Guy Fullerton wrote:Here's a thought: Offer MM/PP (in additional to priority), but do all the actual shipping via priority. Raise your starting bid amount by the difference plus a little extra to cover the higher fees.

This has been beat to death already, but:

All due respect, but there is are a couple of HUGE fundamental flaws in this though process.  First off and foremost, as a seller, we do not control what the PO charges to ship things, the PO does.  

If a buyer has an issue with an excessive handling fee then by all means they should take it out on a sellers DSRs.  They should not however take it out on the seller that the PO charges $4.95 to ship Priority.  Shipping Media Mail is only slightly less "convenient" for a seller in that the seller has to supply their own envelope, which really isn't that big of a deal.

Secondly and with that in mind, if a buyer requests Media Mail shipping because it's cheaper, that's fine, but it also can take 2 to 3 weeks to get there which in turn can cause a buyer to ding a sellers DSRs for taking too long to get there. Using the very same "logic" that buyers should ding sellers for only offering the more expensive Priority Mail, then they also have the "right" to ding them for a shipment taking 3 weeks to get there.

It's all bullshit and Ebay has the DSR system set up so that no matter what they win.

JasonZavoda wrote:You cant win on DSRs. Ebay has made sure to screw the sellers by making buyers believe that anything better than 3 stars means good service, where-as sellers know that anything less than 5 stars means ebay penalizes you.

When I was getting about 300 feedback a month and shipping next day with free shipping my DSR was 4.8 for shipping costs and 4.8 for shipping time. There was absolutely no way that I could ship cheaper (It was freaking free!) and no way to ship faster unless the buyer wanted to pay for priority. When I started charging for shipping my DSR actually went up to 4.9

True story.  People who don't sell or don't sell much rarely realize how screwed up the system really is.  The DSR system was pretty much put into place to simply justify Ebay's fee hikes for all sellers, wrapped up in yet another bullshit "we care about our sellers & buyers" marketing scheme.  It's set up so that it near impossible for sellers to win.  

The way the system is set up, outside of just begging every single customer to give you 5 stars across the board and even then, it's a tenuous situation, at best.  

And none of this even addresses how screwed up the standards for the actual DSRs are 3 is supposedly a "good" buyer experience, but if you get all 3's you'll be kicked off Ebay in a month.  It's a freaking joke.

Well, I don't purposefully look for reasons to give low star ratings, but I don't hesitate to not give good ones if there are reasons, especially if I contact the seller and they do nothing, or don't respond. Feedback is a two-way street, or should be -- I know I can be a prick as a buyer, so when I sell, I try to consider everyone is like me as a buyer.

bbarsh wrote:No. No you cannot. I can't tell you how many times I have checked the usps website for prices and only to discover that it flat out wrong. And it never seems to be me on the plus side. I send lots of stuff media mail and first class. Weight get fuzzy all the time.

I certainly won't claim to have sold as many items as you, and so I must concede that you likely have at least an order of magnitude more data points than I.

I'm somewhere in the neighborhood of 200 shipments of gaming stuff via usps, and I've *never* seen a significant error on their web site. If there ever was an error, I can't see how it would have been more extreme than 10-20 cents, otherwise I would have noticed it. (Me and my stupid tendency to log shipping costs in spreadsheets when I sell games in order to see how much I'm making...)

So you're seriously telling me that you can't make a reasonable guess at the difference between first class, media, and priority for a given item? Do you have the same difficulty makinga reasonable guess at a delta to account for packing materials, combined shipping, or similar?

bclarkie wrote: I nabbed the wrong part of your response. I was meaning to repsond to this part:

Ah, okay. I'm less confused now

Why? A seller still can't control what the PO charges nor what the buyer thinks.

No, a seller can't.

However, a seller controls whether they sell on eBay (or at all for that matter), and there are tools at the seller's disposal in order to play that game better. Those tools include, but are not limited to, additional shipping methods that bring trade-offs on price, speed, tracking, insurance, and what-have you.

