Do sellers really deserve shaming for not keeping up with news?
I often see comments in these forums mocking sellers who aren't up to date on eBay policies. I'm not talking about someone upset about changes from X years ago that they're just learning because they're coming back after years of not selling. I'm talking about recent-months or even recent-weeks changes. To this day, I don't know what is the be-all-end-all source for keeping up with all changes that I should know about. I just happen to be active here in the forums a lot, so I see people starting posts about new stuff. But the vast majority of sellers never come here, and even among those who do, it's just occasional visits.
As for eBay, they don't seem to care about prioritizing seller awareness whatsoever. Some changes they don't announce anywhere, ever, they just make them and we learn by encountering them. Other changes they announce 'here' or 'there' but it's totally random.
Here's the link in the 'October Seller News' in the email they sent me on the 1st. -3 things I have no need for nor interest in whatsoever. And note, it doesn't include meaningful stuff like the (starting October!) change to how feedback removal requests are handled! That's just something I happen to know from reading posts here in the Community.
grand-and-glorious-purpose
·11 months agoJust wait until you wander into some FB groups.
There are ding dongs in there full chested explaining ebay like the last time they sold was 2008.
You correct someone on basic policy that is literally common knowledge and there are 5 people telling you they get returns closed all the time because they put a secret invisible ink mark and videoed themselves packing the item.
an-57470
·11 months ago@gurlcat
Honestly, I think the obnoxious ones deserve it. 🙂
soh.maryl
·11 months agoDon't see it as shaming exactly. Seems it's more like a situation where someone comes here and mentions something they didn't know and others point out that it was announced last week or last month or even last year.
Since the overall trend seems to be not to read anything, even the MBG, no surprise that there are quite a few people, both buyers and sellers, who seem clueless about things that can impact their buying or selling here.
What's the old saying: You can lead a horse to water but you can't . . ."?
le-5262
·11 months agoNah...probably not a good look to be shaming people, in general, on a community help forum.
tobaccocardyahoo
·11 months ago@gurlcat
I have to acknowledge that I share @jonathanbrightlight 's sense of awe at your unread message count.
I am sure you know that you need not read all those messages, you can check one box and then mark them all as read.
You are clearly rebelling. I don't know if it is against Ebay or a tidy inbox.
gurlcat
OP11 months ago🤣 I never gave it a second thought. And you think 268 is bad? Check out my gmail and yahoo.
When I rebel, you'll know.
jonathanbrightlight
·11 months agoThat literally made me shudder. My Gmail has one unread message right now, because I want to be reminded of it in the next few days, but it’ll be deleted before long. My inbox only has 26 messages in it, too, the rest are just already marked as read, and that’s still more than I like to keep.
gurlcat
OP11 months agoWhoa you changed your avatar. I was hearing we couldnt do that anymore, there was some mechanism preventing it.
jonathanbrightlight
·11 months agoThere wasn’t an intentional change to block it, but it was linked at one point to your eBay avatar, then that stopped working, but the option to change it here on the forums had been removed because it would have broken that feature. The option to change your forum avatar was re-enabled a month or two ago, I think.
I changed mine because I am being harassed by a user here, and I did not wish to aid them in doing so.
albertabrightalberta
·11 months agoI was able to change mine too.
jonathanbrightlight
·11 months agoFor anyone interested in changing theirs, you just go to your own profile and there's now an edit icon on the bottom right of your profile picture:
gurlcat
OP11 months agoThank you for that. Maybe someday the perfect avatar will make itself known to me, but the only reason I have one at all is because (I think about a year ago) wastingtime101 got fed up with trying to recognize my replies in a long-running thread and I was just one of several with the default blue globe thing. He strongly encouraged me to create an avatar, and I was like "But I'm waiting for the perfect one." -He wasn't having it, asked what was something I liked, and I said "plants". So he found that lovely sassafras image and put my store name on it, and was like "Here, use this." Well how could I refuse after he went to the trouble?
I'm starting to think maybe I really am lazy. I knew I was lazy as a teen, then I definitely became a real go-getter for 25 years or so, but now ...... yyyeah, I sure can convince myself videos can't be paused and what-not. 🤣
jonathanbrightlight
·11 months ago@gurlcat
I for one would be very confused if you did change your avatar! It's iconic now!
albertabrightalberta
·11 months agoI agree that @wastingtime101 is always so willing to help!
go-bad-chicken
·11 months agoThanks for that bit of information.
roccotacodad54
·11 months agoI think they fixed that. I changed mine recently to one that I like better. I couldn't even add an avitar where one didn't exist.
