Curious if anyone thinks ebay "improvements" justify a fee hike this year? Reflect on past year....

[siamjane8]

Obviously absolutely nobody like when fees go up....... but when simultaneously the product and the customer services goes down..... it makes no sense.

    Has anyone seen any actual improvements to the site this year?.... not just changes but actual improvements?

    Just looked at our 1099-k from ebay and wouldn't you believe it!-  $15,000 less in sales this past year with all the site "improvements".

    It seem more like ebay causes disruptions with all the unnecessary site changes and sales go down so the answer is to raise fees to cover the effect of the bad decisions...... does nobody ever take responsibility for the actions anymore?   How to the CEO's an management still take millions in bonuses while the platform relevancy decreases?

       One nice feature they made was the repeat buyer notification- that was helpful- but does not counteract the bad search engine and promoted listings debacle they have created- no buyer wants unrelated junk shoved down their throat when they search- JUST GIVE US 100% of the results that match our keywords!, not what some slightly **bleep**ed AI system thinks we want to see.

[coolections]

Why do you need customer service? If you are doing things like you are supposed to then there is no reason whatsoever to have to call customer service. Maybe read about how Ebay works before complaining.

[zamo-zuan]

---

@coolections wrote:

Why do you need customer service? If you are doing things like you are supposed to then there is no reason whatsoever to have to call customer service. Maybe read about how Ebay works before complaining.

---

If you use eBay you should know the answer to this question. 

Because there's glitches all over and you need to report it in hopes it can be addressed and you're not out of luck.

Because eBay's returns system only allows up to a 50% refund and often times customers will want to return 1/4 items in a set for a 25% refund and there's no way for sellers to do that themselves.

Because often times customers will open a return and close it before the item even arrives and then not be able to open any sort of case and there's no way to handle that in the system bc they're unable to open any kind of case.

Because customers often attempt feedback extortion.

Because items often get damaged in eBay's Global Shipping Program and eBay are the only ones that can help them with problems internationally.

Because sometimes customers mix up sellers and return someone elses items to us and ours to another seller. 

Because sometimes customers are not tech savvy and contact you from a completely different account than their main one and don't know how to open a return on their original and need to be helped through the entire process.

Those are just some of the reasons that we've dealt with recently that I can think of off the top of my head.

[zamo-zuan]

---

@pburn wrote:

---

@meme6253 wrote:

Of Course They Will Not Lower Fees, But There Is No Good Reason To Raise Anymore!

---

When sellers post threads regarding increases in shipping costs, the cost of adding tracking or signature confirmation, or the cost of acquiring goods, or eBay fees, the answer is always, "Raise the cost of your items to cover the increases. Your customers should be paying for the increases."

Same thing goes for eBay. 

---

This is more problematic than increasing seller costs in my opinion. It's hurting the *customers*.

Seller cost increases wouldn't be too much of a problem if they get sufficient business to keep afloat. But increasing prices for buyers should be very alarming for everyone involved (buyers/sellers/eBay as a whole). We need all the buyers we could get, and a lot of these changes in recent years inadvertently raise prices for the buyers.

It makes all their advertising they've been doing lately less cost-effective when the conversion rates are lower due to increasing prices. I don't know that there's a true solution (or way to slow down) the GMV dropping without bringing those costs back down.

As a seller I truly want to be able to take better care of our customers and give them better deals. I want to be able to turn them in to repeat customers. But we're already stretched thin as possible and it's very hard to find anywhere else to cut corners. And I know a lot of other sellers out there have it worse than we do because eBay has been doing a ton of advertising for Motors lately, so I can only imagine the difficulties in other categories. 

[esg-enterprises]

@stainlessenginecovers "The smart money is to NOT spend time worrying about things that don't work and instead, spending that time finding the work around to keep business going."

No offense, I am not one to brag on experience, cuz honestly when a guy tries to tell me all his supposed accomplishments, I immediately think there must be a reason he has to tell you he is the smartest guy in the room, just my personal experience. So I won't attempt to match you there.

That being said anyone with the above quote of yours would never work for me, and without knowing you I would guess you bounced around a lot.

Unfortunately, an outlook like yours exists far too often in today's business world, that we can agree on.

Rather than improving, working hard, finding solutions, let's just duct tape it together and hope it works.  

This is literally eBay's SOP. 

There are a lot of smart people out there, ebay just needs to find and hire them. 

And the .35 on a 100 based on last year equates to about 11K for me. Which is fine, but just make some effort to fix issues basically all but a few agree are there. Even ebay employees I speak with, other than the ones that post on here, agree the site has serious issues right now.

[esg-enterprises]

@zamo-zuan I've never met zamo-zuan but his knowledgeable posts over the years speak for themselves.

He never brags of his accomplishments, just offers practical solutions that eBay should listen to.

Give him a position of power at eBay and the company would be going like gangbusters in a year.

[selsa84]

Definitely not true. 

[esg-enterprises]

Is it true the new international program does not support items over $500?

If that is the case the program is a huge step backwards.

[esg-enterprises]

Correction, I meant 1200, not 12K.

[fern*wood]

I’m curious how some sellers seem to so easily promote their listings at percentages like 8 or 10 and others lose their minds over an increase of a fraction of a percent.  I don’t promote, so I guess I’m definitely in the latter camp.

[wifetrained]

Maybe Ebay can define the meaning of the word "improvement". Could be viewed as subjective.

[rugerskick]

So, you prefer dealing with corporate insanity more than individual insanity....

That might say more about you than Ebay.  🙂

[onlinecentral]

Is it true the new international program does not support items over $500?

If that is the case the program is a huge step backwards.

eBay member siamjane8 alleged that At this point EIS sales are limited to $500. Huge loss of sales over GSP in message 78. Kindly direct your request for clarification to eBay member siamjane8.

[slippinjimmy]

EIS is currently limited to $500, pretty sure they have indicated that this may be raised in the future.

[yuzuha]

---

@siamjane8 wrote:

    Just looked at our 1099-k from ebay and wouldn't you believe it!-  $15,000 less in sales this past year with all the site "improvements".

---

Is that compared to 2020/2021 or pre-pandemic? Because you can't compare sales from 2022 to sales from 2020/2021 when everyone was stuck at home and shopping online-- my sales in 2020 and 2021 were the best I've ever had for that very reason. As a more accurate comparison, my 2022 sales were down from 2020 and 2021 but up from 2019.

[slippinjimmy]

I ran those number just last week, most of my sales (about 80% by value) come from a relatively small number of multi-quantity listings. All my listings have been running as GTC since early 2019.

My sales in 2020 were nearly triple 2019 levels, in 2021 they were nearly times 2019. Although Jan/Feb 2022 only fell of slightly by May they were down dramatically before picking up in the fall, end result was virtually equal to 2018-19 levels.

It was the now classic Covid bump and it's gone, I miss the money but enjoy the fact that the actual eBay work is back to the old 4 hour work week! It was hard packing all those orders, it was almost like being back in the early 00's when eBay was almost like a full time job.