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best match score penalty
 

ebay recently penalized us for a vero violation. Our account was restricted for one week (unable to list items). However, about two weeks following the violation - we received a strong penality to best match score (we have enough competitive, non problematic listings to determine this was not accidental).

Does anyone know from experience how long this penalty would last for?

Once we figured out it was related to our vero violation (an ebay representative also confirmed that penalty to ranking can occur weeks after, but didn't know for how long), we realized that we were penalized in the past exactly the same way, but the penalty lasted only one week. This time, its been 2 weeks and we're still ranked low. We obviously no longer carry any of the problematic items. Any insight would be appreciated.

Re: best match score penalty
 

Nobody really knows exactly how Best Match or any of the search algorithms work.

Search is big a black box, with lots of unmarked dials and buttons; you push stuff in one end, punch a lot of buttons and flip some switches to make the box work, pull the results out the other end, and try to guess which button or switch or dial did what. The possible combinations are virtually limitless.

However...

It's my observation that the first 'issue', whether for vero, duplicate listings, or whatever, gets a bit of a hand slap, but the second time you do it they really hammer you down, pretty much everything gets demoted, and it'll take months to bounce back if you ever do at all.

Look at it from their viewpoint... there are hundreds, if not thousands of sellers selling exactly what you do in exactly the same price range. The market is saturated.

In my category there are 210,000 listings and tens of thousands of pages of listings. How many pages are people going to look through? 2? 3?

Out of all of those 210,000 listings, who would YOU put at the top of the list? Somebody who follows the rules and never breaks them, or somebody who breaks them repeatedly?

Once they demote you in search, your account will enter a death spiral; your sell-though rate will drop causing you to be demoted even further, which in turn makes your sales fall even more, etc., until you reach the bottom of the pile, which is around a 3% sell through rate. It's nearly impossible to recover from this scenario.

Vero is a hot button issue. I'm guessing it's close to or at the top of their purge list.

Open another account, hope you eventually bounce back on this one, and avoid this problem in the future.

Re: best match score penalty
 

I just wanted to post a follow up, for anyone who might be viewing this thread. The penalty to best match ratings following our second major vero violation lasted about 3 weeks.

Re: best match score penalty
 

Violation for same listing?

Re: best match score penalty
 

This is amazing to me, the inconsistency with ebays penalties. My account was suspended to a 32 day past due invoice, I paid immediately. This was after I confirmed my account would not be suspended until I hit the 60 day mark!

3 days after my conversation with a billing supervisor, who told me I had 28 MORE days till a suspension. my acct was suspended,

I am a top rated power seller 100% feedback over 1500 - low DSR no cases for months.

I am told I will be hit for 90 days!