As of this weekend, eBay is no longer using negative feedback or DSRs to evaluate a seller’s performance. The change, announced last September, took effect on February 20, 2016. Avoiding claims, cancelled orders, and late shipping is now key to passing muster.
The new policy is part of a kinder and gentler approach under the leadership of Devin Wenig who took over as CEO of eBay from John Donahoe in July after the company separated from PayPal.
eBay’s new management team calls the new standards for sellers “more objective” and “not based on opinions,” and says they are truly reflective of sellers’ level of service.
Sellers detest DSRs (Detailed Seller Ratings), which buyers leave anonymously. They also deplore the one-sided nature of feedback – sellers are unable to leave negative or neutral feedback for buyers, and many feel eBay is unable or unwilling to root out bad buyers.
eBay continues to display DSRs and negative feedback on sellers’ feedback profile page, but the marketplace will now hand out rewards and punishments based on different criteria. On the 2015 Fall Seller Update landing page, eBay explained:
“New seller standards will focus on what buyers care about the most – getting the item they ordered on time, and effective customer service to resolve any requests for help. A new, simplified defect rate will include just two measures: Seller-cancelled transactions for items that are out of stock or cannot be fulfilled for any other reason, and cases that are closed without seller resolution. A new on-time shipping metric will measure shipping performance, based on what you control – shipping your item on time.”
On Friday, eBay reminded sellers that they would be impacted beginning on Saturday and revealed several opportunities to learn more and ask questions. eBay will hold a 1-hour chat session on Facebook today, February 22, 2016, at 9:30 PT, 12:30-am ET. Tuesday’s episode of eBay Radio will be devoted to the topic of the new seller standards, and eBay will host a live session on its discussion board on Wednesday at 4 pm ET.
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