Ebay is losing sellers like me
I am seeing after 12 years and 20,000 items sold that I have made a mistake by not building my brand on my website instead of using Ebay. I have paid over $150,000 in seller fees and they will allow a buyer with 0 feedback to leave neutral review even though I offer free returns, and this buyer has never used Ebay. Where is the incentive to offer free returns? Why should I continue to use a platform that does not support the people who pay the fare?
Instagram and FB marketplace here I come.
36 comments
redcat114
·1 year agoi have found in the last 6 months sellers dont matter . try to get any kind of help good luck. after 21 years i just stopped selling low profits due to shipping fees along with ebays rising fees . market flooded with new items use to be a good place to sell good used items but seems like ebay dont care about that anymore. oh well good while it lasted.
sfau
·1 year agoThe first one was a mistake and happens. The second buyer for the neutral sounded difficult - how do they know that they were North Carolina pine needles?
oldwestcoins
·1 year agoBuilding and maintaining a website in place of eBay doesn't work. I know from direct experience. I tried to make it go for over 10 years. Wasted over $10k with Freelancers and got very little in return. I just kept throwing money at it, but finally gave up a couple of years ago. I kept the website, but for informational purposes. I pointed my potential buyers to my eBay store on it. It has worked out pretty good to date. I know many coin dealers who have tried the same and given up. Both large and small. Building a website is nothing to pay someone to do, but then you have maintaining it to deal with almost daily. Just not cost-effective for most sellers here, and very time-consuming for the return you will get. And I am a retired IT Mgr of 30 years.
simply-the-best-for-you
·1 year ago@oldwestcoins What I think is even harder than all that & is absolutely key, is driving traffic to your site!
ed8108
·1 year agoI would recommend, that you inquire with ebay for an answer
tictoc-gizmos
·1 year agoEBay has been so worried about keeping China, India and other foreign markets in their game. They're curtailing all their algorithms. So they're junk.Can try to sell with the actual antique and collectible items . Meanwhile when there are people who are looking for something in particular cannot find it because it's filled with a bunch of chinese made garbage
krazzykats
·1 year agoThe site is also cluttered with plain American listed junk—essentially garbage. trash.
Major search engines will frequently feature sponsored eBay ads that promote these "junk" lots to buyers. Simply use your favorite search engines to browse and see these sponsored eBay ads for yourself. Or search eBay for Junk lots- (Most of the junk lots are simple mystery lots imho.)
So, sellers with low feedback exploit eBay sponsored ads to promote their garbage listings, leading to many disappointed customers who may never return to eBay.
On top of that, these same sellers use signpost pictures to lure newish buyers in. But buyers never receive what's shown in the listing's images and feel cheated and deceived. Then, these sellers make it too expensive to return the junk, so buyers often times do not return the trash they received.
á“šá˜á—¢
tictoc-gizmos
·1 year agoI agree a 100% eBay and it's new structure curtailing to new products .try to compete with Amazon and other online new merchandis Markets has forgotten its roots of selling collectible antiques .
Step back to the beginning and rebuild
gloryglorygifts
·1 year agoAfter my experiences with Insta and Facebook and marketplaces, all I can say is good luck to you. Neither has any kind of customer support, should you run into those negative buyers. Both will just ban you for no real reason at all. All it takes is one scammer and you are history.
gone.c-33
·1 year agoThis! If something as inconsequential as a neutral is pushing you to leave eBay, you are NOT ready to deal with FB/Insta buyers.
an-57470
·1 year agoI am not a huge seller on ebay, never have been, but throughout the years, I have sold things here and there and mostly had a pleasant experience. That said, these days its difficult to sell and make any profit between the rising cost of shipping and the seller fees that ebay takes, it's not worth the effort anymore. Plus I've had two buyers in the past month that have said their item never arrived, when tracking clearly showed that it had, then I was ghosted.
Ebay's only real solution to selling slumps is to reduce the item price, not great marketing advice.
I've thought about it for awhile and now I am finally going to do it, I will be closing my account.
reallynicestamps
·1 year ago@Anonymous Plus I've had two buyers in the past month that have said their item never arrived, when tracking clearly showed that it had, then I was ghosted.
Since you have Proof of Delivery, you win the Claim.
Just put the tracking number into the Claim.
