Are you an ex-eBay seller? If so, what can they do to win you back?
Here and other places that I write online I've openly criticized many of the last 2 years of eBay changes, because I feel they resulted in the alienation of smaller sellers. Now I'd like to hear from you.
Here's my question: If you've stopped selling on eBay in the last few years, what change or changes could they make to win you back?
While I don't delete my comments unless they are vulgar or spammy, I would like to keep the coversation at a civil level in order to exchange useful, intelligent, crowdsourced information.
If in your comment you would like to leave your URL in the www. format, the (the Examiner does not allow http:// format links), you are welcome to do so.
Thanks for reading. Your thoughts?
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Comments
Realistically I don't think eBay could make the changes that would pull me back as a seller. My decision to diversify was made in 2006 and accelerated by the changes to feedback in 2008.
I can't afford to sell on eBay. The last quarter I sold on the venue eBay/PayPal took a higher percentage of my GSV than I did. I made my first loss on eBay in 8 years Jan/Feb 2008.
This is not sustainable as a business model and watching the (over 50) changes forced on sellers last year I am happy I avoided it and all the accompanying stress.
My books show I sold less last year but made more. By removing my business from eBay I have not only increased the bottom line but retained control over how I run my business. This is after all why I am self employed, at www.200westmain.com I get to do it my way.
As a boycotting buyer a return to unweighted controlled by the searcher 'finding' and the original eBay community values would be a start.
What changes would I like to see??? How about a more level playing field between large and small sellers...get rid of the "best Match"...gear the site back to what made eBay...and thats AUCTIONS.
But concidering their poor communication about the resent Auctiva malware/security issue topped with the fact they freely can and will give out Users personal Information, Until they start taking security seriously, they can count me out.
eBay? ...Win back my business?? Not sure they ever can.
www.rantsravesrenagade.blogspot.com/
Unfortuately, there is nothing eBay could do to win me back.
Even if they brought their focus back to auctions, I just don't trust them. Simple as that.
For every so called improvement that's been offered with the right hand, the left hand has palmed another change that has made selling there harder and negated whatever good they thought they were providing.
I don't say that lightly, up until last year, I had been with eBay since the auctionweb days.
When eBay lost me as a seller, they lost me as a buyer too.
If the word on the street is at all meaningful, after eBay decided to paint all sellers with the same bush, making them someone to fear, eBay itself began the flushing of their own reputation down the drain. If the word on the street is to be believed, I'm sorry to say that I don't know if they will ever recover it.
Me, I moved on. I found a new venue to sell on, that seems to remember what eBay forgot, that they succeed only if I do. It's not a free site, or even a cheap site, but so far, even as the economy is falling, I have done better than I did all of my final year on eBay. I believe it's easier for me to work smarter in a stable partnership as opposed to an adversarial relationship.
Go figure.: )
It's just not realistic to impose something new and different every few months that requires a seller to edit hundreds of listings without providing some type of batch editing tool that WORKS.
so to woo sellers back - here's some suggestions - in no particular order:
1. have a batch editing tool that works
2. stop trying to look like amazon
3. roll back the recent electronic payments requirements let the seller determine how they like to be paid
4. provide customer service to sellers - if i ask about a problem with my invoice, i do not want an answer detailing how to set up a dutch auction.
and then get the run-around for another three more days
5. do away with the DSR display, especially the BIG red bar that shows when my 12 month average is 4.93 and my 30 day average ONLY 4.92. it's insulting!
6. get search, excuse me, finding to work so my buyers can actually find what they're looking for.
7. institute user verification and other fraud prevention measures
I'm thankful for all the disruptive innovation and enhancements of the last few years. It has helped me move my business to my own venue.
www.greenthumbsgalore.com
Alas we were once sellers there. We find being at our new nest much nicer. Never looked back. www.rvt01.com
Free listings fee.Without raising end Fee.
I am still selling on eBay, but after being there for more than ten years I do find the changes over the past year or so disheartening. My complaints are the usual: feedback changes hurt sellers; forcing us to use just PayPal (not a lot of folks have a ProPay account); high fees on both ends as well as with PayPal; lack of support for the smaller sellers (as opposed to the big box stores they're wooing.) I'm hoping to be able to stay, but sometimes feel like I'm hanging by my thumbs! www.katydidscards.com
I have to admit I am still an ebay seller, even though I have launched my own ebay alternative site.
I think it would be a mistake to completely leave ebay as a seller, that would be like a spy leaving the country he or she is spying on, where does the spy he get his info or his leads if he is no longer in that country.
Same thing for sellers if you leave ebay completely, where do you get your leads.
A lot of sellers leave and go to an alternative site and spend countless hours searching for leads, not realizing they left their best leads behind at ebay.
My advise is do not burn that bridge to ebay, if you were a good ebay seller, buyers will follow you, but it just takes time and if your not on ebay to lead them how will they follow.
Keep up the great work Wally.
Jerry Whitneys' site by the way is www.efleaa.com Those interested in selling on another channel may want to take a look.
Never Left but lost a lot of confidence in the company and am working hard on my own website now.
What can eBay do to repair my feelings toward them? Become TRULY transparent - SHOW Us, the sellers, the ROADMAP you are so determined to follow.
Finding things to resell became extremely hard, so I stopped. Although I have things to sell, I'd rather hang on to them than sell because trying to keep customers and eBay happy were a challenge. You would bend over backwards to keep your customers happy, so they would not leave you bad feedback and it was stressful, as eBay took the sellers side, no matter what. Kinda like, your the adult, you should know better. Also, the fees had become outrageous. By the time your sale was complete, eBay was taking a 30% cut. eBay became too big for their britches and it shows.
