Sellers are being treated like slaves. May get kicked off permanently if they don't sell more.
I recently broke my leg and am now trying to recover using a walker. I can't go out and find new stuff. So eBay sends a nasty message saying if I don't improve my performance and sell more items or make more money for eBay I might get permanently kicked off eBay. That is about as mean as it can get and reminds me of slave owners that tried to force their slaves to work harder by whipping them. .
43 comments
kalyoth
·1 year agoIf you got kicked off for not selling enough, through ebays inept programming decisions 95% of it's sellers & listings would be gone. Most of our listings get intentionally hidden in search results unless we opt to pay them money to unhide them. Sales are slow for many, forcing us to migrate off platform - in some cases 20 year sellers leaving. With our listings gone, ebay no longer has the cloned listing numbers to advertise either. ebay is the cause & unfortunately only solution.
As to your personal performance, you are the only one that controls that. No one forces you to list items or to ship items. How you directly manage that is your performance rating. All you can do is hope within the next evaluation cycle that the missteps you encountered decline & the numbers improve. Only you can impact that.
pastimpressions
·1 year agoOh, and to the OP
With all due respect to your obvious frustration.
As a 24/7 caregiver I find the opportunities afforded to me with this platform quite liberating and in no way indentured servitude.
Not many endeavors enable you to be at perpetual "beck & call" for a loved one whilst simultaneously affording the "opportunity" (not the guarantee) of generating income.
Also, it probably is not the best look to dramatically evoke the sufferings of bondage while in the same paragraph mentioning your housekeeper.
I don't doubt the sincerity of your feelings, nor do I seek to judge but it is always best to take a few deep breaths and calm it down a notch before sending a letter, writing a post, et al.
Believe me, I am an emotional person and have written 10,000 "air-drafts" over the decades that I held a few moments (or even days) that morphed into sane, cogent & meaningful expressions when the smoke cleared. Or, if the recipient still deserved it after the cool down, maybe I just didn't send anything at all.
Best of luck with shop & sales
chapeau-noir
·1 year agoAlso, it probably is not the best look to dramatically evoke the sufferings of bondage while in the same paragraph mentioning your housekeeper.
Oh lawdy - I missed that. If the housekeeper can ship, they can't just do the very simple task of messaging one's buyers. And yes, unless the housekeeper is holding the OP in bondage (oh...baybeeee) the conflation of the two is a little strange.
pidgeun1
·1 year agoeBay will never kick off sellers unless it is an emergency. Sellers are cash cows for eBay. They will milk the sellers dry. eBay has a long list of fees that they collect from sellers regardless of whether there is a sale or not. Infact, eBay benefits from the much higher take rate or FVF from below standard sellers compared to other sellers. Their seller standards team will make sure that less than 1% are top rated sellers so that they don't have to give FVF discount to more sellers. 99% claims will be adjudicated as seller fault so that they can retain FVF fees even if they refund the buyer.
kensgiftshop
·1 year agoIf seller isn't up to standards, yes, they will boot them off.
Only if Ebay has to get involved.
If seller takes care of the problem their fee's will be refunded.
dhbookds
·1 year agoIf they don't want small sellers, why give away 250 listings?
pastimpressions
·1 year agoDon't know about that.
I never quite understood the 100 sales/$1000 standard.
I wouldn't consider a seller (hypothetically speaking) who sells 10 units of X product @ $10,000.00 a small seller or not eligible for TRS perks..............
Yet, if I sell 1000 units of X product at $1.00 each, I am a TRS?
$1000 gross per year over $100,000
???????????????
Some sellers deal in lower volume higher cost items.
The revenue they generate for themselves as well as the platform is no less relevant because of the manner in which it was generated.
Just a thought.
reallynicestamps
·1 year agoI never quite understood the 100 sales/$1000 standard.
Your first seller gave eBay ten happy customers.
The second gave eBay 1000 happy customers.