Devon got involved in a post I made and viola...fixed.
Edit: I didn't mention wastingtime 101 who I believe brought it to Devons attention.
Thanks wastingtime,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
adamcartwright
·11 months ago@gurlcat
I would be more likely to keep up with the important news if I weren't also receiving time-wasters like "you have unfinished drafts" emails.
tobaccocardyahoo
·11 months agoI have no idea how many unread messages my gmail account has. I only provide that address to spam generators and never check that email account.
If anything is important, I want it spied on my less skilled companies than Google.
tobaccocardyahoo
·11 months agoThe fundamental issue here is how much time is it necessary for a seller on Ebay to dedicate to other than listing, picking, packing and customer service.
There are many sellers who barely manage to perform those functions which are essential for any online sales business.
As for shaming, is shaming worse for a seller than losing their ability to sell because they fail to keep up with changes?
Look at all of the sellers who come here when they have exceeded the BBE policy who have no clue why they have been restricted from selling to the US. They all tell us about their 100% positive FB while they have been digging their own graves for months.
Perhaps Ebay will use AI to automate shaming.
meme6253
·11 months agoSometimes people just don't have the time to keep up on everything, No need for shaming!, If it becomes a routine for the same person over & over again, Well then shame away!
babyers88
·11 months agowell I don't believe in shaming someone for lack of knowledge, unless it's my kid who should know better! lol
but....if you sell for a living or for any significant reason then you should make it a point to keep up on the rules and general changes that come around (ignorance is bliss i guess).
The mixed feedback changes were announced previously in the August seller news along with the automatic feedback changes. The buyer has 10 days to reply to a ebay mixed feedback revision request if the buyer does not reply then the feedback is unpublished, if they correct it then it remains (fixed) as originally rated.
There have been tons of announcements over the years that's the only way I know about them in general, because I read each one, usually every little detail even it does not apply to what I sell or how I sell, because they do like to sneak little tidbits in here and there.
thekulamoa
·11 months agoeBay doesn't make a big effort to announce changes that they know sellers will not like, such as the constantly increasing fees. It's no surprise that it can be hard to keep up with their news. Sometimes even when you click on their seller update, you have to click through several more pages just to find the actual full details of an update (especially fee increases). Heck, just to see the details of the fees charged on any particular order, you have to click through at least three different pages. Trying to make sense of eBay's hostile, malicious behavior at this point is basically self harm.
I genuinely admire your dedication to adding some positive energy to this forum, @gurlcat. But, to be frank, eBay could announce that they will now take every seller's first born child as part of their new fee structure, and some users on this forum would tell sellers they're whiny babies if they feel horrified, and besides, every other site is doing the same, or something, dontcha know, so that makes it righteous. I've never been a fan of the term 'tough love', as in my experience, it's come from people who step on others to make themselves feel bigger, instead of seeing kindness as strength.
For what it's worth, I agree with you, and I think us small sellers should stick together instead of sticking our necks out for a multi-billion dollar company that doesn't care about us. I appreciate the income this site has helped me bring in, but ultimately, I am not eBay's employee. eBay is reliant on us sellers for THEIR income, and over the past several years, has tried to flip that narrative, tried to make us believe we 'owe' them more and more and more, and has become more like a leech than a helpful tool or business partner. Don't let the company, or anyone here, gaslight you into thinking it's OK.
jameshen1
·11 months agoeBay is reliant on us sellers for THEIR income,
Totally disagree. Sellers listing things does not make a penny for eBay. Buyers buying and paying for items does however. This is why the platform is very, very buyer centric.
thekulamoa
·11 months agoAnd who lists the items so that the buyer can buy? The items do not just show up on their own. eBay is reliant on the labor of sellers to add valuable goods to their platform.
stephenmorgan
·11 months agoeBay is reliant on both Buyers and Sellers. Without one the other does not exists.
12345jamesstamps
·11 months agoThe thing I dislike is when eBay is testing something on a few sellers or even buyers.
It isn't published yet but just a test how it turns out.
I remember when they did that 'one-hour' payments when you win an auction. and they had a clock ticking down to the hour.
