I think that because buyers know the S&H upfront, they never get “a nice surprise” on shipping fees. So it’s going to average out as “as expected” - whereas all the other criteria give the buyer a chance to have a better experience than they’re expecting. That’s why those criteria tend to be higher.

Thanks for your comments. I do think one needs to worry though if ebay does as I suspect and use DSR ratings to align with best match search as part of their algorithms. I think all sellers and ebay would be better served with “Would you buy from this seller again”

I think eBay has a mathemetician from Walmart and a VP from Best Buy running the strategy. So their thinking probably goes something like this:

“We need to have lower prices, better product and a better experience than the rest of the internet (ie: Walmart/Best Buy/Amazon). Our excessive shipping/handling policy addressed this in 2007 (http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/listing-shipping.html) but these other sites are catching up to us. Lets throw S/H in DSR and push down S/H prices more.

If eBay replaces the S/H DSR with “Would you buy again” what other lever can eBay pull that incentivizes sellers to lower s/h prices so the site remains competitive with the rest of the net. Also, what if eBay added a 5th component (Would you buy again) and then averaged all 5 out making everyone look “better”, but showing everyone where they need improvement.

I will not buy from someone that has a high shipping cost. So their nothing I need to complain about. As I know what the cost and shipping is before I buy the product. If the total price is less then what you would pay for in the store, That’s a good deal. Usually I will only charge $1 to $2 for handling fee to cover for package materials.

But serious though, I don’t think anyone is ever happy with the shipping cost. I looked at a lot of people feedback on shipping like you said, It’s the lowest rating on almost everyone. My rating is 4.6. I thought I was doing go by only charging 1 or 2 bucks for handling. Gee Wiz

Do buyers realize that sellers have to pay alot of fee’s?

I’m glad I came across this.

Thank You

People have always told me I have a way of thinking things thru, but I am in shock on how many points I mimic your opinions and facts without ever reading your articles or interviews. I really wanted to be wrong.

I have posted on blogs everywhere, I have started my own, I have now quoted you many times and given links to your articles.

People are not realizing the severity of these changes. I am appalled at the number of sheep there are in this world who refuse to do the thinking for themselves…seriously people, WAKE UP!

After 9 years on ebay, we are trying harder then ever to get 100% off. I don’t even buy there anymore. Over and over again we have shown we cannot trust this company to make good decisions, the prices keep getting higher, buyer fraud rate higher, and the sales rate lower. Why do we even consider ebay to be the cream of the crop? It is all…just as you said…smoke and mirrors.

Many long-term sellers became reasonable, mabe charging, at most, a couple of bucks handling charge,

But still, PayPal takes a bit out of your postage. If you charge someone $5.95 for priority postage, PayPal suddenly takes some of that coin and you lose money. Arrgh.

You can live wih the DSR, but now they are tied into discounts on eBay fees. So, can’t wait to see what happens long-term.

Looking them over, everyone should be satisfied with 4s, since it basically means the train ran on time. A 5 would be almost hand-delivery with song and chocolates and a rebate check, which few of us are willing to do.

Good post.

Now all we have to do is get ebay to accept that a 4 is good. The way things will be is if you get a 4 you go to the back of the search and possibly or better probably be thrown into paypal hell and holds on your funds.

This is a move to shove out small sellers plain and simple. Looking at the top 200 powersellers who will now get all the breaks shows they have huge amounts of bad feedback in all categories. Of course their vol will keep them out of the fire. If anybody truly believes ebay is doing this all to help the buyer then they have been fooled. They only want to milk small sellers dry on the way out. My measely 528 perfect FB. DSR’s of 4.9, 4.9, 4.9, 4.75, 17000 total feedback left doesnt matter to them. All I need is 1 or two bad buyers and im done. The first time im put into that risk cat that puts me in paypal im out of there. I’ll refund the buyers money, pay my bills and take off. I am supporting the boycott and will continue to do so while joining other auction sites till I find one that is to my liking and then im gone anyway from eaby.

Ebay is suddenly encouraging ALL sellers to offer free S&H. How does this benefit Ebay?

