eBay's much-anticipated announcement of its fall changes, dubbed "SR2," finally came on July 27th and included some major and minor changes that covered a lot of ground.

The full announcement made by eBay executive Stephanie Tilenius can be found on the Marketing Announcement board, and eBay will begin rolling out the changes in September and October as the site gears up for the holiday shopping season.

An AuctionBytes reader survey revealed a mixed review of the announcement, with some changes garnering a few clear-cut approvals and some a few clear-cut disapprovals, but many of the changes were met with a "wait and see" reaction from respondents. Below is a summary of the survey results divided into four main topics, followed by the key takeaways of the survey.

Changes to Seller Programs and Performance Ratings
In the days following the announcement, much of the focus among sellers was on planned changes to the PowerSeller program, including the introduction of a Top Rated seller status, and a new way of looking at DSRs as a way to measure performance.

eBay said it would shift the way it looks at Detailed Seller Ratings (DSRs) from an emphasis on sellers' average DSRs to their rate of low DSRs - specifically 1s and 2s - as a better way to assess the quality of buyer experiences sellers provide. Sellers were almost equally divided on whether this was good (31.9%) or neutral (30.8%), with bad tipping the scales (37.3%).

However, respondents expressed some serious concerns with the new system. "DSRs are one-sided in favor of buyers. Buyers can use them to destroy a seller for any reason. Ebay implemented DSR to keep seller's ratings low enough to prevent discounts," wrote one seller. Another commentor summed up some of the concerns that other respondents also expressed about the new changes:

1) Focusing on 1 & 2 level DSR scores is a perfect way for dishonest sellers to torpedo their competition and for dishonest buyers to manipulate honest sellers.

5) Encouraging buyers to leave a 5 for free shipping is better than before but why wouldn't free shipping rate a 5 automatically?

Nearly half (45.5%) rated the qualifications to becoming a "Top Rated seller" as bad, and half rated the change in the fee structure for PowerSellers as bad (49.6%).

The issue that got the most agreement among respondents in this section of the survey was eBay's decision to turn off DSRs for handling time and shipping costs where only local pickup was offered. That may speak volumes about how eBay sellers feel about those two DSR criteria in general, areas that many sellers insist they should not be rated on by buyers.

View the full survey results on changes to Seller Programs and Performance Ratings here.

Changes to Seller Policies
eBay introduced a new Selling Practices policy that sets minimum standards of professionalism for sellers, and many survey respondents rated the announcement as good (54.7%). Despite the ever-present tension between eBay and sellers, there seemed to be agreement that sellers who don't follow best practices can be harmful to sellers who do work hard to satisfy their customers. "Sad that some sellers actually need a rule about these practices when they should be doing them anyway as good biz practice," wrote one respondent.

However, some respondents said the policies were too vague or complicated, and others were concerned over how eBay would enforce the policies and whether large Diamond sellers would be held to the same standards. "The devil may be in the enforcement of these policies. Too undefined but good intentions," a reader commented.

A common concern was over eBay's prohibition against sellers charging buyers for optional shipping insurance. (eBay may be considering offering sellers insurance directly - link).

View the full survey results on changes to Seller Policies here.

Changes to eBay Search and Best Match
Many of the survey respondents rated forthcoming changes to Best Match search as bad (51.5%), and a majority rated eBay's new Search Visibility tool as good (59.3%). Most rated the discontinuation of some listing features, which had incurred extra fees, as good or neutral, but rated eBay's decision to make "Featured First" available only to Top-rated sellers as bad or neutral.

There was a lot of confusion about eBay's announcement that the Best Match default sort order in search results would look at a listing's recent sales in relation to the number of recent impressions it received as a key factor for Fixed Price listings. "The entire Best Match thing is flawed, confusing, and infuriating to use," wrote one seller in the comments field. Another respondent wrote, "Too confusing to make a judgment on Best Match changes. I can only hope it's an improvement but not holding my breath."

The comments in the last section reveal a lack of awareness by many sellers of eBay's Product Catalog - a major search feature in certain categories - and many sellers raised questions about eBay's planned use of sellers' photos. "How will eBay prevent a "stolen" photo from being used? SEVERAL times, other sellers have "borrowed" my photos; I'd be quite upset if someone else gor credit for my photo(s)!"

An AuctionBytes Blog post on this topic last week elicited many additional comments.

View the full survey results on changes eBay Search and Best Match here.

Changes to Buyer-Seller Relations
While a majority of sellers rated changes to Unpaid Item claims (UPIs) as good, many used the comments section to express their displeasure that eBay would soften the Unpaid Item strike language to buyers, and some were concerned about emails eBay planned to send to buyers regarding UPIs.

