Also there are still sellers who don’t list any postage charge anywhere in their listings – can’t ebay just stop them doing that?

My shipping/handling star has a 4.7 – As I make the buyer clearly aware of the fact that this is the charge, so adjust your bid accordingly… If you think my shipping charges are too high… shave that amount off of the total bid price. There is no excuse for anything less than a 5 rating from the buyer at that point.

I track and record; with software I have written for myself, the before & after value of the stars in each category for every feedback received from a buyer. My feedback is 100% for over 1000 feedbacks since 2001; so there is the proof. If the buyer wants to believe ebay’s selling point that the ratings are completely anonymous; well let them believe that. I will not give a negative to someone for reducing my star value – I give a very low key Paid O.K. But will hide behind the DSR system, and berate your excellent service. That lets sellers know what kind of individual they are dealing with. When a buyer looks at the feedback you gave to others, they will think twice, about basking you stars.

Can you imagine a commercial website charging £0.99 for a product and then adding on £99.00 to deliver it? They’d be crucified, and rightly so, for misleading their customers.

Also the sellers on eBay that charge £0.99 for a product and £99.00 for shipping tend to then only refund the £0.99 if there is a problem with the item. They also are the ones who routinely refuse to combine orders for shipping discounts. They pocket the carriage and refuse to refund it. That’s an abhominably poor user experience and quite honestly sellers who gouge that badly on shipping costs are providing a pretty poor service.

At the end of the day though it’s buyers who decide what they want. If a buyer is happy with the service even if it is a £0.99 with £99.00 shipping they won’t mark the seller down on DSRs. If they aren’t happy at being conned then quite rightly they have the opportunity to make their opinion felt.

You can’t interfere with trade to line your pockets with more cash. This is the only reason the DSR was put in place. Any item on ebay has a total value. Lets, for argument say $100. That is the total amount a buyer is willing to pay PERIOD! That is the cost of the item and all shipping / handling cost.

The only one benefiting from lower shipping cost is EBAY! The buyer is going to pay $100 regardless. If the seller sells the item for $1.00, and charges $99.00 to ship. This makes ebay very angry! Because they get no FVF – Final Value Fee on the shipping cost. Now if the item sells for $99.00, and has $1.00 for shipping cost; this makes Ebay very Happy! And, you can do the math which would show the benefit to Ebay to force reduced shipping cost. Why doesn’t Ebay try some tactic to force the transportation companies to lower their cost; or there would be a penalty to them? Why? Because we have laws in place to protect companies from unfair trade practices. The seller on ebay is no different than a huge corporation when they are looked at as a mass. They are Ebay’s customers.

This will backfire, that is what markets are for in a capitalistic economy. Not the will of a huge corporation dictating what a cost will be, so that they may help themselves to more cash off the table! Then there is the double dipping with the transaction moving to the sister company; PayPal.

I’m not going to go into any depth with that, other than they PayPal then collects a fee on the entire amount of the transaction; including the shipping / handling fees. So if a seller charged the exact shipping cost, they would loose on the transaction.

I’m a power sell on the U.S. site; I;ve been selling on Ebay since 2001, and see it heading to a very bad place. These are the moves of a desperate corporation, in an effort to once again show a growth spurt. But, the ship has sailed. The first phase – ‘shooting star’ part of ebays history has ended. Now the business must be managed in a different manner; and dictating charges to the people that write their paychecks – will be met either by competition, or a Federal Anti-Trust Suit.

*Makes a note for an amendment to the ‘Buying Bargains’ section of my book.*

Although I agree eBay must get rid of the rogue traders on site, I think the DSR rating hasnt been completely thought out and it is open to abuse, from peeps wanting to deliberatly damage your stars if you are for example a competitor.

Off my soapbox – hope that makes sense
Suz x

eBay is supposed to be ‘merely a venue’ & I sincerely hope this is not the start of a paradigm shift towards a ‘nanny state’. I take Sue’s point that some buyers need looking after but I feel there is a danger in taking this too far – learning from bumps in the road is an integral part of growing up & is no different in etrading for buyers & sellers alike. Any hand-holding would, I feel, be better left to sellers. Of course, some sellers will respond with sarcasm & by slagging off buyers on their blog but more fool them.

Also, postage prices have already already been added to search results as well as the item descripiton, so it’s quite hard to miss them these days.