Why eBay’s DSR + Best Match System Turns Off "REAL" Businesses

Im going to go and drop one of my competitors on the floor since its like that. No proof no brains feedback? Ok Im going to drop a whole bunch of em. Poor saps wont know what hit em. eBay has lost their mind.

DSRs are completely bogus. Ebay pulls a seller’s DSRs out of thin air. DSRs DO NOT reflect the numbers buyers actually leave.

Ebay arbitrarily decides each month how many 5%, 15%, and 20% discounts they want to hand out. Ebay then fudges each seller’s DSRs to go with the number of discounts handed out.

So Ebay adjusts an actual 4.8 to a 4.7. Whatever Ebay needs to ensure only so many sellers get a discount that month.

John,

I could spend all month on why this ebay dsr system is so rediculous. To list just some of the highlights... Telling buyers that 4 stars is a good rating yet adding to the possibility of lowering the seller's search visability when they get them; allowing buyers to get away with giving very low stars across the board without clear proof of why and then allowing them to hide behind an Ebay iron curtain and smile at you through a bullet proof glass window with a tongue in cheek positive feedback; And feedback for a buyer has no point AT ALL!!!! As what it is only meant to do at this point is to manipulate the Ebay book cover and present a fascade to buyers about how great buying on their site is which in actuality is a complete and total lie! I mean I could go on and on and on. Just a venue???? PLEEEEEEEEEASE!!! If Ebay or anyone else for that matter would like to know what a REAL 5 star rating is, they should read a post by a very good friend of mine that was placed on Blogger News Network some time ago. EXCELLENT reading and has recieved FIVE STAR ratings from EVERY PERSON who read it! PLEASE check that out at http://www.bloggernews.net/116216. John, if you can make that a link, please do, not sure how to. And in case I don't check back to this post, please email me to let me know if this was helpful for everyone. Thanks. :)
There is a reason why Ebay stock has stayed pretty much at the same level it's been at for 2 years while other sites such as Amazon continue to rise. Either Donohoe and his crew are incredibly stupid or incredibly smart. And if there incredibly smart, then we'll only be able to speculate as to why they are doing what they are doing. And that could be anything from purposely driving the company into the ground to manipulating the stock for their own means.
Anyway, there's my two cents. Ebay's worst days are without question AHEAD of, not behind them. Thanks for reading.
T

All GREAT insightful comments guys, thank you for participating. And glad to know that I am actually doing some improvements on the production side that people can see too :-)

I agree in part with Rich, in the sense that I think today there's too much weight being placed on online customer reviews. I think customer reviews are valuable to a degree, but should not be the only measurement, because they are so easily gamed.

And by the way, in some cases you don't even know if it's a legit customer -- it could be a competitor trying to make you look bad.

Why should your business reputation be based on the subjective and arbitrary opinions of buyers at all?

The ability to "prove your case" is irrelevant. Any buyer can neg you just cause they feel like it.

FB should be given exactly as much weight as it's worth. It's a user's opinion, and it doesn't have to be factually accurate. Other users can read these opinions and they can choose to give it as much weight as they want.

But FB should never be treated as some objective standard of customer service, or effect in any way a seller's standings on Ebay.

It's illogical, unreasonable, unfair, and immoral to allow something so capricious to materially affect someone else's livelihood.

As an ebay seller supplying products to other ebay sellers (typically small fries)- it is this sort of thing, this whole bunk DSR penalty game, that makes my customer base on ebay continue to shrink. Good sellers continue to leave to site. But we already knew that for a long time.

Great production work on this vid John. Its been a couple of months since I watched a ColderICE clip. Nice to see the enhancements with screen shots and annotations! Very cool stuff.

With all due respect, "Real" businesses operate their own sites. Only flunkees and wannabees use ebay.
And yes, they really do smoke all sorts of things in San Jose.

Let me start by saying anytime someone starts a sentence saying "With all due respect..." that simply means "Hey, I am about to disrespect you!" so it really is not necessary to ever say it.

Saying "only flunkees and wannabees use eBay" knowing that I and others OBVIOUSLY use it, give me a F'N break? How you gonna call me a flunky/wannabee and think I REALLY belive you respect me?!? I think Whitney Houston said it best..."HELL to tha nah" LMAO

Second, my reference to "REAL" business is to counter eBay's assertion that they can capture the secondary market of overstock and out of season inventory from those businesses that have their "own websites"

John

P.S. With all due respect, I think cowards and chumps don't sign their posts :-)

Gosh Henrietta, you make WAY TOO MUCH SENSE!!! I am so in your fan club...Whoo Hoo!!!

john (colderICE)

The ladies like to say Keep It Simple Sweetie but you know what, you can't fix STOOPID.

I am wondering why eBay can't require the buyer complete the resolution process before leaving negative. This would not prevent the buyer from saying what the h*ll they want but would provide grounds for removal of the feedback's effects in the scoring process. Note I did not say removal of the feedback.

The red flag here is there was no claim for non receipt or charge-back initiated (yet) so why would someone who had not received an item not attempt to get their money back.

John, their system is a Gestappo. Someone needs to take them to court.

And EVEN IF you are trying to leave 5 Top Stars for someone, have you noticed how the page is somewhat unresponsive? Who goes in and leaves 3 out of 4 ratings? That's a design error that dramatically impacts business! Thank you! whew!

JOHN
Look forward to seeing you in Atlanta next month. Would like to discuss something else about DSR's everyone seems to be missing.