Section 1: China and it's Impact on the Planet
Please remember that workers in China make peasant wages. There are still kids sewing in sweat shops to create things that you buy "so cheap" from China. In addition China now has a major pollution problem. It is so bad at the moment that people have to wear masks in most of the larger cities most of the time. The government is trying to figure out how to combat this problem because the pollution is so thick that it's causing widespread health problems. It is also spreading all over our planet with winds and can only spell bad things for us as a species.
An air measure rating of 0 is ideal. However, readings in China's biggest cities have recently measured over 900!
An average day:
Do you think that it is eBay's corporate responsibility to attempt to:
* Stop the taking of American jobs
* Help to curve the pollution problem in China (which creates a world-wide problem)
* Stop the ongoing contribution of an unfair wages system (Workers in China make very little, while the board of executives make a great deal of money. They just watch as their own country goes to hell in a hand basket)
Let me explain how eBay is doing just the opposite of these things.
2. How eBay Corporate is Part of the Problem
A. The Feedback Problem
The whole idea of feedback seems like a nice idea in general. However, on the whole it is a horribly flawed system. My main issue with it is that it's very easily manipulated by a big time seller. It is based on percentages - so yes. In a good system that would work. However, eBay helps big Chinese sellers to manipulate their own system! Let's look at the evidence. I chose two Chinese sellers at random.
In the first example, this seller has 98.4% feedback. For a person that does 26,000 sells a year that is just horrendous. I had 100% until this month and I sell maybe 350 items per year. This company has more unsatisfied customers than I have had all year. The second issue is that this negative is all recent, as in today. It wasn't as if this person was deceitful and horrible and ripping people off five years ago because they didn't know how to use eBay. This company is doing it on purpose. Read the reviews. They are taking money from people and then not sending people their items. eBay does refund people when this happens, but the buyer has to know how to complain about it first.
And finally - look at the REVISED FEEDBACK. 119. This means that over one hundred times the company eBay has seen it in their best interests to change feedback that this company has received. That means that they took negatives and changed it to a positive! How many of these were honest ripoffs? We'll never know. It's not detailed. To give you an example, I requested that two of my feed-backs be changed, because the buyer was wrong in both of my negative cases over the last two years. Neither was changed, but for this company eBay decided to change 119 of their negatives. That to me is unbelievable. They should have possibly 884 negatives or neutrals this year, not 765.
Again, their negative feedbacks are recent. Sadly, not all buyers know to look at the feedback profile. Sometimes you also get gamblers. They read it, but they think, "My odds are decent. I'll just take a chance. Maybe I'll be one of the positives and I'll actually get my item. It's only 99 cents." This reasoning is death for American businesses. It's cheap because you shouldn't be buying from them. Period. Another American seller is not getting the business that they should be. You have to consider the fast delivery and great customer service that an American will offer. You need to look up at the sky. American skies are blue - knock on wood. They wouldn't be that way if we adopted the Chinese current pollution policies. Think about that.
B. The Selling Problem
Being a seller now makes you a horrible target. Why? Buyers can't receive a negative, ever. No matter what they do to you. They can cuss at you, threaten you, leave you unfair feedback . . . Claim they never received something, when they did. . . eBay still takes their side and you can't leave them a negative star to tell other sellers that this is a horrible buyer.
C. The Star Problem
Posted from Ina at her blog regarding eBay selling.Available at: eCommerceBytes.
"eBay is preventing sellers from making certain statements about feedback in their listings or encouraging buyers to leave 5-star DSRs feedback ratings. Pop-up messages began appearing yesterday when some sellers tried to relist items."
________________________________________________________
Attention Sellers:
Dear Seller!
A listing can't include statements that may discourage buyers from leaving honest Feedback. You also can't mention the possible penalties for not meeting eBay's seller performance standards.
For example, you can't say things like:
"If I receive more than a few detailed seller ratings (DSRs) of less than 5, eBay will penalize me."
"4 stars will get me suspended, so please only leave 5 stars."
If your listing includes this kind of information, please edit it before posting it on eBay. Otherwise, this could prevent you from achieving Top-rated seller status or could get you removed from the program ....
eBay corporate
______________________________________________________________________
Ina says:
"This is another move by eBay to interfere with the buyer/seller relationship. Before you know it, we won't even have the option of leaving feedback for our buyers, as eBay will either make it mandatory or will set an automatic system up. Another seller referred to the new restriction as part of eBay's continuing effort to rid itself of small dealers.
Sellers feel pressured to obtain five stars, since it affects their visibility, their ability to receive automatic discounts, and even their ability to sell on the site. Some sellers have sued eBay over DSR ratings, arguing that eBay's five-star rating system is "misleading," since buyers view a rating of three as average and a rating of four as good, but eBay requires sellers to maintain a DSR average of 4.3 to freely operate on eBay."
3. Solutions! What Buyers Can Do To Help American Small Businesses
A. Buy things on eBay from American sellers. Leave positive feedback with 5 stars. There are plenty of Americans on eBay. We will usually not be selling 20,000 items per year, but we are selling. If you look, you'll always find an American selling the item that you want. If you don't, message a seller that sells that item and ask for it. For example, I sell coffees. If I don't have Kauai flavored coffee in stock, it might not be listed currently, but I do have a supply and I can get it for you. So, always ask. Great things to buy:
Coffee/ Tea
Chocolates
Coupons for things
Spices (Vanilla beans)
Baby items/kids clothes/toys
Cooking Recipes (You can even buy KFC's famous recipe I hear!)
Of course I would also argue that buying used items keep our landfills from becoming overfilled, but that is another blog entirely.
B. Do not overreact. If the seller has not responded to you, give them a day. If you didn't receive your item, mail them. Do not open a "case" unless you have been waiting for a few days and mail them again. Courtesy pays off in business as well as life.
