedback after recieving the item.

There is a rule for customer service which is taught in the ISO Qualiy system. If there is no customer feedback then it is to be understood that the customer is satisfied. Otherwise he would have contacted you with a problem. So if the seller does not recieve a feedback even after reminding the buyer using the eBay feedback reminder, eBay should contact the buyer stating that if does leave one within a stipulated time eBay would automatically leave a positive one on his behalf.

This is because each and every positive feedback now matters with the new rules.

eBay.in and its powersellers have just started to register their presence on the world map and the feedback system could erase them in no time.

Thanks
Manish

[cosycom]

Hi Sapana , I am still curious to know
what powers are available to eBay India staff in correcting any unjustified feedback received by sellers .
i.e. Can we can expect any help from eBay India staff in case a seller receive a truly unjustified feedback ????

Is it possible at all to correct any unjust decisions made by eBay system robots ????

Please oblige us with information about steps a seller can take in such cases.

Narinder 🙂

[indraneel@ebay.com]

Hello Narinder (cosycom),

Great to talk to you after quite some time ;-)!

Yes, a truly unjustified feedback can be corrected and be taken off. I guess you missed an update on the similar concern that you have raised on this thread. However in the interest of the members on this thread I'd like to reiterate that we do understand that things will be different in India considering the impulse behaviour of the buyers and we are well versed with it.

Unjustified feedbacks will be addressed appropriately on a case-to-case basis as they are very subjective in nature such as the comments, relevance, time when rating given and so on and in no ways will be a robotic act. We, at eBay India, will do our best to do justice when any such reports are received.

I request all members who feel that they have received unjustified feedbacks to report the same through this link: Report a Feedback problem.

Hope that your ddoubts were cleared :-).


Regards,
Indraneel

[microscopesind]

Sapna

I really appreciate your comments.
Please also do let me know what to do about the buyers who do not even know how to leave a feedback.
I regularly contact my buyers to leave a feedback. And sometime they do. They simply reply me back that everything was great.
But when i ask them to leave through feedback on eBay they do not even know how to proceed.
I believe i have atleast 20-30 products every month for which a feedback is not left inspite of reminders.

Also do let me know if the SNP is being calculated on monthly or quaterly basis?

And for the neutral feedbacks i said i had no problem as long as they were NEUTRAL.

And infact one of these guys is ready to withdraw the feedback. But now as we cannot do that he is asking for a refund which earlier he never mentioned of.

And about the communication issue, i use selling manager pro with automatic payment acknowledgement, shipped out notice and feedback reminder. So for every product being sold there are 3 mails going on my behalf. If there was any issue the buyer would contact us.

And for a product issue if there is any i have always resolved it. You can read the other 1000 feedbacks and you would know.

But again i am not complaining about the buyers who left neutral. As you have read these you would see that they are satisfied with the service . Neutral does not mean NEGATIVE.

The issue i am raising here is that when the buyer does not mean negative why is eBay traeting it as negative?

And i would like to point out, you mentioned i have not even recieved a single positive feedback about the item "NEW!! HAND TABLE MICROTOME w fixing clamp".
Well check again. I checked my history and i have sold 17 of these since Jan.

Have recieved 2 feedbacks in June itelf 1st and 3rd of June

A++++. Exceptionally quick delivery. Good item. Thanks. by samuelcd on 1st June

Very good item Thanks A++++ by hutch444 on 17th apr.

Fast shipment! Good communication! Commendable! 🙂 by schneffel on 10th Apr.

reception en 5 jours.! Parfait etat. Vendeur conseillé on 9th Apr by jacques8484

And the list follows.

You mentioned You have not received a single positive for that particular product

Kindly check that carefully and then leave a reply. You said that without even going to the second page of my feedbacks. Let me have your comments on this again.

About the buyer friendly approach again you have to check my buyer feedbacks.

And you also mentioned

Return Shipping: I looked up your item listings and saw that you mention clearly that buyer will bear the cost of return shipment. To me it almost sounds like you want the buyer to NOT ship the product back. If you were a buyer, will you feel excited about contacting the seller back to get the issue resolved? Possibly not!

If possible, arrange for the courier to pick up the product from the buyer's place. In my mind, a buyer will not mind paying for the shipping charges as long as he does not have to go through the hassle of finding a courier company. You are in the business and will possibly be able to help the buyer ship the product back at a cheaper cost.

Well yes you are correct and my fault that i did not offer them this service to arrange for pick up as i do not have much contacts in US, France, Argentina.

But yes due to the eBays new feedback policy i gave them a better offer. To Keep the product and still i will refund 100% payment including shipping as these are low value products and i believe in 100% customer satisfaction. As for the customer service by the time i open a dispute and i get a result would be like another month.

and you mentioned If nothing else works out, at least the buyer will know that you tried your best because you care for him and the business he is giving you.

Please check the feedback i have left for the buyer who left me THE negative feedback. I offered 100% refund i mailed them several times and i left a great feedback. I think that shows that i care.


I dont know if you read my other post as well. I am continoulsy listing and promoting each and every product of mine using featured listings. I have been investing lacs of rs everymonth for my listings to appear on search engines.

