MC999 sudden death: fear comes to dominate Ebay seller experience

Starting in October, 2013, thousands, maybe tens of thousands of active sellers have been indefinitely suspended from selling on Ebay.

Ebay suspends sellers every day, and it's not news, because they needed to be suspended.

What makes this death wave different is that the sellers who are being axed are long term, medium sized sellers whose infractions are either minor or non-existent.

The list of common factors:

1. Seller misjudging the effect of low stars and unresolved cases.
2. Sudden transition from Top Rated Seller to indefinitely suspended.
3. Accusations by buyers that the seller is selling fake or counterfeit items.
4. A change in Ebay software which automatically opens a case whenever buyer contacts seller to inquire about the purchased item.

 Low stars and unresolved cases can kill seller.

That part isn't news. The part that catches sellers unaware is how few such bad scores it takes to kill.  Unresolved cases are especially costly, and sellers end up with unresolved cases when they are willing to resolve the case but expect more time.

Bottom line: 4 bum stars can kill.  3 bum stars + 1 unresolved case can kill.  Three unresolved cases are almost always fatal.

How could I go from TRS and all good stars to dead overnight?

The Ebay business model would confound anyone who seeks to analyze.  Several counter-intuitive factors catch sellers unaware:

• The evaluation period is back-loaded.  Seller is being judged today on things which occurred up to a year ago.
• Feedback is by nature delayed.  The bum star which takes a seller down may have involved a sale from two months ago.
• For most, there is no intermediate sanction. You're alive and among the best, then you're dead.  This is the most dumbfounding aspect.  We're not discussing crooks here, even in Ebay's evaluation. At most we're discussing sellers who need to be making some tweaks to their business model.
• Even when seller can see it coming, often there is no possible way to avoid the grim reaper.

Accusations of fake are being scored without any vetting.

This is particularly devastating to those who sell branded merchandise where the brand pursues real violations.  Some brands routinely challenge the authenticity of any listing using their brand. Dunkin Donuts brand coffee for example claims than DD brand coffee is always counterfeit unless sold directly by DD.  Sellers have been offed because they found a bargain on DD coffee at Walmart, and started listing what they bought on Ebay, only to find their listings taken down, and then, the permanent axe falls.

Ebay software behavior does not match Ebay policy

Mid 2013 Ebay made a change in how cases get filed, in a well intentioned effort to suppress inappropriate buyer demands for refunds.  When buyer contacts seller, a case is now automatically filed.  At the time, it was explained that the case being filed would not affect seller's standing, unless seller lost the case.  That remains the policy today.

However, by many credible reports, the number of filed cases has been used as the basis of permanent seller suspensions.

Ebay Customer Service reaction.

Ebay customer service is largely uninformed about the climate change of the past three months.  Common reaction when a seller contacts Customer Service is to be told two clear statements.

• Permanent means permanent.
• We wish you well selling anywhere but Ebay.

This made sense when the permanent suspensions involved frauds or plain bad sellers.

Is this ever going to be fixed, and if it does, what about currently suspended sellers?

What is going on now is beyond any logic, and thus, we can expect it to be fixed. All sellers, except those who are protected by special arrangements with Ebay, are currently threatened.  As these sellers see their business taken down, some competitor will inevitably rise to pick them up.  Somewhere along the line Ebay will wise up, and fix what is broken.

It remains to be seen when that will occur, and what Ebay will do regarding their discarded sellers.

What can sellers do to avoid sudden death?

I for one continue to sell, but I am exceptionally wary.  Here's some concepts.

