eBay Launches New Protections for Top Rated Sellers

by: Shanna

Why are they waiting until Oct to enact this? When other seller updates have come out recently, they were enacted in 30 days or less. Why wait 3 more months?

by: mcposty

This is about as stupid as you can get. Ebay should protect all sellers regardless if its free shippimg back or arrived on time.

So ebay admits you are NOT protected from criminals? This is a huge admission and one wallstreet needs to look at as well as government

by: Ms. S

This is actually very clever of Ebay. By only protecting 2 categories of sellers ( ones who offer 30 day returns, ones who are top rated sellers) they formally exclude quite a number of sellers from any protection who don't fit into their 2 categories. All sellers should be covered from abusive buyers.

by: thriftyattireandstuff

Every seller should be protected.. Even the chinese... The one metric that gets me is the 3% on time.. If I sell 50 items with 80$ profit on each item a month, i can succesfully live as a single, childless individual but if i ship 2 items late a month I will never be a top seller..

by: Marie

@silver ice king

"Not that I believe much of anything that Ebay says, but the opening sentence in this article says TRS Sellers are covered if they offer FREE RETURNS and then further down in the article the wording is changed to TRS Sellers offering 30 day or longer returns."

I think you just misread it.  Nothing in this announcement is about Free Returns.
"For top-rated sellers located in the U.S. and who offer 30-day returns..."

by: Chicago48

More changes, more policies....it makes my head hurt.

by: okie1304

...and being able to refund 50% of purchase price on used returns helps me how????

by: hawk

ebay will protect no one but their buddies , only top rated sellers , and their cheap out of country sellers. they are very prejudice against small sellers and part time sellers that's just trying to make a small business.  after all , the smaller businesses that built their big ass corporation in the first place , means nothing to them.

by: Dellthorpe

Ebay needs to protect the smaller sellers worse than the larger ones. As usual Ebay gets it all wrong. Ebay is ready for another Class Action Law suit. They get the sellers to sign a seller agreement that Ebay can settle the dispute any way they want to - THIS IS NOT LEGAL AND EBAY HAS AND CAN B SUED FOR THIS. THEY HAVE LOST SEVERAL CLASS ACTION SUITS AND ONE THEY HAD TO PAY $4.7 MILLION DOLLARS. I think they r ready for another class action suit. Please get back to me if u want to b part of the new Class Action law suit. dell.thorpe@ymail.com

by: Barbbie

The first thing I thought of is that these situations will qualify to decrease your metrics so each instance lowers your chance of qualifying next time. AND 6.00 will not cover over half of what I sell. Barely a protection more of a hush payment for a seller. Do these guys actually know how much it costs to ship these days? Jeez!

by: Barbbie

Shanna, They are waiting 3 months because in reality this fabulous "protection" will never happen and will quietly fade away.  

by: DRA

"How does eBay protect me as a seller? - If a buyer sent threatening or abusive messaging"

We had a customer make unfair demands on us, and said that if we didn't accept his demands he would blast us all over social media for taking advantage of military veterans"  WHAT?  Did not know he was a veteran...but even if we did what does that have to do with a business sales transaction?  He requested a Return before he even received delivery, and while the item was still in transit.  We called eBay Customer Support for protection in case he leaves a negative feedback...and they point blank said they would not protect us.  We are in Top Rated Plus Seller standing with 100% Feedback and a 0.00% defect rate...and they will NOT protect us.   It's just words they spew...not substance.  

by: Silver Ice King

@marie

eBay Launches New Protections for Top Rated Sellers
by Ina Steiner on July 24, 2019 2:23 pm
eBay expanded protections for Top Rated Sellers who offer free returns. Will these measures adequately protect you from bad buyers? […]

This is what I was talking about.,  It has different wording so I was just looking to clarify things.

by: toolguy

@chicagoo48

"More changes, more policies....it makes my head hurt."

Why?

You don't have a eBay account anymore so why worry about it?

by: Dburn

They are waiting until Oct 1 because that's the start of Q3. That gives them enough time to slither out of it, in case in hurts earnings.   They are their own worst enemy.

It's been several years since they wrote in their 10K that they were siding with the buyer 99% of the time. Like all the failed initiatives it's done nothing to increase sales, reduce expenses or increase goodwill. Rather, it's been giving life to many new competitors.

That's why their sales will never increase to double digit growth as competitors have to do nothing but ''open the door up'' to get disgusted and burned out eBay buyers and sellers.  It's one of the few times I've seen management so inept that they are blissfully ignorant of how their in-grown policies can be directly attributed to handing  their business  to their competitors.  

by: Marie

@Barbbie
Lowering your numbers in the Service Metrics has nothing to do with qualifying for TRS.  If you are talking about when they say they will remove a defect, which does count in the eval if you qualify for TRS, that can only help.

The 3 month grace period offered to TRS has been around for a few years now.  It isn't a new policy.

@Silver Ice King

I can't find that statement.  Was it made by Ebay or Ina?  Could it be a typo?  On the published handout that Ebay released at the Open, it doesn't say anything about that.  Free Returns is still required to have listings qualify for TRS+.

https://static.ebayinc.com/assets/Uploads/Documents/2019-
eBay-Open-Seller-Protections.pdf?fbclid=IwAR2HNELfVgDYhqQprbJQtuylbzZbc69Cimnk2tIzE3UZmbUSbXPuWa88a1w

by: pace306

Fake news.

Devin can lie all he wants but we all know (except the cheerleaders) that it’s all bogus.

If it was real it would apply to everyone now - just like all other policies do.

Weasel wording and adding qualifiers means the are lying/hiding something.

As said above (and I’ve said many times too) the 10k says they know it will cost them sellers and revenue but they don’t care - the anti small seller policies will continue unabated.

Small sellers are just noise - right?

Besides all that , there’s no real change to anything. The wording DOESNT say they now believe sellers. It says IF a buyer is found wrong - and when does that ever happen?

It’s like the bogus extra %5 vig on returns.

by: Silver Ice King

@marie

That was from the front page where Ina shows the articles for us to read.  That is why I had asked her for a quick clarification.  I believe it is 30 returns only that is required but saw that information on this top of this article so wanted to make sure.

by: NoMoreEbay

Normally I would agree with the top rated only protection. Afterall, tenure and history do make a difference. I can't see protecting a 1 month scamming seller the sames as a 20 year good seller .

However....with that said...Since ebay is dinging sellers for returns for ANY REASON. Many good sellers have lost their TRS and will thereby get screwed as usual.

I've seen several posts that said 'proof' of a false SNAD is required. I didn't see that anywhere in the text but if the buyer is engaged in any way for ebay to make a determination for this new protection policy, the policy is dead already.

And how it took them 21 years to finally introduce this fundamental and basic protection is mind boggling. Wenig must indeed be backed into a corner.

While I stopped selling last year. I hope this works out for sellers but am highly doubtful.

by: I Must be Crazy

This is nothing more than a carrot with a giant stick attached to it.

Theft and scamming should be defended no matter what the seller's status may be. For the most part I don't expect anything to change.