ebay ..anyone know a solution?

[DogsBreakfast]

My defect rate on ebay is now at 7 (for cancelling transactions plus one item not received) and if I get 8 or more I am going to get selling limits placed on my account.

I thought this reset every month which I now realise it obviously doesn't..

When does this defect rate reset and is there anything I can do?

 

[3tails]

Contact ebay support and find out what you can do to fix your rating. The rest is just stuff as best as I understand it which may be wrong.

Ebay seems to only keep about 60 days worth of logs for seller activities, however, infractions might last up to a year if I understand correctly.
That's a year from the day that whatever went wrong happened, by the way, not a year from the last bad thing.

In the future, to avoid "item Not sent" claims, get tracking through Paypal. It may cost more, but you're pretty much guaranteed that nobody will be able to dispute your shipping and win. If it's a digital item you're pretty much hosed as soon as they figure out it's digital. Don't use Ebay for digital items.

Who canceled the transaction- them or you?

 

[DogsBreakfast]

I was cancelling the transaction because I had run out of stock. From my understanding these defects last until the next period (they last for 12 months). Because I didn't know about these new rules I have shot myself in the foot, the only way I can avoid getting selling restrictions is I just need to sell more volume and get my defect rate under 5%. Currently its at 7% so I just got to sell about 40 items in the next 30days without any problems but I am aiming to sell more than that. Still don't like these super strict policies.. I am already writing off this income as something that wont continue. Just can't have any buyers opening cases without contacting me first.

 

[3tails]

Yeah, keeping track of stock and only listing what you have is important. In the future, do NOT list the same product in multiple places unless you lower the number "for sale" on each place. For example...

You have 10 total.
Place 1: tell them there's 4 in stock
Place 2: tell them there's 6 in stock
Do not sell the items anywhere other than those two places or you will run out of stock.

As to customers opening cases without contacting you, that can't be helped or controlled. You can threaten. You can give incentives. It doesn't matter! People do what they want up to and including screwing you over so as a seller your best bet is to cover your back door as best as you possibly can. Ebay and Paypal can be a pain in that way. Amazon is is even stricter as I understand it.

 

[Defon]

You are screwed.. . I have lost about 4 accouns with defect rate before I learned how to avoid this.
Defect rate is lame , I have nothing good to say about it.

But you must sell dumb shit like , socks from walmart for free... so buy them for $4 and after shpping and fees break even or lsoe money. You can do digital stuff too like ebooks... but you have to cover your self incase you have bad luck and have to cancel. OR if the item arrives broken too often, that is your fault too according to EB. Grrrrr

 

[Deleted member 676914]

For out of stock, send the buyer a message saying like "Hey, I just got a bunch of these back as returns and it looks like there's a rip (or another defect). These come sealed straight from the manufacturer and I am currently on the phone with them trying to sort it out. Unfortunately, I think it would be best to cancel the order so you don't have to deal with getting a dud."
They will respond saying that's fine and then you cancel the order saying the seller requested it and you should be good to go.

 

[genotype]

I always cancel saying buyer requested it. Early on I got a couple defects for saying I was out of stock or other reason. If your reason is that buyer requested it, it works out. Haven't seen a buyer complain about using that reason and I don't see how ebay will know if its true or not.

 

[Jobdollarr]

I never refund purchase using paypal. And it profitable buyers.

I saw alibaba, aliexpress and ebay still not using the payment gateway.

Is a separate payment to the website ebay?
Unlike fiverr?

 

[toml3030]

I always cancel saying buyer requested it. Early on I got a couple defects for saying I was out of stock or other reason. If your reason is that buyer requested it, it works out. Haven't seen a buyer complain about using that reason and I don't see how ebay will know if its true or not.

It will work until they manually review your account and they will lay the ban hammer on you.

 

[genotype]

It will work until they manually review your account and they will lay the ban hammer on you.

If it ends up that way then w/e. Its a trap really. Some buyers are scammers, the only way to avoid the issue is to cancel the transaction. If i had done that earlier on I could be avoiding a lot of issues now.

 

[toml3030]

Some buyers are scammers, the only way to avoid the issue is to cancel the transaction. If i had done that earlier on I could be avoiding a lot of issues now.

There's a correct way to do this. If you can't ship, CONTACT THE CUSTOMER FIRST, and apologize and refund and ask to cancel. Then you have a defensible reason why you cancelled "at customer request". Be proactive, not reactive. Don't let the customer find out that he's not getting the product when the expected arrival date passes and nothing shows up. It's so god damn simple yet so many people get banned for not doing it! I sell in a reasonably high risk category and I keep all my accounts under 2% defects by doing this religiously.