Happy customers return
meme6253
·1 year agoI was wondering where my lash marks came from.
johnrj1226
·1 year agoIf you were incapacitated for that period of time, you should have shut down your selling activities or had some one complete existing transactions for you.. Could have done that from your hospital bed from a cell phone - I did that when I had by pass surgery and was in the hospital bed for just 5 days.. And I'm a '44 model. Buyers don't have to inquire t about their all ready paid for items. You should have been proactive and contacted them ASAP.. Looks like you sold a couple items in May in the last 90 days, plus have 230 active listings...
Don't believe eBay would get on you case for not selling stuff - maybe for not shipping stuff back in the first quarter of the year.- those issues are all on you. as a professional seller.
Trust your leg has mended by now..
One more thing -
You have been an eBay Member since: Mar-26-98 in United States and have willingly signed a USER Agreement to follow the eBay policies, procedures and guidelines just like all eBay buyers and sellers are required to do. eBay updates that agreement over time and members are notified of the various changes as required..
luckyracer
·1 year agoSir, I admit — my leg gave out and so did my brain for a few days 😅
Your “’44 model†comment made my day — respect!
I’m back now with a new leg and renewed energy to run things like a pro!
And trust me, I can now recite the eBay User Agreement in my sleep😄..
Alright, boss — I get it. User Agreement? Memorized. Burned into my brain. I could probably quote it mid-sneeze now. 😅
Lesson learned the hard way — leg's healing, listings are rolling, and I’m back in seller mode (with notifications ON this time!).
Appreciate the tough love. You’re a ’44 model, but that advice hit like a 2025 update!" 🔧💥
luckythewinner
·1 year agoNo one gets kicked off eBay for "not selling enough". They get kicked off eBay for falling "below standard" because of failing to resolve cases and cancelling transactions. Both of those are 100% under the seller's control.
It is true that once you fall below those two thresholds, the only real way to get back above standard is to sell more and dilute them.
john_wade
OP1 year agoThanks so much for the comments from all posters. The message said I would be permanently expelled from eBay if my performance was staying below Ebay's algorithmic parameters. Sounds like I'm dealing with robots. I shipped late after being discharged from the hospital and got several very positive reviews after shipping late using my housekeeper as the shipper. Since 1998, I've had less than 20 negatives out of over 12,000 positive feedbacks. That is not so terrible.
jonathanbrightlight
·1 year ago@john_wade Feedback is not used to evaluate your account. You’ve had the actual criteria explained many times though, so I’m not going to rehash that.
luckythewinner
·1 year agoI shipped late after being discharged from the hospital and got several very positive reviews after shipping late using my housekeeper as the shipper.
Shipping late can keep you from being top rated, but it is not a metric that puts you below standard.
Since 1998, I've had less than 20 negatives out of over 12,000 positive feedbacks.
Negatives do not put you below standard, and positives do not keep you above standard. Feedback is not a metric that puts you below standard.
Sounds like I'm dealing with robots.
You are dealing with a math equation that measures your "cases closed without seller resolution" and "seller initiated cancellations".
Your seller dashboard should tell you exactly what the issue is. No need to guess.
inhawaii
·1 year agoGetting a message from ebay reminds you of getting whipped?
chapeau-noir
·1 year agoOh...baybeeeee...!
roccotacodad54
·1 year agoLOL LOL Lol lol................................lol.....lol...........lol..............lol.....................
titipeo
·1 year agoI’m not a frequent seller, and no longer have any listings, I closed them long ago, but I never received any notification as such because I was not selling. The note you got clearly indicates the issue at hand, unfortunately the leg injury came into play & affected you. This is why you need to have a plan a, plan b. What to do when you can’t attend to your listing. Time away is an option, or just completely shut down. As others mentioned, the defects will drop off as time goes on, or you get more sales. Simple, yes, but in reality it does take time.
Good luck.
doc-holmes
·1 year agoI think you need to read up on the history of slavery. That's a pretty outlandish and offensive comment.
annadryl
·1 year agoWell I am sorry about you leg and hope you're okay, but leg injuries have never been a criteria for selling status. I don't recall anything about slavery either.
