2017 Spring Seller Update Reminder

[alan@ebay]

Hello,

Please use this thread if you have any questions or wish to discuss today's announcement. 

Thank you. 

[springs_2013]

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@timelessvintageforu wrote:

Well I will not do Spring cleaning to list on ebay this year since I have not had any free listings since January and all my listing pictures are starting to disappear and I do not have time to take the pictures all over again.  After months loading the listings with all the free 500 listings eBay used to give us I spent many night up trying to list all I could and I mean hours, then the rug was pulled out from the sellers and no more free 500 listings.  So now all my listing pictures have started deleting and after all the hours I spent packing the items up in boxes and taping them shut, can you imagine unpacking 400 items and retaking the pictures again?  I think once I sell what is left I am over and out, it has gotten very stressfull with slow sales due to shipping rates and I have no free listings to list my items anymore, and there is no reason to list new items as it would be a waste of my time to take pictures to only have them disappear again.  Well eBay it was fun while it lasted but soon I shall depart!  Becareful sellers do not get carried away with any of the free listings - they offer the newbies 500 listings and then the rug is pulled out and you will have to spend 30 cents a listing to post them and if you do not after a couple of months the pictures will disappear.  Good Luck!

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That is my observation as well.  eBay gives lots of free promotional listings to new sellers to draw them in.  Then after a few months, eBay entice the seller with a promotional rate (usually $5) per month for a basic store.  Customer service sales reps from eBay will personally call the seller to try to enlist them into a store.  After that, the free promotional listings goes away leaving the seller with lisitng only the monthly alotted listing, not sure how many it is now, but I think 50 free lisitings?  in essence forcing the seller to buy into a store.  Most sellers within the first few months,  gets hooked at the money they are making.  Thinking it would be a fantastic way to suppliment their income,   they start amassing large number of inventory only to have the free lisiting rug pulled out from under their feet.  So they are "forced" to buy a store only to find their sales has slowed into a crawl.

Of course, eBay does not care because most seller enrolled into the annual price of the store to save money.  If the seller does not make sales, eBay does not care.  The seller are giving them the store fees every month, and sometimes, that's more than the fee eBay would make with FVF from a seller who does not have a store.

Lets not forget about the transactions that have buyer issues.  Aside from INR where the seller has a delivered tracking confirmation, the seller will loose everytime.  Profit margins of the sellers are usually so slim, whenever there is a problem with a transaction and the seller has to refund, it eats up all the profit.  In many cases, puts the seller in the RED for the month and months to come.

Selling on eBay is not a profitable endevore.  I have so much inventory with the rate of sales, it will take me decades to get rid of.  Personally, I am tempted to cut my losses and get out before I loose even more, but with a family to support, I do not have that luxury.... and as the saying goes, the train keeps on chuggin'.

[fun_finds_under_the_sun]

My same thoughts/questions.  It's very discouraging.  

[fun_finds_under_the_sun]

How does this new update benefit me... at all?  I am a Top Rated Seller and 10% is being taken away from me!  

[heirloomunited]

There is zero incentive for me to remain a Top Rated Seller.  Instead I will change my handling to 3 plus days, add a shipping fee to my items to make up for lost wages, and go back to 14 day returns.  I finally give up.

[judybsa]

Well then, do us a favor.  After 6 months come back and tell us if your sales went up or down as a result of your changes.

[plummer602]

Even after reading the info you provided on the new Shipping Rate Tables coming this summer, I do not understand how its supposed to make more accurate shipping charges to buyers - ever since I started selling on eBay, my shipping charges are accurate, what am I missing, or not understanding? In other words, is there a way of listing, now, that does not show accurate shipping rates? All of my listings have always had accurate rates. I am not "getting" it.

[mookie00]

I agree this is a problem.  I am on the East Coast so if a sale comes in by 2:59 am, I have to ship it that day because of the time difference.  Ebay's servers are on West Coast time so 2:59 am for East Coast is only 11:59 pm on the West Coast.  This makes the 1 day shipping very unreasonable to meet.  I should be able to cut off the 1 day handling at the close of MY business day (or at least something a little more reasonable than 2:59 am) on any given business day.