Do NOT trust eBay to do this for you, they want your active involvement.
soh.maryl
·1 year agoPerhaps I'm misunderstanding your message:
On eBay since 09/23/12.
5897 FB. 100%.
And you see leaving eBay as a good idea for a business plan?
justforfun.2010
·1 year agoEbay has lost me selling anything over %50 due to allowing crooks to state item not as discribed thus allowing buyers to steal from me. eBay believes the buyers lies, but not the honest seller.
fern*wood
·1 year agoFeedback is an opinion, sometimes we may not agree with the opinion or they are rating the item and not the seller. Those are among the reasons ebay did choose to protect us by no longer counting feedback as a defect on our accounts, so now they do not harm us in that way. Good follow-ups can help greatly to overcome the visual.
I will continue to sell as long as I can physically & am making money. I've had plenty of negatives & they are quite survivable.
BTW: If I had to depend on FB marketplace, I would starve.
fashunu4eeuh
·1 year agoThough you may offer free returns, that does not negate the disappointment a buyer may feel when something disappoints them. The buyer is entitled to their unfettered opinion of the transaction. That the buyer has little sales history is not a factor.
pickapaper
·1 year ago@ghseawell
Do you honestly think it should be in eBay's policies that if a buyer went to leave a neutral or negative and a message popped up saying, "sorry, you can't leave that feedback because you are a new buyer and this seller offers free returns.?" What if it went the other way and you were the buyer, unhappy with a purchase and wanted to leave a neutral feedback but couldn't?
Also, look at it this way, the buyer didn't return the item so you got to keep your money and the neutral will not affect your metrics.
You inferred that you plan to leave eBay and sell on Insta and FBMP; I hope you understand that no matter where you sell, even your own website, you will have occasional problems; maybe not the same problems, but problems nonetheless. And you will not have the immense exposure that eBay offers.
If a neutral gets you this bent out of shape, it sounds like there is something else that is bothering you and maybe this was the "icing". Whatever, I hope things get better for you.
redcat114
·1 year agofirst i dont agree with all of the previous messages left for you. i have been a seller for 21 years untill last month. i quit selling. ebay will always side with the buyer, if you dont belive that get ready for the crapstorm . ebay policys should be read and explained by a lawyer beware of hidden fees and policys . whatch your bank account.
fbusoni
·1 year ago@ghseawell
I read the neutral left by the buyer; he sounds like the same sort of ignoramus (one who does not read or otherwise make an attempt to learn, in this case, your return policy) that we all encounter at one time or another.
I had one last year with an explosive temper who opened a box of 6 individually wrapped items, found the first one on top, and then wrote to me, enraged, that he did not see the other five... all of which were wrapped the same way as the first, further down in the 13x13x10" box. Yeah, hard to believe... anyway, it took me several sentences to explain that he needed to remove the packing materials from the box to uncover the other five items. He apologized for "overreacting."
Because you sell clothing, and because -- I would guess -- that some of your buyers have what I might charitably call a "rigid" mindset (no offense intended -- my son is in the military), I'd suggest you include a note in your parcels to the effect of:
"If this item does not fit properly please go to your eBay account and request a return and a refund. I pay return shipping and will refund your money immediately upon receipt of the item."
As for your own website and your own brand... I once had my own online store, and made several thousands in sales, but I learned after many, many years that eBay has a reach that no individual e-commerce website can match.
The reason is that the big search engines like Google thrive on new content. eBay gets tons of new content every minute of the day... sort of like websites of the large daily newspapers.
There is simply no way that an individual proprietor can attain that same level of exposure and get their items seen in the same way.
As for the other sites you mention... I too sell on FB and I can assure you that the imbeciles you encounter there will make you miss eBay. ðŸ˜
an-57470
·1 year ago@fbusoni
I had one of those several years ago. I had sold a group of excavated Civil War artifacts that I had conserved… several projectiles, a few buttons, and a buckle. All were packaged individually and then packed together into a bubble-type bag.
Buyer writes to me upon receipt absolutely raving that I had “forgotten the buckle, the most important and valuable item†and that “I was a scammer.†Buyer continued that he was going to call the local police department and that he would report me to the FBI and to USPS for mail fraud.
I replied back simply stating that I was certain the buckle was included because I had wrapped it separately in archival medium and then had placed it into its own separate bubble bag, which was then added to a larger bubble bag with the other artifacts and compressed to prevent any shifting/movement.