At this point in time, auctions have lost their appeal. No more do people want to wait days and haunt the listing to see if they won the auction or not. They would rather buy it right away for a set price. Every one has caught on that at the last minute the price will source past what you would pay for it at an online retail site.
Ebay cut back their fee's but even so, with a 5.0 on the feedback, our items were behind others with the same feedback. The .25 to be listed with the "garage sale" or single item sellers placed items at a 30 day distance and people just now are hanging on until the last minute to make a purchase and mostly are going for auction as opposed to the buy-it-now.
Some customers write to say that they left their computer on items and their child made a purchase. You have to still go through the dispute resolution to get back final value fee's and the sale's portions are returned, but the item quantity is not and you end up having to relist.
The new changes ebay has made to their systems has both buyers and sellers confused. I have had 15 customers within the past week write to say they can't find anything.
Ebay has put out a notice regarding the bill that is supposed to go forward, unless we all start calling in, that would require all online sales to collect and pay state taxes.
Beginning 2010 PayPal and Ebay, along with all other auction houses and online banks will be reporting income to the US Government.
Our little store was set up to help Native people on reservations set up and establish business of fabrics. (nativeamericanfabrics.com) but the above issues combined with a very negative diagnoses, we are closing our store and have the final end bolts up for auction beginning at 99 cent per 2-5 yard quantity.
We have tried Wigix, Espy along with Ebay and because of the poor advertising there was an even more poor performance. Still, the best online auction house now seems to be shopgoodwill.com, however, you can not list items.
Thank you Wally, for always providing a wonderful sounding board along with high quality product for purchase.
Ebay: too expensive, too complicated and too risky to be a seller.
I had just started selling on eBay when they made the feedback changes, so when neutrals became negative I left. Then with the DSR's meaning so much and the listing fees it was just not worth going back even when they removed the neutrals from the feedback percentage. eBay may have the traffic but their policies are not good for the hobby or small seller. One new to eBay buyer who did not understand the costs of shipping an oversized package killed my DSR's and it would have taken forever for me to overcome it since I only sold a few things a month there.
So until eBay is a fair to small sellers as it is with the deals it makes for diamond sellers I can't see any reason to go back. I don't mind the FVF as that is what provides the revenue for the advertising which is what brings traffic but the listing fees are sometimes just a lot of money for nothing.
For sellers:
ebay, not worth to come back to. The reasons:
1)Ask yourselves if you are buyers: would you want go into a shopping-mall with lots of shops selling fake Louis Vuitton handbags, fake Tiffany lamps, etc ? would you dare to buy a Rolex and pay thousands of dollars in this shopping-mall?
If real buyers are not coming to ebay, why do sellers want to come back?
2) buyers can leave negative to sellers, but sellers have no right to leave negative to buyers. (ebay is too protective over buyers. ebay never care about sellers, though sellers pay their salaries and let them make money. ebay took away the right of sellers to leave negative feedbacks.)
Worst than communist-country, taking away the right of sellers. So, why do sellers want to come back?
3) ebay force sellers to accept paypal (owned by ebay), otherwise, sellers are not allowed to sell on ebay international (or ebay.com). Tyrant policy. No sellers' right( no human right?) Is there a good reason why sellers want to come back?
Hi Wally and thanks for the comments call.
The winter of 2005-06 was the high point for us as sellers. Traffic was substantial and stable, sales volume was high and steadily growing.
We were running 3 IDs with a daily average listing total around the 6,000 mark across 3 stores, auctions, and Fixed Price - we consider 6,000 concurrent daily listings to be small change compared to "large" sellers, but we were certainly not hobby sellers and worked our eBay business full time. We had to, our sales supported two refugee villages and several other villages of handicraft artisans.
The Stores in Core debacle of 2006 started the rot for us - we did exceptionally well from both the US and the UK sites while stores had visibility in core. It also allowed us to leverage the format and reduce total fees, which ultimately is why Meg pulled the plug on that experiment - nothing to do with confusing the selection for buyers as stated, it was all about a declining corporate revenue and she was looping for a scapegoat. The Euro switch to FP30 and retiring of the stores format, coupled with the US's FP30 shows that buyer confusion and over-choice was never the real issue behind chopping stores in core.
The Spring 2007 chop for trans-Atlantic visibility between sites, causing "the world's global marketplace" to become a misnomer led to us closing our two smaller IDs and removing one of the inventory sets from eBay completely - that brought us down to a daily average of 3,000 active listings.
An inter-personal dispute with a senior UK manager that saw me banned for life from eBay forums led to a "lost the will to list" mentality (I had been right in the dispute but he wasn't man enough to admit it, even when his own prior forum posts showed he had lied to the PowerSeller community - regarding the cause and originator of the trans-Atlantic visibility cuts).
The problem with that forum ban was that I was never notified and spent a month harrassing Customer Support to find out why I couldn't post - finally in June 2007, they upped and decided our accounts had been hacked because of the non-posting issue (the ban is still today not recorded on any eBay or LiveWorld system registers for support personnel) and they TKO'd all our eBay and PayPal accounts. It took between a few hours and a few days to get all the accounts active again, but the listings were gone, and with them all the watchers and bids, and eBay had mailed our thousands of recently active buyers to say that our accounts had been subjected to fraudulent activity. Our overall eBay business has still not recovered from that, and it was 21 months ago. eBay point blank refused to issue statement retractions to our buyers, or to reinstate listings and reactivate bids etc. Their mistake, our financial and reputation loss, and they didn't care.
