Comments on: eBay.com announce changes for sellers

By: TMGLad

TMGLad — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 20:31:02 +0000

Seems like eBay is yet again “fixing” some of the mistakes it made with all the foolish sweeping changes they made last year (eg: reverting neutral = negative etc).

I stopped buying and selling on eBay a year ago, I’m glad I did because sucks now.

By: Simon

Simon — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 11:51:44 +0000

#63 Silly me

By: Sue Bailey

Sue Bailey — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 11:44:03 +0000

There is no reasonability requirement in eBay feedback, surely you know that

By: Simon

Simon — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 11:36:56 +0000

#61 Sue… I missed that little clause – thanks. That’s slightly reassuring, but I’d love to hear an example of how the Post and Packaging Charges DSR could EVER be reasonably given less than 5 stars when it’s free. (serious challenge – I really would like to know!)

Unless, of course, the buyer desperately wanted to give us more money, but weren’t allowed to by eBay.

Oh, hang on, that’s actually what will be happening every single time someone purchases more than one item from us… Not really fair on the buyer.

By: Sue Bailey

Sue Bailey — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 10:53:56 +0000

@Simon
I hope I’m right in assuming that no-one will be able to leave us anything less than 5 stars once we’re forced down the Free p&p road
Your optimism is admirable, but misplaced

eBay say:

For transactions with free shipping, there will be clear messaging in the Feedback flow encouraging buyers to leave a 5 DSR for shipping and handling charges.

By: whirly

whirly — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 10:53:04 +0000

#58 Yes I believe our sales would decline, I don’t believe that buyers of big ticket items (both in terms of value and in size) expect or would believe delivery is free. ?

£369.99 + 39.99 Delivery or £409.98 with Free Delivery. Does one look better than the other?

Average size of a bath on a pallet is 2000x1000x800. We charge a set fee of £39.99 just because it seems like a reasonable/attractive figure, it costs us £45-£50 inc vat so we already take a hit, sometime we get lucky and the drop is not to far from the factory so we make a small margin, most of the time we loose, particulary scotland / North wales were on average we pay around £60 per pallet.

I will have to wait and see how the new best match works before I make any changes with regards P&P, we have some baths with free P&P running at the moment but there is nothing obvious to suggest we sell more of them to be honest.

By: board_surfer

board_surfer — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 10:51:35 +0000

most of it looks like fiddling with numbers

glad i dont sell books though….ouchy!!!

By: Jimbo

Jimbo — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 10:45:48 +0000

#53 Whirly obviously you know your business better than I do but if you were to put your shipping and handling cost + additional fees + money for an extra pint onto your “buy it now” price do you think it would effect your eBay sales?

By: Simon

Simon — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 10:43:19 +0000

#55 Thanks, Jimbo – that reassures me a little bit. I really don’t mind change, especially if it brings more profits! Roll on October!

By: whirly

whirly — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 10:40:43 +0000

Our DSR’s for the same period in #53 are all above 4.8 and 4.9 which is higher than the average ebay score across the site

Just to add insult, the average star rating for Postage & Packaging is 4.58, so hardly anyone on the site will qualify for the new standards

Time for a DVD I cannot be bothered with this nonsense anymore today.