Like many stores, we have both a retail and online presence, and also like most stores part of that online presence includes eBay.
My business sells professional music equipment, instruments, etc. Over the past year we have done over 120k in business on eBay, but a couple days ago they pulled every one of the hundreds of inventory listings down and "Indefinitely suspended" our selling account due to "below average" standards. After over an hour on the phone with multiple people at eBay it came out that 6 people had rated us as either 1 or 2 stars when it came to "Item as described", as these 6 people represented 1.4% of the total we have had our account essentially killed!
In reviewing the 6 people that had complaints however, they noted that all 6 had had their concerns addressed and so on, but regardless because they gave that rating it constituted the death of our eBay store (and over $100k+ a year in sales!)
Some of the concerns were due to shipping damage, and things we have no control over, some were people simply trying to extort a discount after the sale, etc.
I feel this is beyond wrong. We have 99.9% positive feedback, nearly 2000 positives, and have been a customer with them for a decade, and six people (who had been compensated, placated, etc) cause the death of our online eBay business?
In a quick search this has happened to many others, (Some of the stories are heartbreaking!) but why would they want to kill off revenue creating businesses like mine?
Sorry to vent, but thought you may like to know what is happening behind the scenes.
My business sells professional music equipment, instruments, etc. Over the past year we have done over 120k in business on eBay, but a couple days ago they pulled every one of the hundreds of inventory listings down and "Indefinitely suspended" our selling account due to "below average" standards. After over an hour on the phone with multiple people at eBay it came out that 6 people had rated us as either 1 or 2 stars when it came to "Item as described", as these 6 people represented 1.4% of the total we have had our account essentially killed!
In reviewing the 6 people that had complaints however, they noted that all 6 had had their concerns addressed and so on, but regardless because they gave that rating it constituted the death of our eBay store (and over $100k+ a year in sales!)
Some of the concerns were due to shipping damage, and things we have no control over, some were people simply trying to extort a discount after the sale, etc.
I feel this is beyond wrong. We have 99.9% positive feedback, nearly 2000 positives, and have been a customer with them for a decade, and six people (who had been compensated, placated, etc) cause the death of our online eBay business?
In a quick search this has happened to many others, (Some of the stories are heartbreaking!) but why would they want to kill off revenue creating businesses like mine?
Sorry to vent, but thought you may like to know what is happening behind the scenes.
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