Dammit, I was just coming over here to post about that, given that ol' kitty-cat only has 1 rating above 4.5 and even 1 that's all the way down to 4.0.  (Guess which one! C'mon! Guess! )

That's gonna take some work if you wanna keep bragging about being a power seller, cougie ol' chum.

The communication rating is somehow actually a 4.4, not a 4.3.

That said: I wish you had taken a screenshot of the 3.9.  I've never seen a 3-star rating before.

And entrenched is putting it mildly.  He's going to need 1143 5-star ratings (with no other low ratings) on shipping in order to even hope of making a 4.5.

Wow.  That's an... uhh... impressive dedication to ticking off customers.

Xaxaxe wrote:
And it doesn't get more "direct" than eBay saying to these morons: "You will be making less money now."  

Just another excuse to raise S&H rates even higher now tho'.

Just noticed this one:

"Also, for a small number of these transactions paid with PayPal, when eBay suspects the transaction may result in a dissatisfied customer, PayPal will delay release of the payment funds to the seller until the buyer has left a positive feedback or 21 days have passed without a dispute."

This applies to sellers with the "worst" DSR scores ... and that's Cougar. Now he's got eBay/PayPal teaming up to tell him that it's totally up to them whether or not they hold on to his money for three weeks.  

Ouch! Hey, DM Dave ... you might want to start including the maps with all of those thrashed modules you sell.  

bclarkie wrote:The sad fact of it all is that some of these changes were made almost comletely as a result of the consistant abuse of the feedback system by sellers like Cougar.

No argument there.

I gotta say, though: I am thrilled that some of today's announcements should affect Cougie (and idiots like him; he's not the only douche-nozzle out there).

I think of it this way: the Cougar of 1/28/08 took advantage of enough loopholes to basically run his own little lawless eBay empire. The Cougar of 1/29/08** is going to be penalized in search results, have some of his funds held for three weeks, lose his Powerseller status, and be unable to use his favorite weapon of leaving nasty and undeserved negative feedback.

Those are all good things. Finally, the Karma Missiles are beginning to land.

+++++

**Yes, I know the actual changes are coming later in the year ... but today is the day that DM Dave is staring at his monitor in disbelief.

This worries me somewhat. I normally leave a four star rating unless the service is exceptional. I leave a fair number of five stars, and the occaisional lower rating, but personally I wouldn't regard four stars as anything bad.

I'm suddenly worried that I've let down a few perfectly good sellers with my four star ratings  

Xaxaxe wrote:I totally agree. I've left a number of four-star reviews myself, and I never considered it a "bad thing" ... more like, "the service was fine, if, perhaps, not spectacular."

Typical of eBay, though, to come out of nowhere and announce that these stars will now be tied into a number of important features.

I've had to go out on the street hat in hand begging...basically, attaching a small paragraph to my payment confirmations pleading for Five stars...or nothing. Anything less is bad, it will drag down my rating, and will cost me money (as it will any other seller). I've also starting leaving Five Stars for every single seller I've dealt with...I look at it as a kick in the nuts to Ebay, as I'm sure they implemented this policy knowing it's impossible to stay at 5.0 for any length of time...and knowing the sellers would pay more, accordingly.  I'd ask all the people on this board buying to do the same....unless your service was just perfectly atrocious.

I currently have a shipping time star of 4.4.....due almost entirely, I feel, to foreign buyers, since they've been the only ones to ever complain about shipments taking too long.  I don't believe any of the Italian, French, UK, Aussie, etc buyers that waited for something that took several weeks (almost certainly because of customs) thought they were doing a thing wrong giving me four stars....or maybe even three.  It's human nature not to give a "highest" rating to something you are not 100% happy about, and personally if I had towait several weeks for something to arrive, I really wouldn't be 100% happy.

I will, however, take a long look at shipping to certain countries (mainly, Australia, Italy and Greece) that take the longest times if this continues...I really at this point think the money I lose from not having the discount will even itself out for not selling to these three countries only if circumstances warrant.  

Mike B.

I don't know . . . Global Priority almost always arrives within 6 business days (and usually much less).  I have gotten nothing but rave feedback from international customers over the years for the quick delivery . . .

I only ship GPM . . . I also ship everything within two days Max . . . I guess that is the hard part for really busy sellers.

 To bump up your international delivery times, I would strongly suggest a same day or next day ship policy.  It blows the customer away every time!    (Okay, I realize that is not always practical for some)  . . . maybe make sure that international orders get shipped right away and delay domestic shipping if the package load is too great?