Buyers need to treat sellers a whole lot better, or Ebay is dead
My wife has been an ebay seller for nearly 20 years, works really hard, tries to give the best customer service.
But time and time again customers don't read the description are unreasonable with postage delays that are beyond the control of my wife and make unjust complaints and sometimes leave vile and untrue negative feedback that ebay can't be bothered to remove.
Ebay: if you are reading this, you need to act fast, you are treating sellers like a pile of s**t, whilst regarding the often stupid and abusive buyers as gods.
Without sellers ebay is toast. And maybe it deserves to be.
40 comments
downunder-61
·2 years agoAsking for your wife and on the wrong site - this is US, you may get different perspectives if you post on the UK site for your wife.
tobaccocardyahoo
·2 years agoIn 2008 I added Amazon as a selling venue to Ebay and my website.
There were huge differences then between Amazon and Ebay.
As is sometimes the case, some sales went bad.
I would get messages from buyers which sounded just like the messages from buyers often were on Ebay and still are from some. Buyers who wanted to create a new bodily orifice for me.
I would explain to them, that Amazon was not Ebay, and we will find a solution to their problem.
Their next message was far more pleasant.
At that point in time, Amazon was far more lightly regulated than it is today.
Sellers could sell in any category. Sellers could sell almost any brand. IP protection bots did not exist. But USED was not allowed in toys or clothing.
Today, many of the categories on Amazon are gated, requiring wholesale invoices from the manufacturer or his authorized wholesale distributor.
Some categories are closed to new or additional sellers.
UPC are required for name brand and some other products.
IP restrictions are such that offering a magazine which features an interview with a celebrity like Paul McCartney may be closed as a potential IP violation.
Auto parts must use specific language to make it clear when they are not OEM.
And on and on and on.
You need to be a Philadelphia lawyer to navigate their rules.
On both sites, there are sellers who clearly hate their buyers and buyers who come to hate the sellers and the site.
The health of Ebay depends on getting those sellers to leave. If they are upset by the bias in favor of the buyers, perhaps they will leave more quickly.
I like most of my buyers, particularly my repeat buyers. They have shared what their interests are and some interesting stories. Some of my buyers have bought from me on my website, Ebay and Amazon. In spite of the fact that I use different business entities on different websites, they have been able to identify me as me. And they have gotten the same high quality service in all venues.
Providing good customer service requires making enough money to afford to do so. Too many Ebay sellers have no way to make enough money selling what they sell. Not here not anywhere.
When a sale goes wrong and you have to take a hit, your pain level should tell you whether you should be selling what you are selling. If the pain is high, you are doing something wrong. We all know that some big chains are closing stores due to shoplifting losses. Those stores always had some shoplifting. The pain is now too high and they need to act.
714ricki
·2 years agoRetail isn't easy! Just ask our brick & mortar friends on how customers sometimes treat the staff. Have your wife continue to provide excellent service & don't let a few bad apples ruin the day.
Just take a deep breath & hang tight while on the online platform journey. It's a rollercoaster!!!
Good luck. ðŸ™ðŸ˜ŽâœŒï¸
sumsum70
·2 years ago"Or" eBay is dead?
Just subtract the "or", it already IS dead. And it won't be resuscitated under Iannone.
The way buyers treat sellers has nothing to do with it though.
12345jamesstamps
·2 years agoThose buyers who gave sellers a hard time usually end up on someone's block buyer's list.
I love it when a buyer wonders why they can't buy from me...and I just tell me something in the past happened and you are currently blocked from a purchase. It kinda makes my day.
bonjourami
·2 years ago"Without sellers ebay is toast. And maybe it deserves to be."
With over thirty million sellers, and thousands more joining every month, Ebay will never run out of sellers. And Ebay thinks, without buyers, they are ''toast'.
arraus
·2 years agoI will say, people have been saying this about eBay for a long time. eBay is still here.
eBay will never be completely safe though... from class action lawsuits or competition.
I disagree with others... EBAY STAYS IN BUSINESS not because they protect buyers. It's because buyers can find the cheapest prices and rare finds/selection on eBay, like no place else.
Yes, in any retail business there are abusive buyers. The difference is eBay forces sellers to accept returns even when it clearly conflicts with the Return Policy. In any other business, that is not the case. Amazon, Walmart, etc. stand by their return policies (and have the benefit of great return contracts with their suppliers so they don't get stuck with their returned items). Prices are higher on other platforms to cover costs of returns. eBay buyers are too cheap.
All big business ignore abusive customers (or demanding customers) nowadays. Even eBay does it. But, they force us sellers to give customers pretty much anything they want.
eBay does need to make sure they keep their larger sellers happy. That is their money.
We sold enough last year to pay eBay over $40k (not including shipping) last year. They could care less about complying with their own "Sellers Protection" policy for us.
