[78-L] He changed his mind..

[Benno Häupl]

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It isn't really the negs that will get you, but the DSRs (detailed seller ratings). 
As a "top rated seller" your are allowed to drop down in your ratings as follows. 

In any of the 4 categories "item as described", "communication", "shipping time" 
and "shipping and handling charges" you are allowed to have  a maximum of 
2  "low ratings of 1s or 2s" in the last 12 months, or 0.5% of your ratings, 
whichever comes first. 

In addition you are allowed to have a maximum of 2 "buyer protection cases" 
against you, or 0.5% of all transactions of yours, whichever comes first.  These are 
cases that your buyers opens in the eBay or PayPal Resolution Center. PayPal disputes 
are not counted until they are escalated from a dispute to a case. 
 
Also, you are only allowed to have 2 "Closed cases without seller resolution", or 
0.30%  of you transactions maximum (i.e. cases closed without the seller's response 
or resolution. Cases found in the seller's favor or appealed successfully by the seller 
are not included. 
 
To complicate matters further, you are not allowed to have any of the 4 DSR ratings 
below 4.6 

All this is for a "Top rated seller".  You can get a better allowance if you stay only 
"Above average". Then, you are allowed to have 3 cases against you (in any of the 
cases above where the maximum count allowed is "2") 

Some sellers are entitled to be "Top Rated Sellers" by their scores, but one of the 
prerequisites for a Top Rated Seller is to be a Power Seller. I know several sellers 
who preferred to stay "above average" and refused to join the Power Seller program 
when they were invited to join it, because they have the more liberal criteria to their 
advantage.  

I have no idea, however, if you can opt out of the Power Seller Program once you have 
opted in. All I know is that you can lose your Power Seller privileges if you have less 
than 100 "unique sales" in the last 12 months. (Unique sale = sale to one person in a 
period of 14 days, regardless of numer of items)  

Conclusion: 
it's best to solve any dispute amicably, without eBay or Paypal being invloved. Therefore 
it is worthwhile to put aside a dollar or two for every item sold and pay any claims out of 
this personal "contingency sugar bowl". 

Benno 
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