By the time of the "Donahoe Disaster" in late January 2008, we were just about recovering some sort of business level, but had essentially been pushed back 5 years.
All the changes of 2008 don't need documenting but the reversals that are needed to stop or delay our total exit plan from eBay include -
Reversal of all feedback related policies that introduced restrictions on sellers, since January 2006.
Reversion of DSRs to purely trading history data (i.e. removal of the carrots and sticks associated with DSRs)
Reversal of the Sub-$1.00/GBP1.00/Euro1.00 start price ban on Fixed Price and Stores format listings - have you ever hear of a dime store having a minimum $1 price on everything?
Reversal of the digital delivery goods policy - it was NEVER used to simply "buy" feedback as was stated for the reason for removing such items, and it caused massive harm to many people who are unable to leave home to get employment, or post physical goods.
Remove the Diamond PowerSeller tier and all the undisclosed perks and secret fee deals that go with them.
Reverse those sites that have disposed of Stores format and moved everything to FP30 in core - stores format did work (over 75% of our sales have consistently been from it for many years, and it is the ideal holding area for items that shouldn't be in core anyway - e.g. may take 6 months to find a buyer).
Ditch Best Match and New Search - they clearly don't work and are damaging sales volumes, even the technology developer stated on his own blog (and AuctionBytes?) that eBay were misusing the technology, that its implementation is not how it was designed.
Ditch the flash & java heavy site pages - they are far too slow for users on dial-up or in other countries and causing massive abandonment of eBay for sites that load faster.
Return default search to global offerings, then let the searcher drill down to the sub-sets they want to see. For eBay to advertise itself as a global marketplace whilst restricting buyer visibility to never-revealed product sub-set criteria is a claim worthy of a Senate sub-committee hearing (is Sen McCarthy still with us?)
Reverse and scrap the digital payments policy and all its variants worldwide - it has been the biggest trust loser for eBay. No-one believes the reasons given for introducing it, we all know it is to improve eBay Inc's bottom line. Australia (community and government) showed what they thought of such plans - they may be a market sub-sector to eBay, but the rest of us feel the same way.
Things to keep or introduce -
Keep the growing introduction of free gallery thumbnail in search and browse, but make sure EVERY site has it - it is a tool to increase sales and therefore natural revenue for eBay, why charge customers to use it? That's counter-intuitive.
The same applied to scheduled listings - free scheduling allows sellers to stagger listings and prevents swamping - that's good for the marketplace and buyers - right? So why make you sellers pay to use it? Doing so damages the marketplace.
My future?
Since the forum ban was imposed (as above) I have built four new commerce websites, and continue expanding and improving my primary venue - www.gazlannathai.com - I have also been creating and implementing sites for other disenfranchised eBay sellers, and working with several blogging sites to ensure the maximum number of people are informed about the alternatives to eBay.
It's fine and dandy criticising the big "e" and moaning about changes, but practical steps need taken, and other users need appraised of ALL alternatives (not just favourite of the month) in order to spread the uptake of multi-channel vending. Only by having a healthy, alternative set of channels will eBay realise they cannot trample on their paying customers forever.
As for reversing our exit? Getting rid of Donahoe and his mindset cronies will certainly cause us to pause and observe, but unless we see real reversion to the values and value of eBay 2005 (and earlier) then it's unlikely we'll continue using the site.
Gaz
Hey guys, excellent starting point as usual, Walt. I'm still there, and though it's far from perfect it's working for me. My number 1 complaint, which I would also think is something that keeps some now ex-sellers away, would be to roll back Best Match/Finding 2.0 etc., and bring search back to a more level playing field.
Honestly though, the negative PR that swirls with their every move probably puts them in a damned if they do, damned if they don't kind of position. Any change some of the community, or ex-community, takes as a positive will just open up a whole new group of unhappy members. Their best bet may be to write off former members as a loss and work to keep the ones they have.
Thanks, Cliff
vintagemeld.com
Hi Everyone !! PLEASE READ .....
also...Thanks for posting this great article AUCTION WALLY. :)
I'm a 'FORMER' Ebay 'BUYER'
*1st- The majority of Ebay sellers are WHAT WAS.. ebay buyers. Ebay don't play fair-and took the rights away from the sellers. HEY SELLES... WAKE UP.. AND START SCREAMING "DISCRIMINATION".. heeellllloooo.... Ebay sellers.. wake up... JUST DO IT !
*2nd-Ebay has turned a cold shoulder on "SELLERS"... who are not allowed to leave TRUTHFUL feedback.....which is an encouraging factor in CRIMINAL ACTIVITIES.
*3rd-I "WAS" a buyer only.. who had comtemplated "selling" on ebay.. but watching what has happened since the dawn of 2008... THERE IS NO WAY .. I'm gonna buy or sell on EBAY.. nor will i use PAYPAL. IT'S A CONFLICT OF INTEREST in my personal opinion...
*4th-Since Ebay has allowed the ANONYMOITY OF BIDDERS.. it is trully a sign of illegal activities .. and almost promotes SHILL bidding.. since EBAY AND PAYPAL.. will prosper the most from SHILL BIDDING.. therefore... it's GOODBYE TO EBAY...
*5th-THE so-called "improved" search.. SUCKS BIG TIME !
