2015 Fall seller update - US only - sign of things to come for Aus?

[cathyjoyjoy]

http://pages.ebay.com/sellerinformation/news/fallupdate2015/seller-standards.html

[digital*ghost]

Holy moly.... This better come to Oz, and not before time. 

Starting February 20, 2016, the following will no longer impact your defect rate

• Buyer feedback
• Detailed seller ratings (DSRs)
• Returns requests that are successfully resolved with your buyer
• Items not received requests that are successfully resolved with your buyer

(Premature, I know, but I can at least be happy for the US sellers)

[digital*ghost]

---

@digital*ghost wrote:

(Premature, I know, but I can at least be happy for the US sellers)

---

Just highlighting the fact that there's lots more to read at that link, and not all of it is woo-hoo worthy...as would probably be expected from eBay. 

[cathyjoyjoy]

hahaha .... love the emoticon.

The bit about "late delivery of item" is a bit concerning, which is why ebay Australia has already been setting this up by asking a specific question to buyers if the item did arrive within the estimated time ............ sigh

[justajunk]

The link doesn't work for me... or at least doesn't work any longer. Any chance of someone relinking or cutting and pasting?

[cathyjoyjoy]

Well that's odd. It now doesn't work for me either. But here is an article about it also http://www.ecommercebytes.com/cab/abn/y15/m09/i10/s06

Try logging into the ebay.com site directly

[justajunk]

Thanks for that. Changes do look mostly positive with the only definite needed adjustment for Australian sellers being a need to adjust handling time on all items to 10 days to avoid defects.

Something worrying though is whether or not they'll make the change retroactive, especially given that right now none of us have any idea how many buyers are clicking that button to indicate that a parcel was delivered late...

[saarzi]

hmmmmm so we just all list on the US site?   or do we have to be registered on the US site? I am!  I cant figure out if that is good or a useless bit of knowledge.

Spoiler

its 2am my brain is sleep deprived.

[digital*ghost]

---

@saarzi wrote:

  I cant figure out if that is good or a useless bit of knowledge.

---

Changes this dramatic to the way the defect rate etc are calculated are unlikely to be exclusive to the US site, as I think in the main it's quite consistent on all sites, and given that Aus buyers are being asked the 'did the item arrive by....' question, I expect we will see the same changes here. Not so sure about the 30-day return policy requirement, as the Top Rated Seller program is a bit different over there. 

The main changes, if anyone finds the link not working, is a maximum 2% (down from 5%) defect rate for all sellers, and 0.5% (down from 2%) defect rate to be considered a Top Rated Seller (keeping in mind that after the changes, only seller-cancelled transactions and cases closed without seller resolution will count as defects, but the actual maximum percentage for that (cases closed....) is going to remain at 0.3%).

The other change is a new standard all sellers must meet, which is on-time delivery. Sellers will be allowed a maximum 7% of "late" deliveries - if there is a lodgement scan that shows the item was posted within the seller's handling time, and/or tracking that shows it was delivered within eBay's ETA, that is automatically considered successful, on-time delivery. If there is no tracking, the buyer is asked the question, if they say yes, again it's an on-time delivery. If they ignore the question, that transaction isn't counted in the calculation, if they say no, it counts as a late delivery. (I think I'll add an extra day to my handling time if/when that comes in here). 

I would personally like to see some of these changes in Aus, too: http://pages.ebay.com/sellerinformation/news/fallupdate2015/returns-updates.html

(customising returns to add a replacement option). 

[everard6920]

All sounds okay to me, with the exception of:

1. Specifying a "rule" that allows the buyer to keep the original item if you replace it (you can bet eBay will display this in big, fat letters on your listings, so that potential thieves know they can get two for the price of one)

2. The postage time specifications. I expect much confusion, with eBay and buyers, when AP's two-tier service is implemented.