SEA Service Metric: Unsatisfactory Item Rate

Keep track of your selling performance on the CBT Seller Dashboard.

What you need to know

Starting from August 25th 2019, sellers will be evaluated on the number of transactions with item-related issues. Sellers who do not comply or consistently fall short of expectations may have their selling limits reduced or account(s) restricted.

Best Practices

As a seller, you should always strive to provide buyers with items that match up to their expectations. Most of the time when something goes wrong, it could be due to mismatched expectations or lack of visibility related to the details or specifics of the item. You’re expected to follow these best practices:

Be accurate and detailed
Use images that are clear & sharp
List down all the product specifications clearly
Include size and measurements to prevent any misconception
Add in the usage guidelines
Be honest with the condition of your item – state all the flaws and imperfections like scratches, discoloration and dents (if any) for used items

Evaluation Criteria

eBay will evaluate the rate of transactions with item-related issues, defined as the percentage of transactions where one or more of the following scenarios occur:

Buyer filed for a dispute under “Item Not as Described”, or
Buyer returned the item and gave a return reason that indicates “Item Not as Described”, or
Seller canceled the transaction because they no longer had the item, or the item was never shipped and the buyer's money was returned, or
Buyer left a Detailed Seller Rating score of 1, 2, or 3 for “Item as Described”, or
Buyer left Neutral or Negative feedback for the seller

How are you being evaluated

Evaluation Frequency	Every Wednesday
Evaluation Window	From 25 August 2019 to 16 July 2020: 8 week period before the evaluation date. From 17 July 2020 : 12 week period before the evaluation date. Please refer below as an example:
	Week 1 - 12: Evaluation Period 1 Week 13: Report 1
	Week 2 - 13: Evaluation Period 2 Week 14: Report 2
	Week 3 - 14: Evaluation Period 3 Week 15: Report 3
Consequences for non-compliant account (s)	Your account’s performance will be compared against other sellers within an evaluation cycle. Sellers with consistently high Unsatisfactory Delivery Rate relative to their peers may be subjected to various actions (such as selling limit reduction or account restriction). If an item-related claim against a seller is found to be invalid, the claim will not be counted towards performance and the feedback (if any) will be hidden.
Account performance	Please visit your Seller Dashboard to find out more details.

To provide sellers time to comply with the new policy, eBay will start implementing the above evaluation criteria on October 23rd 2019 and the first evaluation window will cover transactions from August 25th 2019 – October 19th 2019. Sellers who do not comply after warning may have their selling limits reduced or account(s) restricted.

You can visit your Seller Dashboard to check your account performance which will be refreshed every Wednesday. Alternatively, you can contact your account manager for details.

If you have evidence to support your claim, you may contact Customer Support to submit an appeal.

You should communicate the usage guideline with your buyer to ensure that he/she knows how to properly function the item. You can submit the transaction for an appeal once you have resolved the issue with your buyer – find out more details in the following questions. We would also encourage you to place a usage guideline with your item.

Yes. If you have evidence to support that eBay’s evaluation was applied incorrectly, you may contact Customer Support to submit an appeal (please refer to the following question regarding the appeal process).

In order to be eligible for an appeal, sellers must provide evidence to support the claim. For example: If the listing has stated the item description clearly when the buyer had viewed it, but the buyer abuses the policy by selecting SNAD when returning the item, you are recommended to report the buyer to eBay with relevant evidence before contacting eBay Customer Support to submit an appeal.