Commentary from the staff of Auctiva.com
DSRs: Do They Really Describe a Seller?
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Detailed Seller Ratings, or DSRs as many of us refer to them, provide a “more complete picture of the member’s performance as a seller,” according to eBay. But I’m not sure how true this is. Recently, someone left me ones in each of the four DSR categories (item description, seller communication, shipping, and shipping and handling charges), but still left me positive feedback. How does that work?
I’ve never understood the true purpose of DSRs. I prefer the days when eBay allowed us to leave honest feedback about buyers. Today, buyers can anonymously rate sellers for things that are out of their control—shipping time, for example. Buyers don’t even seem to need a real reason to leave a low DSR score at all, so why have them?
The two DSR scores I completely disagree with are communication and shipping time. It doesn’t matter that you e-mail your buyer a thank you message when they pay, and again when you have shipped their item and want to give them the delivery confirmation number. This can be rated as “bad communication” if , for some reason, a buyer doesn’t like those two e-mails (which is especially possible since they receive similar messages from eBay and/or PayPal). Perhaps a phone call would suffice? I can’t tell you how many times I’ve purchased something and never heard from the seller once! I thought that was bad, so I try to be better, but perhaps I communicate too much?
As for shipping time, I state in my listings that I ship within one business day of receiving payment. I have kept that promise, and bend over backward to get packages to the post office before it closes. But sometimes, that’s not good enough, and my DSR get dinged for that, too.
What to do, what to do? It appears it’s a no-win situation.
If I want a “more complete picture” of a seller, I’ll look at their feedback rating, read their terms of service, check out their About Me page, etc. I’ll even ask questions if I feel it necessary. That’s the only way to get a complete picture of a seller, in my opinion. What do you think?
About the author
Rebecca Miller is Auctiva's product analyst. As an eBay seller of more than 10 years, Rebecca is well tuned into the needs of online sellers, and serves as an internal advocate for merchants. She continuously monitors Auctiva's Community Forums, answering customer's questions and taking their feedback to developers for future enhancements. Rebecca continues to sell on eBay, and is currently a PowerSeller and a Top-rated Seller.
I am a U.K. seller and agree that DSRs are no good at demonstrating how well (or badly!) a seller will perform.
I offer free shipping to U.K. customers who choose second class posting, but I always use first class so they get it next say. Nevertheless I get only a 4.8 on cost of postage and speed (although comments always say “quick/fast” etc.
I think buyers find it hard to give 5 stars – so the last two DSRs get marked lower (if at all)
Buyer comments are the best gauge.
P.S. Someone with 7 feedbacks just gave me a negative for nonarrival of a CD with 10 days of the order but never e-mailed me to complain. (I have 9000+ feedbacks on this ID). Surely buyers with less that, say 50 feedbacks, should be limited in what damage they can cause a seller.
All in all, DSRs and feedback need to be looked at again by eBay.
I agree with you on most of what you say above. eBay’s feedback system is terrible. I am one of the sellers who really get dumped on when it comes to shipping time and shipping cost. We are located at the very bottom of Texas, so it will always cost us more to ship a package than any seller who is centrally located in Texas are farther north.
Most buyers think we are price gouging them ,but we are not. In some cases we actually loose money on shipping. We opened our own Website at http://www.txdashcovers.com, and it has really taken off. We are very happy and this is giving us the option to list less and less on eBay, saving us a bunch of money due to eBays high fees…
We lost our PowerSeller badge, effective in September, due to 4 low DSR numbers in shipping and handling after selling more than 12,000 items, according to eBay. How is that fair?
http://www.txdashcovers.com
We sell 1994-2007 Dodge Ram Dash cover. 1993-2001 Camaro dash covers, 2000-2005 Eclipse dash covers. and more
I totally agree with the above statements and am so happy that I have found a group of people that are not satisfied with eBay’s feedback policy.
I recently lost my PowerSeller status after receiving four low DSRs even though I had sold 600 items that month and have been a member of eBay for six years–this encouraged us to begin our own site at http:// http://www.parkcouture.co.uk.
I am so unhappy about this. I know eBay wish to attract more buying customers and preserve the safety of the site, but we as sellers wish to do that, too, however we have no control over buyers who leave low scores. I feel particularly disappointed that buyers are allowed to do this having never contacted the seller to raise a complaint. I feel that eBay need to address this as buyers are able to leave negative feedback or low DSR scores even if they have just set up a profile for buying. Not good.
eBay DSR scores are like giving people a loaded gun with no training.