C. Don't make crazy demands, such as "accept my offer with no shipping". If the seller has a shipping cost, that's because it costs them money to ship. Don't ask them to throw money at you. We're not made of money. Sellers can and will block you from future auctions. Not only that, but they will have their group of seller friends block you also. So . . .
D. Be nice!
E. Educate Yourself. If you click on a seller's star number you can see where they ship from. If they are in the US, they are more likely American. You don't always have to buy American, but it sure would help your country if you did. (For me buying base materials from China is not a terrible thing because a lot of producers of basic products in American have gone bankrupt and closed. It is the END product that you should try to buy American. For example try to purchase anything that was molded, created or manufactured in American. If you are buying jewelry try to buy jewelry that was styled and assembled in America. Try not to purchase too many plastic molded items from China. This is a very big contributor of their pollution problem - and remember this means a planetary problem.
4. Fixing it! Solutions! What Sellers Can Do To Keep Their Success
With the new DSR ratings there is only ONE thing that a seller can do - Hope that the buyers rate them fairly. Sometimes this is not possible. Buyers are now giving "vengeful" ratings now. This means that if you didn't lower the price for them or include free shipping as they asked, they can give you a negative or they can do worse - give you a positive but with all lower stars.
STEP A: Teach your buyers In order to keep this happening and to educate the buying public I suggest a message such as this is sent in every package you ship: ____________________________________________________________
Hi-
I strive to provide 5 star service! If you choose to leave feedback, please keep in mind that Ebay has attached great importance to their DSR (Detailed Seller Rating) system. These STAR ratings that you click when you leave feedback are actually INCREDIBLY IMPORTANT to our business. Not only does it effect search placement in all listings, but eBay will suspend sellers that do not have over a 4.2 STAR average in any category. This is why Small Business Sellers do our best to offer 5 STARS. Any less and we are suspended from selling . . . . So, while 4 out of 5 stars sounds good for a restaurant or hotel, it is not so good on eBay.
A lot of eBay sellers like myself are stay-at-home Moms and we depend on our business and our ability to sell. Suspension means no income for us or our families, so please think twice when you click on these stars. Also, please keep in mind that the “shipping time” star relates to the time between payment and shipment, not the time the US Postal Service took to deliver and not the time it took to deliver before you paid anything. Please check your postmark. You’ll see that this package was shipped quickly after your payment. I ship as soon as I can because my life quite literally depends on it.
If you feel this was not a 5-star transaction, or if you have any questions, please mail me or call the number attached. I would be happy to speak with you.
Please remember BUY AMERICAN. Thanks for your time and your business!
My Name
Business Name (Optional)
phone number (If you don't include it, cut out the bold portion above)
__________________________________________________
STEP B: Take it in stride If you get a negative rating, please try not to take it personally. All the best sellers get them. It says more about the buyers than it does about the sellers. For me, it happens when my Buyer is not educated. For example, the last negative I had the buyer said I had sent him the wrong type of cold medicine. (I thought it was the same. The packaging was the same, etc.) I didn't want to bother him with the hassle of return. (It costs everyone time money to return the item - and my time is money!) Instead I offered him a $6.50 refund. He said he wanted $12. I said "Great!" and in the system I sent him $12.50. I really wanted him to be happy and move on. I began to get irate emails from this fellow once the case was closed. It included cuss words I know, because it looked #### like this. It had not even been 24 hours since the case had been closed. I informed the man that Paypal would return his money, but that it was not an instant refund. Sometimes it takes a few days for Paypal to confirm a transaction. Within minutes he left me a negative. Now, I have not had a negative in a very, very long time, so I was extremely upset. In order for you buyers to understand, I would liken a negative to a hail storm of fire and brimstone. It is the most horrible and terrible thing that a seller can get. For a seller who has only had 10 sells that year, it is a death sentence. For a high-production seller like some of the Chinese on eBay, it is not at all a big deal. It's a game of percentages. Large amounts of positives suck up the negatives like a giant sponge. (We'll expand on this later.)
STEP C: Go shopping in American sellers! If you do get a negative or two, there are things you can do to fix the situation. A lot of them involve shopping. There are items on eBay on a daily basis that costs .01 American. These items are usually images of beach scenes or pennies. These auctions are designed to give you feedback the minute that you pay for an item. This is what eBay calls "manipulating" their feedback policies. The issue with eBay is that their feedback policy is flawed and until they see it, this will continue to be a necessity. Note: Every person that sells these .01 items is willing to send you the item that you bid on. They are not hustlers. They are just like you and me, trying to get their feedback up.
Anyway, in order to avoid "manipulating" eBay policies, if you don't want to risk it, you can go and purchase other things. Buy things for your home. There are a variety of items on here that you need to buy anyway. Remember any time that you buy, can not be part of the problem, so always buy from an American seller! I can not stress this enough. There are plenty of us and if you look, you'll always find an American selling the item that you want. If you don't, message a seller that sells that item and ask for it. For example, I sell coffees. If I don't have Kauai flavored coffee in stock, it might not be listed currently, but I do have a supply and I can get it for you. So, always ask. At home, you could always stand to get more:
Coffee/ Tea
Chocolates
Coupons for things
Spices (Vanilla beans)
Baby items/kids clothes/toys
Cooking Recipes (You can even buy KFC's famous recipe I hear!)
So to be a better seller, just become a frequent buyer. If you buy anything and received it, leave feedback and ask them for feedback. If they do not leave any, mail them again and again, until they are tired of hearing from you. Our feedback is important. If you take your business seriously, then work for it.
STEP D: Be Vocal! Encourage people to shop eBay, but educate them before you do so. You can also start a blog, along with your Facebook posts. Explain to people what problems you face as a seller, so that they can understand and help you.
