Account has fallen Below Standard

[lucy2706lucy]

My sales seemed to have fallen off a cliff recently, so I did abit of digging and found my account to have fallen into below standard. 

3/798 cases where the buyer needed eBay to step in. An oversight on my part and having looked into the situation more, I should have dealt with things better on my end. 

This has pushed my defect rate to 0.38%. 

It seems once you enter into Below standards, it’s rather difficult to get yourself back into above standard. 

Doing some math, if I could hit 1000 sales (204) needed without any buyer pushbacks, would that hypothetically get my account back into above standard (3 % 1000 =0.3) ? 

I understand older sales will drop off so the actual number may be slightly more, but would this be the best (only) way to get my account back to ‘normal’? 

TIA

[technthread]

If you were a business seller I’d have said try to hit the 1,000 sales and do it as fast a possible to improve the account metrics. The reason being that more than visibility, the fees go through the roof as well. 

As a private seller I wouldn’t worry about it as much. Maybe price items slightly lower so you will appear higher up the search if buyers filter their search by lowest price.

Easier said than done but just aim to be perfect with every sale moving forward so the account metrics don’t get any worse, as a restriction or ban would be next. If it was me I’d get rid of those football cards mystery bundles - those are asking for trouble, both returns and neutral/negative feedback which is the last thing you need. 

[therenewalworkshopltd]

hmm, I thought that mystery type items where against the rules?

[lucy2706lucy]

Funnily enough (well not really funny) but the 3 cases opened were all from those bundles. When I started selling them I rather naively used RM large letter no tracking- 7 out of the first 50 orders magically ‘got lost and didn’t arrive’. Since I moved to a tracked service the next 150 or so went by without a hitch but since the account limit those sales have dried up now, which really what prompted my digging - can no longer promote listings. 

[technthread]

I’m not a fan of those type of listings anyway so I haven’t looked into it fully but from what I can see, under strict conditions they are allowed:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/help/policies/prohibited-restricted-items/chance-listings-policy?id=4311

@lucy2706lucy I guess it’s your call on them, maybe they do fall on the wrong side of the policy as higher end cards are shown in the photos but not guaranteed to be included but regardless of that I’d be worried about a few adverse feedbacks on them will make eBay restrict your selling.

Having said that, if you kept providing greater value in those bundles than buyers expected then they are less likely to backfire.

As you can’t promote I think you’ll have to aim to be near the lowest price to be honest. The level of sales you’ll need to turbo your way to above standard quickly doesn’t seem to be that realistic.