One thing that never changes is that it is SUMMER and that often means SLOW, is that it?
itsjustasprain
·1 year agoIs this letter a new development? When did you receive it and what exactly did it say? You can post it here but leave out the personally identifying details.
chapeau-noir
·1 year agoIf nothing else, those defects are going to fall off at some point in time.
kensgiftshop
·1 year agoYou might get kicked off because you failed to ship a few orders and fell below standard.
Knock your prices way down and get some items sold and drop your %.
fern*wood
·1 year agoI'd like to see a copy of this message, because this is the second time today I've read a post by a seller saying they were threatened of being kicked off (or some such language) if they didn't sell more. There must be some funky working in this message, which wouldn't surprise me at all, but it needed changed or refined in some way.
bonjourami
·1 year ago"I'd like to see a copy of this message, because this is the second time today I've read a post by a seller saying they were threatened of being kicked off (or some such language) if they didn't sell more. There must be some funky working in this message, which wouldn't surprise me at all, but it needed changed or refined in some way."
Im sure it has more to do with defects, as others mentioned, rather than not selling enough, thats ridiculous.There are many millions of part time sellers here. But some sellers read into it like martyrs to the Ebay cause.
lacemaker3
·1 year ago@fern*wood,
This is a fairly common misinterpretation of the message eBay sends to below-standard sellers. It's easier to believe that eBay is being unfair, than that their own performance as a seller is not good enough.
Here is a screenshot that was shared by a different seller (in May), who had the same misunderstanding, that they were not selling enough items (quantity):
The message seems to be pretty clear. If the sellers were to click on the links in the message, the meaning would be clarified.
OP's earlier post about their health issues, from March:
https://community.ebay.com/t5/Shipping/In-hospital-for-month-Unable-to-ship-yet-neg-feedback-stands/td-p/34996123
12345jamesstamps
·1 year ago'I recently broke my leg'....that was back in a post saying it happened in January...
6 months to me is not recently...but that's just me.
reallynicestamps
·1 year agoInterpreting "minimum requirements to sell" as "you are not selling enough" seems to be the basic problem here.
Then not bothering to learn what "Seller performance standards" means.
We Sellers get Defects for not shipping, for selling items that are Out Of Stock, for not cooperating in Claims. Probably other things.
Defects lead to exactly what the OP says- restrictions on the number /value of their listings, and higher fees , usually 5% higher or the loss of earned discounts.
But as most here have pointed out, it's not the NUMBER of sales or even the VALUE of sales, but how well the customer felt they were treated as shown by the number of Claims on the Seller.
In passing, that broken leg seems to have happened over six months ago based on the negative feedback left by two unhappy customers, who neither received their purchases nor a refund. It's been my opinion that FB is left by customers who are unaware of the MBG, and may indicate other, perhaps many other, buyers who did file and win Claims.
When I broke my ankle, I was only in hospital for a day, a cast for six weeks, and used crutches for another month or less, and did physio at the same time. That was 20 years ago though, perhaps treatment has changed. I don't drive and taxi fare to the hospital for the physio was not covered by our Canadian medicare which got a little expensive. On the other hand, the homecare worker and visiting nurses were covered.
chapeau-noir
·1 year agoOP said in another thread that he was in the hospital with it for a month. I've worked through broken bones (used to mountainbike race so have broken a number of bones), but being stuck in hospital complicates things. The actual point at issue was having no backup to flip the switch and, for some reason, no internet from the hospital. I would have thought this whole issue would just be laid to rest long ago with the OP simply putting in place a mechanism to prevent those issues in case of an emergency.
But...not so much I guess.
chariot_badges
·1 year agoI don't believe that eBay wants small sellers.
They must be difficult to monetize well.
If you were eBay would you rather deal with a few thousand very large sellers, or a million small ones? I know, this is an exaggeration, but it is illustrative.
I know, I know ... eBay says different. But, I go by actions. Not words.
I see many actions that force smaller sellers off the road and making smoother pavement for the big boys.
Now, we will hear denial from two groups:
The shills and employees, and
the big boys.
powell-collectibles
·1 year agoI don't think that eBay really cares. They don't provide outstanding service to either, from what I have seen. One can argue that they spend more money servicing large sellers (on a revenue-to-service expense ratio).