Ebay is SCANDALOUS... and is a ACTIVE PARTICIPANT.. is any illegal activities that go on since January 2008
WAKE UP PEOPLE... I'M WAITING TO SEE A CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT ARISE... FOR ALL EBAY USERS... COME ON PEOPLE.. SOMEONE SHOULD GET THE BALL ROLLING..
I'm too old.. have run out of time, health, money and luck... so....
SOMEONE.. PLEASE... WAKE UP .. THE COFFEE POT IS BURNING......
In truth... It's too much effort to sign up with other sites .. even to look.... too many passwords and user names to remember...
So .. Changing selling venues.. doesn't help.. it's more work.. FOR BUYERS...
BRING BACK THE OLD EBAY...PRE-2007
Forgot to say - on the fakes, knock-offs, and replicas issue - Stop worrying about it.
I'm late middle-aged and remember 40-some years ago that during my earliest experiences of personally buying Christmas presents for family, there were always two product types on the market.
The "big name" quality products were for those with money to burn, and the "simulcrums" were for those with lesser spending power who wanted to look good and didn't care if it was real or not.
Modern shoppers have been to conditioned to elitism by advertising agencies and the like, and the designer houses are loving it - it gives them a license to over-price and gouge wallets. Get real to this situation folks - YOU have enabled it.
eBay needs to introduce a very clear policy that all replica and simulation products must be clearly labelled as such - they could even introduce an item specific for it - that way the "all money no brains" crowd can buy the real thing, and the rest of us paupers can buy the better value for money versions.
Ask yourself - when you go into a supermarket, do you hunt out the Heinz Tomato Ketchup or buy the store's own cheaper version?
Think about it and be careful what you wish for - Luois Vuitton would love to see the day where every handbag on eBay costs $1,000+
Gaz
Back again....
just for a moment.. and a thought to share...
There's been so much 'TWEAKING' to 'APPEASE THE BUYER' by ebay management.. that the down to earth, honest buyers WILL NO LONGER DEAL WITH EBAY .. as well as PAYPAL.
Ebay has literally become a safe haven for all illegal activities one could possibly concede to.
EBAY NEED NOT MAKE 'BIDDERS' anonymous... when a 'BIDDER' could very well choose to be a 'PRIVATE BIDDER'...
The whole EBAY thing is an outrage.. and i am sure they are under the eye of governmental scrutiny...
BUT IS SURE WOULD HURT.. IF EACH AND EVERY PERSON WHO USES EBAY WERE TO SPEAK WITH THEIR LOCAL COUNCIL PERSON, SENATOR AND ANY OTHER POLITICAL MEANS AVIALABLE.. TO DRAW THE EYE OF FINANCIAL IMPRORITY UPON THEM
SO SPEAK OUT...
how strange it is.. in this Land of opportunities..in this United States of America... when such situations.. (especially one that is 'PUBLIC') has not been heard by the MASSES...
SPEAK OUT PEOPLE..... YOUR VOICE WILL BE HEARD...
"CONFLICT OF INTEREST"
I was a powerseller back in 2006. I got sick of making money then having it go right back to ebay. They made money whether I did or not. I discovered Craig's list. No negative feedbacks. No shipping fees. No waiting to be paid. No fraud buyers. I sell on Craig's List now. I am looking at ecrater and iOffer.
Ebay has forgotten its core. It is trying to be Amazon jr and losing. They have forgotten that it was the small seller which made ebay what it was.
But right now Ebay is taking a battering and other sites like iOffer and ecrater are taking their business.
GOOD. The last straw was taking away the seller's ability to leave feedback.
Ebay would have to do the following to get people back:
SLASH listing fees drastically and in some cases permanently .
ASK the buyers what do they think.
ASK the sellers what do they think.
Implement the suggestions and keep the ones that work.
ALLOW FEEDBACK AGAIN FOR SELLERS.
ALLOW other forms of payment besides Paypal.
Those are the basics. Ebay is taking a beating and a thrashing and you know what? I'm smiling. It does a soul good to see a big arrogant bully like them get bashed. It proves there is justice in the world.
In 1999 and 2000 my total fees were around 6%, by 2007 that was over 18%. Thats a tripling of fees for an environment that had become hostile, dishonest, and unpleasant. I won't go back to selling until the bidders can pay by check again.
I quit selling on Ebay in April of 2008 when they instituted the Paypal holds. ID is pastoroneal.
To get me back they would have to begin these policies:
1. Allow sellers to give negative feedback.
2. Put no holds on Paypal payments.
3. Scrap the DSR system.
4. Do away with anonymous bidding.
5. Allow any form of payment the seller specifies.
eBay has 'devolved' tremendously in the last year or so. It is less user [and seller] friendly, more convoluted and more confusing. The 'playing field' has become increasingly uneven, at the expense of quality long time mid to small level sellers, whom no longer seem to be appreciated at all [nor does the $$ and quality reputation that they have generated for eBay, the entity, in the past]. That includes a lot of powersellers, too.
The first step to any reconciliation, in my opinion, is to get rid of current [mis]management. Then, reassess these apparently greed driven and poorly thought out policies and 'mechanical' changes.
For one thing, the entire DSR system is a crock! That is subjective, semi-anonymous 'opinion', with no accuracy or accountability mechanism in effect, which is dictated as 'law' and which has control over almost every aspect of a sellers account. I feel everyone should have the right to face their accuser, especially if the 'accusation' is not accurate, and can affect your business so heavily.
Removing the ability for a seller to leave accurate feedback for a buyer is another bogus 'improvement, which has only created more animosity between the sellers [whom eBay forgot or ignores as being THEIR customers] and the buyers [which are the SELLERS' customers]. This was done a year after the BBB awarded eBay the 'Torch Award' for their 'fair and two sided' Feedback system [and also for their 'integrity in the marketplace', which is no longer applicable either ...].
