We wanted to let you know about some changes that we are making to our Seller Non-Performance policy in response to feedback from sellers.

The Seller Non-Performance policy puts in place penalties, up to and including account suspension, for sellers who cause unacceptable levels of buyer dissatisfaction.

While most sellers appreciate the need for a programme like this to maintain service standards on the eBay marketplace, we have heard from many sellers that they would like clearer information about how they are performing against the policy, and that they would like to have a chance to improve their performance if they should happen to breach it.

With this in mind, effective immediately, we will be introducing a 1-month warning period for sellers who breach the Seller Non-Performance policy for the first time. If a seller breaches the policy for a second time within six months of the warning, they will face account restriction or suspension.

To help sellers keep track of where they stand with regard to the Seller Non-Performance policy, we are also adding a new feature to the Seller Dashboard – the Buyer Satisfaction Rating. This rating is made up of a number of weighted elements, including:

• negative feedback
• neutral feedback
• low detailed seller ratings scores
• disputes that closed in favour of the buyer.

These elements are taken as a percentage of a seller’s overall transactions during the preceding 30 days to generate the Buyer Satisfaction Rating. Sellers who are rated as ‘Poor’ or ‘Unacceptable’ will be in breach of the Seller-Non Performance policy, and will be contacted by eBay and given a warning, account restriction or suspension as appropriate.

We hope that sellers find the Buyer Satisfaction Rating a useful tool to help them provide great service, and that the introduction of a warning period gives all sellers an opportunity to improve their performance if they should fall foul of the Seller Non-Performance policy.

Regards,

The eBay Team