Survey respondents gave eBay's new Unpaid Item (UPI) claims process a mixed review, but many liked the automatic claims process (64.6% rated it as a good change). However, only 18.3% rated the new dispute resolution process as good. Some expressed concern that moving dispute resolution from PayPal to eBay would result in eBay not requiring buyers to return items when sellers lost the claim. "It may be good, hard to tell at this point. Not good if they don't require return on SNADs (Significantly Not as Described claims)," wrote one.

One of the most unpopular changes in the SR2 announcement was eBay's decision to keep buyer identities anonymous until after the sale is completed - 67.5% rated the change as bad, and 22.1% rated it as neutral. "Since sellers can no longer leave neg feedback, this takes away another avenue of protecting ourselves from bad buyers," wrote one survey respondent in the comments.

One of the most popular changes in the SR2 announcement was eBay's decision to provide a ship-to location exclusion option, with 70.0% rating it as a good change.

View the full survey results on changes to Buyer-Seller Relations here.

Key Takeaways
The AuctionBytes eBay-SR2 survey asked readers to rate each of the major changes, covering 14 different topics and including a total of 32 questions, along with places to add additional comments at the end of each section. A total of 1,113 readers took the survey. Many readers took the time to write comments after each of the 14 sections, with one section containing 498 comments.

Here are our key takeaways after studying the answers and comments from readers.

It has become much more complicated to sell on eBay.
In the comments, sellers said there were too many rules to follow, some of them vague, especially around policies they were required to follow. It was also striking to see that many sellers were unaware of eBay's Product Catalog and use of Product Pages in search, and one wonders how much confusion there is among buyers when confronted with eBay changes, especially those around search.

Sellers did welcome some of eBay's SR2 changes,...
There were some changes that sellers agreed were positive, and many said they were long overdue, such as providing a way for sellers to block buyers from a certain country (it had previously only allowed sellers to block entire geographic regions); counting repeat sales from U.S. buyers for eligibility requirements on eBay.com; and turning off shipping handling time and shipping cost for listings where only local pickup is offered.

While seller panned some of the other SR2 changes.
eBay's decision to ban sellers from charging buyers for optional shipping insurance was rated bad by a majority of respondents, as was eBay's decision to raise Top Rated sellers listings in search results and demote sellers who do not meet new minimum standards. Also rated bad was eBay's decision to keep buyer identity anonymous until after a sale is completed.

There is a lack of confidence in eBay's Best Match search.
Sellers expressed skepticism both in terms of the underlying technology of Best Match search and in terms of how eBay might be using Best Match to manipulate seller standings. Some sellers found it confusing - "All this is very complicated and hard to understand. Ebay is making it very difficult for sellers to understand all the rules," wrote one seller in the comments about Best Match.

Sellers detest DSRs
Many of the sellers leaving comments made it clear they dislike the anonymous feedback rating system known as DSRs: "No matter what they do, the DSR process is flawed. Buyers will still feel that 3 or 4 is good," wrote one. "DSRs are an inherently flawed process to begin with, enhancing it is just plain stupid. It's SUBJECTIVE! The seller has little or no control...," stated another, while another respondent wrote, "I have zero trust in the DSR system. It should be totally reworked, if not scrapped entirely. The "shipping time / shipping charges" are particularly aggravating. They penalize me for something that I have very little control over. NOBODY likes to pay for shipping, therefore, practically everybody complains about it. Unfortunately, sellers are the one's stuck between buyers and the Post Office. Eliminate these DSR's . . . and fire the people who dreamed up this nonsense."

Sellers do not want eBay coming between them and their customers.
Many sellers expressed concern about eBay keeping buyers' identity anonymous until after a sale is completed. Wrote one survey respondent, "eBay is continuing to intrude itself further in between the buyer and the seller in the process. This will result in more difficulty in communicating and also result in more friction where there is no need for friction. If they do this, then they should remove the DSR for seller communications with the buyer." Many did not like the idea that eBay would send automatic reminder notices to buyers who haven't paid within a certain period of time - "Many of my buyers purchase multiples over a period of time - I don't want them being dunned by ebay to pay when I haven't even invoiced them."

Sellers are taking a wait-and-see approach to SR2 changes.
Many sellers expressed they were taking a "wait and see" approach to some of the changes to see how they would play out in the real-world marketplace. There seemed to be two main reasons for this: either a lack of understanding of what the changes meant, or skepticism of how eBay would implement the changes.

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