There could be all kinds of things, I guess, but they decided to implement this dumb idea, instead.
I don’t know who these ‘self-appointed guardians of the public’s right to protection from ebay scammers’ are - do you mean me? If so, please elaborate - because I don’t really understand what you’re driving at.
Not in the slightest. No, I was referring to the ones Roland Orbazel describes in post 5, above.
Sorry for any confusion.
I’d love to bail on eBay, but what can you do? There’s no real competition for a general auction site with lots of buyers.
Sorry for the misunderstanding. I’m a bit upset about the whole thing, to be honest.
I tried suggesting the escrow feedback idea on the eBay community forum a few months ago and the reception was quite dismissive - but they’re resistant to any kind of change there - but I have a feeling that given the choice between escrow feedback and positive-only, they’d choose the former.
I’d love to stay, but I can’t stomach this. Maybe I’ll find a different way to reach my market, or maybe I’ll just give up selling things completely.
As far as I’m concerned, it’s a cash transaction for goods. I don’t have to like the person or take any parameters into account other than good funds. As a seller, I post positive feedback immediately upon receiving good funds, and I state so in my ads. I also guarantee immediate refund upon safe return of an item. I can’t control what the buyer posts as feedback, and figure I have recourse through ebay if it’s inappropriate, but waiting to see what they are going to do is just so much bullshit. That would be sort of like a salesperson holding off saying “thank you” until the return period for the merchandise has expired.
People just need to be less uptight about feedback in general. The whole notion of being ‘held hostage’ over a single negative feedback is ridiculous. 99% of eBay users are reasonable people who will leave a positive if one is deserved, but even the best seller in the world is going to rack up a few negatives from impossible-to-please cranks. Yet everyone acts terrified of them, like one negative completely ruins your reputation.
I was about ready to start selling on eBay again (I had taken a break for the holidays, since I was traveling a lot) and was considering ways of expanding my “business” so I was thrilled when I got the email about the reduction in listing fees. But then I saw that they were also increasing their cut of the sales prices (gee, I wonder why they didn’t mention that in the email?) and my enthusiasm waned.
I was mainly doing it to be able to make a few bucks getting rid of stuff I didn’t want any more, but now I’m not sure if it’s worth the trouble.
Unpaid Item strikes will actually take these folks out quicker than your feedback against them will have any noteworthy effect.
Good question, though.
The new ‘Detailed Seller Ratings’ system does seem to penalize you if you gouge on shipping. Supposedly low enough star counts can result in a ban under their new quality control initiative, even if your positive feedback % is high.
eBay is pissing down our necks and telling us it raining. My wife and I got a good chuckle over the “new lower fees!”
Anybody that passed 3rd grade math can see it just means more money for eBay. We especially like the part where thay say they can hold your paypal for 20-odd days.
I’m about sick of ebay.
As I run a small Ebay store, this is actually BETTER for me.
I pay more in listing fees each month than I do in Final Value Fees.
Most sellers who run stores will probably feel as I do, unless their inventory turn is 2 months or less.
Does anybody have a contact to complain about the higher fees?
My wife concluded this is where ebay is headed. All power sellers, no little guy. The “WalMart” of auction sites, if you will.
Oh well. I only did it for grins and a little beer money. I really got other stuff to worry about.
Out of all the recent changes, I can’t think of a single one that doesn’t make Ebay look MORE like Amazon.
On Amazon:
Buyer Feedback [that’s feedback sellers leave for buyers] is no longer relevant, and is almost impossible to even inspect
Sellers have no recourse at all against buyers who complain… retaliatory feedback would be irrelevant…
– As a result, a merchant who sells on Ebay will have 100% positive feedback, yet on Amazon the same business practices will get you a 96% feedback
— This makes it hard to tell the good sellers on Ebay, and easy to tell the good sellers on Amazon
Ask yourself: Which venue do I want to buy on?