[mam98031]

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@mookie00 wrote:

I agree this is a problem.  I am on the East Coast so if a sale comes in by 2:59 am, I have to ship it that day because of the time difference.  Ebay's servers are on West Coast time so 2:59 am for East Coast is only 11:59 pm on the West Coast.  This makes the 1 day shipping very unreasonable to meet.  I should be able to cut off the 1 day handling at the close of MY business day (or at least something a little more reasonable than 2:59 am) on any given business day.

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@mookie00

You can leave it like that or you can take control of the situation.  You have the power to change what your cut off time is for shipping.  All you need to do is go to your site preferences under Shipping Preferences and then the Order Cut Off Time is the last item under this section in your site preferences.

[jonathantoy]

Guranteed delivery is a joke. The post office is constantly messing up and we get penalized. When I call customer service I am told to find a more reliable deliver method. The carrier forgets to scan and I get penalized. A package gets delayed and surprise, it is my fault it disapeared in the system. If eBay wants to hold us accountable for the post office, they need to negotiate better rates with the post office and negotiate protection for sellers if a package is delayed for any reason other than the seller not shipping it on time.

If I start having to give refunds because of the post office being slow I will leave eBay and I am sure others will do. Seller keep eBay going and they can may eBay go away if too many of the top sellers leave. eBay wake up. Buyers are important but so are sellers. You need to protect us as well.

[deedeesfindsusa]

True,shipping costs in this country are outrageous. In January USPS rose rates, if i remember correctly, 17%. There has to be a better way.

[mookie00]

Thanks for the reply.  I will take another look, but thought the cutting-off was only for same day shipping and not 1 day handling.  

[mam98031]

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@mookie00 wrote:

Thanks for the reply.  I will take another look, but thought the cutting-off was only for same day shipping and not 1 day handling.  

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You are right, my apologies.  I was wrong.

One would think, after all these years that they would have a setting for this as it would affect a lot of sellers.

[surface_store]

First time poster. I currently pay rougly 6-7k a month in ebay fee's with my top rated discount. Raise that by 10% and that makes for an unhappy camper. Raising late scan to 95% is a good idea to weave out some digenerates but penalizing a very hard earned incentive makes me want to do my business elsewhere. I will be exploring every other possible avenue to peddle my goods.

Where are the ebay bucks for sellers?

Cutting ebay bucks for buyers in half wasn't a plus either. Also haven't noticed bonus buck days as of late? I'm a firm believer in not having sales to begin with because then you'll just have people only buying on those days. Could've never offered bucks to begin with, now we all feel robbed.

eBay can be the go to site for the best prices with sellers paying a lower percentage to sell on your platform vs your largest competitor then we'll all be happy campers. Also the fact of turning into #2 should have ebay add incentives for sellers to sell on ebay instead of driving them away. For those of us who sell mostly new goods, it's not helpful that eBay has the reputation of NOT being the go to place for new products. I know for a fact my product will sell for more money elsewhere and I've ran out of reasons to continue persuing the growth of my ebay business after this 10% slap on the face.

Thanks for nothing. 

[mam98031]

@surface_store

As I've said many times on this thread.  The larger the seller, the harder the impact of the TRS+ discount reduction.  So yes, it certainly is going to hit you hard.

The Ebay "Bucks" program is for buyers, not sellers.  The bonus buck promotions are sent to the same members or all members.  They are sent to select members and that moves around all the time.  If you thought you'd be invited to all of them, you will be disappointed to find that you will not.

[surface_store]

Thought it was mentioned somewhere when eBay performed the bucks armed robbery that they're going to let sellers earn bucks... maybe it was a mirage? Promotional seller buck earning emails?

It's feels good to get sucker punched 2 times within 4 months. The shipping I can't count as 3 since USPS is  a separate entity. 

Currently researching how to get approved to sell certain brands on certain sites... All negative changes may be a blessing in disguise.