As a concept making the best sellers stand out is not a bad thing and I think most of us would agree with that. Sadly I feel eBay’s DSR’s are setup for one thing and one thing only and that is eBays pockets. Whilst almost certainly in the minority I actually think eBay fees are very reasonable for what they offer, my problem is Paypal for the protection and services they offer, the combined fees are extortionate but lets not go there!!
Although we read blogs time and time again I’m not sure but unless selling into a niche market individual customer loyalty on eBay counts for very little most customers are looking for a bargain or a hard to find item.
For those of use that use omniture analytics it is clear to see that more and more customers are learning to sort and search using price low to high and of course if you have been lucky enough to keep your top rated badge for that particular month you have a distinct advantage and if your price is within a few pennies of a non top rated seller you will win the sale.
My thoughts are that ultimately eBay will start to leak customers to other platforms mostly due to the P&P DSR. As an example: Do a Google search on any specific popular branded item and on Google shopping and you will find that eBay sellers often appear to be amongst the most expensive because they have priced including free P&P.
Wake up eBay!! All that your DSR’s are achieving at present is fear and uncertainty and although I have been Very lucky and kept my top rated for 11 of the past 12 months there is no way I would even consider expanding other than outside of eBay as at present if I was to employ somebody as few as 3 or 4 customers could possibly bankrupt me.
The eBay Top Rated Seller Backlash: Hey, Don’t Be A Terrorist! (ColderICE.com)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51RADxTFTMk
Thank you John for pointing this known fact out there is actually another popular channel on youtube that promotes this kind of behavior how come eBay don’t seem to understand this???
My beef is the shipping DSR. I pay insurance for my customers and yet they still mark me down. What is that all about? They are rating their attitude saying they want it shipped for free. I charge no handling fee. At this time I am using free bubble and peanuts that I have located from local sources. My opinion is that I do look at other sellers ratings but judge them very differently from when eBay first started.
I have had similar problems as above. I agree with Andy about exorbitant fees both eBay and PayPal are charging. Do you know if you dare to say anything negative about eBay or PayPal that they can immediately remove you from their sites? Yes they can, and yes they do!
I received so many negative retaliatory feedbacks a few years ago that I had to cancel my eBay membership losing more than 500 positive feedbacks! The negative feedback came from buyers who had buyer’s remorse and refused to pay. They came from buyers that would buy my merchandise and then switch it and return defective or entirely different merchandise. They came even from customers who complained about my shipping even when I offered free shipping.
When I complained to eBay they said the only way they would remove negative feedback was to sue them in court, which I did. What happened? They took it from small claims court to civil court and threatened that if I lost that I would have to pay all of their legal costs. What chance did I have fighting all of eBay’s lawyers if I was paying their salaries. So I quit eBay and had to start all over again. Since then I have been dinged for requesting a non-paying buyer to actually pay me. Now if a buyer refuses to pay me, I just offer to cancel the transaction. But notice that eBay requires the SELLER to cancel the transaction and not the guilty party – the buyer.
eBay has a lot of problems, and as they get bigger, they are only getting worse.
I think the feed back thing is bogus to begin with. Sellers withholding feedback until the buyer leaves feedback is silly. I’ve the opinion that the buyer’s only responsibility is to pay for the item in a timely manner. But there are sellers who state in their auctions “I’ll leave positive feedback when positive feedback is left for me,” which effectively eliminates honest feedback for fear of hit to the buyers rating.
I think eBay should not display feedback results, and then only anonymously after both parties leave their feedback. This would put the value back in the system and get rid of the petty negative for negative crap. I’ve stopped leaving feedback altogether for auctions I win, and immediately leave positive feedback for winning bidders who pay according to my auction descriptions.
@Eileen
I couldn’t agree more. I ship from Miami, FL. It’s a long way to the West, Northwest and Midwest. Buyers don’t understand that. I ship a 2-pound, 4 ounce package, which I can’t bring down to 2 pounds. So it’s a 3-pound package by USPS standards. The cheapest way is Priority Mail Medium Flat Rate Box, which I understand is expensive, but I have no other options. At the end of the transaction the buyer is so pleased that He/She leaves me positive feed back and great DSRs on the first three. Then I get nailed on the fourth, Shipping Costs. Overall is a no-win situation
Rebecca,
Thank you for writing this article. I, like you, sell on eBay and the DSR system has been a total nightmare. One thing I want to mention is how buyers will threaten with either leaving negative feedback or low DSR ratings if they don’t get what they want or the price they want. eBay is very quick to defend its buyers, but when it comes to its sellers, eBay turns the other way. I’m hoping that I can open my own Web site soon like other buyers and leave or at least cut down business with eBay.
