Defect Rate Rising. Am I worrying for no reason?

[UntitledSN]

I'll try to keep this short but I just have to post in hopes somebody can give me a worst case scenario move I could make if things did get bad.

We have two separate eBay businesses. I have hired two employees and we do around $400,000 in revenue per year.

One of our businesses is used electronics and we have a nice contract with a large fortune 500 business directly. Another business is completely different. Collectibles. Although both are attached to the same paypal, I just recently split them to make it easier on the shipper.

On the electronics side, I have recently started accepting returns and it has made our defect rate skyrocket. We're at a 2.95% right now total. I add notes into every box and still people don't contact us directly, they open cases for things saying not as described, return requested. We receive the items and everything is fine with them. If the people contacted me directly, I would be glad to help them. I even accept returns of items that have been opened and parts stolen. I just write it off as I don't want it to affect my rate calling eBay.

I don't know what to do. I do everything right. My customers aren't upset after the transaction, they just don't contact me first and open disputes on eBay.

I am losing sleep over this. It really stresses me out to no end. I have employees to pay. I have a new building with payments. I have lots of inventory. The money is fine right now, but what if they were to suspend me over something like this?

I am sure it will be fine at 2.95% but what if? I don't care about the fees or top rated. I call eBay and the support I receive is not very good at all. They don't even want to listen most of the time or they sound like they're reading from a paper.


Lets say my business were suspended on eBay. At the revenue I do, stealth really isn't an option for me, is it? From what I read about it, it will require gift cards and little transactions? We don't move a ton of volume really (1,000 transactions a year on eBay) but each basket is $300+

I just hate the thought of knowing big brother eBay is over my head and could pull the plug on my business at any time. It's ridiculous they can't remove defect rates when it's not a defect! I did pull returns completely, and said if you need to return something just contact me and I will take care of you... but still.

Am I worrying about something that's not to worry about? If they suspended me, could I talk to them and appeal with no problem?

[rsot]

Welcome to the forums - you could talk to them but appeal with no problem is never 100% guarantee

[nodeal]

ebay sets it up so that a buyer with a complaint or wanting a return is encouraged to open up a case rather than contact you directly. Ebay basically walks them right into the process, and it's very annoying.

If you are not doing a high volume of sales, could you sell cheap items with a low defect rate to boost your rating?

Stealth is a very viable option for you. The small transactions are only required when the accounts are new. You can eventually build to a level where you can sell more expensive items. The sooner you start the better.

Welcome to the forums, a lot to learn here and i'm sure much more experienced/knowledgable people will chime in on this.

[rsot]

High volume of sales should be spread over several accounts (at least)

[plumsake2]

nodeal gave some good advice above.

You still have your accounts so no need to panic just yet, but using stealth as a preventive measure can really help you out. If created properly and if you take care of the account, a stealth account isn't any worse than a real account. It's different than what you're used to. You can sell in volume on a stealth account, but the beauty of stealth is that it gives you options and backup plans.

Instead of relying on just one or two accounts and worrying day and night if your accounts will be suspended soon, you can make or buy a few stealth accounts and slowly move inventory on them. Since your original accounts are still fine, you have the luxury of being able to go slowly for now and groom the new stealth accounts. Hopefully your originals never get suspended, but if they ever do, by that time you'll have multiple other accounts to spread the loss.

You don't want to be in a position where you rely on your legit account, it becomes suspended, and then your income is suddenly all gone. Too many of us here have been in that exact situation and I'm sure as you can imagine, it's the worst. Start researching now and build up stealths for the future is my advice to you.