Should I accept Powerseller Invite?

[ThinkTank]

Just curious, saw a few similar posts but neither answered my question really.

So I have a real info account, made in late 90's, really had the account for buyer until a year or so ago, now, within the last 2 months I'm just starting to sell a lot, some retail DVD's, some, well, not so retail..... I've just been asked by ebay to join as a powerseller. The answer I seem to be getting from everyone on hear is that why take the risk? Why change when you have a good thing going? First off, like I said all my info is accurate so I'm not worried about reminding them of address, phone # etc. But I have heard some people say they watch you more closely... Obviously with what I'm selling I don't want to be watched more closely.

My main reason for considering it is I've also heard people say you can take more violations without being suspended as a powerseller. If that is true, that is also very enticing, because who wouldn't want to be able to take more hits without being kicked off. Any suggestions......

[jbluntz]

That's the way I would look at it too but not sure if it actually works that way since I got banned 2 days after I became powerseller and same with some other people here. If I received it again I would probably take it only if I have plenty of backups though.

[corleone]

I got an invite today as well. I got a few backups setup so I figured I'd give it a shot, I'll inform the board if it ended up being a bad move.

[Sandy D]

Well hope this helps someone.

I reported that I got the give me everything under sun email from both PP and Ebay. Now I have read this thread, just a week earlier I got the invite, signed up for it and the account went down.

Wonder if this is just another sneaky pp and ebay function?

I won't accept another one.

[997turbo]

You guys only say it went down it went down??What reason ebay gave for went down??I t can't be just because you accepted the PS invite??Did you have vero taken down before you become PS?How is your feedback and DSR satus??I don't believe they will shut you down when you have no VERO warning and good standing feedbacks/DSR ratings and only accepted PS invit???Can you guys tell more clarefy please..

If an account with good standing and none VERO items yes you accept it you will get some fee discount and chance to get top-rated for even more discounting.Why not??I have 2 already all going well for months.

[jbluntz]

I recieved power seller status after I had up lot's of vero listings and was doing lots of withdrawals from paypal so I figured that's what gave me the suspension, not the PS status.

[NZT]

The eligibility requirements for the PowerSeller programme today & April 2010

Criteria

Current April 2010

Minimum transactions

Minimum of 100 items sold per month for three consecutive months

NEW Minimum of 100 transactions to UK and IE buyers per 12 months

Sales volume (GMV)

Minimum sales volume of £750 across a minimum average of four monthly listings.*

NEW Minimum sales volume of £2000 per 12 months* (based on sales to UK and IE buyers)

Average detailed ratings score
(must meet in all four areas)

4.0 or greater

NEW 4.60 or greater

Max. number of low star ratings of 1 and 2 stars
(must meet only one criteria)*

No minimum performance standard for PowerSellers

NEW Minimum performance standard

Item as described

Max: 1% or 3

Communication

Max: 2% or 3

Dispatch time

Max: 2% or 3

P&P charges

Max: 2% or 3

Other requirements

Business seller

Must be registered as business seller on eBay.co.uk or eBay.ie

Feedback

100 feedback, 98% or more positive
(from global transactions)

Membership

Active member for 90 days

Account

Account is in good financial standing

Policy breaches

Have no policy breaches in the preceding 90 days

NEW Have no policy breaches in the preceding 90 days and, in respect of the Feedback Manipulation, Shill Bidding and Counterfeits policies, have no policy breaches in the preceding 180 days.
NEW Must comply with the Selling Practices policy.

* Euro equivalent for sellers from the Republic of Ireland

Remember: Only items sold to buyers in the UK and Ireland are considered for the minimum volume and low star ratings criteria. All other requirements are determined by global sales volumes. Sellers to international markets must also meet the minimum performance standards for those countries.

[NZT]

eBay policy compliance is required for all PowerSellers. To comply, sellers must not violate the Shill Bidding, Feedback Manipulation, or Counterfeits policies - these policies are considered severe and may result in loss of PowerSeller and Top-rated seller status for a minimum of 180 days.

Additionally, repeated violations of any other eBay policy may result in the loss of PowerSeller status. The maximum number of allowed policy violations varies by PowerSeller level:

* Bronze: 4 violations in a 90-day period
* Silver/Gold: 5 violations in a 90-day period
* Platinum: 6 violations in a 90-day period
* Titanium: 7 violations in a 90-day period

[jbluntz]

I think its more fun just to violate ebay and get away with it.