• Contest any low star to the logical limit.  Many low stars can be removed, understand the rules regarding such removal
• Learn from the low star, even if it is removed.  Stop putting all blame on buyer, see if buyer might have a point. Bum stars are a major threat, and the primary defense is to avoid them.
• Do not ever allow an account to accumulate three low stars.  Once you're selling with three bum stars, a variety of bad luck situations can take seller down.  Sell on another account.
• Resolve cases by refunding early.  Do not bet that Ebay will see your side and protect you.
• Do not trust Customer Service when they send you into some kind of battle with the promise that you will win the case.  Dead sellers can tell you why.  That CS rep has not interest, let alone the power, to revive a permanently suspended seller.
• Avoid contested brands.  It's unfair. UnAmerican.  All of that.  But you want to sell or do you want to be a crusader?
• Ship fast, either today or tomorrow when buyer pays.  If you feel you can't do that, you may not be suited to selling on Ebay here in 2014.  You're going to take too many incoming complaints, and those complaints are going to take you down.
• Don't charge sales tax whenever possible, and if you do, make it very clear up front that the tax will be charged.  You'd rather lose the sale than take the bum star.

Finally, a way to not leave feedback and not be bugged about it.

I've blogged about this issue before.

It's been a real pain. Buyer requests no feedback, but Ebay reports that feedback needs to be left.

For those of us who ship multiple times per day, this meant we had to remember that special request every time we shipped, for 60 days.  And if we forgot, we could expect negative feedback.

Yesterday for the first time, I gave the new way a try.  The transaction was canceled by buyer's request, and I'd prefer to just let sleeping dogs lie.

Having clicked on "need to leave feedback for 3 transactions", the transactions appear in a list.
Each item in the list has a checkbox, on the left.
Having checked that transaction, click the "delete" button on the bottom of the list.

Voila.  Gone.

Ebay: sell me 100 listings for $10

January is here.

That's the beginning of my intense Ebay selling season.  The season lasts until Memorial Day.

It's also the season of listing cost stress.

In the really old days, listings were 5c.  All was well.

In the medium old days, up until about a year ago, Ebay gave us 50 free auction listings.. BINs were 50c.  After the 50 frees were used up, auctions cost varied based on beginning minimum bid.  99c auctions were 10c to list.

Now, the 50 frees are useful for any listing, which is great. However, after that, listings cost 30c, which is painful.

To reduce the pain, Ebay gives away lots of free listings, but they do it in an unpredictable way which can't be depended on.  The freebies can however be waited for, and listings held in reserve until the freebie offer comes.  That time management of listings is one complication for a modern seller.

The second technique available to us small timers is to sell on more than one account.  That gets a 2nd 50 freebies, but at a different kind of management burden.  Seller has to be willing to manage multiple accounts.  Perhaps more importantly, this can mitigate the value of crossover, where a buyer sees an attractive item listed, and checks out what else the seller might be selling. 

Wouldn't it be nice to not have to do all of that?

I do understand the value of pricing listings.  For one, it keeps a lot of pure nonsense from being listed, listings which just aren't attractive to anyone except perhaps victims of dementia.

So here's the suggestion to Ebay.

Sell us blocks of 100 listings for $10.  Good listings, the same as the current 50 freebies.

Fair enough that the listings have to be used in some time frame, say 30 days.  Then they expire unused.

Classic mismatch of expectations: seller expects death in family trumps Ebay obligations

I'm not sure what they were thinking.
Seller doing about 10 sales per day seems to have just abandoned Ebay for 1.5 weeks.  Comes back to find angry buyers, and two weeks later, an angry Ebay.
 

Our account was just Suspended "Indefinately" after having a family hardship. We have been loyal to EBay for 15 YEARS. Both buying and selling. We have always maintained excellent customer service and customer satisfaction as our number one goal. Our company was actually founded in 1958 by my Grandparents. My Father who also worked with us passed away from Terminal Cancer on December 29th. EBAY COULD CARE LESS ABOUT SMALL FAMILY RUN BUSINESESS!!! 
Lets see how long this post stays on here before they delete it! I pleaded with them to talk to a supervisor. They would not let me. I asked to appeal the decision and they would not let us do so. They did not care about anything. 
Maybe this is a blessing from God that we are being suspended from such a tyranical big brother type company that is only out for profit.