eBay is Outright Stealing at the Very Least This is Super Shady Promotions Moving From Organic...
to promoted!!
I normally defended eBay the last 3 years but this is looking shady as hell. For the past week or so I have noticed that when something sells I will start in the organic area of traffic and I will check 1 hour or so later and the sale changes to promoted so I will have to pay fees on that.
Like today, my girlfriend and I take a look at 2 sales that came through around the same time. They didn't have promoted in the orders area and I had 4 organic sales and 7 promoted. I check back an hour later and magically I know have 2 organic and 9 promoted(mind you this is with 350 organic clicks!!)
How has eBay not been sued over this or at the very least sent an email out to sellers letting them know that sales may change to promoted at their whim. Basically, they can change any sale to be promoted from organic and we will never know the difference.
Sales have been horrible this year and the last 3-4 years have seen a spike in impressions and clicks and sales by now but it is horrible so far this year. I have to raise promoted just to make it worth my time listing. So basically with eBay's new promoted system you have to pay more to get less than before, and they can change your sales right after to be promoted. This is slimy eBay, whether it was intentional or not. It's becoming a chore to be full time anymore and I think a lot of people feel the same, my account is plagued with glitch after glitch and you just want more money for less delivered. I have attached screenshot the current day shows 2-9 when 1 hour ago it was 4 organic-7 promoted
jerseyboymusic
·2 years agoI don't use PL on my selling account, so maybe I'm missing something
gloryglorygifts
·2 years agoEbay will charge you a PL fee on all of your listings, up to 30 days after you end the promotion. That's why you are still being charged. You must have promoted them within the last month.
mr_lincoln
·2 years ago@gloryglorygifts Just to clarify the opening sentence on the post above ... the 30 day attribute period is ONLY for items that were Clicked on (Viewed) during the campaign time period and ONLY for 30 days after the CLICK, not after the PLS ends.
gloryglorygifts
·2 years agoYes, I've seen that policy, but it doesn't do much to help the OP who had a few fees creep up unexpectedly because you have no way of knowing who clicked on it and who didn't. We are putting a lot of faith in ebay to get it right, but are they always? Nobody knows. A sale going from organic to pl within a few hours may be ebay catching up with the look back on the click, or not. It's a faith game. Honestly, I don't always trust ebay. There always seems to be a glitch.
mr_lincoln
·2 years agoHi @texas_online_thrift1
I saw that from time to time when I ran PLS and I did that for quite a few years but stopped 4th quarter last year. As for the processing of PLS sales in addition to what @valueaddedresource posted eBay also attaches a 30-day "attribute" to each listing that is Viewed DURING the actual PLS Campaign. If the PLS Campaign ends before the 30-day attributes on Viewed items it keeps running and if the item is purchased before the 30-day attribute timer runs out the Ad rate is applied to the sale.
I ran PLS for 30 days and only one Campaign per quarter. I would see sales a week or two latter with the Ad rate applied to the transaction.
gloryglorygifts
·2 years agoWhen you think about it, that is kind of shady. The OP ran a PL for a limited amount of time thinking it will end when they end it. Ebay decides it's still considered a PL fee for 30 days after. Yes, it's in the policy, but most want their PL to end when they end it.
mr_lincoln
·2 years ago@gloryglorygifts
Just to clarify, the 30-day attribute only runs 30 days from when the listing was opened and Viewed ... so if that happened on day 15 of a 30 day campaign the 30-day attribute will drop off the listing 15 days after the PLS ends.
Here is what the Policy states in the Help Pages:
As to being "shady" I will say I never liked it but I also was not going to go through the process of Ending all listings that were on the PLS and then create Sell Similar listings which would strip off the attribute. I believe that is what is required ... or one can End all the Listings on the Campaign and wait 30 days to Relist them ... I'm not sure if just the End function and Relisting function strip off the attribute but I am sure that could be tested ... if someone wants to spend their time doing that LOL!
sumsum70
·2 years agoI've never promoted anything, and I'm never gonna. eBay can only rip me off for the roughly 15% I expect them to.
