Saturday, August 13, 2011

Star Ratings, Comments, and Package Situations

Bonanza added star ratings awhile back, except that the stars are not punitive, can only be seen by the seller, and are not anonymous. The main benefit of this feature for me is that I can easily see why my DSRs are sometimes so low on eBay.

I have had ten Bonanza buyers leave me the star ratings. Nine of those buyers left me five out of five stars on all ratings. One buyer left me one out of five stars on all ratings. Since that buyer faved me the day she left feedback and since her feedback was very positive, I have no doubt that the buyer meant to leave higher ratings.

Averaging out my Bonanza stars, I have 4.6 stars on all of them. Did you know that 4.6 is the level at which eBay begins to impose restrictions on sellers? For instance, a seller who has a DSR of 4.6 might have his or her payments withheld by PayPal for 20 days. Just a few buyers leaving low DSRs can cause an eBay seller to be sanctioned.
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I always wrap books in stretch wrap before placing them in the package. You never know when a package will get wet. I recently had a buyer thank me for protecting the books I sent her. Her postal carrier left the box setting out in the rain instead of walking just a few steps to leave it under the overhang. She said that the entire package including the newspaper I used for padding was wet. The books were fine because they were wrapped in plastic.

The greatest irony, perhaps, is that the books that my packaging saved were the unwanted ones mentioned in this blog post. I pack all books the same regardless of whether they are in excellent condition or horrible condition. After all, if a buyer has purchased a book from me, then I need to make sure that the book does not arrive damaged.
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I was going through some old posts in order to find ones on a certain topic. I found an old post in which someone chose to post a comment anonymously and supposedly was trying to be funny. At least, after another reader took offense, the commenter claimed that he or she was trying to be funny.

The humor fell flat, and the comment was obnoxious. Never try to be funny on the internet unless you are on Facebook with your buddies, or unless you really just want to offend everyone. As I recall, that anonymous comment was the one which made me disallow the anonymous comments. Of course it hasn't stopped the people who wish to be rude, but at least they have to register a Google ID before doing so.

On the subject of rude comments, I had stated here that I would delete rude comments without a response. I have now decided that when someone makes a rude comment directed at me and has chosen not to do it using a fake name, I will leave the comment so that others can see what that person is like. I still intend to delete rude comments directed at others, since I do not wish for people to fear being attacked.
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I received a package in which I could feel the books banging around inside. That was not why I decided to mention this package here. It was what I saw when I opened the package.



The first photo shows what I saw when I opened the package. I was sure that what I saw was a priority mail envelope and turning the envelope over confirmed my suspicion.

The only reason I care about the priority mail envelope is that the package could have arrived postage due. If this particular media mail package had been opened for routine media mail inspection, then it would have arrived postage due. Nothing, aside from receiving damaged or destroyed books, annoys me more than receiving a package postage due.

In several past instances, I have had to go to the post office to pick up postage due packages. I often have to wait in line at my post office for 20 to 30 minutes. You can see that a postage due package turns out to be a great inconvenience to me.

Sellers, please do not use priority mail supplies for other services. The USPS does not like that practice, and if caught, the package arrives postage due. Buyers tend to get upset when that happens.

2 comments:

Jenn Fisher said...

OMG--I can't believe a seller would put that in the box and not have anything to fill up the box around it, that's so borderline crazy. It seems to me that is pretty redundant how to pack up a box, you'd think people would know how to do it. So either this person is extremely ignorant or just doesn't give a crap ;-) Either way, I can just imagine what was running through your head when you opened it!

Jenn:)

IrishPirate Queen said...

Ebay can use an Arithmetic refresher course! A 4.65 is still a "A"– by anyone else's calculation!