Hi bidders!

If you didn't notice yet, eBay has launched its new feedback program that allows you to rate sellers in multiple areas. A lot of sellers are concerned about this new program because they feel they will be graded on issues that are totally out of their control. I wanted to take this moment to discuss this and offer another point of view for bidders to look at before making these ratings.

First of all, about most sellers...
The majority of us sell on eBay as part-time work. We have full-time jobs and full-time families outside of eBay. We love selling on here, and that's why we do it. We love communicating with people all across the country (and in some cases, around the world). For most of us, our eBay stores or businesses are a welcome retreat from a boring day job. Or, our eBay selling is an extension of a hobby or subject we love. For most of us, we are the jack-of-all-trades for our eBay business. We do all the listing, photos, shipping, packing and maintenance ourselves. We take our eBay sales very seriously, and we work hard to have attractive listings, quality items, and fast shipping. The majority of us are hard-working, dedicated sellers, and we really appreciate your business.

With that being said, I'd like to present some realistic expectations that apply to most small business eBay sellers. Please keep these items in mind when filling out that new form.

The new eBay rating systems:

Item as described:
A possible source of discrepancy in this area may be that specific information about the item's description was not clearly read by the bidder. Dedicated sellers list every detail they can think of- page count, measurements, materials, compatibility, etc. for an item. Please make sure you read the item descriptions very carefully. If you don't see the specifics you're looking for, ask before bidding or buying. If we both do our parts- sellers providing clear and accurate information, and bidders asking about anything we may have innocently overlooked- we can provide a win-win situation for both of us. You should go into an eBay purchase just as you should go into any purchase anywhere, be it a car at a car dealership, a computer at an electronics store, or a pair of pants at a department store. If you don't understand the listing or don't see information you need, please ask!

Always consider the possibility that your item may have been tampered with after it left our hands. If your package looks like it was opened and resealed, regardless of the carrier, there is a chance that somewhere along the way it was damaged, inspected by customs, or, sadly, broken into. If you're an international or APO bidder, educate yourself on what items can and can't be sent to you. The shipping settings on eBay do not allow us to pick specific countries for some regions, so although it may say that we ship to "Europe," the specific item may not be allowed there.

Communication:
As mentioned above, many of us work full-time jobs outside of eBay. This means we may be on the computer during odd hours, and we may not respond to your question on the same day. What's a reasonable time frame to expect an answer to a question from a seller, or to expect confirmation that your item was shipped? I would say three days. Please be sensitive about holidays, weekends and vacation times. Many of us will put an on-vacation notice on our store or our e-mail letting you know we're away. Unlike a big corporation with dozens or hundreds of employees, if we're on vacation, the office is closed. We'll write back as soon as we're back, we promise! Many of us also leave feedback after we see your positive feedback posted. That's the easiest way for us to know you got your item and you're happy with your purchase. Also, please check your e-mail spam folders. It is possible that your spam filter may be interpreting the seller's emails as spam.

Most reliable sellers will let you know when we've received your payment, and when we've shipped. If you have mailed out your payment, there's always the possibility it didn't get to us. For example, I use a PO box. A buyer mailed a payment to me, and had the right address, but the post office accidentally put her letter in the wrong PO box. This wasn't discovered until the other PO box owner checked his box and gave my letter to the clerk. Things happen. We'll work with you.

Shipping time:
Look at the printed date on the mailing label, or at the cancellation date on the envelope/package. The majority of us ship right away! Or, we ship the first moment available. I advertise on my About Me page that I am closed on the weekends. I had a buyer once buy something on a Friday night at 10 pm my time, though it was 2 pm his time. I was closed for the weekend, and the following Monday was a federal holiday so the post office was closed. The first date I could ship was the Tuesday. From the buyer's perspective, I was a slow shipper, but once I pointed out my advertised days off, our time zone difference and the federal holiday, he apologized and understood the situation from my perspective. Also, if you've paid with a personal check, most of us note that there's a delay in shipment while we wait for your check to clear. Some of us have been the victims of fraud, and we're just protecting ourselves, ensuring that the funds cleared.

Please read the following statement carefully: Sellers do not control the post office. We do not control UPS or Fedex. We have no control over customs. Most of us are very clear about our turn-around time for shipments, and we let you know right away if something happened preventing us from shipping right away. But once the item is out the door, it's out of our hands. We can't help it if a customs inspector is taking his/her sweet time to get to your item, or if it gets held up in a postal transfer.

Despite the suggested delivery times provided for Media Mail, I've seen media mail take two weeks to get from Massachusetts to Rhode Island. The timeframes for delivery offered by the USPS, Fedex and UPS are not guaranteed delivery times, except if you specifically buy a guaranteed service, such as overnight service. Delivery times are especially affected during the December holiday season.

Packages get lost. Packages get delivered to the wrong place. Buyers forget to update their mailing address after they moved. Postal and courier trucks get into car accidents. Sometimes the carrier forgets to scan in the progress of a package after it's picked up, and we can't tell where it is or what happened to it. Natural disasters strike, closing airports, roads and services. Crazy things happen. We'll ship right away, and we'll do the best we can to try and figure out what's going on if the item doesn't show up. We'll put tracers on packages. We'll call 800 numbers. But please don't hold us accountable for things we cannot control. We shipped it, but we didn't lose it.

The US postal service doesn't let you file a claim for a missing item until at least 21 days after the date of shipment. This is their policy, not ours, and we have to wait to see if the item doesn't show up.

Shipping and handling charges:
There's a difference between a questionable seller who charges 99 cents for an item and then $9.00 for shipping a postcard, and a reputable seller that needs to cover all the costs involved in shipping.

Shipping and handling costs are just that- the costs involved in shipping your item. There's much more to it beyond the actual postage cost. There's the envelope/packaging, tape, packing materials, the shipping label, transportation costs and printing costs involved. Large corporate chains have extremely low rates with shipping carriers because of the volume of business they do, so they can charge less than we small sellers can. Many of us offer different shipping options (such as Priority Mail and Media Mail) to give you a choice. We'll offer combined shipping. Or, we'll try to use flat rate boxes to reduce your costs.

Thanks for reading this article on the seller's perspective!