I feel your wife's pain and do hope eBay improves a little on Seller Protections.
ed8108
·2 years agoSellers & buyers are viewed as replaceables, every year some leave while others arrive to take their places.
It can also be said that without buyers ebay sellers would be toast
Unfortunately, these days it appears good manners & respect is often replaced by a sense of entitlement, hostility & little frustration tolerance
Are we on the road toward becoming a nation of adversaries ?
farmalljr
·2 years agoeBay is small potatoes in the overall selling game. Giant corporations like Amazon and Walmart have the same exact issues. If they can't/haven't solved the "problem" then what makes anyone foolish enough to think eBay will "solve" the problem. Get real.
As a seller, you need to know how this gig works. And if you don't want to accept that, cool. Find something else to do. Everyone who sells is CHOOSING to do it despite all the warts that come with selling. If you don't want to deal with it, I hear McDonalds is hiring. I bet THEY don't have to deal with unruly customers there, right?
johnson_junk_company
·2 years agoeBay could very easily solve their problems and blow the competition out of the water. I suppose they know the ship is sinking and are just tired of bailing water.
adkhighker
·2 years agoDid the OP do something really bad to you that caused you to give them such nasty advice. Like did they complain you put too many onions on the Big Mac you made them or something?
lilyswan2
·2 years agoat least you can't get scammed and lose money at McDonalds....
chapeau-noir
·2 years agoOnly if you actually eat there. 🤢
assortedcollectibles
·2 years agoI detest this notion that it has to be this way and that other places are somehow the same. I know it isn't true.
broto_64
·2 years agoYou are correct, it is a lot of apples and oranges out there; on that note it has been my experience that the more business a site generates for its sellers the more stringent and abusive its policies towards said sellers, and the less business it generates the more lenient it becomes. Just generally speaking, comparing sites like Bonanza, Ebay, Amazon, Walmart, Etsy, FB Marketplace and others I can't think of at the moment.
Keeping in mind that demand has a way of driving a seller's prices as well, it is a formula that involves several factors all from more than a few angles to be considered.
house*of*paws
·2 years agoYou ‘work hard’ with ‘the public’ in any capacity for 20 years … and you’ll likely experience burnout. That’s just the way it is. 🫤
luckythewinner
·2 years agoEbay: if you are reading this, you need to act fast
Buyers have been able to defraud sellers ever since 2008 when the Money Back Guarantee was introduced. And since then, eBay has a long history of making changes and creating policies that favor buyers over sellers.
And after all that, sellers still flock to this site to list items and make sales. So while you might want to see eBay act fast, I don't think they see much compelling evidence that they need to.
Without sellers ebay is toast
Without any sellers, eBay would be toast. But without some of its sellers, eBay will be just fine - and buyers will generally purchase a similar item from a similar seller for a similar price.
Unavailable member
·2 years agoSo many sellers don’t understand this point. Lose 20% of sellers, MAYBE sales decrease by 1%. Lose 20% of buyers, and sales go down by 20%.
Translates to the misconception that a seller’s worth to eBay should be what is paid in fees - which is absolutely incorrect. A seller that pays $10,000 in selling fees to ebay has a value of about $200. And that is being generous.
johnson_junk_company
·2 years agoWell, I would agree with your analysis if all sellers were equal however, we all know that isn’t true!
eBay needs to be aware of who they chase off and who stays. Anytime they loose a good, albeit small, seller….they are driving a nail in their coffin. Greed does this. Favoring large volume sellers who sell inferior products and provide no CS over the smaller mom and pop types only leads to one outcome and that is a significant loss of market share that eventually leads to bankruptcy.
lonebuck-books
·2 years agoThe reason sellers flock to this site is because there really aren't any viable alternatives out there outside of Amazon which only works for some items/sellers and is significantly more seller hostile than eBay. Been a seller on both and I will take eBay over Amazon as a seller any day of the week. Bring on a site that will have a similar buyer reach and name recognition as eBay, then sellers will move on. Until then, there really isn't a viable option but to keep 'flocking' here.
johnson_junk_company
·2 years agoeBay’s market share continues to shrink so the money back guarantee hasn’t been the magic bullet to inspire consumer confidence they envisioned. Just offering actual customer service by using the motto “The customer is right within reason†is the way to go.
silverstatetreasureboxes
·2 years ago@paulbeepaul
Well where on earth did this come from? Why isn't your wife writing a post instead of you if she's the big seller?
broto_64
·2 years agoThe new version of "asking for a friend," not that I ever liked that version either.
johnson_junk_company
·2 years agoInappropriate babe! I have handled the “public†face of my husband’s business for 30 years! Does that mean he doesn’t exist?! No….
soh.maryl
·2 years agoThe issues you mention are in no way unique to ANY internet seller. Most of them know this and accept this as the norm, manage to rise above it and have varying degrees of success.
Just curious, what would you suggest that eBay should do to "act fast"?