Relatively low fees to list: [List as many items as you want for $40 per month]
Venue makes most of its money on the equivalent of Final Value Fees
Not much of a problem. 99% of those “buyers’ from hell” are newbies. Apparently eBay will have some system for bad FB and such.
The system of only the buyer leaving FB works just fine on Amazon.
Roland Orzabal “Whatever you do, do not suggest anything like this on the Ebay feedback forums. The posters there will immediately start a dogpile and rip you limb from limb, suggesting that you must be in favor of/in league with scammers because you don’t want people to be able to “warn the community” (read: leave a single negative feedback) the very instant they suspect foul play.” I’ll go a step further- stay the fuck away from the Feedback Forums. It is run by the so-called “feedies” who are all disgruntled sellers and who give deliberately bad advice, mostly “NEG HIM!!!” and if anyone posts anything whicj isn;t entirely to their liking they pile on you like a dropped football in a Disney Goofy Football cartoo,
Then no one ever leaves FB for anyone. :rolleyes: After all, my end of the transaction (as a buyer) isn’t over until you (the seller) then leave FB for me. Right? :dubious:
I don’t see how this proposed change can have “significant increase in the activity of dishonest buyers”. Care to give a scenario? If it’s “buyer demands free goods or he’ll give a NEG” then you currently have no recourse against this now, unless somehow you think the threat of a “NEG” will deter criminal behavior. :dubious: However, if a buyer did such a thing, just report him to eBay and various Policing agencies. And let’s not get a huge debate about whether or not a dep’t would actually do anything or how illegal it is- it is definately against eBays rules. Simply send the email to eBay. Anyway, why would an abusive seller give a crap about the possible threat of a NEG?
In any case, most undeserved NEGs are currently given by Newbies who do not understand the FB system. That lack of understanding certainly goes into the ignorance of the unstated threat of a possible retailitory NEG.
slow clap
That’s all.
Oh wait. If you’re selling antiques and collectables, we’ve found there’s been a bit of a resurgence in irl selling over the last couple of years. No coincidence that it has coincided with ebay’s Stores price hike a couple years ago, the rise of that spawn of Satan, Checkout, and the pushing of Paypal and all it’s associated problems and costs. Unlike ten years ago when ebay was where you got the $$, irl is where the $$ are at now. (I don’t know why. Maybe buyers are canny enough now to know that even “unique” items pop up frequently on ebay?) If you’ve been around enough to have built up a name on-line, try hosting yourself. I’ve heard reports of good sales from ex-ebay sellers.
Sorry, can’t link you to irl. Find your own irl.
I got fed up with eBay about a year ago when I listed some gift cards for my mom. She had two gift cards for Outback Steakhouse. I think they were $75 together so we listed them for $65 with free shipping. I listed them as a Buy it Now and they sold almost immediately so all was good but I got an email from eBay the next day saying my auction was removed because I broke eBay rules.
Apparently you can not list gift cards as a lot. You must list one card per auction. WTF? You can list 50 clothing items in one auction but not gift cards. It is just a way to get more money since gift cards are higher priced items that will get eBay more money when listed separately.
I searched after that and found no less then a dozen gift card auctions that were selling cards together. The only thing I can think of is that another seller that had the same cards I did was pissed that mine were lower in price so they flagged my auction to eBay.
I still buy from eBay but I doubt I would ever list anything on eBay again.
Feedback for buyers only is bullshit. I myself have had my feedback hijacked and after leaving a negative for a seller received a negative back. They also tried to bully me into retracting the feeback but I refused. I wanted people to know that the seller was not completly honest with their shipping promises.
Even though that happened I still would want sellers to be able to leave feedback.
That’s just a stupid bit of baiting and you know it. Feedback isn’t part of the transaction - it’s the comment the parties make on the transaction, once completed. Do whatever you likeand whatever you feel is appropriate, but please don’t pretend I’m saying or doing something other than I actually am.
Did you notice that they’re also increasing the Final Value Fees for store owners too?