Best Match, Paypal holds, etc, [the list goes on and on] have done absolutely nothing to instill 'Trust' and/or 'Security' in eBay for many of us ..especially with this current [mis]management team in place.
It is one thing for a business to 'evolve' to try to become more profitable. It is an entirely different thing to alienate a large percentage of your longtime 'loyal' customers in order to pursue a seemingly 'whimsical' business model that may not be as condusive to your own time tested business model. In the 'real world', the eBay brand name is falling quickly, as people on the street seem to increasingly 'spit' the word 'eBay' when speaking it these days. Very few have anything good to say about them now, as opposed to even a year or so ago when they had many 'advocates'.
I was one of those 'advocates' for years, but no longer. After promoting them vigorously for years , I have spent the last year actively boycotting them just as passionately, and enlightening many in the real world regarding the 'new' and 'deproved' eBay.
Very simply stated, ebay lost my respect and trust and instead of hoping for reconciliation, I no longer wish to ever do business with a company as autocratic and arrogant as ebay has become. They must pay the price for turning their back on the backbone of their business.
Failure should be a option once again and the MBA's of the business world should acknowledge their failures instead of spinning their rationalizations into la-la land.
I have been both boycotting selling and buying since Feb 2008. I really don't see myself going back but this is what it would take to get me to think about it:
1)Fire Donahoe
2)Get rid of the DSR ratings. I took care of my customers. I refuse to beg for 5's from my buyers as Ebay would want me to. And since the buyers think 4's are okay but 4.1 will get a seller suspended, I refuse to deal with the whole situation.
3)This was my business. Ebay has no right to tell me how much I can charge to ship an item. I kept my prices reasonable. I didn't charge for shipping material or handling costs. I never charged any more to ship than the Post Office charged me and the fees were right there in the ad. I refunded any extra postage sent by the buyer and ate the costs if the postage was more than I estimated. If buyers aren't happy with those shipping costs, then simple - don't buy my item. And if you do buy it, then don't complain about the charges that I clearly put down in black and white.
4) Ebay should not dictate what kind of payment I can accept. I refused to use PayPal simply because that was a fee I could avoid (again to keep my prices reasonable). Not being forced to use PayPal would be the #1 thing on my list now. I have heard so many horror stories about it over the past year.
I had the BEST buyers over the years. But right now it seems to be scam central on Ebay. Even if they would change my list of things, I don't know if would trust the Ebay enough to go back.
Thanks a lot, Donahoe. You RUINED the best thing on the internet.
Free Listings & Free Final Value fees wouldn't even coax me back to ebay. Even if the entire service were free, I would never waste my time listing on ebay again. Why would I choose ebay to hide my listings, ruin my reputation, destroy my business, withhold my funds (keeping the interest for themselves), force me to lie about my bad customers and treat me with disrespect and contempt with their actions and words? NO THANKS!
If ebay were to suddenly change all of their policies back to pre-2007, offer their service for free and allow every payment option in existance, I would still NOT use ebay. They've already shown me and millions of others their deceitful (if not criminal) propensities for GREED. Whitman and Donahoe betrayed us and abused us! May the new ebay sink to the bottom of the pit and it's "disruptive innovators" (whitman, donahoe and their goons) face legal scrutiny and jail time.
Lowering their take-rate would go a long way to bringing my inventory back onto the site. At this point, by the time relisting fees, listing fees, FV fees, PayPal fees, are added up, eBay takes too much for what they offer back. Internet commerce has come a long way from when people were afraid to buy on new sites, and eBay is no longer a premium service.
Since I represent boycotters everywhere, my personal desires do not matter. My hope is for all the great sellers who have been hurt by ebay. I want to see these sellers back selling. I want to see buyers buying again.
As a group, there are several things we want, which will go a long way to bringing many back.
1. Sellers MUST have recourse from bad buyers.
While we have maintained that retaliatory feedback is a problem, this nonsensical remedy is NOT the solution, but an even bigger problem. Therefore, sellers must have some way to leave legitimate negative feedback.
This is NOT negotiable.
2. Reasonable fees.
Ebay has been dubbed "Greedbay" for many years now. They raise fees even at their own peril. Most of us understand they are a business, very much like themselves, trying to make as much money as possible. However, selling on ebay has become inpractical. When you have an increased bottom line, by giving your inventory away (literally, for free) over selling on ebay, there is a problem. Prior to the 2008 fee decrease that was really an increase, the typical seller pays ebay/paypal between 35 & 65% of their profits, IF an item sells. That is a problem.
Reasonable fees is NOT negotiable.
3. Listening to the community as a whole. eBay has made it clear since Meg Whitman's appointment, eBay does not give a damn about the sellers or the buyers. They only care about making the most money possible. As a result, they listen to only their precious top 200 sellers, and assume those are how all sellers feel. Of course those sellers are generally quite happy, because ebay listens to them. What about the rest of us, who are jumped on, when we call their "secret red hotline"? When the rest of us have a problem, and need REAL support? We're told to email them, and within a week, they FINALLY get back to us with a canned response, and often times it isnt even the issue we asked about. So, we have to email them back again, and hope that they understand the issue, and send us a REAL response... but, by now a couple weeks have gone by. By then, its almost always, "Who cares?".
eBay has to listen to our concerns.
These are not negotiable.