And, BTW, there will always be many,many more sellers than buyers, so it's doubtful that eBay has much interest in retaining sellers.
gone.c-33
·2 years agoNot even limited to internet sellers, anyone who has ever worked retail knows that there’s a significant faction of shoppers who have a special place in hell waiting for them…
toomuchstuffagain35
·2 years agoNot just retail, but any public facing business.
johnson_junk_company
·2 years agoI totally agree with that!!
johnson_junk_company
·2 years agoExcepting it as the norm IS the problem! Sellers are giving platforms hosts, like eBay a pass by saying “Hey, yeah you’re screwing us over but it’s ok, I made a couple of dimes this week.â€
hartungcards
·2 years agoSo.....you don't like buyers and you don't like eBay?
paulbeepaul
OP2 years agoI like respectful buyers, who read the descriptions and treat the seller like a decent human being. But a significant minority of buyers are quite the opposite.
I don't like ebay's policy towards sellers, who by default are regarded as being in the wrong, whereas buyers are regarded as being in the right. It has become increasingly difficult recently to appeal against bad actions by buyers, for instance buying a good item from the seller and returning their own faulty item for a full refund. I'm not saying that all buyers are like this, of course they are not, but enough to cause real problems for sellers.
I hope this clarifies things.
fern*wood
·2 years agoIt is common, and pretty much unavoidable, when dealing with the public regardless of where you work. Trust me, my last job was in collections for a finance company---talk about not being respected.
luckythewinner
·2 years agoIt has become increasingly difficult recently to appeal against bad actions by buyers, for instance buying a good item from the seller and returning their own faulty item for a full refund.
That has been an issue for sellers since 2008 when eBay introduced the Money Back Guarantee, and it is not going to change.
The reality is that eBay did not see what the seller shipped, and did not see what the buyer returned. So every situation is essentially a "he said, she said" argument.
As much as people here want to fantasize that eBay will die or that they "must do something" about this ... eBay has years and years of data about billions and billion of transactions. They are not making decisions in a vacuum. They know the likelihood of a buyer leaving after a bad transaction, versus the likelihood of a seller sticking around after a bad transaction. They have done the math, and they are going to do what is in eBay's best interests, not the seller's.
ebeths_eclectic_collectibles
·2 years agoMany companies have tightened return policies over the last few years but you will find these policies are more often deterrents and guidelines not policies set in stone. A store might have a 90 days return policy on clothing or shoes requiring the merchandise to be unused but will more often than not bend the rules to make customers happy. Especially loyal big spending customers.
hartungcards
·2 years ago"I like respectful buyers"
Buyers are like your family. You can't choose them.
"I don't like ebay's policy towards sellers"
You (or your wife) have implicitly agreed to these policies.
I hope this clarifies things.
kensgiftshop
·2 years agoIt's not just Ebay, pretty much any business that depends on buyers think that way.
farmalljr
·2 years agoYou CHOOSE to sell here. As much as some buyers may be not so great, most are fine. It's a game of numbers. You either choose to participate and make sales, dealing with the occasional problem buyer, or you don't. You either choose to accept the rules of the platform, or you don't.
I hate to burst sellers little bubbles, but it's not just buyers who stink, it's sellers too. Everywhere, including online, the norm of "customer service" is the jerk yelling "get off my lawn!". Small mom and pop store, or a large corporate store, customer service does not exist anymore. People are rude, obnoxious and self involved. From the cashier to the store owner, people/customers are treated like adversaries.
Someone with good customer service skills does not start out complaining that the "idiot" buyer didn't read the description. Someone who cares about their business and does not see buyers are the adversary, does not start off knocking down and blaming buyers. They know not all buyers are unicorns and rainbows and know there are some situations where it's not ideal. But they push through it because most sales go on just fine and only a few have hiccups. Happy buyers make repeat buyers. Treating everyone good despite there being a few bad ones is what in part, makes a business successful. Treating people like crooks leads to no one wanting to deal with you if there are alternatives. Hating on the platform because you don't like the rules does not change the rules.
Everyone is great at complaining. You live in a free market, so if you don't like it, create your own platform with your own rules. Otherwise, it's just senseless whining and complaining. No one is forced to sell here. Nothing is stopping anyone from creating their own platform if they think everything stinks and it should be better.
chapeau-noir
·2 years agoSmall mom and pop store, or a large corporate store, customer service does not exist anymore. People are rude, obnoxious and self involved. From the cashier to the store owner, people/customers are treated like adversaries.
That's a very broad brush.
arraus
·2 years ago@hartungcards That is not what OP said. Please, don't put words and extremes in peoples mouths. It deters a constructive conversation and support.
hartungcards
·2 years agoMaybe you missed the question mark at the end of my post. Please, don't say I'm putting words and extremes in peoples mouths when I'm asking them a question. It deters a constructive conversation and support.