Comments on: eBay seller strike in the UK news

By: Paul

Paul — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 20:18:32 +0000

Hi Chris, thing is, when was it ever a worse case scenario to sell all your stock at the first attempt?

It’s still a price increase no matter how it’s dressed up.

As for the neg thing, no I do not wish to leave my buyers negs for completing smooth transactions, but why should I, as a seller, be penalised when the mentally challenged buy an item from me, that is clearly described with measurements given in mm, but who still leaves me a neutral with the comment:

Thought it would be bigger

Flipping the argument, why should this buyer be allowed to leave potentially detrimental feedback due to a lack of their own ability to read something as simple as a piece of text, then take this information and apply it to a tape measure before buying?

As for the unpaid item process I make full use of this whenever a buyer does NOT pay.

Unfortunately ebay’s one sided system allows a buyer to prevent a non payment strike being awarded by simply entering a response which could be as basic as a full stop (.)

The whole NPB system is flawed in that regard and I also fail to see why I should not leave a non paying bidder a neg after all it’s the least they deserve for preventing a genuine buyer from ordering the same item.

Ebay need to realise that sellers are their (ebays) customers not those who buy from people who place adverts on what is (if you believe the hype) a venue.

Through misguided policies such as fee increases and feedback removal sellers will find other venues to sell their wares to the detriment of Ebay’s business.

I foresee a scenario where Ebay will become synonymous with counterfeit and bootleg items together with junk out the loft sellers.

I genuinely feel that ebay do not care at all about the “selling” experience on ebay and are ignoring sellers at their peril.

They are already removing people from message boards who have the temerity to question their arogant attitude.

Apologies if I have gone slightly off topic and thanks for your response.

By: Chris Dawson

Chris Dawson — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 13:49:08 +0000

You’re discounting your sell through rate. If you sold 100% of your listings first time then yes, but if you take into account that a percentage of your listings will take two, three or more relists before they sell then you’ll make fee savings as per the graph below.

Also you’ve ignored any back end discounts that may apply.

As to the feedback why are you so keen to leave a black (or red/grey) mark against your buyers name? Does it really make a difference? It certainly won’t prevent them from buying from future sellers, and if they use BIN sellers don’t even have the chance to cancel bids. (It’s much more effective to make use of the unpaid item process issuing strikes where appropriate. )

By: Paul

Paul — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 13:27:09 +0000

The fee reduction that you describe as being brilliant is a complete sham. The fact is that ebay have actually RAISED the cost of selling on ebay by raising the Final Value Fee by 2.25% at the lowest teer for sales upto Â£14.99

This has increased the cost to the seller on a sale of Â£14.99 from a Final Value Fee of Â£0.79 to a whopping Â£1.12 and increase of Â£0.33

Even if you allow for your excitement of the lower insertion fee, this still represents an overall rise of 2.25% in the cost of selling an item priced at Â£14.99

Please explain how this represents a saving.

On the subject of feedback, I own a shop on ebay and have recently been given a nuetral by a buyer because they did NOT read the advert correctly, at the moment I can leave a neutral or neg to reflect the fact that the buyer is at fault.

By: Uncle Sam

Uncle Sam — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 09:28:03 +0000

Danny – “Hi, itâ€™s all very well saying, â€œJust send everything insuredâ€. Has anyone checked out the prices being charged by the Royal Mail these days?”

Yes I have – because everything sold on one of my accounts is sent via the appropriate RM insured service. I pass the costs onto my buyers & have not had a single complaint about my postage rates – I have a 4.8 DSR rating for that category on the account in question.

Also, In regards to PayPal being a ‘rip-off’, I’ve recently been comparing their merchant rates to other online payment services & can’t say I find them to be particularly expensive in comparison. And as I’m better off under eBays’ new fees, I couldn’t care less whether they were motivated by altruism, keeping shareholders happy, or any other reason.

Max – I think you may be confusing it with the rule that if someone had a total feedback score of -3 their account is suspended?

By: Sue Bailey

Sue Bailey — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 20:03:38 +0000

At one point eBay were supposed to take off anyone with 3 or more negative feedbacks in any one month.
When was that, Max? I’ve been on eBay for more than eight years now, and I’ve never heard of that rule.