[Sandy D]

I was not selling vero and has 100% fb when I accepted the PS invite, then the account went down.

Has zero problems before this happened.

I am not saying for sure it was the PS invite but I believe it had something to do with it.

I believe a competitor is what did it but the PS invite and me accepting it were strangely timed almost together. Along with the blocking of what I believe was a competitor from bidding on my items.

I do not think any of us believe just accepting the invite does it, but along with other issues it draws more attention and is a part of it.

[metroline]

Take the powerseller invite. It makes you more bullet proof. I used to selling very high risk items among up to six ebay accounts.

New ID with around 15 feedback goes down in 3 days (no vero warning, direct pulling down)
General ID with around 50 feedback goes down in one week (no vero warning, direct pulling down)
General ID done identify verification before (vero warning, cooled down and survivded)
Powerseller ID (continue to receive many vero warnings until a seven day temporary suspension, recovered then and survived).

For powerseller ID, there never happens something like identify verification, seller information update, which will be fatal if you sell high risk items. They will follow procedure like five strikes, then seven day limit, vero questionaire, 30 day limit or 7 day suspension.

For powerseller iD, you need a phone number always ready. They will call you.

[ThinkTank]

thanks metro for the info. I am thinking I will accept the powerseller because I like the fact that you can get strikes before your booted. I will be cautious though because it does look like competitors like to attack powersellers more than the "little guy" Do they really call you a lot once you become a powerseller? Ever any reasons why you might not want to take the phone call? have you had any experiences where working through email would be better than phone?

[corleone]

I'd just like to throw it out there that when I got my invite last week I was really surprised because in the last 2 months I've had my paypal limited(later reinstated) and then a 7 day suspension for trademark infrigement. Now two months later they invite me. I figured what the heck, I'd give it a shot, I'm still selling on this account, but have 2 solid stealth set up should this one go down.

[First Edition]

power seller status almost guarantees that you're running more money through paypal than they will allow without a ssn.

There are many benefits and a few cons to doing this. I would do it, just to get in as a power seller before the 1st, but it's really up to you. None of my many accounts even come close to being eligible because of the volume.

[NotGoodEnuff]

I just accepted mine. Had I read this before, I may have reconsidered. But, the small discount will help. For the most part, my account is pretty good.

[metroline]

They call you once they are about to give you some punishment like 7 day suspension. If you pick up the phone and talk to them, chance is that they will not punish you. For me, I never pick up the phone, as I have too many lines connected to my cell phone I don't know who I am when they call me.

Just leave the phone number valid, so they will not get too suspicious of you. In today's ebay, if you run a non-powerseller account, you may wake up and see your account get executed just overnight for no reason, but that will not happen to power seller.

[NotGoodEnuff]

My account - the dsr are fairly decent - 4.8. Feedback is 98.6. No Vero. I was just released from the non seller performance thing. They had that on me for a year. I don't even remember why I got it. This is the 2nd time I have gotten PS on this account. If it wasn't for the 5% discount, I would not even bother. I know it doesn't mean anything. Really, the only thing I need Ebay for is to help pay for the extra bills that I have.

[imjustme]

I have 9 PowerSeller accounts, all with bogus information. No problems at all. 2 of them are even 15% discounts.

[alexzin]

I'd agree that ebay might will watch your account more closely after becoming a powerseller.Since TRS published,PS status becomes more useless if you can not reach the requirements of TRS.

[alexzin]

Originally Posted by Sandy D

I was not selling vero and has 100% fb when I accepted the PS invite, then the account went down.

Has zero problems before this happened.

I am not saying for sure it was the PS invite but I believe it had something to do with it.

I believe a competitor is what did it but the PS invite and me accepting it were strangely timed almost together. Along with the blocking of what I believe was a competitor from bidding on my items.

I do not think any of us believe just accepting the invite does it, but along with other issues it draws more attention and is a part of it.

Such problem is completely strange to me.How was that possible as you neither selling VERO nor anything wrong happened to your account?

[corleone]

Here's a little update on my powerseller account.
1 week old now. No problems yet, I sold about 1k this past week.

I am now rated as a top rated seller and have a 20% discount on fvf. (not surprised on that my DSR's are through the roof)

I'm still very perplexed at the whole invite in general because I have a trademark violation, less than 2 months old!

Ohh well, I'll update if anything changes.

[NZT]

Nice Corleone that you have the "Top Rated Seller", its worth it for the 20% you are getting.

Do you offer free or low postage?

Just interested as that is where my DSR's get hit hardest.