Just say no to PL!
inhawaii
·2 years agoI didn't bother reading your entire rant.
Tired of reading such rants.
If you think promoted listings is not working, shady or stealing from you,
Here's an idea, don't participate.
It's voluntary.
ten_o_nine
·2 years ago@inhawaii
It's voluntary.
-------------------------------------------------
How?
When you put a listing ahead of mine because they promoted, it's no longer "voluntary". or is it?
inhawaii
·2 years agoNone of my listings are promoted.
How am I selling things?
stainlessenginecovers
·2 years ago@texas_online_thrift1 How are you 'deciding' that a 'sale' came from an Organic vs. Promoted? That graph does NOT show 'each' item...
(what is having 'promoted in the order area' even mean??)
You do know that once a buyer buys from a Promoted listing, that ALL purchases after (for the next 30 days) are figured to have come from Promoted?
texas_online_thrift1
OP2 years agoIf you bothered to read what I said, I'm not deciding anything. I said 5-6 sales in a row started as organic then were moved to promoted after less than one hour in a row! Try reading before you get snippy
stainlessenginecovers
·2 years ago@texas_online_thrift1
Please do not take what I said as being 'snippy' as I am truly wanting to understand. Many of my items (almost ALL) have always had the 'promotion' fee added- so I am wondering what you are seeing to the contrary.
You are stating that the items 'started as "organic" but I am wondering how you
a.) know that?
b.) know that they 'started' that way and wound up being charged as 'promoted'??
(I am aware of the 'new' thing where 'once a buyer buys from a 'promoted listing' that ANY other FUTURE purchase is now considered to be 'promoted' (since they first saw you item as promoted and may have very well went to you 'other items' or 'visit store'- the site NOW charges ALL those OTHER purchased as 'promoted' (which I guess I get))
but again, was ALWAYS wondering- "How can we tell"??
solidguitar1961
·2 years agoIt's possible your sales are from promoted listings. There's tons of threads from sellers who don't use promoted listings that their sales are down and listings are buried with promoted ads .
texas_online_thrift1
OP2 years agothey just did it again, it was 3-9 after a sale now it is 2-10, they will apparently keep doing it. How do I know if they were actually promoted that "mistakenly" got added to organic 5-6 times in a row or that eBay is glitching and costing me money???
valueaddedresource
·2 years ago@texas_online_thrift1 read my comment above. Unfortunately, it's not a "glitch", this is exactly how eBay says it will work - it can and sometimes does take up to 72 hours for them to determine a sale was attributable to a Promoted Listings ad and that means sometimes a sale will initially not show an ad fee only to have one added hours or days later.
The honest answer to your questions is unfortunately, there's no way to really know. Ultimately, sellers will simply have to believe eBay when eBay says a sale really did happen because of an ad click (or halo attribution) but it took some time to "reconcile."
It sucks and I have a lot of personal feelings about it but...it's an important fact to be aware of when you are deciding whether or not to opt in to using Promoted Listings ads.
texas_online_thrift1
OP2 years agosadly, since eBay cant produce as they have done even last year, I have to promote to get more than 300 a day. Looks like I need to start looking into other selling platforms
ten_o_nine
·2 years agoSo basically with eBay's new promoted system you have to pay more to get less than before
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Yup, that's correct, High fees + Slow Sales = eBay's demise.
I posted about what you plan to do in case eBay files for bankruptcy, most respondents said there is no way, I hope not because I like eBay, but will see, they are following the path of self-destruct.
valueaddedresource
·2 years ago@texas_online_thrift1 - if you look above those charts, you'll see a note that says "Metrics are reported in near-real time, allow approximately 72 hours to reconcile. All reporting data will be in your site timezone."
I've also personally had someone very high up at eBay ads confirm for me that some attribution is not done in real time, which is why they have that 72 hour reconcile timeframe.
I'm not saying you are wrong to be concerned about this or that there isn't something shady about it, just letting you know that eBay will say it's "working as intended" - just like they did in this previous thread.
https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/Significant-Drops-in-eBay-Impressions-and-Organic-Page-Views-A/m-p/33742422/highlight/true#M2210573