If you offer free S&H, you have to make the money up somewhere or face the loss. More and more sellers who DO choose to offer free shipping will be factoring the shipping into their item price.

Once you add it to item price, Ebay takes their cut off the listing fees, and then again on the final value fee. (And then your Paypal fees, of course.) More profit for Ebay, and the DSR star for shipping will STILL be low.

They are NOT going to change this. It’s the ULTIMATE Ebay scam.

Something else to think about: You don’t have to pay for a storefront. You don’t have to pay for advertising. You don’t have to pay for all the other various and sundry things that you’d have to if you were running a retail establishment. Quit bellyaching about paying ebay’s fees and just do a better job than the next guy. All told, selling on ebay may not be as service-oriented as retail but service still counts for a lot.

Ebay’s new policy’s have set us (sellers) up for failure they have been working on this for sometime trying to make us belive that these changes are needed for buyers and sellers on GREEDBAY.

What this is is all roads on Ebay lead to PAYPAL they are setting us up to fall below the NEW requirements (DSR’s) to make you take paypal only because you are now a risky seller and to portect the buyer PAYPAL ONLY and they will hold your funds for 21 day as punishment while they make money on your money.

The free shipping will figure into the FVF very nicely as they have already suggested doing so to get your DSR’s up WHAT A JOKE!!!!!!!

1-MAY 08 BOYCOTTE VICTORIOUSLY

All of Ebay’s price hikes, lack of service, and constant changes that cost me time and money were taken with a grain of salt. But now, to let a buyer WHO KNOWS IN ADVANCE what shipping they will pay to “ding” me and negatively impact my business–well, that’s it. Of my last 10 feedbacks, all were strong positives, almost all of them mentioned how pleased they were with shipping speed and the quality of packing, and yet my rolling shipping cost DSR fell from 4.8 to 4.5. Not only will I not get my powerseller discount; I am also in jeopardy of losing my powerseller status because buyers who KNEW what the shipping would be opted to give me 4’s or lower rather than 5’s.

I could even live with not getting the discounts. But to lose the status and to be lost in the lower dregs due to Best Match disadvantage–that I cannot and will not accept.

With the DSRs, Ebay has completely alienated me as a seller. And guess what–if I’m not selling there, I’m not buying there either.

I used to keep 2k items in my store. That dropped to about 700 after the first draconian stores fees increases. That dropped to about 500 after the second round of store destruction. Now I have well under 100 items in the store and am seriously contemplating closing it at the end of the month.

I have never filed a retaliatory negative against a buyer. Nor have I filed many dozens of negs against non-paying bidders who *should* have been negged. So it wasn’t sellers like me who were making buyers so unhappy with the feedback system.

My Ebay business has been destroyed. So I’m outta here.

Yeah, Ebay created a great buyer experience by getting rid of me.

Item as described? After I win and receive the item, I refuse to take time to go back to see whether the description and photo was a 5, a 4 or a 3. If the photo or description is not so good, I either don’t bid, or bid low, or if there is time I will ask.

Communication? Most of the time, there is none (and no need for any), just the automated You Won and Here’s Your Invoice. So most of the time, this item simply Does Not Apply.

Shipping time? Again, I can’t be bothered to look up when I paid, and if it was by PayPal or by Check, where the seller is located, and did they say we only ship on Mondays and Thursdays, and calculate if I should give a 5 or a 4 or very rarely a 3 (99.9 percent of my purchases fit here).

S&H? If the S&H are within reason and stated in the listing, there’s nothing to rate, because I can adjust my bid accordingly or just not bid at all. However, I agree with PFTP’s comment above that if S&H is high, the buyer should get a well-packed delivery, and should give a low rating if it is otherwise. In that case even I would probably leave DSR.

Hi, Want to thank you again for your purchase. I have mailed your item out today First Class Air Mail. When you receive your item and are happy with your purchase. It would be appreciated so very much if you could give me a 5 star rating with positive feedback. If you feel you can not give me a 5 star rating. Please email me with any problems or questions you might have with your purchase. Thank you again and have a great week.