What eBay does want is a better seller base. I'd say that the truly horrible sellers are usually small. Sure, eBay wants to get rid of these sellers. I don't get treated any differently by eBay now that I've gone down so much in revenue and fees. Heck, I've had multiple accounts for a long time - never saw anything different from eBay on a $10k/year account to a $120k/year account. Heck, I was suspended three times on that $120k/year account, never on my other accounts.
jonathanbrightlight
·1 year ago@powell-collectibles I think we mostly see smaller sellers being the ones who are truly horrible simply because if they’re really bad at selling, they never get to become a big seller. The standards eBay has in place (and buyer feedback) can really weed them out before they can sell enough to be considered a big seller.
pastimpressions
·1 year agoTrue, but you also have the massive sellers with dozens & dozens of negatives with poor feedback %ages or great feedback scores because the 100,000 sales wipe out the 250 bad experiences.
And some are TRS
These are generally sellers that deal in old returns that are boxed/repackaged.
Some customers get a great deal.
Some customers get a box that the original buyer switched out with their old one.
I would guess still others gush with embarrassment at their lot, so they just eat it.
Just a thought.
chapeau-noir
·1 year agoAlso third group - small sellers who don't agree.
itsjustasprain
·1 year agoNot really... they would rather have listing fees and such from a million sellers rather than a few thousand. The more sellers they have and the more listings they have then the greater the potential for sales - FVF fees - and happy shareholders. It is ALL about the money.
Now also if we could please stop with all the stupid remarks about 'Ebay cheerleaders' and how everyone who disagrees with a poster must be getting paid for it. We are all advanced beyond grade school.
luckythewinner
·1 year agoI don't believe that eBay wants small sellers.
They must be difficult to monetize well.
If you were eBay would you rather deal with a few thousand very large sellers, or a million small ones? I know, this is an exaggeration, but it is illustrative.
I disagree completely.
eBay loves small sellers who follow the rules, meet eBay's selling standards, and provides a positive buyer experience. They are eBay's bread and butter. For those sellers, it is easy for eBay to monetize them because it is completely automated and the cost of serving them is negligible.
But if a seller doesn't follow the rules, doesn't meet eBay's selling standards, and doesn't provide a positive buyer experience, eBay doesn't want them regardless of size because they are a drag on the system.
I agree that small sellers get weeded out more frequently, but that is simply because sellers are more likely to be bad sellers. A large seller does not get to be a large seller unless he was a successful small seller first.
vip2054
·1 year agoWe have been selling on EB for 25 yrs and just this week received the same message.
reallynicestamps
·1 year agoWe have been selling on EB for 25 yrs and just this week received the same message.
Have you looked at your feedback?
It's been my observation that negative and neutral FB are left by buyers too naive to use theMoney Back Guarantee system, and the MBG masks poor cooperation with unhappy customers, for privacy reasons.
powell-collectibles
·1 year agoIf you are in danger of being kicked off of eBay, it isn’t because of the number of sales that you have. It would be about the number of defects that you have in relation to the number of items you have sold. Yes, selling more and executing well Will help to improve – lower – your defect percentage. It is as simple as that. Selling on eBay is completely voluntary. It is pretty far from slavery, in my opinion.
tobaccocardyahoo
·1 year agoThis is one of a series of threads started by the OP because he did not deal with his Ebay listings when he had broken his leg and became a Below Standard seller. He has apparently not done enough to become a desirable seller.
bonjourami
·1 year ago"I recently broke my leg and am now trying to recover using a walker. I can't go out and find new stuff. So eBay sends a nasty message saying if I don't improve my performance and sell more items or make more money for eBay I might get permanently kicked off eBay."
Thats just not true. Im a very infrequent seller now, and I would have been long gone a long time ago.
chapeau-noir
·1 year agoYou don't get kicked off eBay for not selling enough. If that were the case, I would have been gone long since (I only sell for part of the year).
Just try to do your best with the listings you have - refresh them, etc., and keep things churning.
Hope you're able to get back on your feet soon.