Not too long ago Ebay made some dramatic changes in the feedback system. I say dramatic becaue as a seller they affect me in a dramatic way.

The most obvious change, of course, the power for sellers to leave negative feedback for buyers was removed. Hoping to encourage more honest feedback and non-retaliatory feedback from buyers, it has unleashed a whole new animal....the feedback extortionist and the feedback abuser. . As a seller I am threathend about 3 times a day with some kind of feedback related threat. I have even had buyer try to get special treatment and free gifts and products under threat of " bad feedback."!!!

As bad as that all sounds, those people can be reported and are not the normal buyer. The more dangerous and insideous culprit in the new system is the DSR....Detailed Seller Rating. This is the new five star rating system where the buyer rates the seller and the transaction experience on description accurateness, seller communication, item shipping time(which is not under the sellers control anyway) and the sellers shipping fees which in part are controlled by shipping companies and other factors like the economy. 

You might say that is not so bad , those are things every transaction is made up of. But to be rated on these is one thing, but to be rated UNFAIRLY is another all together. When did 4 out of 5 start to be a bad score? Whey Ebay started the DSR. If a seller gets 4 out of 5 it puts him in danger of not only losing search placement for his items in the searches, but he loses the chances of seller fee rebates.!. It lowers the all over AVERAGE rating to less than 5 and closer to the dagerous point of just 4.3 where you can actually have your SELLER RIGHTS REMOVED. Yes that is what I said...at 4.3 a seller is in danger of losing allot. IT happend to me. I became ill for a period of time and my DSR fell and I became guilty of Seller Non -Performance! At a score of 4.3.

So a seller is compelled to ask the Buyer for a perfect score all the time. We are compelled to ask the buyers for 5 out of 5 becuause we are afraid of the consequensed of the less than 4 rating. Buyers not knowing these details give 4 STARS not knowing the punitive changes that can come about from ebay for the seller. A well meaning buyer may think he is giving his buyer a great score....4 out of 5 on  all 4 items. These scores will cause terrible problems for the sellers. Just think about it a 4 star restauarant is a great place. But if you are a 4 star seller you are most certainly suspended....and I don't think buyers would rate with 2, 3 or 4 if they knew what the consequences were for the seller.

Complaining to Ebay will not get you anywhere. So I think what needs to be done is just Buyer Education about the DSR process and what it does and how it can influence the seller and his work. That is the purpose of this composition. To educate the Buyers who are good people and want to leave good feedbacks for there favorite sellers. You have to leave no less than 5 stars. I know it sounds outrageous that you give the seller 5 stars accross the board for his performance. But is is the only soulution to the problem. If we work together to make the DSR less toxic to our stores and our work environment as sellers then maybe it will lose it's power to take someones job away when they need it the most. Thanks for reading my ideas...I don't know how long they will be up. I have a feeling someone will remove this guide to the DSR. I hope to educate a few buyers in the meantime. Happy Buying and Selling to all.

 Please come to my store and see me......Herbs, Pottery and more.

PS: I had an afterthought....why don't they rate the time it takes a seller to get an item TO a shipper ....not shipping time . Ebay themselves claims sellers shouldn't be held responsible for the time in transit. This statement is on every listing. Yet we get rated for something the Shipping company is solely responsible for. In other words...they should actually be rating "handling time " not shipping time. And the time it takes a shipper to do his job is not blamed on the seller. What do you think?