4. PayPal only is wrong. eBay has no business telling a seller what payment methods they can and cannot accept. Now, if ebay wants to receive payments and take responsibility for sellers and buyers, as Amazon does, and buyers pay eBay directly, then they can deal with the what forms of payment THEY will accept. Until then, they need to butt the hell out.
5. Release PayPal funds immediately. PayPal has absolutely no business witholding funds from sellers, and then to keep those funds for 3 weeks? Unconscionable.
This too is NOT negotiable.
There are many little idicincracies that we all want ebay to look into fixing for us. I personally hate too many specific categories. I'd love to see them narrow down many of the categories. Not make it where one item can be listed in 15 different categories. But, that is a personal issue, and very much negotiable. These types of things we can deal with.
Please, join the boycott,
NO BUYING~NO SELLING
Today and Beyond!
Tim
Ebay is like that abusive lying cheating lover that you used to build your world around but who then betrayed you so badly that you can never trust them again. But, if someone wants to be what ebay once was the would need to not make the following mistakes:
1. Dont change the rules every 2 seconds for no reason except it obviously benefits ebay only.
2. If you increase fees, increase value to your customers too.
3. Figure out who your customers are: Here's a hint, it is those people who PAY YOU and if they take their buisness elsewhere your stock price is fall to historic lows (3-2-09 $10.50 a share). Don't try to steal THIER cusomters at every turn. Especially not by advertising the competition on pages they paid for.
4. Don't buy up the competition (paypal) after your own company fails miserably (Billpoint) and then illegally insert your company in a monopolistic fashion into everybody's revenue stream. Not finding any thin excuse to keep their money as long as possible might help.
5. Don't insult every seller's intelligence by insisting that every negative change is for the "Good of the Buyers". Even the buyers hate ebay because:
6. Shill bidding is rampant. No buyer can be sure they got the best deal unless they were the only bidder. Which may be another way to try to force people to go to buy it now.
7. Try not being the biggest hypocrites in the world when insisting on an unreachable level of customer service for sellers but then having NO CUSTOMER SERVICE AT ALL YOURSELF. Ebay is the bad joke of customer service.
8. You know there are so many abuses from ebay that I can't even remember them all. But, NO, I'm not going back. They will say anything to get what they want and then screw us all over again.
I don't think there is anything ebay is WILLING to do that will make me re-consider my views about the site. I was both a buyer and seller with 100% feedback since 1999. I never received a negative or neutral, nor was I ever involved in any feedback withdrawals. I also had perfect 5 star DSRs as a seller, yet due to the enormous number of detrimental changes on the site, I no longer trade on ebay. I joined the Ongoing Global ebay Boycott in March 2008 and will continue to Boycott the site as long as ebay continues persecuting it's small sellers (including many powersellers).
#1 I would never return to ebay as long as Donahoe or any of his supporters are employed, in any way, by ebay Inc.
#2 Best Match would have to be GONE
#3 DSRs would have to be GONE
#4 Sellers would have to be given the right to accept ANY form of payment THEY choose
#5 ALL percentages from users histories would again have to be calculated into their histories (not just the last 12 months).
#6 Equal feedback rights for buyers and sellers are a MUST!
#7 No Hidden bidders IDs
#8 NO advertisements from others on sellers' listing pages
#9 IF ebay is still allowed to place outside ads on search pages, those ads would need to be placed BELOW ALL ebay sellers' listings and below all additional listing pages. If ebay is allowed to continue placing ads, which takes buyers off from the site, sellers should also be given the right to place links in their listings to their own off-ebay sites.
#10 An ELECTED seller or ELECTED board of ebay sellers (openly elected by the members) would have to hold a position of power & strength in the policies which would directly effect sellers
#11 ebay would have to publicly show ALL complaints they receive about scammers and ebay's resulting actions based on those complaints.
#12 Fees would have to be substantially lowered
#13 A discussion board would need to be opened, which allows users to voice their honest opinions and experiences without fear of any reprisals, censorship, restrictions or suspensions from ebay.
#14 No free listings, "special" deals or secret priviledges for select groups of sellers
#15 Paypal would also need to amend it's user agreement, removing ALL of their policies allowing the withholding of ebayers funds
#16 No shipping caps. The buyers are free not to bid, if they feel shipping prices + item price is too high (I only charged what the post office charges me)
I'm sure there are a lot of other changes that need to take place, BUT there have been so MANY terrible changes to the site, it's hard to address them all.
Even if all of these changes were initiated, the faith and trust that others and I had in ebay, has been severely broken. Improving policies will never repair that damage.
I have been around Ebay since 1999 and started in a buying group. Then I started buying for myself and eventually went into sales and opened a store. I had/have excellent feedback and stars but the latest feedback and price increase did it for me. I closed down my store - over 3000 items - and never looked back. Personally? There is NOTHING they could do to get me back. I seldom buy there anymore either. Even when we found scams and told Ebay on a nearly DAILY basis (BathingApe Hoodies), it took them over 6 months to get on top of it. All they had to do at any time was to simply do a search for "matches very beautifully" and all the frauds were in their hands. THAT SIMPLE! 6 months it took them to get it stopped - and it was coming out of China. I no longer feel it is a safe place to sell or buy simply because I no longer trust Ebay to have cleaned up their act.
Funny part is that I have been at Amazon for years and can count the plish emails on one hand. I still get them daily for Ebay frauds.
When they invited the Chinese to list for free on the site a few years back, they opened Ebay up to a fraud market that is the worst on the net. Just not a safe place to trade and too frustrating to belong to.
