posted on October 11, 2007 05:38:10 AM new
IMHO, they are opening themselves up for a class action lawsuit. How can they call themselves just a venue when they are manipulating search results this way? Take a look at the table. Here are the star counts they consider the bottom 10%:
Item as described 4.6
Communication 4.5
Shipping Time 4.3
S&H Charge 4.3
Here's the top 10%:
5.0
4.9
4.9
4.9
What they are considering the bottom 10% are higher star ratings than they consider average. IMHO, this spells trouble. What is going to keep competitors from dinging the he*% out of other sellers' stars just to keep themselves high in the search results?
posted on October 11, 2007 06:17:33 AM new
THIS IS RIDICULOUS!!!!!!!
I am SOOOOO Glad that I am in the process of ending my sales on eBay!!! I am currently selling off the remainder of my photography accessory inventory... then I'm going to concentrate my time on my own website.
I've been a seller on eBay since 1996, have over 8700 feedback, and have a 99.8% positive feedback rating.... and yet, my "stars" don't come close to the ones they're describing!!! I have:
Item as described: 4.8
Communication: 4.7
Shipping Time: 4.4
Shipping and handling charges: 4.5
All my items are exactly as described, I answer all emails, I ship one to two days after payment is received, and I charge a very modest s/h fee. I don't understand how I could improve my stars (even if I wanted to)... and since they're keeping the ratings ANONYMOUS... I never WILL know how to improve them.
This whole thing is just a bunch of @#$!%. Notice that in addition to being applied to search, it will also affect PowerSeller status and eligibility. Ebay just keeps on trying to come up with new ways to break their system, don't they?
WHY CAN'T THEY JUST LEAVE THINGS ALONE!!!
I'm so glad I don't have any of these headaches on my own website. I'm starting to make just about the same amount of money (after only having my site up for a year!) on my site as I did on eBay... and there's a lot less work, PLUS a LOT less headaches. The rules don't change, the prices don't change, and the service is great! I hope that the rest of you have some non-eBay backup plans as well. It's gonna get harder and harder to deal with all of eBay's stupid changes!
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posted on October 11, 2007 06:43:50 AM new
I don't "get" it either! They have potentially a 50 point range in Star ratings and yet they find the entire spectrum of ratings are within a 10 point range?? This doesn't make sense at all.
I guess they should revise the "official" definition of star ratings for those buyers who actually try to give an honest appraisal:
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posted on October 11, 2007 01:29:01 PM newI guess they should revise the "official" definition of star ratings for those buyers who actually try to give an honest appraisal
Isn't that the truth? I wouldn't hold my breath though. They'll just implement the whole thing like they did the stars. They didn't listen to anything the sellers had to say. The sellers are the ones keeping them employed, but they seem to forget that.
posted on October 11, 2007 01:53:53 PM newSellers with scores lower than the median can take advantage of this data – which is provided by buyers across the marketplace - to reevaluate and adjust their business practices.
It's been said before but is worth repeating:
The "stars" system is based on a hugely erroneous assumption: that they buyer will give rational, informed and truthful feedback. One simple example is enough to prove my point. Sellers who ship for free should, under the stars system, have a perfect 5.0 for s/h. They don't.
posted on October 11, 2007 02:01:56 PM new
This just stinks to high heaven for sellers in my opinion. I've been away off and on during the inception of the stars mess so I don't really have a good feel for how much ranting happened from sellers to feebay about how unfair and one sided this is.
Remembering yesterday is a chore for me these days, but I do think I seem to remember something a few years ago that they tried to force us to do and enough sellers screamed loud enough to be heard so it was retracted. Seems like maybe it was forcing us to use their check out system... like it or not??...something like that. Point being, enough people squawked loud enough to be heard.
Was there much of a squawk about the star system? I don't find it anywhere but as I said, I've been out of the mix more than not for months. I HATE having to just roll over and take this.
I have 100% pos. fb, with glowing comments about shipping, packaging, great product, etc.etc.etc., but it seems when they get to the part where they can pretend to be a teacher grading papers they forget what they just wrote out in the comment.
Something's basically out of whack with this system in my opinion. I don't think it's human nature for most people to check all 5's even if they're deserved based on how pleased they seem to be with the transaction in their written statement. It's almost like an opportunity to be a little sneaky knowing full well they won't get outed.
Thanks for allowing me a place to RANT!
posted on October 11, 2007 02:28:18 PM new
I think for less service people should be billed less fees. If you are in the bottom 10% (which look like very respectable scores to me, with nothing under 4.3) when will your auctions ever be seen? Will newer auctions from that elite show up on top while auctions that end in 10 minutes languish at the end? They are way out of line with this way of thinking. I'm no longer a PowerSeller but those of you who are might want to contact your person.
posted on October 11, 2007 07:02:23 PM new
So... now that we've all spent years building up near perfect feedback scores in thousands of hard-earned transactions, ebay is going to let some recent anonymous ratings impact our visability in search results?!?