Buyer wrote back that he was “sure I had scammed him†because the bundle was “far too small to contain a buckle.â€
So, I write back simply, “please open the bundle.â€
For those still reading, yes, the buyer wrote to me ranting, raving, calling me “a scammer,†and threatening a litany of legal actions - without having opened the packaging.
Needless to say, the buckle was there.
fbusoni
·1 year ago@Anonymous
Testimony -- as if any is needed -- that at least one out of five Americans suffer from some form of mental illness.
powell-collectibles
·1 year agoIf one neutral throws you into a tailspin, you might want to take a break from selling. and most other activities, until you get at the underlying issues.
johnrj1226
·1 year agoIt is a readily accepted norm that businesses will loose ~10% of their existing customer every year.. At the same time new customers do some back filling - challenge is to attract 10% new. or more if they want the shareholders/partners to be happy. Sellers are a key factor in this challenge to make it happen.
When one (person or organization has achieve the top shelf they have to adjust to maintain that position or their next move ain't up - e.g. Sears Roebuck and Co., General Motors, NFL Champions* etc Other folks are are always shooting at them.
* Been a Detroit Lions fan since 1956. For 5 straight year. The Lions and Cleveland Brown battle for the top spot. Detroit won 3 of those, last one 1957 (was 13 yo then). Detroit ain't done nutin' since and Cleveland hasn't done much either.other than disappointment, came close but close only counts in the games of marbles and horse shoes (or washers if you are from Texas) - remain a Silver and Honolulu Blue Fan (don't like one of their new uniforms - looks a bunch of Smurfs
chapeau-noir
·1 year agoWhy do I feel like this is a humblebrag?
At any rate, don't pet the sweaty stuff - feedback is very subjective.
mommaknows
·1 year ago@ghseawell It sounds like Ebay has done well for you. 20,000 sales!!!!
I'm sitting here shaking my head wondering if something else may be happening in your life.
I hope that you see how silly this sounds over a neutral feedback with such an amazing sales record.
Congratulations on your success here from a new seller who only can dream of those types of numbers. I wish you continued success whatever you decide.
luckythewinner
·1 year agoEbay is losing sellers like me
Sellers are constantly leaving eBay and constantly joining eBay.
I doubt very many are like you, though ... sellers who have sold over $1 million here but are leaving because they get 1 neutral feedback every 3 months or so.
pikabo-icu
·1 year ago@ghseawell You have 4 neutrals, no negatives and your FB is still at 100%.
Nothing I read would deter me from buying from you and you have some cool items.
I wouldn't worry about the small stuff.
itsjustasprain
·1 year agoNeutrals do not affect your account. Frankly your other Neutrals point to genuine problems that you have hopefully addressed. You wrote as a reply to that 0-feedback buyer 'I encourage sellers to avoid this buyer' even though no one other than you can see his ID (and that may be removeable if he reports it).
Okay. Bye!
kensgiftshop
·1 year agoI don't think the last one is going to hurt as much as the other three.
inhawaii
·1 year agoAt 13.25% in seller fees, if you paid $150,000 that means you made over $13M in sales.
You're mad at ebay because someone left you a neutral feedback?
Are you kidding me?
12345jamesstamps
·1 year agoLOL...the OP was talking about a neutral feedback.
inhawaii
·1 year agoWorse yet.
slippinjimmy
·1 year agoYour math is off....by a factor of about 10
chpgts
·1 year agoYour math is way off. If the seller paid $150,00 in fees, his sales would only be less than $1.2M not $13M based on 13.25%. I agree quitting Ebay for 1 neutral feedback is not sensible.
12345jamesstamps
·1 year agoNeutral feedbacks mean nothing to potential buyers.
Actually, even negative feedbacks can be meaningless to a long-time seller like you with so many feedbacks.
I think potential buyers realize there are some who are just 'drama buyers' out there.
I would not ever have responded to the buyer with zero feedback...a waste of time.
We sellers are considered all the same whether new or old or sell a lot or a first time seller here...sad but it is what it is.
tictoc-gizmos
·1 year agoEBay has forgotten that the feedback system is what made eBay so successful when things were honored and sold on a trust basis.If not they would get a permanent scar for the performance.