By: Max Martin

Max Martin — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 19:01:21 +0000

Feedback is necessary but eBay seems to safeguard mainly buyers and not sellers. You will find that a good percentage of negative feedbacks given by buyers are from new and with little experience buyers. At one point eBay were supposed to take off anyone with 3 or more negative feedbacks in any one month. This is not happening and some “crooks” (it goes both ways) are good for a while and – suddenly, become really dishonest. If only eBay were taking comments seriously and replying to email fast enough the feedback issues could become a safer matter.

By: Danny

Danny — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 20:37:03 +0000

Hi, it’s all very well saying, “Just send everything insured”. Has anyone checked out the prices being charged by the Royal Mail these days? Absolutely scandalous, often the postage ends up more than the item being sold. Airsure or International Signed For – are you kidding, who’s going to pay that unless the item is worth a fortune? As for the recent policy changes, let’s not fool ourselves. It’s all about greedy eBay shareholders as usual. Factoring in the epic greed of Paypal (especially on International transactions) and the beyond-belief mess that has been made of our postal services (nothing against the lads on the ground who do the best they can but you can smell the stench of the management from here) and for sellers of certain items it’s pretty much pointless trading on eBay anymore. So much hassle, so little profit. Anyway, I shut my shop and will go elsewhere and anyone else who feels like they are being milked might consider doing likewise. Only through their pockets can you ever attract the attention of eBay. Shame we can’t give them feedback.

By: Mark Riley

Mark Riley — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 17:19:40 +0000

Here is an alternative from Canada which is spreading globally.
wwww.UsedEverywhere.com
Now it isn’t a direct replacement and does require some sellers to re-think their business model, but it revolves around trading locally and meeting the buyer/seller as you transact. If you look them in the eye and you don’t trust them – don’t deal with them.
Oh and the fees are zero. Yes Â£0 !

By: guy bell

guy bell — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 16:20:56 +0000

Some great responses here. Has anyone ever thought lately that if you trawl sellers message boards or groups on ebay, especially the powerseller board (!), there are a LOT of unhappy sellers, myself included. OK. Its obvious that ebay will NOT listen, in fact it stopped listening to sellers a long time ago. So many people are unhappy, why cant everyone sort of get together and do something about it? I would think the damp squib that is the ebay “strike” will probably be a victim of apathy, which is a shame, but they are a multi billion dollar business, i dont think they are going to miss a weeks worth of fees, from a few sellers.

There is only one way to for me. 1) Stop selling on ebay 2) Get my own website selling stuff or 3) Find a credible alternative to ebay, with plenty of buyers. I would prefer the last one, but i have looked at a few other auction sites and none has the amount of categories that ebay do, and none have the traffic.

So whats a boy to do?????

Is there an alternative to ebay, or will there be one, or, do you think anyone would be brave enough to build one????????

Any ideas?

By: steve audenshaw

steve audenshaw — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 16:15:36 +0000

Hi
let me make this simple I have 100% feedbak on ebay but feel that ebay are taking my option away by not letting me neg a bad buyer. I spend great efforts in my listing to make sure a buyer understands my listing pointing out they have to pay from confirmed paypal account which they ignore and then proceed to threaten me with a neg if I do not send the item. I have people from other countries purchasing my items when it quite clearly states not for sale outside the uk again threats of negs then I have even had ebayers who no longer want the item and when I issue a non paying bidders they just threaten you with a neg. so why should I not be able to warn honest ebays of this.
and do not forget bthat all these bad buyers leave me with fees to pay of which I only get a percentage back if I fight for it. its not a matter of retalliation but helping to keep other users informed. and I can tell you some of some bad buyers who even try mailing you outside ebay with threats and on the odd occasion threatening phone calls. what I can promise without any doubt is that my proud 100% feedback score will be full of negs after may from buyers who have been given permission to play god. what more can the seller do, at present you buy an item from me it is shipped the same day and then you demand a refund cos royal mail did not deliver it the next day.
or they did not like the colour of your packaging.
I should have the right to reply because ebay do not give you an easy way to sort your problems out.