Why is ebay so dumb?

[memorabletreasures]

Sure they have made billions great but their numbers are declining bcoz of the way they treat sellers. I've Been a top-rated seller all year. I paid $60k in fees to ebay, 5k per month the past 12 months while they do nothing but slap me with a zillion new rules and discipline anything they can do to squeeze more money out of us. Without the sellers they have nothing.. period. No merch, no buyers no money.. so in what friggin universe do these jerks think that sellers work for them? My merch, I do all the work and they treat us like we have to pay them to be treated like we work for them when there is a lot of other competition out there now and platforms like Amazon that don't treat sellers like slaves. Ebay recently issued a statement that any sellers who were affected by the winter storms resulting in late shipments and defects would not have to worry and that the defects would be removed. I've sent in disputes due to the winter storms. I don't sell 1 or 2 a day I sell 30 or more so when the post office was closed during the ice storms here and the roads were closed i couldn't ship anything. I called in spoke to a supervisor bcoz my shipping on time rating has dropped to 94% which drops my top rated status to above average seller status. Well ebay has not responded to my requests to have defects removed bcoz of that storm and during Christmas when usps was backed up as well as I had missed a few days from being sick. They want to threaten my account over crap that was beyond my control demanding medical bills to prove i was sick. **bleep** THATS AGAINST THE LAW HIPAA complaint here I come !!! I have almost 6000 items listed and all sales have stopped. I'm so sick of this platform making money by basically charging a **bleep** mortgage payment on a mansion just to put up with their crappy customer service, ripping off sellers by allowing buyers to scam us and swap old broken used product with our new products, always siding with buyers and never listening to anything we have to say. You can say goodbye to my 60k a year it may not seem like much but if you treat us all the same and you **bleep** off 100 of us that 600k a year in revenue lost.. keep sending your sellers to Amazon I'm sure Jeff Bezos appreciates it. 👍🏽 

[inhawaii]

Ebay's number are declining because of the way they treat sellers?  That is pure speculation.

Slapping YOU with a zillion new rules?  Everybody must abide by the same rules as you do.

" Without the sellers they have nothing."  The same could be said about buyers.  Buyers are just as important as sellers.

Ebay doesn't waive seller performance requirements because of illness or injury. 

I doubt ebay asked you for copies of medical bills for the above reason, but if they did, by all means, take them to court. You are welcome to do so. God bless America.

If you are sick of this platform and feel that other platforms are better, why would you want to stay here?   You still have over 5,000 items listed.

[joliztoyco]

I also live in central Texas. We lost power for 6 days. Our Post office STILL doesn't have their internet, up so they can't ship packages, or take payments!! (AS of today!) So I called around and found a Post Office 37 miles away that had their power restored. So we traveled there. On icy roads. So we could ship our packages on time. 64 miles RT!
Did it twice. Then another PO closer to us (18 miles) opened and we've been using them ever since.
I didn't believe for ONE SECOND that Ebay would protect my seller rating, or do ANYTHING for me as a seller.
And that's a sorry state of affairs when you can't trust them to do squat.
That's ebay.

[kensgiftshop]

When you were sick and had the winter storms, couldn't you have shut down for a few days so you wouldn't have to worry about shipping?

[inhawaii]

I don't expect ebay to "do anything".

Should they waive ALL hardships?

Should they have a seller hardship counselor to handle each and every seller hardship on a case by case basis?

*Snowstorms.

*Flooding.

*Hurricane.

*Tornado.

*Tsunami.

*Mudslides.

*Brush fire.

*House fire.

*Power outages.

*Illness. They could have a list of illnesses that they will or will not waive. Require a doctors note.

*Iinjury.  They could have a list of injuries that they will or will not waive. Require a doctors note.

In your situation, you did what you had to do to get your orders out on time.

I applaud you for that.

[luckythewinner]

Without the sellers they have nothing.. period. 

Without ALL sellers they are nothing. But without ONE seller, they are just fine. 

but if you treat us all the same and you **bleep** off 100 of us that 600k a year in revenue lost

I don't buy your logic. Unless a seller's items are truly unique, buyers will simply buy a similar item from a similar seller at a similar price and eBay loses no revenue. 

Are you really suggesting that if you are not here, buyers will not be able to find another seller to buy a shirt or bathing suit or ace bandage or package of underwear from?

[mam98031]

It is very hard to read a wall of text.  Spacing and paragraphs are your friends.  So if I miss anything you feel is important, let me know.

Paying Ebay $5,000 a month in fees means your sales would have to be over $35,000 per month.

Keep in mind that shipping is NOT an Ebay fee.

The rules of Ebay pertain to all members.  The rules that you need to adhere to as a seller are the same as the rules I have to adhere to as well as every other seller out there.

It is a fine line that Ebay has to walk.  You are correct that without sellers we would not have buyers.  But it is also true that without buyers we wouldn't need sellers.

Have you sold much stuff on Amazon?  I've sold there for years.  Amazon is no walk in the park as a seller.  I can share all kinds of horror stories about them too.

If you were in the affected areas that Ebay has offered protection due to weather issues and you did not get your defects removed automatically it may be a mistake by Ebay and they don't deem you to be in the covered area.  So you may need to contact them to get that fixed.  I'll give you some contact info for Ebay after I respond to your message above.  But if they won't remove the defects, they likely don't consider you in the affected area.  The most recent one was for Texas, not Missouri.  

Seller Protections for the South and Central US (ebay.com)

This one that was issued earlier this month was not for your state either.