You can also add your comments about ebay and read others comments by googling "Ebay Stockholders and Sellers Calling For Immediate Termination of John Donohoe CEO Petition" at petitiononline.
Yes, I am an ex-eBay seller, in fact I was in the top 10 in Australia in 2005, however not any more. I have joined www_BidMate_com_au which is one of the largest in Australia.
If you want to know my story watch this video www_youtube_com/watch?v=kn3hSXlvdWo
I agree with Tim aka legendsofbatman, the boycott will go on as long as greedbay continues their failed policies of the last 2 years.
I was an ebay powerseller, I had EXCELLENT feedback and rarely had problems with buyers until last year. I was repeatedly scammed when I tried to "go back" to ebay last spring and have since completely closed my account. I no longer accept preypal as a payment option for ANY of my auctions! google checkout, revolution money exchange, money orders, even checks, are MUCH safer!
I don't know that greedbay could do anything to win me back at this point. they have COMPLETELY lost my trust! Perhaps if they did change their policies, reduce their fees AND issue a VERY PUBLIC APOLOGY, as well as fire Donahoe and his lackies... perhaps, I may be persuaded to sell there again, but I will NEVER be exclusive to ebay again! I now sell at several venues, my favorite being www.onlineauction.com. It is the only TRUE auction site, that makes sense to me, I sure hope they grow to live up to THEIR potential.
Until greedbay is DUST, we will continue to
BOYCOTT VICTORIOUSLY!!!
www.forums.delphiforums.com/boycottebay
www.onlineauction.com/store/jahjesters
Having Paypal only in the face of this economic tsunami we are having was the final straw for me. What will they do when a whole slew of banks fail. They will fail right along with them. I do not sell my cool collectibles any more, and until they reverse this electronic only payment policy I will not be back. But so that they can not eliminate me altogether (because of inactivity), I will occasionally buy from someone...but only if they accept a money order.
There was a time when I thought about the changes necessary for ebay to entice me back, then I came to the conclusion I'd actually get much more pleasure out of watching them disappear! They have been far too disrepectful and have shown absolutely no care for the "individuals" who have been hurt, if not, destroyed by their policies. Nobody needs ebay, we just need to build another site to become the next ebay. Ebay doesn't deserve us back and they certainly won't get many people back regardless of the begging that they may eventually be relegated to doing. Ebay is just a venue with a "name" all-be-it a tarnished one. Just a quickly as they came from the ether so too can they return. I like the idea of buying and selling elsewhere at whatever cost. The short-term may hurt, but in the long-run we'll have a "NEW" site that blows ebay away. Every sale I make on Bonanzle and I-offer gives me a warm feeling. I also do all my buying from sites other than ebay and it's affiliates. We must let go of the past as ebay is, and never will be, the site you are trying to cling onto. If we could get the mass exodus of sellers and buyers required, ebay would be gone in a matter of 1 year. People will go to where the best deal is and also where the action is. Ebay is dead! As Jesus said, "let the dead bury the dead".
I think that eBay has hurt both Sellers and Buyers.
1. Requiring payment by credit card or paypal.
2. Sellers can't leave truthful feedback.
3. Lack of user support.
In essence, eBay has made it increasingly difficult for both buyers and sellers. It's very clear that they don't care about buyers or sellers, only the bottom line profit they get. They didn't like the competition they got from PayPal so they bought them out. Now they've almost got a monopoly on how you pay for an item. They get a profit from paypal and from the sale, it's double fees for them now. They have become so greedy and big that they've sucked the life out of eBay's original purpose.
As a seller on eBay, I accept all kinds of payment but I can't tell my buyers that. They have to ask about it. Some people do ask but most don't, they just quit coming to eBay.
Just one more comment about Ebay.
MEG will be running for public office - possibly Governor - in California.
The people of California need to take a long hard look at the choices she made while at the helm of Ebay. Great things like Rent.com and spending many millions to go into China - and get sent packing. Allowing Chinese to list on Ebay US for free - making Ebay a VERY unsafe place to buy or sell.
Remember Vlad? She couldn't stop HIM either! And obviously she didn't hire the best and the brightest because her security people couldn't keep him out of their computers. I suspect that the best and brightest are at Amazon!
If she should be elected Governor of California, we won't have to wait for it to split off and fall into the ocean. Meg will probably do that in her first 100 days!
I say get rid of Donna Hoe and get BACK the people that they laid off! A lot of those people had been at Ebay longer than either MEG OR Donna Hoe!
And get rid of that Griff guy while your at it.
@Karen Harper, It's a bit of a complicated question you ask. Just as I no longer recommend people to auction unique items on eBay anymore, I don't recommend putting all your eggs in one basket when looking for a new site to sell on.
Try different ones and see what fits. Other ones I'm using with success are Bonanzle, Amazon,Craigslist, my own site via a Godaddy Shopping Cart, or directly off of www.AuctionWally.com
Other sites, that look good to me, but I have not had a chance to try out yet are, eBid.net,SeeAuctions.com, AtomicMall.com, eFleaa.com
Fabulous Article! Here are a couple of more articles worth reading about the disaster called ebay (don't forget to read the comment sections, too). Search the internet for these titles:
"How eBay is Alienating Selling Allies" (from channel insider)
channelinsider.com/c/a/SMB-Partner/How-eBay-is-Alienating-Selling-Allies/
AND
"Hey eBay, Say Hello to Bonanzle"
businessweek.com/technology/content/mar2009/tc2009033_379735.htm?site=cbs
My name is Bruce Hershenson, President of eMoviePoster.com, and I sold 330,000 items on eBay between 2000 and 2008, but I quit eBay completely in June 2008.
