Ebay's NEW way of calculating Top Rated Seller Status

[pinktoedannie]

I am posting this as a lot of sellers probably don't realise this is happening and I believe (as sellers) we need to complain to ebay about this.

You can have all green ticks to meet top rated seller status but be rated as 'below standard' automatically based on neutrals, as they are considered to reflect a 'bad buying experience'., or BBE

Naturally this is a big kick in the butt from ebay, as neutrals are meant to be neutral.  On my selling ID I recently lost top rated seller status for receiving neutrals, yet most of them had a positive comment and seemed to be mistakes.

I didn't request a revision as I felt there was no point since a neutral is meant to be neutral.

I have a single negative feedback which was given with no contact from a buyer (who initially tried a pp scam for non receipt, and immediately gave a negative when I supplied the tracking number proving delivery). 

I went from top rated seller status to 'below standard' on Christmas day (lovely present) despite being green ticked as top rated.

This is the email I received:

Yes, it is true that  you have reached the requirements needed for you to keep the Top Rated Seller status basing the last evaluation. Apparently, there is another metric we consider base on the Seller Standard program and that is your recent performance . It appears that you received  3 Neutral Feedback ,1 Negative Feedback and 1 count of Low detailed seller ratings. With our Seller Standard Program if a member exceeds 2.1 Bad Buying Experience, even if you have passed all the metrics to be a Top rated Seller,  automatically the system will consider your performance as Below Standard.

You may asked as to how we calculate the Bad Buying Experience, each metric is weigheted – 1 Negative Feedback, 0.6 for Neutral Feedback and 0.1 for Low Detailed Seller Ratings. We calculated your Bad Buying Experience score as = 1.0 x Negative FB + .6 x Neutral FB + 1.0 x INR + .1 x # low DSRs + .6 x SNAD and your Bad Buying Rate as BBE Score / total number of Feedback plus BBEs deduped by buyer, received within the past 30 days.

In your case your Bad Buying Score is 5.6 and your Bad Buying Experience exceed to 2.1% which lead to Below Standard.

[pinktoedannie]

Really? No responses ... have I made a faux pas .... or did everyone already know about this?

I'm just surprised neutral has any weight at all.

To give it .6 (over half the weight of a negative) seems to indicate it isn't named correctly - as a consumer (ebay being the service supplier) isn't this deceptive under ACCC laws?
Do ebay staff ever read these pages?

[motherbear2003]

I think too much emphasis is placed on TRS - I've seen quite a few sellers who say the loss of the TRS logo hasn't affected their sales at all:-)

Love the Engrish in the email:|

[digital*ghost]

I read this thread a couple of times yesterday, but didn't really have anything constructive to offer - this is the first I've heard of those 'metrics' and I did go looking for more info, but they don't even seem to utilise them in the US, where TRS standards are being raised higher and higher (at least, these metrics aren't explained on any of the TRS pages on eBay.com where all the qualifying standards are listed). The email sounds questionable, too (just that I mean it's odd for an eBay email to say 'apparently, there's information not only not shared with you, but I just found out about it myself...' - that's just what 'apparently comes across as).

I'm not suggesting in any way what you've posted isn't true, btw, just that the email seems unusual, and without understanding how a score of 5.6 is supposed to translate to 2.1% (other than assuming it's 2.1% of total feedback received), my best guess is that the "metrics" have just been very poorly explained. 

Here, by all accounts it's supposed to just be based on DSRs after all the other boxes are ticked, so you can have 100% positive, no neuts, and still not get TRS because your DRSs aren't high enough or have too many low scores -  more than two 1's or 2's and 0.6% of total DSRs left for any of the criteria will lose TRS, but if you still have a green tick for all listed criteria, then I would be questioning the loss of TRS further. 

[pinktoedannie]

Hi, Thanks ... well, all my DSR's meet the target for top rated seller... everything is green ticked to be top rated seller, above rated seller and average seller ... yet I was made a below average seller on Christmas day (four days after my evaluation period confirming my top rated seller status). 

I emailed many times, and they all confirmed it was a mistake and that it should be fixed, until this last email when they claimed this was a new 'metric' independent of what was showing in my detailed seller ratings. 

It seems so unbelievable that a 'hidden' metric can effect me, I thought other sellers might want to know.  I can't find anything on it anywhere in ebay's help/support pages.

[***super_nova***]

You should have tried to have the NEG removed; it could have helped.

[motherbear2003]

Instead of emailing, ring ebay and ask to speak to an Australian Supervisor:-)

[pinktoedannie]

Hi, Thanks, but even with the neg my actual feedback is still 99.6%  It's certainly not below standard.   I have 4.9, 5's and one 4.8 on my DSR's and haven't exceeded the number of 'low' ratings. 
My main problem is this new metric where they include neutrals in a formula - something never mentioned anywhere on ebay ever before. 
I guess more people will have to be affected before anyone becomes alarmed.

Despite the email they sent  I still think ebay has this wrong, I did live chat customer service and every representative confirmed I was green ticked as top rated and it must be a mistake.
I think it was a christmas day (maintenance) glitch.