Top Rated Seller Plus

[catsnknots]

The following service standards need to be included for a listing to qualify as Top Rated Plus:

Free postage to Australian Buyers

0 or 1-day handling time

Express postage option offered

30-day money back returns or better.
 

What are the benefits?

A Top Rated Plus badge in your listings and search results page

Increased search and site visibility.

Can Ebay not make it any harder for us in Australia... ok if you can post from OS and not pay the right price because we pick up that slack. 

[davewil1964]

I am neither a PS or TRS. When these changes come into effect I will be a TRS but not a TR+.

I still manage to sell things now, I don't really expect it to change.

[dazzledayz]

Making false and misleading claims were considered corporately naughty last time I looked.

You can't say something is free when it is simply a hidden charge.

I suspect our esteemed corporate regulators may look askance at this.

As for charging a fee for a service not delivered ie postage, which eBay most certainly does not provide, is at the very least unethical and probably illegal?

[extra-keen]

I am not going to change anything, because I don't expect the changes to make any difference to my Ebay sales at all. Those sellers from overseas that are ahead of me in searches will still be ahead of me in searches primarily because (as stated above), FREE post - is NOT FREE post - it is postage included plus the FVF which would also need to be passed on. And because we subsidise every single package that is delivered within Australia from OS - we cannot compete. As simple as that!

I will stick to looking after the customers I do have, offering good old fashioned service with a smile - even though they can't see it. I will also continue to promote my other selling venues. It makes sense - and has for a while. My advice to sellers is to NOT have all your products in the one basket (ebay). Do concentrate on promotion, it works along with good service and a quality product.

[phorum_junkie*]

On my store items I have always had free postage, I have always offerd an express option at a price, and I have no problem offering refunds for not as described goods up to 30 days, Paypal will force me to accept them up to 45 days anyway.

On my auction ids I will never make PS status anyway so I will continue to charge for postage in th same way I always have.

I don' usually sll while I am back here in the UK but so many Aus sellers are doing so much complaining that if even 10% of them do actulally stop selling it may be worth my while even with having to post from the UK.

[thecatspjs]

On my store items I have always had free postage, I have always offerd an express option at a price,

really ??? always free post ... ???

express post option - mmm on request I think

[pjay482000]

No changes here,

as other people have said, free postage is deceptive to the customer,

as the postage is added to the price of the item,

will continue doing what I have always done,

and charge postage on all my items

these changes are just ridiculous

seems the patients are running the asylum

[dickos-extreme]

I am just wondering why we have to have 30 days Money back, in the U.S it seems like it is only 14 days. I checked out a few listings. Seems we are getting a raw deal again.

[centralcoastmma]

These changes are for eBay's bottom line and do not benefit the buyer or the seller. Like most have noted 'postage is not free, it is included.' What some may not know is that sellers are unable to provide discounts on items with free postage. So if you work the $7.15 into your prices you can't offer a postage discount and eBay gets an extra $0.71. If you don't believe me, try offering a customer a discount on an item with free postage ... So if a buyer buys 10 items at 200gram a piece I could mail it to them for $11.70 but end up effectively charging them $71.50 for postage of which eBay gets $7.15 (i.e. 9.9%) This may seem beneficial to the seller as they get an extra money but really it isn't. As a buyer I am more likely to buy something if I get discounted postage. Moreover, any eCommerce site worth buying off only charges the actual cost of postage. 

Currently I tend toward a hybrid postage cost i.e. I work part of the price into my listing and list postage as $5. Why? Because it allows me to offer discounts, partially stops eBay billing me for already expensive postage and let's the buyer think the postage is cheap. Let's face it buyers don't seem to believe 7.15 is the real cost of postage and it is us sellers that suffer their wrath in the way of negative feedback.

[tonalidesigns]

My gripe isn't with the changes as such but with the DSR system which forms the basis of the new system - poor stars can affect your business (in the US it can cost you discounted fees) and the margin for error is being reduced even more, yet ebay applies no quality control or user education to the system.

We've received three lots of low stars this year - I try and identify them just in case its something we can fix for future listings (although eBay makes this hard). We don't contact the buyers (against the rules) and there is no point as nothing can be changed anyway.

One instance was a breakdown in eBay's communications system - ebay didn't send out the auto emails so the buyer (not unreasonably) gave us 1 star for communications. Another was 6 lots of 1 stars that were clearly a mistake (positive feedback and next day delivery Hobart to Newcastle earned us 6 x 1 star for postage time, communications and item description) - we were able to discuss this with the buyer as I blocked them and they asked why - they were so "unhappy" with our products and services that they wanted to order more  - definitely an error but nothing that could be done.

Our most recent one is another across the board 1 star for desc, comms and postage time. Glowing positive feedback and delivery time of 2 days Hobart to Townsville so definitely also a user error. Feedback here was left over a month later - buyer is pretty sloppy with their feedback and their comments.

If the first one had been a week later and the latest one had been a week earlier we'd have had all of these in the same rating period, our business could be adversely affected yet we did nothing wrong - they were all either system or user errors.

[kangarooislandleathercraft]

I am not going to change anything, because I don't expect the changes to make any difference to my Ebay sales at all.

I have followed several threads on this topic and have tossed around the thought of meeting the standards by listing combinations of items with postage included. I am currently listing 2 days posting time but in practice am posting the same day for orders received up to noon and do not see this as impossible.  The 30 days return - well, I have never had any items returned for replacement and only ask for verification of damage.  It is the postage issue that has turned me off.  I simply cannot work out how to make the listing attractive when the postage cost is included.

More importantly, I think removing the combined postage option will destroy my market.

The final clincher is that I do not trust ebay to deliver on their promises of better listing.