Mortified That Lowest Price Sort IS NOT LOWEST PRICE

[cunberlandgapshop4you]

I’ve had plenty of competition on certain products. We work under MAP pricing, but the company allowed us to free sell through Black Friday weekend. I’ve had a few quilts for about six months and they are definitely popular items. I set mine lower than anyone’s price so I could get these moved and pay off my debt. Sadly, for myself and especially for buyers that they are being tricked! When you set lowest price, it does not mean it is lowest price. I was told by a rep that it does NOT matter because ANCHOR STORES go first regardless. This seems fraudulent for the buyers. If I were not privy to how eBay works, I would believe and “trust” that I am looking at the lowest price so why scroll down. Granted Anchor stores deserve to sell more since they pay more, BUT WHY DO THIS TO BUYERS? I have numerous screenshots that show how this really goes. Any suggestions or feedback? I am going to refuse promoted listings as they do NOT promote my listings! A few of my products did NOT show at all!

[caninekopz]

This has been happening for quite some time.  I have been talking about it for over a year.  It started slowly but now has gotten out of hand.  You will find others on here who completely deny what is going on, but there are facts and they have been proven.  Also, if you read Ebays terms, they clearly state that they will and can manipulate any data they want.  (Paraphrase, but that is the gist).

Read some of the blogs on here about this and you will be quickly disheartened.  It is truely a ruse to the peopel who buy and sell, and terribly non-transparent.

Ebay has ruined a good thing and they really do not care about anything but numbers anymore.  I could get a lot deeper with this, but just look around the boards and you will see.

Anyway, good luck with the sales this holiday season.  

Rich 

[cunberlandgapshop4you]

When the rep told me, I felt ripped off. Over a few hours of pondering the thought, my sadness went to buyers. I am guilty too of looking for something and “assuming” it is the lowest price because that’s why they have the option. I think at the very least for the sake of not ticking off even more buyers that they remove the option altogether. It’s fraud in my opinion. It cheats the buyers severely. I spoke with a distributor this morning who told me of the number of sales they received for shipping and those are much higher priced than mine were. I’m sitting on 26K in stock I can’t move over this situation. I have lots of screenshots to prove what I am saying. I’m not sure who to go to at eBay to raise the issue to remove it or use it properly. 

I later talked to another rep who said it wasn’t true! Yes it is. It’s clearly there. He said give me a name of your product, I gave him a name of one I didn’t have and he said it’s right there. The first listing!!! 

[orangehound]

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@cunberlandgapshop4you wrote:

I later talked to another rep who said it wasn’t true! Yes it is. It’s clearly there. He said give me a name of your product, I gave him a name of one I didn’t have and he said it’s right there. The first listing!!! 

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Customer service reps have a well-paved reputation of not telling the truth.  They say whatever they think you want to hear to get you off the phone.

I would be interested to see those screenshots .... I searched for an item of yours and the lowest cost sort seemed to work correctly.

[judydu2]

I can't say that I have this problem. I have my default search set to lowest plus shipping and it always shows correctly, no matter who has it listed. But I hope you get your problem worked out in time to make sales for the holidays.

[judydu2]

Sorry...that wasn't meant for you, orangehound. I'm still *new* to the boards.

[slippinjimmy]

I'd like to see some of your "numerous screenshots", I use the Lowest Price sort frequently and it always seems correct (other than for Variation listings with a bogus super cheap item as one variation).

[zamo-zuan]

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@caninekopz wrote:

This has been happening for quite some time.  I have been talking about it for over a year.  It started slowly but now has gotten out of hand.  You will find others on here who completely deny what is going on, but there are facts and they have been proven.  Also, if you read Ebays terms, they clearly state that they will and can manipulate any data they want.  (Paraphrase, but that is the gist).

Read some of the blogs on here about this and you will be quickly disheartened.  It is truely a ruse to the peopel who buy and sell, and terribly non-transparent.

Ebay has ruined a good thing and they really do not care about anything but numbers anymore.  I could get a lot deeper with this, but just look around the boards and you will see.

Anyway, good luck with the sales this holiday season.  

Rich 

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Completely agree and I have said the same. We have also regularly experienced our listings not even appearing under sorted by price!!

