Why doesn't ebay utilize veteran sellers to help shape the platform?
I've been selling on ebay since the 1990's.. I have one of the oldest / most active accounts on the entire platform (or so they tell me every time I talk to tech support)... I am a literal expert on ebay.
I am far from the only person with the experience I have.. my account may be older.. but there are individual sellers on here with far more than my 223,000 sales, far more than my 13,000 listings, and much more of an expert in their category (IE I am sports cards and fan shop / collectibles)....
Why not use the vast riches of our knowledge to help the platform? Instead of highlighting sellers who have been on here for a couple years.. instead of making career altering decisions without beta testing or getting feedback first.. instead of making insanely short sided decisions as a company.... ASK THE PEOPLE WHO HAVE BEEN HERE LONGER THAN THE PEOPLE RUNNING THE WEBSITE TODAY.
Why is this such a complicated thing to do?
Example: Ebay just launched a TERRIBLE new rule that requires sports cards sellers to give a grade condition for non graded trading cards. It would take less than 15 seconds for a card dealer to explain to someone who makes these decisions why it's such a bad idea... but instead, they announce the change, and let it go live in less than 24 hours later without doing any form of test or research.
No one in a position like myself is trying to hurt the platform.. we rely on this platform to make our living and pay our bills.... USE THE INCREDIBLE WEALTH OF KNOWLEDGE AT YOUR FINGERTIPS EBAY... WE ARE RIGHT HERE.
serendipity*sales
·2 years agoebay expressions is a joke. it was created with the premise ebay would actually listen to ebay sellers. so far there have a few lame surveys that really don't address the change sellers would like to see, or things that do work and are a valuable part if ebay. And when they publish the results of any survey - Gee, guess what...? Everyone is just so peachy keen happy with the ebay platform. Nary a suggestion or criticism is ever published. So, just like they don't use long time sellers to shape the platform, this phony sugar coated excuse for "caring about sellers" called ebayexpressions is another shallow attempt to solicit valuable information form the selling community. They never get to the "meat and potatoes" .
stainlessenginecovers
·3 years agoWhy didn't Coke simply have 100 sample the 'new' coke, privately?
Why didn't Budweiser ask 1000 'fans' their thoughts on 'an idea' of their latest commercial?
Because big companies don't want feedback from a bunch of 'who knows' type people. Just because someone has been on a platform doesn't mean they know anything.
I've seen posts started by "I've been here since the 90s' and have perfect feedback blah blah' but their 'idea, concept or gripe is about as NOT PRO Business as can be.
Big publicly owned companies have many people in place to make decisions:
After all, you have to ask yourself, what if 1000 of the oldest, most active 'members' were asked about
GTC
Removal of Paypal
Start of Managed Payments
Raising Fees
Do you think even 1 of those 1000 would say:
"that's a great idea"??
Of course not.
That's why they don't want or need your, or anyone's "opinion" on just about anything done here.
imac7065
OP3 years agoI just wanted to point out how dead wrong you are on this analogy.. pre 2015 ebay was the gold standard of online retailing because they did exactly what I suggested in the OP... in fact I myself was consulted many times about certain changes on the site before they went live (they still owe me $50 for something happened in 2002 laughably haha).... I don't know what changed.. but around 2015 (I assume corporate leadership changed) they started making knee jerk choices without notice, then back tracking when those choices didn't work. They've done 2 steps forward 5 steps back ever since.
Unavailable member
·3 years agoMaybe you are right, maybe you are wrong. Maybe eBay is trying to tap into a changing customer demographic. Maybe buying preferences have changed over the past 25 years. No doubt a lot of sellers have an issue with the new trading card requirements. But, maybe there are a lot of buyers that are turned off by these ungraded cards. Time will tell!
imac7065
OP3 years ago@powell-memorabilia can you tell me the last time ebay beta tested a new idea before it went live? That's the point being made here.
joliztoyco
·3 years agoEvidently not ONE seller of that 10,000 was a card dealer.
Because they would have said" Hello!!! It's called the ungraded card category. For a reason.
And now you idiots want me to arbitrarily grade it? And you think that's not a recipe for a slew of INADS??"
Seriously, what more proof do you need that "sellers" have zero input in eBay's decisions?
ms.rodriguez*
·3 years ago"you idiots".. Sorry no one from ebay works here. You need to correct your post. We are all volunteers who sell and buy here and like to respond to questions. But anyway, I understand what you are saying. This is another example of an ebay change that they did NOT run by card sellers.
valueaddedresource
·3 years agoIf you asked eBay, they would say they *do* listen to veteran sellers. As @readabouthorses pointed out, they have the eBay Expressions program. There are also various meet up groups that have relationships and conversations with eBay. A well known ebay/ecommerce consultant just recently posted on LinkedIn that she is excited to be part of a new eBay Ads Seller Advisory Board giving eBay direct input on the ads experience.
Honestly the problem I see isn't that eBay doesn't talk or listen to sellers at all, but I think it's fair to say there isn't a great deal of diversity in the seller voices they choose to listen to. 😉
Echo chambers can be dangerous and you need to be willing to take even critical feedback into consideration in order to improve....and when you look at the way eBay conducts much of their "seller engagement" it's pretty obvious they are drawing from a relatively shallow well that is more likely to reinforce what eBay wants to hear than to shake things up.
readabouthorses
·3 years agoeBay Expression is a panel of over 10,000 sellers who provide eBay with input and insights as we build the future of eBay.
I got an invitation recently to join eBay Expression. Not sure what all they do or what they accomplish but maybe this would be something you would be interested in doing.
ms.rodriguez*
·3 years agoIf they really have a panel of 10,000 sellers, ebay is not listening to them. Here is a dumb move that I am sure NO seller will agree to. "If the seller sends an invoice, automatically the buyer gets another 96 hours to pay. If the seller resends the invoice because they are desperate for the payment, the buyer gets another 96 hours to pay."
This is by far, one of the top 5 stupidest things that ebay has done since I have been here. At first, I thought it was an ebay glitch but several different sellers have posted this problem on these boards. I can' t imagine any seller agreeing to that policy.
toomuchstuffagain35
·3 years agoBUT - it ONLY resets the time given the buyer to pay if you manually cancel orders for non payment.
If you have it set up to auto cancel for non payment even sending another invoice doesn't affect the timing of that auto cancellation.
ms.rodriguez*
·3 years agoI don't sell cards yet but that does sound like a stupid move. So I grade a Pokemon card Good or B+ and of course, another seller would have a different opinion. Dumb move.
ms.rodriguez*
·3 years agoMy guess is that ebay does not want to run the site smoothly. I have been telling them that since I started here in 1998 with my main seller account. They used to make phone calls and asked you questions. I always said please hire me for a week or two. The site still shows that they do not have a seller on board to help solve issues. The most recent example where I had to manually edit over 250 listings from first class to ground advantage. The bulk editor did not work. Why did the stupid system remove the shipping fee each time that I did it manually? Why? To make life harder for a seller. That seems to be their goals sometimes.
Their app is a joke. I have to install and uninstall at least once a month. They took out the ability to change the order of the photos on the app. Another stupidity obviously done and approved by a non-seller.
Anyway, I want to congratulate for the great job that you are doing as a seller here and wanting to offer your service to ebay. Without knowing you personally, I know that you can do a better job than the folks at the controls right now. Go and contact Ebay via Facebook and maybe they will hire you.