The Huge Fraud Committed by PowerSeller

The desire to do something is ingrained in every person. Who among the general population would not be overjoyed if they were complimented and recognized for their achievements by a person or group in a position of authority?

An acknowledgment of this nature can be compared to a ladder of achievement that one is urged to climb. For instance, it's normal practice for teachers to present children who perform admirably with stars of various colors. These stars have even been affixed to a display board for the benefit of the other children.

The eBay PowerSeller program is one example that fits within this category.

You are probably already familiar with the phrase "PowerSeller," but just in case you aren't, the name was created by eBay as a way of recognizing their top sellers in a tiered system according to total monthly gross sales. If you aren't familiar with the term, you can learn more about it here.

At eBay Live events, which is the company's annual conference, sellers can be seen wearing an additional tag on their badge that identifies them as a certain level of PowerSeller. This tag is worn with great pride. For the majority of sellers, this is a significant issue. Strangely enough, when they return to their hotel, no one else has any idea what a PowerSeller is, and they certainly don't care that the person has an additional label on their badge.

Your interpretation of the 'PowerSeller' label should be approached with extreme caution. Simply put, it is eBay's way of recognizing and rewarding members for their accomplishments. Everyone is strongly encouraged to take part in it, as though it were some sort of club that they could join. It appears to be a reasonable objective to work toward, at least to the inexperienced eye. And, as you might guess, eBay promotes this idea. They want all sellers to become PowerSellers because it makes the company look more successful and hence more valuable to investors.

What Exactly Does It Mean to Have the Title of PowerSeller? Being a power seller simply refers to the fact that a seller has achieved a monthly sales volume of at least one thousand dollars' worth of merchandise or services over the course of a period of three months. On the other hand, it does not provide any assurance that the seller was successful in turning a profit from those sales. For instance, a seller may have made $10,000 in sales of watches, earning them the title of PowerSeller after three months of such sales, but if they had paid $15,000 each month for those watches, they would have really lost $5,000 per month. This would result in a loss of $10,000 over the course of the three months.

A seller's acquisition of the PowerSeller title is not, in and of itself, sufficient evidence that the seller operates an honest enterprise. It appears that eBay does not strictly enforce the requirement that a PowerSeller's feedback percentage must remain at 98% or greater; yet, eBay does make this requirement. If a vendor falls short of that threshold, they are typically given additional time to improve their performance. 98% may seem like a big percentage, but when put into perspective, it could mean that out of every 500 purchases, there are 10 consumers who are really dissatisfied. In my opinion, you cannot get away with that. Any merchant with a good reputation ought to have no trouble achieving a rating of 99% or above.

You need simply spend a few moments browsing eBay to see several PowerSellers who have received a large number of negative feedback. Beware!

It has already been proven that it is in our nature to want acknowledgment for the work that we accomplish. eBay capitalizes on this natural, in-built desire by establishing and actively advertising the PowerSeller program in order to take advantage of this natural tendency. The PowerSeller program offers continuous encouragement to its participants to move up the "success ladder" and accomplish the "goals" of each subsequent level of the program.

The majority of eBay users are unaware of a big disadvantage associated with becoming a PowerSeller, despite the fact that there are certain minor advantages that come as a result of reaching particular sales thresholds. This disadvantage is a practical one that has a huge impact.

Therefore, there are a number of reasons why you should try to avoid becoming a power seller. In fact, there are a lot of reasons to avoid participating in the program. Being labeled as a PowerSeller attracts attention from both eBay (the firm) and other sellers, which is one of the reasons why you probably do not want to have that distinction.

You may or may not be aware that eBay deliberately seeks out PowerSellers since it knows that PowerSellers are serious about selling on eBay, and as a result, PowerSellers probably produce the majority of eBay's earnings. If you are aware of this, please let us know in the comments section below. The team at eBay maintains consistent phone and email contact with PowerSellers in order to encourage those sellers to grow their businesses. The disadvantage is that in order for eBay to provide you with practical assistance, they need to review your listings!

That appears to be a positive development at first glance, isn't that so? It might be the case for traditional vendors, but we don't consider ourselves to be typical vendors, do we?

The fact that many of eBay's policies aren't very clear is the primary source of confusion. When you add in the fact that there is a wide range of quality in the training that staff members receive, the end consequence is that some staff members are more diligent than others in requesting sellers remedy what they perceive to be infractions of company policy. Every organization of eBay's magnitude has the same fundamental issue to deal with. It is impossible to be totally consistent and to implement policies that can be interpreted in a variety of different ways and that do not apply to every vendor in every conceivable circumstance.

Being a PowerSeller brings not only eBay customers' attention but also the attention of other sellers on eBay. This is something that eBay promotes by awarding PowerSellers with a unique emblem that is shown by default at the very top of each listing page.

Even though I have every reason to assume that the vast majority of sellers are decent and trustworthy individuals, the fact remains that there are a minority who derive some perverse joy from reporting other sellers to eBay for infractions that are rather minor. PowerSellers are unquestionably the target of the majority of these insults, and it would appear that some individuals are jealous of the apparent success of others.

In light of everything that has been discussed, the conclusion that can be drawn is that it is best to steer clear of the PowerSeller program altogether, with the possible exception of using it for one of your eBay accounts at those times when you need to establish credibility or be heard by eBay customer care.