One thing that hasn’t been touched on here is that any rating less than five stars negatively impacts a seller’s performance. For example, fours are described as “Accurate”, “Reasonable,” etc.— but fours lower the DSR score while leading the buyer to think that they left a positive rating. That is not fair, period.
This has been discussed on the special board set up for the upcoming changes this fall. Some of the posts that address this issue have been deleted by eBay, and responded to with canned answers that don’t even address the question. This whole DSR system is set up for a seller to eventually fail. Depending on what a seller is peddling gives weight to the type of rating they will receive. As the number of widgets sold increases–so will the possibility of being dinged. I’ve been 100% since I started selling 3 years ago. Thank goodness I’ve only received one “low rating” which eventually fell off after a year. I look at it as only being a matter of time as sales increase, and I’ll lose TRS and Premium Store. In the meantime, when the DSRs start dipping, Ill send a “damage control” message to the buyer explaining how the DSR system really works as a good number of them are clueless or don’t really care.
eBay’s seller performance reps contend that the DSR system will excuse the 5 percent of disgruntled buyers a seller might run into, but others say the margin of padding is less than a half percent for small sellers.
I agree! This is an awful rating system. I bend over backward for my customers as well, but sometimes it is just not good enough.
Example, someone in Hawaii paid for media mail then was unhappy because it took three weeks to be received. Then left me a bad DSR when it was his responsibility to pay for Priority if he needed the item quicker. Boy was he mad at me. Also, on the communication I should have 100 percent feedback in this category, but [this is] not the case. I print all shipping labels through PayPal, so I know they are getting updated communication. Lets not even get started on shipping turnaround. I ship all my items 24 hours or less but am still rated on how long it take the USPS to get the product to the customer. Please, we have no control over this aspect of the purchase. Somehow we need to get this aspect to be improved. Thanks, Rebecca Miller/Product Analyst, for bring this to everyone’s attention. I thought I was the only one feeling this way.
I recently listed tickets for an event in the future. I clearly stated that the tickets would not ship until 30 days prior to the event. To compensate for the delay, I offered a $25 gift (a new hardback sports book) with purchase. I actually shipped the tickets early, included the gift and only charged $5 for Priority Shipping. Up until this point, I had three-month ratings of 5.0 in all four DSRs. One customer posted a glowing feedback comment but gave me neutral feedback and low DSRs for shipping time and s&h charges.
It dragged my ratings down to 4.78. I looked at other feedback given and see that of her last six transactions, she gave four neutrals and one negative but listed positive comments for each. The negative feedback involved an item that arrived damaged, but she stated the seller responded promptly and issued a full refund. How is this fair? Why should one ignorant person be able to destroy our hard work to giving great customer service? The system is just so unfair.
I am in 100 percent agreement with the messed up feedback system. Day by day, the charm of eBay has started to fade off from buyers. It is a completely unjust system.
We not only e-mail buyers, but also call them to make sure they receive the stuffs, but there are always complaints. The items we sell on our eBay store, http://www.saddletackstore.com , are related to the equine world and the customers are not very computer savvy so they even make ridiculous errors like living a negative although their comment would say “very satisfied.” We had no other option but to push our Web site, http://www.hilason.com as a significant alternative.
E-BAY NO LONGER LETS SELLERS LEAVE NEGATIVE FEEDBACK FOR BUYERS, WHICH I FEEL IS WRONG.
I agree with you 100 percent. DSRs are the most troublesome part of eBay selling I have experienced. I have agreed with myself to no longer look at those hateful ratings because I don’t like to force myself into depression. My best auction of all time–best product, rarity, quality, price, etc–ended with 1s or 2s and exceptional feedback. I was disappointed and that one DSR helped kick me out of the Top-Rated Seller category.
I lost all respect for it at that time. I have even gotten 1s or 2s or Shipping and Handling fees when it was all free. Go figure.
I offer free shipping on every single one of my sales, yet have less than five stars on shipping charges. This alone shows the system is flawed.
Since we are all in agreement, what can we do about the DSRs? Because of my low volume, I had one buyer leave me the lowest of the lows, without even contacting me first to resolve a non-issue. But his rating alone, knocked me out of the PowerSeller Program. Not really a big deal, but certainly not warranted, so again, what can we do?
I would love to see an alternative Web site to eBay. Like the OLD eBay.