The seller and me knew about about what was going on.
It seems the only news we get is something new and improved 'promote'.
The feedback change was brutal...as I always prefer the 'classic' instead of the real one.
And have to always switch back to classic...
aerospacesurplusnett
·11 months ago27+ years and I NEVER read the ebay newsletters, never call eBay, just stay under the radar and sell sell sell.. im looking at another $1m + year .. grateful
stainlessenginecovers
·11 months agoHow 'feedback' is handled was changed over a year ago and it was in the announcements back then.
The 'newer' feedback thing about not removing ANY negatives was recent email sent out regarding the FTC announcement/rule/law (whatever you want to call it).
Those that are regular sellers know to read all messages (or should and if they don't.....)
Sellers get a message that the 'monthly' news is out, which covers changes.
Finally, those that have been 'gone' for eons- should expect nothing less than 100+ changes. Like turning on the TV after not watching it for 20 years.
Hey! there's more than 4 networks now!
Hey! there are quite a few new channels that have new shows!
Hey! I have to pay for Amazon to watch the NFL?
stephenmorgan
·11 months agoLike reading the Owners Manual of a car. Years ago they were like 30 pages or so. Now they are like 450 pages or so.
gurlcat
OP11 months agoI posted the October news message that I received. Do YOU see anything in there that "covers changes"?
babyers88
·11 months agothat is rather vague and not true, ebay still removes negative feedback for the same reasons it always has, the specific changes are that it will not be AUTO removed IF a seller offered free return & refund or refund deduction, a free return/refund no longer qualify's for automatic feedback removal. It can be requested for things such as anything that was clearly noted in the item description, i.e. i received a scratched product, but the item description clearly states: the item is scratched (disclosed issue).
and all the other reasons it has in the past, extortion, personal info, etc, etc
jonathanbrightlight
·11 months agoThere was another change made as well, where if a buyer leaves feedback and some part of it violates policy, they will be notified that they need to change or remove that part of the feedback, but the negative/neutral feedback will not be removed unless they refuse to edit it or the whole thing violates policy. I can't find a link at the moment, but there was an announcement or article about it that was posted several times.
broto_64
·11 months agoOh so it's ok if it's old news but not if it's new?
Shaming is shaming.
Just to take it one step further, you know, in case censorship is implemented because of heated argument over this topic.
stuff4divas
·11 months ago@gurlcat i don't think sellers are not updated properly
seller hub has tons of info and messages are sent to registered email accounts
i think there are many who are just too lazy or overwhelmed to read thru the voluminous info, including myself
sellers need to stay on top of policies and their changes to lessen 'getting in trouble' with eBay or our buyers,
so your post is good to bring more awareness to some sellers who would otherwise 'somehow' not know
gurlcat
OP11 months agoBut what do you mean? -THIS Seller Hub?
That Seller News thing it shows is the same useless one I received in email, and ^posted in this OP^. How could it possibly help sellers "stay on top of policies and their changes to lessen 'getting in trouble' -when it doesn't even talk about policies, just trying to get us to share our stuff on social media and whatever.
jonathanbrightlight
·11 months ago@gurlcat
Unrelated to your post, but I'm in awe of the fact that you have 268 unread messages. My brain would not allow me to leave those alone, even though I'm sure most or all of them don't need to be read or marked as read.
gurlcat
OP11 months agoWell I have my OCD practices, but unread messages? Nah.
estate_echoes
·11 months agoAnd the show they same useless thing twice in the Seller hub....
Not sure what's worse... that or 'promoted' garbage spamming with a dead link.
gurlcat
OP11 months agoThank you! They throw at us a glut of "information" and most of it is pure JUNK!
monica-sells
·11 months agoI agree...tough love....
people spend hours reading (probably) 50 fake reviews before buying a $10.00 kitchen gadget...spending 10 minutes reviewing "basic" selling policies should not be an issue...in fact, it should be required.
gurlcat
OP11 months agoYou're talking about people's willingness to read. I am talking about knowing WHERE to find what to read.
heckofagame
·11 months agoI agree that they could do a much better job of making sellers aware of changes, however, many sellers wouldn't read it anyway and would still complain. And it's not shaming, it's tough love. 😀
gurlcat
OP11 months agoCertainly you can't make all (seller) horses drink water, but if they streamlined all vital information into one monthly email, I for one would read it, absolutely.