On January 22, 2008, while I was at the eCommerce forum, John Donahoe and Bill Cobb announced that many eBay fees were being "re-adjusted" and also announced the feedback changes. I had sold over 300,000 items on eBay to that time, but I could calculate that my eBay fees would rise between 25% and 50% with the new structure, and also I felt it was a certainty that, without the ability to retaliate, I would soon have some number of customers looking to blackmail me into a discount or a free purchase, because they could unfairly leave me negative feedback or bad DSRs, and there was nothing I could do about it.(of course, this was much worse for sellers like me who sell only vintage one-of-a-kind items, for we can't replace the order, and everyone can argue that a vintage item was "over-graded").
So that very night, I went to an eBay forum, and posted my "I have sold 300,000 items but am quitting eBay completely" post, and it was quickly circulated throughout the Internet (although eBay soon removed the entire thread, even though I had done nothing to break their rules, but it seems that sometimes the powers-that-be at eBay "can't handle the truth"!).
Some sellers stated they were certain I would never leave eBay, and others stated that I was sure to fail without eBay, and would "come crawling back".
It has now been 14 months since I posted (10 months since I held my last eBay auction, since it took me a while to get set up in a different location), and I thought I should share how I have fared during that year, with year vs. year dollar comparisions (because anything other than sales figures can be highly subjective).
Here are some year vs. year dollar comparisons:
2007 Halloween auction (held on eBay): $133,000
2008 Halloween auction (held off eBay): $262,000
2007 December auction (held on eBay): $286,000
2008 December auction (held off eBay): $283,000
2007 sales: $2,901,940.21
2008 sales: $3,089,249.39
2007 fees paid to eBay: approx $120,000
2008 fees paid: approx $70,000 (see below for breakdown)
-----2008 fees paid to eBay: approx $30,000 (Jan-April)
-----2008 fees paid to my new host & adwords bought ( May-Dec): approx $40,000
Our non-paying bidder rate on eBay was around 2%, and it is now under 1%.
On eBay, we were adding 200 new buyers a month in 2002-2004, BUT BY 2007 THAT HAD SLOWED TO JUST 50 A MONTH, and we are now (through our Adwords program, which costs a fraction of what it cost to list on eBay) adding around 200 per month!
So why in the world would we EVER consider "returning" to eBay?
Bruce Hershenson
President
eMoviePoster.com
Change the feedback system back to the way it was or improve on it GREATLY. At the very least, allow sellers the dignity to leave negatives. I still can't believe that eBay took away our ability to leave anything but positive feedback.
eBay's Board of Directors simply needs to fire Donohoe and his crew of toadies. The only "velocity" ebay has anymore is tangential--spin.
Go back to about ebay 2002 minus Meg, and get a management team that is involved with the marketplace and is incented to participate in it. The current team is a disaster.
They may dump more money into marketing and promotions, but the truth is that they generate twice as much negative word on the street by word of mouth.
I mostly purchase & only sell a little, but I won't sell because of the need to take credit cards. That's too much hassle for a small time seller. Also I hate the 5 star thing & the no neg feedback for sellers (posting for buyers). Sometimes I want to know how someone behaves as a seller AND as a buyer. If they are nasty in either way I don't want to deal with them.
The only thing that will save eBay now, especially after I have gotten going heavily with Craigslist and other direct sales venues....
Is to drop the entire policy of "the seller is the enemy" meaning their payment providers, Paypal and Paymate, treat the seller as the enemy under the inaccurate belief system that they will do something illegal.
In other words the system is set up to treat the seller like a criminal now, without any opportunity for full criminal defense.
For instance eBay can tell paypal/paymate to freeze your funds for no reason, offer no ability to fully dispute charge-backs and then constantly rules in favor of the "Buyer"
This is counter-productive, as normally when such a thing happens the seller has the opportunity to defend themselves & win the claim as you would win any court claim.
Namely the seller should have the opportunity to offer pictures, written statements, proof of delivery and other items which not only dispute the Buyer's claim but completely refute it as is offered on mainstream sales sites such as:
Amazon.com, Craigslist.org, I Offer, Become.com and the rest of them.
eBay treats the Buyers like the best thing coming when they are frequently scammers who buy up items, just to create problems, or cause a legal dispute with counterfeit agencies. This is obvious in the type of buyers eBay seems to attract like flies.
In order for eBay to ever win us back they must drop the disdain held against sellers, stop treating sellers like criminals & give them the same privileges which the buyers receive!
The sellers are why eBay has a business, not just auction buyers, and its been going on long enough that eBay needs to wise up to this fact!
I'm a former EBAY seller and there is nothing that they can do to get me back.
Even if they go back to the way they were, too many people have a bad taste in their mouth against EBAY for making up these new stupid rules.
I would sell my Invention again on Ebay if:
I can accept ONLY Money Orders and Checks.
Listing fees are cut in half.
I can have a Link to my Website on EVERY Listing Page for Iron Clad Customer Confidence.
They get Rid of That Annoying GRIFF dean moot guy.
Final straw for me: payment for certain "high risk" items such as guitars paid through Paypal (no choice but to use it until 5 feedbacks - isn't this anti-trust in a legal sense?) will have payment frozen for up to 21 days, with a possilbity you'll see your money sooner if they get proof of delivery. No freakin' way I'm sending a $2k instrument without the money first...is Ebay just suicidal at this point?
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