I could understand best match being manipulated, that is to be expected. But the other search filters, should NEVER be touched! 

[zamo-zuan]

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@orangehound wrote:

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@cunberlandgapshop4you wrote:

I later talked to another rep who said it wasn’t true! Yes it is. It’s clearly there. He said give me a name of your product, I gave him a name of one I didn’t have and he said it’s right there. The first listing!!! 

---

Customer service reps have a well-paved reputation of not telling the truth.  They say whatever they think you want to hear to get you off the phone.

I would be interested to see those screenshots .... I searched for an item of yours and the lowest cost sort seemed to work correctly.

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CS reps don't really say what you want to hear. No offense but I honestly question anyone who says that, because businesses large enough to have to work with eBay constantly... you will consistently run in to people who will openly disagree with you and argue with you saying they can't do anything, even though the case fits under eBay's policy and you should be protected.

Yet if you speak to a different representative, they will agree that you hit all the points to be protected by the policy, and they will handle it correctly.

Regarding items not appearing in search, that's not something that can be proven by screenshots, they can be falsified. And as with all search issues, they are intermittent.

All I can say is our marketing team runs in to this consistently. We search our own items to measure search placement, and compare with views/impressions/etc to determine if we have to change prices.

It's so common that our items don't appear, that we had to instruct our team to NOT report it to me when it happens. It's just become normal operation at this point.

I can't imagine if you spent 30 mins-1 hour searching your own items, that you wouldn't run in to issues.

[zamo-zuan]

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@slippinjimmy wrote:

I'd like to see some of your "numerous screenshots", I use the Lowest Price sort frequently and it always seems correct (other than for Variation listings with a bogus super cheap item as one variation).

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It is the end of the work day, but if you would like, I could give some examples tomorrow. Although people will still claim it doesn't happen...

And more often than not, our issue isn't it sorting incorrectly, moreso just your own items not appearing.

[cunberlandgapshop4you]

I was going to do just that, but in looking at my screenshots I cannot exhibit this to the public because of other business names. 

[cunberlandgapshop4you]

I'm thinking of videotaping them to submit to responsible parties at eBay. I've got 27K in stock, and for the Black Friday weekend, I made a GROSS total of $627.00! I'm working on other ways. I have a small store, but it doesn't move enough and that's why I've been using eBay, BUT with their off the charts manipulation of THEIR OWN, it's costing a fortune to sell. I'm working on Pinterest. I've done this before, but felt it was too much. At this point, in comparing costs the past few days it will be cheaper.

[cunberlandgapshop4you]

One asked me for examples. I gave a few and then gave a few made up and he said, "well, I see it. It's the first one!" I just can't believe I'm dumb enough to have come back to sell on eBay. I've got some items moving right now on Amazon. It's been a busy day. Interesting though, I have a computer that has never been signed into eBay and I can get the dirt there. No problems. I'm terribly upset for the buyers as well because they are getting ripped off. In my opinion it's fraud. AT THE VERY LEAST, I'M LIVID. I DON'T THINK I WILL LET IT REST EVEN WHEN I'M GONE.

[emerald40]

It is lowest cost + shipping that determines order.

There are a lot of anchor, big box stores in my category, and when you search lowest first, everything is always in order of lowest to highest.  And when it gets a bit off I check listing and it is due to the shipping cost.

[cunberlandgapshop4you]

You are lucky. It’s not the case with me. When I say I’m livid, I’ve had 7 months of problems and loss of revenue. The account I’m on now is my previous buyer account. On my other account, I have nearly 3000 reviews, was TRS for a long time, but my products started ending up in other countries. For four of those months, I kept calling them and asking in concern. Some products showed up but the majority were elsewhere. Finally, I got a rep who went the extra mile considering my scores, etc., and she found them in another country. No matter what I tried or the higher ups at eBay could figure it out. They seriously tried. SO, then I had to abandon that account with a big loss in sales, then I get to this account that took me nearly two months to complete. I worked for an attorney part time back then. He retired in August, so I had a few hours a day to work on my listings and get organized, NOW THIS. So truly it’s not only this issue it is a huge amount of documented issues. I’ve also considered reps for the Anchor stores tampered with my account. I have raised that question and they insist it is not.