Monday, January 19, 2009

Seller Dashboard Update

I'm not selling anything on eBay right now, and I no longer care that much about eBay. While I am still running searches, I no longer enjoy the process at all.

While my last batch of items were up for sale, eBay reduced my search exposure from raised to standard, which is their way of punishing me for not selling for a couple of months. Right after all of my items closed, my search exposure returned to raised, which is where it has been since that time. I have nothing for sale, and I have raised search exposure. This is good, right?

I did not sell that many items, and my feedback has been trickling in one by one. I now enclose a note in all of my packages requesting my buyers to let me know how I can improve my customer service should they feel that they cannot give me five-star ratings on the DSRs. I do not ask them for fives, but I request constructive criticism so I can improve. Of course, nobody has bothered to tell me how I can improve.

I finally received the 10 DSRs required for my 30-day DSR ratings to display. Here they are:

As always, click on the image to see a larger version. The four ratings are 5.00, 5.00, 4.80, and 4.89. Since I know I have to have exactly 10 ratings, I am able to figure out what ratings I received. I received all fives for the first two ratings. I received eight fives and two fours for the third rating. I received nine fives and one four for the last rating.

As I have long suspected, eBay does not display the averages correctly. It is not mathematically possible for 10 ratings to average to 4.89. The average should be 4.90. It does not matter, but I like to be precise. I have a degree in mathematics, so this irritates me greatly when I find mistakes in numerical averages. A computer calculated the average. It should be 4.90. How does a computer calculate it wrong? Please.

None of this really matters, but I thought it might be of interest to others. EBay's seller dashboard is bogus. EBay's searches are polluted with all of the diamond powersellers' listings, so now searches are ruined. A few people are predicting that eBay will split into two websites within one year, one for vintage items and one for new items. I hope so, because in my opinion, it is the only thing that can save eBay from what it has done.

3 comments:

Jack C said...

I checked to make sure I gave you feedback for my purchase from you. It was clearly posted on your site, however, according to My Ebay, I still have to leave you feedback- Messed up again... Ebay is leaving MUCH to be desired.

Jennifer White said...

It figures that eBay would mess it up. I probably still have to leave feedback for you and everyone else. I just made a note to remind myself to leave everyone feedback today before I forget. Otherwise, I might not remember.

Bonanzle has a few glitches which have surfaced this week due to the explosive growth, but that is to be expected. EBay has glitches for no good reason. Bonanzle acknowledges the glitches, states that they are working on them, and lets us know when the glitches are fixed. EBay pretends that the glitches don't exist and tells us that it must be our computer/browser/etc., thereby making everyone angry.

Kathleen said...

I also sometimes include a letter to customers indicating that anything less than 5 stars per aspect is only adding money into the Ebay coffers.

As an educator I think it is grossly unfair. Whatsmore my hunch has always been that they have been playing with the numbers.

I have 4.9's in four areas and 4.8 in another. As far as I can determine one person marked me down.

Last month I received notice that I did not qualify for Power Seller and quite honestly, I just do not care why. The entire thing is a sham.

A Math major I am not. However, 4.7's would still give you an "A".