You can't expect to make 100% of buyers happy 100% of the time, that's true. However, if you choose to leave off various shipping methods & options, you are making a conscious choice to worsen the overall experience for some fraction of buyers.

You willfully sowed the seeds of fewer options, and thus you will reap the consequences of lower DSRs.

("You" is used in the generic sense above, not actually directed at bclarkie.)

I agree the DSR system is crap, but as a buyer, it is also the only way to really tell a seller, who has done something stupid, they have done something stupid. Otherwise, there is no oncentive for them to care at all about their service -- they could rip everyone off all the time and never suffer a thing for it.

The fact that buyers can rip off sellers is also pretty retarded... hence my disdain with selling on eBay. Heh.

I am sure my DSR suffers because I always ship everything recorded delivery and with insurance,  and pass that charge onto the buyer.
I couldn't really give a f"ck if a buyer wants to ship with no insurance or without recorded delivery, because the minute something goes wrong I'll be the first one that gets screwed because of the buyer's tight ass attitude.
And in the UK we have a phoneline direct to eBay. If I suffer any repocussions I'll be the first one on the phone to eBay asking for compensation, because PayPal requires ALL packages to be shipped fully insured and with tracking. No exceptions.

There is no reason to offer the buyer ANY other shipping method other than ones with full tracking and insurance. Because by doing so, you are no longer protected by PayPal's Protection Policy, and eBay don't give a f"ck.

For those of you that are not aware, in the UK eBay customer service staff (call centre staff) are empowered to make gratuity payments to customers of £20 four times a year (every quarter). If they f"ck up or don't provide the transparency or service you require, they will make compensation payments directly to your seller account. That's £80 a year refund if they're giving you a crap service. All you have to do is complain and be persistent.

BNagata wrote:Badmike

You have to take into consideration that Ebay's priority is getting more buyers to buy in this economy. In order to do this, the seller gets the short end of the stick. I think the whole purpose of the "shipping" DSR is 1) To stronghold you into offering Free Shipping and placing the lost money into your item price, which in turn gives Ebay a larger commision lol 2) Stop people like the early day sellers of "one cent cd's" who charge a penny for the CD and $10.00 shipping. This in my opionion still comes out to the same price for the CD but the only difference is Ebay taking a commission off of a penny which I'm sure they didn't like.

I know my Ebay pricing is not the cheapest but I send everything at a flat rate of 3.50 and 80% of those items go Priority, so I'm eating up at least $1.20 per item sold. In my two stores I have been able to keep my DSR at or above 4.8 since they started this brilliant (sarcastic) idea.

I agree totally. I was just pointing out that unlike the mandate on high from Ebay, I'm NOT offering Free Shipping, yet I know of some people offering Free Shipping whose DSRs are only marginally better.  In other words, why bother with Free Shipping if it's to increase your DSRs?  If it's not increasing sales as a whole, it's a lost cause.

Mike B.

BNagata wrote:I am also still a strong believer that if you give great customer services such as communication, packaging, and kindness you will be fine. From a sellers point, is it really worth it to fuss over a few dollars...probably not. But as a buyer, I probably would not become a repeat customer of the seller. A while back PaulKM posted a thread about creditable sellers, and I think the reason it was done was because I refunded a partial amount of his payment without him asking for one. Yes, I lost out on half of the price of the Module, but I'm sure he would have no problems buying from me again.

Brian,

You represent what's best in a seller.  I would buy from you again in a heartbeat.

The gesture you made was a breath of fresh air, and deserved to be recognized.   

It's a shame the 'credible sellers' thread ( viewtopic.php?t=7738&highlight= ) died so quickly, but the reasons are quite clear: there are a lot more 'shady dealers' out there then those who go above and beyond the call (I'm not counting the known Acaeum sellers, because your reputations are well-established).

The amazing part of our story is that, after the transaction, we exchanged quite a few e-mails and you're now a member of this community.  That, to me, is a perfect example of reciprocity between a buyer and a seller.

Best,

Paul

Eryops wrote:I would ask for a refund of the difference in pricing

<Joke>

The seller shipped it by a more expensive option - he might ask you to pay extra  

</Joke>