When sellers are honest and upfront, this is no problem, of course. It is silly to have buyers rate sellers on something they already knew before purchasing an item.

However, there have been two instances where I bought something on Ebay and the seller changed the shipping costs AFTER I purchased the item. In both cases, the shipping costs were changed when I was redirected to a third party check-out system.

The first time it happened, the check out system added on a $1 insurance fee which was not stated in the auction. Furthermore, the item was shipped by UPS, and UPS includes insurance for free for items under $100.

The second time it happened, the shipping cost listed in the shipping area of the auction was completely different from the shipping amount I was charged. Of course, when I bought the item, I entered into a contract to pay the cost listed in the shipping area. Upon check-out, the cost was different.

I’m not against third-party checkout systems, but they do seem to give the seller the ability to charge a different shipping amount than stated. This is a problem that needs to be resolved.

Probably, the reason Ebay does ask for buyers to rate sellers on shipping and handling cost is because it gives them an easy way to catch sellers who are being dishonest. Hopefully, this rating does not hurt sellers who are honest and set reasonable shipping costs. I’m sorry if it does hurt honest sellers

While I do like “Would you deal with this person again” I think a better idea might be a more general star for shipping –something not explicitly mentioning rates. As an eBay buyer I’d love a star to rate a seller based on his packaging skills. This is the area which I’m most consistently disappointed in as a buyer and could really use a guide to help me decide in advance of purchase whether I want to deal with someone or not.

And while sometimes this could be the postal services fault, I can say for sure that I send out a lot more complaints about receiving damaged goods as a buyer than I receive as a seller, and I can very often spot the poor packaging.

So my suggestion would be a switch from rating “How reasonable were the shipping and handling charges?” to something such as “How satisfied were you with the packing and shipping of this item?”

Thanks for the post!

As it’s turned out, I think rather the opposite has happened. Because my buyers expect longer delivery times, they’re prepared to allow me longer than UK sellers. I tell them to allow a week, so when it (as it normally does) takes two or three working days, they’re pleasantly surprised.

Manage your buyers’ expectations. Under promise, over deliver. It really works

So in essence, in fear of their rating dropping which maybe might possibly cut out a portion of their sales in the future, they decided to cut out a portion of their sales immediately

I think the biggest problem with DSRs, and one eBay likely didn’t anticipate, is how much some sellers obsess over them.

The point of them is so that buyers can avoid sellers who take a week to get the item to the post (and don’t disclose that beforehand), or ones that charge massive amounts on shipping and handling and then send it through the cheapest method poorly packaged, or misrepresent the item or take days to respond to emails etc.

The reality though is that some sellers probably check their stars ten times a day, while a low percentage of the buyers might glance at them briefly before making a purchase.

If you have an eBay Store/Shop, I highly recommend taking a look at your most popular pages report. Compare the number of hits your store and items are getting compared to the number of people who even visit your feedback page.

My experience and that of the people I’ve talked to is that it’s usually under 10%. Some percentage of those will even look at the stars, and an even smaller percentage are actually taking the time to mouse over them to see if something is a 4.6 or a 4.7.

I see people in the discussion boards saying “an unfair ding really hurts good sellers” but I think the hurt may really only be emotional, not economic

I’ve recently been shopping around for a rice cooker. Once I buy one, I’m not likely to ever need another for quite some time. If I buy one from someone who sells only rice cookers or is selling it as a one-off, then the most honest response would be to select the ‘definately won’t buy from this seller again’ option. Yet the effect on their rating would imply I am dissatisfied with the transaction.

The not perfect score for even sellers who ship free reflects the uselessness of the system, but people are canny enough to know that even on free shipping the cost is in there somewhere.
My theory is the whole system is a round about way for ebay to get sellers to lower the P&P so the item costs more so they get more fees.
The other 3 categories being there just to pad out and make less conspicuous the P&P rating. I mean seriously its not often a buyer and seller have to communicate on a good transaction.

Effectively the ‘would you buy from this seller again’ could as easily been a simple rate this seller 1-10 in which case why not just plain old pos – neut or neg but would that get ebay more fees?
As usual its probably very well thought out and done for the same reason most things are done