Seller Protections for shipping delays due to winter storms and flooding (ebay.com)

This one was issued December 21st, 2022.  It pertained to the Dakotas, Nebraska, and Minnesota.

Seller Protections are in place for sellers impacted by Winter Storm Elliott (ebay.com)

"They want to threaten my account over crap that was beyond my control demanding medical bills to prove i was sick. **bleep** THATS AGAINST THE LAW HIPAA complaint here I come !!! "  That has NOTHING to do with the HIPPAA law.  The HIPPAA law does not have anything to do with Ebay or how they structure their site.  HIPPAA is solely about medical information.

You've had just under 1,000 sales in the past 90 days per your sold records.  That is no where near zero sales.

I think you have some misunderstandings that are upsetting you quite a bit.  Has your account fallen to Below Standard on your Seller's Dashboard?  Are you now having to pay the additional 6% penalty fees?

[mam98031]

I would suggest that you contact Ebay for Business on Facebook or Twitter for the better trained CSRs.

Here are your options for contacting Ebay Customer Service.

https://twitter.com/askebay?lang=en

https://www.facebook.com/eBayForBusiness/


If when you use the link below you can only get to the Automated Assistant, type AGENT in the box and hit enter. You will then get more options.

https://www.ebay.com/help/contact_us?id=4002&st=10

For the Payment Team
https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/getting-paid/getting-paid-items-youve-sold/payments-hold?id=4816&&...

[memorabletreasures]

First of all my sales are about 20k a month and yes after all the promos and other fees ebays portion is approx 5k .. next for any person who dont understand math maybe 60k a year isn't a big deal to you but if ebay loses just 10 people like me that 600k lost revenue and 100 is 6 million. Lol replace me, I don't think so. The average ebay seller doesn't have 350k listed and another 500k in revenue sitting in a warehouse to be listed. Its a tremendous about of overhead just to store items. I buy truckloads and have a team of employees who list. How cute that you people are so dismissive and yes I sold about 5400 items the past year and according to ebay tax records did about 240k in sales. I know that's small change right? Lmfao I also run e-commerce for another company where we do about 3.5 mil a year. It's my personal account that I'm irritated with and honey since you're so specific it doesn't just say Texas it says any state affected by the storm. Google it!! Missouri and Oklahoma as well as TN were hit. Also it's the internet not a college Writing class. You understood exactly what I said. 

[memorabletreasures]

Update. After 10 phone calls with basic slowmos who had no idea how to remove a defect I finally spoke to someone in defects who removed every single one. ❤️ thank you John 😊 business as usual. 

[mam98031]

OK, first off, name calling and an attitude is simply not necessary, nor is name calling.  I came here to help you.  Spending my own time to do so.  I don't need to deal with your attitude and it is completely unwelcomed.

I NEVER said that 60K  wasn't a good chuck of sales.  Keep in mind that you are on a member to member chat board.  You are NOT talking to Ebay.

There are lots of mega sellers.  Many seller much larger than you are.  That however doesn't have any bearing on the issues you are having.  The rules apply to everyone.

Keep in mind that a 1099K does not report your sales.  It reports your Gross Receipts which is not the same thing.  It is the total money that came into your MP account BEFORE refunds, fees, shipping, etc.

"YOU PEOPLE", you mean little ole me.  I was NOT dismissive.  I simply told you what I could see on your account.  Nothing more and nothing less.  I don't need or desire to have your resume and I have no need or desire to give you mine.

I gave you links to the storms they offered protection on.  If there was another one they missed or it happened earlier than the oldest one I gave you in December, IDK  You can Google it and see if Ebay recognized the storm that affected you.

OMG your closing two statements say so much about you.  It is not surprising you are having issues.

[kh-leslie]

Hi everyone,

This discussion has gotten a bit heated. Please remember that, while it is fine to disagree with others, discussion should always remain friendly and respectful as required by the Community Guidelines.

Thank you for your cooperation.

[joliztoyco]

But that's besides the point, inhawaii. Ebay is the one that made the big announcement. And I couldn't trust them to keep their word. I rock a generator that keeps some lights on, a couple of space heaters, my wife's tv(Of Course!!!) and the internet so I can track my auctions. And I edited most of my auctions for a 3 day shipping window. But it was still difficult. I would have liked to wait just a couple more days before venturing out because there were a lot of downed power lines & trees we had to get around. But I really felt that Ebay wouldn't "have my back" no matter what they said.
And that's sad.....

[mam98031]

@joliztoyco 

Historically speaking, Ebay does a pretty good job of honoring the protection they offer to sellers when they announce that due to some weather event they are extending consideration.  The problem the OP has is that there wasn't an announcement on whatever weather event that affected them unless it was further back last year.

[inhawaii]

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@joliztoyco wrote:

But that's besides the point, inhawaii. Ebay is the one that made the big announcement. And I couldn't trust them to keep their word. I rock a generator that keeps some lights on, a couple of space heaters, my wife's tv(Of Course!!!) and the internet so I can track my auctions. And I edited most of my auctions for a 3 day shipping window. But it was still difficult. I would have liked to wait just a couple more days before venturing out because there were a lot of downed power lines & trees we had to get around. But I really felt that Ebay wouldn't "have my back" no matter what they said.
And that's sad.....

---

 Perhaps it is sad, but that's the way it is.

I'm glad you recognized that and did what you had to do to take care of business.

Again, I applaud you for that.