Severe Drop in 500+ Item Listings OVERNIGHT!

[simradtonno7]

Hello all,

I have had a significant issue affect my store to the point where it has literally turned to **bleep** overnight! I have been a TRS for 2 years running and have always had all of my listings at the very top (or near) of every search result. I do standard checks every day to see how my listings compare to others, to see whats hot and obviously to confirm that i still hold pole position.

On the 31/08 all was still good when searching BEST MATCH. By the 02/09, all of my listings had plummeted to the bottom of every search result. Literally EVERY LISTING fell to the VERY BOTTOM! You will see them stacked one on top of each other at the very bottom of the search results. Nothing has changed from my end, nothing at all.

Take a BEST MATCH example. Search 'softplastic shrimp' in the search bar. 18 results should come up with 3 of mine stacked up at the bottom. Check out the 1st listing (a competitor) and then check out the 15th listing (my first listing). My compeitor has sold 6 total and hasnt sold an item since July. My listing ticks all the premium seller boxes, has over 500 watchers, has sold over 1800pcs and over 100pcs in August alone. It's always been at the top.

In the month of September, since the drop, i have sold 3 in total!! This particular item has always held pole position in the 'fishing lure' BEST MATCH search which has over 44,000 search results. Now, i cannot find this listing or any of my 500+ listings in the top 10,000 search results. Again, ALL OF MY LISTINGS HAVE DROPPED TO THE VERY BOTTOM OF ALL SEARCH RESULTS OVERNIGHT.

I have contacted ebay several times over since this happened, but nothing. CS came back with "a list of how i can improve my listings", which is a load of BS, they have always been at the top. This is being investigated, but so far, nothing has been resolved and technical support have not been able to detect what has sent all my listings plummeting to the bottom!

Has this happened to anyone? Is there a solution? Can you pass on any contacts of someone who i can contact that will genuinely assist. If not, did you tie the noose or did you get someone else to 😛

[jpamboris]

Hi,
You might want to check your seller dashboard. This happened to me because of the new rating system. 48 hours ago my selling rights were completely removed and ebay have advised me they do not want me as a customer anymore.
Check your dashboard and see if you are below standards. I hope i am wrong.
John

[simradtonno7]

Hi John,

Thank you for your response and sorry to hear about your store.

Did this happen to your listings around the 1st or 2nd of the month too?

My seller dashboard is great, i am around at 0.3% / 2% and top rated on my seller dashboard. It really doesnt make sense.

[jpamboris]

I don`t know exactly when it happened but it did start this way.
Try giving the robots a call on the customer service line. They might be able to explain it to you.
Alternatively, there are plenty of good sellers just like yourself who probably know the answer here on these message boards.

[thecatspjs]

Looks like you have a fair few item not received and not as described negs there.

Eventually accruing neutrals and negs at the rate you have would have to play out in the best match system evenutally due to the number of defects it creates.

[simradtonno7]

Its never been an issue before, i take on board what you say but its not a factor in this case.

One day all my listings were at the top, literally, overnight, they are all at the bottom. I have read of cases of this happening but no ssolution as such

[thecatspjs]

The defect system has only recently come into "official" play on 20 August 2014.

It is also not operating by percent of defects on dashboard alone.

There are other measures applied to sellers now.  The following cut and paste from site map for example:

Cases closed without seller resolution

The number of cases closed without resolution is an important indicator of how well a seller may be meeting buyer expectations on eBay, and is a measure of overall seller performance.

A case closed without seller resolution means the buyer opened an eBay Money Back Guarantee or PayPal Purchase Protection case, you weren't able to resolve it, the buyer asked eBay or PayPal to review the case, and we found you responsible.

To meet our minimum standards, you can only have 2 transactions (or 0.3% of transactions) resulting in cases closed without seller resolution over the most recent evaluation period. The percentage requirement applies after the account has exceeded the maximum number of occurrences.

[clarry100]

We operate two stores selling the same kinda items, one on this id and another id.
This id's. Listings have been off the bottom of the scale now for 6-months. Down about 80% on what it was. The other store was also down for a while but has come back to be down now maybe 30% on it's former glory. The listings are identical. This id has a better feedback history. Like you we can see no reason it should be way down at the bottom. We have questioned CS but get fed the same bs. I think they just pick on certain ids they want gone and target that one until the seller gives up. On both stores all our listings have the "special" badges. We have tried cancelling listings and relisting them hoping they will be more visible. We have tried paying for auction listings in order to buy our way up the list. But nothing we do does any good. We are at a loss to understand what we have done. Our ratings are very high. Better than the other store. But we will not give up yet and will soldier on to see what happens.
So we will watch this thread for any ideas too.

[chameleon54]

Clarry.... How is the independent web site coming along ?

[yeoldecoinco]

67 Negatives in the past 12 months?

You are doing something wrong.

I am no apologist for eBay, their latest effort is truly defective, but come on, 67 negatives??

Usually, if you give people what you promise in quick time, they are fair about it. Usually..

As for their new defect system. Wow.

If anyone make money from eBay and still need an income, better consider some alternatives..

It is a deliberate impossibility to meet those standards for most of us, long term..