In a recent post, I had come to the conclusion that the eBay feedback changes wouldn’t affect me very much… I was wrong. One thing I left out in my conclusion of the new changes is that neutral feedback will count as much as negative feedback when it comes to calculating feedback percentage.
Here is how the feedback change has affected me:
Previous Feedback Score - 34780
New Feedback Score - 38430
Previous Feedback Percentage - 99.3%
New Feedback Percentage - 98.4%
In the overall scheme of things, the 4,000 added to my score is not that big of a deal. Sellers with 34k and 38k are held in nearly the same regard by buyers. However, the second one is a BIG difference. I know that some of my potential customers will notice that I am well below 99% and want to know why. They may even decide to shop elsewhere.
However, once I got over the initial shock of my percentage going so much lower, I can see how this will be a good move for eBay and will make it a stronger marketplace. Bidders are the backbone of eBay. Without bidders, you will have no one to buy your wares. This change will make sellers pay more attention to customer service. I know that I have already taken several measures to ensure my customer service is much better in order to get my percentage higher. I have no doubt that this was a kick in the butt to make my customer service much better because I will have no other choice. This, in turn will make the buyers happy, which in turn will bring more bids and sales to my eBay business.
So, if you are down about the feedback changes, just look at it as an opportunity to improve on some things you have been wanting to improve on for a while. Sure, eBay changed the rules of the game, but the rules were changed for everyone. This is your chance to improve your business practices and possibly move ahead of your competition who is feeling the same pain in the feedback change as you!
May 24th, 2008 at 1:06 pm
Respectfully, It seems as though you have drank the ebay Kool-Aid and based on your eBay feedback, you may have become numb to the negative feedback side of eBay because you are shielded from change with your extensive feedback count that will now subside every 12 months.
I offer no offense but a different perspective as not all sellers sell trinkets and/or have high volumes. I however have sold BIG ticket items at lower quantity levels for 8 years and I am a titanium level seller with very hard earned 100% positive feedback that I have worked very hard to achieve with nothing hidden, highly detailed and no games approach. It is the other lower volume sellers like myself that will be severely affected by this new one sided and highly offensive approach.
Time will tell the results… but I would bet your tune will change when the real buyers disappear as selection decreases. It is the variance of product, rare hard to find and life treasures type items from sellers of all walks of life that make this place what it was. All will disappear from fear of retaliation, knocked down feedback from over demanding buyers who know they will always look good with limited ways for us to tell who is going to treat us, the seller, right. Try to view this from another perspective as there are two sides to every story and there is way more negative enclosed in this neat little package
.
I have closed my eBay store and over the next week I will be listing many for the last time before a 30 day personal boycott for the entire month of June while I look at options and if no changes are in the wind, I will rely on my website and/or another venue.
In closing, Sellers “DON”T GIVE UP” eBay is/was a great place” make eBay understand and keep it that way… WORK ON THE REAL PROBLEM, FRAUD, that is why the buyers have gone not because of fear from retaliation from sellers. eBay will see, this will NOT work. Thanks for listening, Brian http://www.HotAutoWeb.com
May 26th, 2008 at 4:14 am
That is a great point and very well said. I was only looking at this through my perspective and ignored to think about the situation of other sellers.
You are exactly right about being numb to negative feedback. I had become numb to it and with so many items sold it didn’t make a huge difference. With the new calculations of the feedback percentage I will take a more proactive approach to customer service to try to keep my negatives down.
My post was mainly about the new calculations and the percentage and I didn’t hit too much on the fact sellers cannot leave negatives to buyers. This is because that change doesn’t affect me hardly at all. I have always left a positive feedback the moment a buyer pays as I feel at that point their portion of the transaction is over. It never has hurt me as most of the bad feedback I have gotten has been due to answering emails slowly. I definitely see your point on the higher priced items and can see that the buyer’s part of the transaction isn’t necessarily over at the point the item is paid for on those type of transactions.
Hopefully eBay will keep their commitment to change and come up with a formula to make everyone happy.