I also think that eBay needs to rethink the DSRs. I get lows for shipping time and cost, even [though] it states time and cost in ads, and I have all positive feedback. I have no control what UPS charges for shipping or when they get the package to the customer. I do not up the price on shipping at all. I even put in the ads all the info. for someone to check the price of shipping if they think that I am over charging them and still get low DSRs. I don’t think sometimes the buyer understands how the DSRs work for shipping time and cost. I know some do and just don’t care…
I think eBay needs to put a spot on the checkout page that customers need to check the box that they have read and agreed to the sellers terms before they can proceed for payment. This way they could get rid of the DSRs for shipping time and cost and even a few other things and go back to the way it was for everyone to leave honest feed back for sellers and buyers. Also, if buyers do not leave feed back after a time period, we get all positives in our feedback….
I have found that no matter what you put in your ads, customers still do not read them all. I still get questions on things that if they were to just read the first few lines in my ads, it would answer most of their questions. I don’t mind answering questions, but some of them are just a no-brainer, and if I don’t get back to them in a very prompt manner, like with in the hour they ask, I get bad communication DSRs some times. Sorry, I do not live on my computer. I check my e-mail three or four times a day, some times more.
eBay no longer looks out for the seller. They are only interested in their pockets and what they can get to put in them. The only reason eBay is getting rid of the third-party payments is they are not making any money on some of them and they want full control to suck out every dime out of us that they can. It is not cheap to list and sell on eBay anymore. They want a percent of your profit every step of the way. I am looking into other ways to sell online all the time to get away from eBay.
Whey eBay calls me on something, I give them a ear full every time to pass on to the people in charge. You would think they would stop calling.
I have complained so much to them on the DSRs and other things, that I can’t call them on a couple of my phone numbers, because they won’t go through. I have been black listed with them on those numbers. I have to call from other numbers to get through to them if I have questions. They don’t want to hear from us on matters either.
David
I, like many above, have had to look outside eBay for growth. We offer free shipping and still get low DSRs. Customers use the threat of negative feedback to manipulate on return items. eBay is chasing away this customer. (Yes, I feel like I am their customer as a seller).
I spoke with my PowerSeller rep, asked him, how a business could compete when even with outstanding customer service, communication, zero shipping…[we still] receive low DSRs. He said that we needed to work on our costumer service. We have been a eBay PowerSeller for many years, have made a nice living at it. Now we are downsizing eBay and looking elsewhere for growth. We started our own Web site, http://gearuphelmets.com/, and are spending our advertising dollars anywhere but on eBay!
My question to anyone reading and to eBay: Why keep doing business in a place that works against you in such a blatant way?
I am so tired of working my butt off to get buyers their packages, answering questions and still losing PowerSeller status. [I] get low marks on everything. What is a person to do but get their own Web site?
We are the largest seller of Jaguar parts on eBay only offering Free Delivery with U.K.-only purchases, but my DSR for postage is still only 4.94? Why is it not 5.0?
Someone also left me a low DSR, and I had to fight with eBay to have it removed!
DSRs are almost impossible to keep high, and eBay is completely biased for the buyer and give [little] protection to the Seller. We, as a company, are now looking to sell our goods online and looking at leaving eBay with its unrealistic approach.
I agree! I have a dozen friends that all buy from eBay regularly and when I asked them all about DSRs and the star rating, nearly all said that they didn’t even read the categories and what they were rating. One even said they just clicked any old stars, as all they were interested in was leaving feedback and found the stars an inconvenience.
I have since stopped worrying, as with attitudes like that, I think we are all doomed to receive rubbish DSRs eventually. I have another friend that no longer sells on eBay as after several transactions (being a new seller) found herself as “below standard,” and her listings disappeared to page 15-20 of search results even though all her dispatch times had been met and she had mailed each buyer stating their dispatch day.
Sarah
I wholeheartedly agree and can relate to practically every word written above, and I feel that all sellers should become more proactive. I think we should encourage each and every seller we know to write to eBay and lodge complaints.
From little things, big things grow….spread the word ! Tell every seller you know to do the same thing. Start lobbying eBay NOW.
I think the comment above “that the DSR’s are like arming the untrained with a loaded gun” is the most succinct. It is always the newer eBayers, who by the way are violating eBays policies by leaving poor feedback and NOT contacting their seller first.
IT IS TIME TO PROTEST EN-MASSE ! OFF YOU GO. DO IT NOW! I am going to find the most effective place to lodge the complaint and will post it here to let others know. GOOD LUCK TO US ALL.