"Top Rated" sellers

[claretash]

Why does Ebay mark a seller as "Top Rated" despite them having serious unresolved negative feedback?

One of the factors I take into account prior to making a purchase is the sellers feedback rating. In a list of search results, the seller is clearly labelled as "Top Rated", which seems promising. However, when I investigate the feedback profile, I find a lot of negative feedback.

In one example, the seller has positive feedback exceeding 6000 and negative feedback of just under 100, which admittedly is a significant divergence. However, the negative feedback makes serious accusations: unreceived purchases, items not as described, poor customer service etc and all with no response from the seller and several being added within the past month. I won't purchase from such a seller, if only to stay on the safe side.

Does this mean that to be rated a top seller, you only have to rip off 1 in every 60 people?

Is it unreasonable to expect that a top-rated seller has zero unresolved (reasonable) negative feedback?

[putney32]

firstly, they is no way of knowing whether a neg. f/b is resolved or unresolved. just this weekend on the boards we heard from a seller who did everthing to solve a problem, refunded, etc. but still coped a neg. f/back. !

you can check the Site Map for the exact requirements of TRseller, but it is at about 98% positive in last 12 months, and DSR stars at around 4.4 out of 5. (as wella s the number of transactions and $ value of the transactions,) and taking into consideration seller only having 1 or 2 policy violations in last 12 months too.

[extra-keen]

Top rated seller status not only goes on the feedback, but on the detailed seller ratings left by buyers. Sellers are allowed around 4 low ratings before loosing the top rated seller status. It does seem strange that a seller with 100 negs in 6000 should keep their top rated seller status. Only ebay can figure that one out.

There is very little margin for error by sellers. And the system definitely rewards sellers of higher volume against sellers selling less items per month.

I guess as a buyer, be aware that TRS doesn't really mean much. Use your own sense of caution when buying from any seller.

[lyndal1838]

If Top Rated Sellers had to have no negative feedback then there would be very few of them. Thankfully the TRS rating is based on a lot more than the number of negatives a seller has.  Even the best of sellers can run foul of a vindictive buyer and end up with undeserved negatives.

[springyzone]

I don't know that the title top rated seller means all that much really, except that probably the seller has a high volume of sales-perhaps they sell as a business. As someone said, they need to have a certain % of positive feedback too.

I sometimes read the negatives but I find that quite often, I'm not convinced the negative was deserved.

And having been a seller a while back, i can recall us almost getting negatives over a couple of incidents that were definitely undeserved-cases of buyers who were unrealistic eg expecting adult snow suits to post interstate for under $4. So I wouldn't insist on any seller having 100% positive, as I think it must be almost a miracle to achieve that over thousands of sales.

But if i saw a lot of negative comments that were saying similar things-poor quality product or whatever, then I probably wouldn't buy from that seller, top rated or not.

[digital*ghost]

Top Rated is all about percentages, but primarily based on the ratings the buyers leave. If, over say 12 months, someone has received 500 sales / FB / DSR ratings, and 7 negs, they'd have 98.6% positive, but if they still received an average DSR rating of 4.8 or better, with less than the allowed for 1 or 2 star ratings, they would still be Top Rated. 

Conversely, if someone with the same number of sales and 100% FB had received 3 low marks for description, they would not be Top Rated. 

By the end of the month, Top Rated badges will disappear and you will only see 'eBay Premium Service' if the seller offers all the extra services eBay want them to. 

[davewil1964]

I got Powerseller today, but I still don't have TRS. 

[phorum_junkie*]

TRS means nothing more than the seller sells over a certain nhumber of goods with a sales value over $XXX and they have managed to keep their feedback above about 98% with a low percentage of very low DSR rastings.

In other words a high volume seller can maintain TRS even though they have a fairly high number of complaints while an excellent seller with perfect feedback and DSRs will never achieve it because they do not sell a high enough number or value of items.

QED  TRS is not something that should influence your choice of seller.

[davewil1964]

I'm fully aware of that.

I got PS because they have lowered the threshold, presumably I will get TRS when the evaluation is done on Wednesday. Which I am anticipating will make NO difference to my sales.

[thecatspjs]

I'm not so sure if it doesn't make a difference from time to time.

If a competitor has exact same item same price and same location as another - and similar feedback number - and one had top rated and one didn't - I'd go with the top rated one.