You might be aware or you could consult your marketing team that for listing to appear on top places in a search engine the keywords have to be continously promoted.

But now as i cannot list as many items my previous efforts and investment is waste. Again this is just because of the Neutral feedback issue.

Sapna let me have your comments on this as well.

And also on your comment a buyer is investing his time and money to buy from you on eBay because he needs the product and believes that you will give him good service.

And what is seller doing? What about our time and money?
And what if we give a good service?
Who is responsible to measure our parameters? Some mathematical formulas?
We are here for a long term prospective and repeat customers. And our long term prospective is even longer that the eBay employees. We know that if we will not provide good products and after sales we do not have a future. I have recieved many orders due to reccomendations from buyers. My company has been this field for 30 years with repeat customers in over 150 countries. ebay started as my personal hobby turned out to be my part time job and passion.

I am just not happy with the new policies and dont want to comment more on that as a lot is being said about it.

And finally i would like to finish on the following note.
My 1 negative feedback.

This is what it states
$22 for express shipping that took 2.5 weeks. Not the same item as shown in pic.

I have 100s of feedback for this partcular product and this is the first guy to say its not the same item.

And about the shipping. Its crap.

Tracking number EH007535637IN
http://ice.auspost.com.au/

I would ask you and other sellers who read this post to track the item.

He states it took 2.5 weeks for delivery. And i say not even a week.

Maybe he did not want this product, maybe he felt the shipping was expensive. But now that he bought and paid for it and we delivered it promptly what could he do?

Then he came upon this message from eBay
Buyers should leave honest Feedback without the fear of receiving negative or neutral ratings

And he took out the frustration on the seller.

WAKE UP guys!!! We sellers are not kids to sell products worth Lacs and Lacs and maintain our power seller status in the past.

You have to realise that whatever is happening is not justified.

Again i would say stop that Cut Copy Paste from the eBay customer support manual and be practical.

I am sorry Sapna and other guys at eBay. i do not mean to be rude but the water is top of the head now.
Stop acting like whatever is happening is for good.

Thanks
Manish
I LUV eBay

[shree_krishna_gems]

Dear Manish,
Your reply was excellent and being myself a seller,I can understand that inspite of providing great service and quality items,some buyers are never satisfied.

This is India and there are lots of buyers here who will quickly give you Neutral or Negative feedback without contacting you.

Now as you said buyers are encourage to leave feedback without fearing,dont this seems that eBay asking buyers to provide Neutral or Negative feedback to the sellers.

There should be some message like this for a buyer trying to leave feedback:

"If you have any issue with service of seller or item bought,Please do not leave Neutral/Negative Feedback,Please first contact the seller and give him/her chance to resolve the issue"

Well, I always noted one thing,Whatever policy is introduced by eBay,Pinks start to show that it is all for good.

I know we should be loyal to our job but sometime it will be nice to be honest and support genuine issue of sellers.

I too don't want to write more here as almost all sellers are frustrated with new policy.

I am sorry of my words seems to be rude too but I am not afraid of writing the truth here.


Best Regards,
Deep Agarwal.
Shree Krishna Gems

[pc_gaming_store]

I agree with Shree Krishna Gems. The current message that eBay displays is almost like they want buyers to leave Neutral or Negative feedback.

Whatever happened to all that better communication to buyers to refrain from leaving negative or neutral feedback for sellers before trying to resolve the issue?

[microscopesind]

Deep

Yes i agree with you.

I feel it is a waste of time. Its time to take vacations and stop listing on eBay for a while.

When their revenue from powersellers go down maybe they will realise.

I just saw the profile eBay user: nilezone
He has left a response in the Voting thread. His account has been restricted and by seeing his neutral feedbacks one can easily make out that it was no fault of his. But as i mentioned eBay customer service seems like a robot which works on mathematical formulas than personal judgement. I am sure if the neutral feedback was removed it would not have hurt the buyer in anyway. As buyers usually leave them and forget. It is us sellers who have to carry the load.

As i mentioned earlier soon all accounts will be restricted. The cahin reaction has started. Sellers who have low volumes of monthly sales would be a target first and then everyone would follow.

Also about my negative feedback about which i told earlier, i did contact the customer service with the tracking details and buyers comment for feedback removal.

But again i got a Cut copy paste reply than a personal one.

This was their explanation

We understand your concern in this situation and have reviewed the
feedback comment in question. Unfortunately, we found that the comment
that was left does not meet the requirements for removal as outlined in
our feedback removal policy found at:

http://pages.ebay.in/help/policies/feedback-abuse-withdrawal.html

Unless the feedback meets this policy, regrettably, we cannot remove it.

Well again i have no reply to their perfect replies.

I dont see any fault of mine in the feedback i recieved.

Well that is one reason i stay away from discusion boards and ebay customer service as i feel they have no personal powers and mostly its a waste of time.

Its not their fault as they have to follow eBay bible of rules.

Unless the top management is involved nothing can change.

Its better we did only limited listings and concentrate on other work rather making eBay as our core business.

I started here for a hobby. It was a mistake i got too involved to make something out of it. Limited listing once a week with the good old prducts is the best. You cannot market aggresively on ebay now. Its time to rethink and look into other alternatives.

Thanks

Manish