Would you trust AI to accept/decline/counteroffer ?
Summary: The discussion centers around using AI to manage eBay offers. upgr-60 raises the idea of allowing AI to handle messages and offers, with mixed reactions from others. shire123 prefers using auto accept/decline features, expressing skepticism about AI's role in pricing. Participants like broto_64, nyr134, and duffy4444 express concerns over AI overwhelming personal interaction and possibly alienating buyers. The consensus leans towards caution, emphasizing the value of human judgment in transaction processes, except in high-volume scenarios where auto features might suffice.
Among all the lowballers, there are occasionally legit buyers who just happen to open the conversation in a pretty insulting way. My question: do you think it's a good idea to let AI handle all these messages, so you don't have to sift through everything manually to find the few real customers?
UPD: Do you feel you might be missing a legit customer by setting your auto-decline threshold too high? Maybe they would have paid enough if they'd received a counteroffer?
eastlaneave
·1 week agoI have no auto declines at all. That could decline some multi sales where you are willing to take less due to them buying 10 more items (less packaging, save on shipping etc).
mam98031
·3 weeks agoI don't choose to allow a site to do this for me. I make my own decisions and will continue to do so. I do sell on another site that offers they will take over customer service and the such. I always decline. I can handle my own job.
fm2000
·3 weeks agoI don't need AI to handle those, I can decline lowball offers all by myself. I can put anyone who sends an obnoxious message with their offer on my BBL all by myself as well.
reallynicestamps
·3 weeks agoRemember that the autodecline includes a polite encouragement to try again. I have seen two or three recorded auto-declines before the customer hits a sweet spot.
adamcartwright
·3 weeks agoIf you are using AI to speak to potential buyers, you may risk alienating that segment of the public which avoids AI whenever possible.
tobaccocardyahoo
·3 weeks ago · EditedOn the very few listings on which I have enabled Make An Offer, I use auto decline or accept. It is best for my blood pressure.
I would prefer an auto-decline for all listings which do not have Make An Offer enabled, and would prefer that Ebay never use the words Best Offer.
Sellers differ in their attitudes toward offers and the people who make them. I am only interested in offers from my existing customers, not some low-baller who makes offers on my lowest priced items.
My blocked buyer list continues to grow.
broto_64
·3 weeks agoAuto accept/decline is far easier and 100% accurate.
upgr-60
OP3 weeks agoYou're right that it's accurate, in the sense that it does exactly what you set. My point is that fixed thresholds leave money on the table.
The problem is how you choose those thresholds. You can't do it optimally by hand — if only because you should be lowering both your auto-accept and auto-decline in real time while an item isn't selling, which isn't the most entertaining process. On top of that, you're not personalizing anything, so you miss buyers who'd be willing to pay a bit under your current auto-decline threshold — which could still be a profitable deal for you. And here's another one: when a buyer offers above your auto-accept level, are you sure they couldn't have paid even more than their opening offer? Chances are they could.
duffy4444
·3 weeks ago · EditedWoulda, coulda, shoulda... You're running into paralysis thru analysis with a very small percentage of buyer or seller benefit anyhow.
For all of your excessive "leaving money on the table" and "fixed thresholds" concern, just accept either the auto-decline, or take the time to negotiate with the buyer and get on with life.
Your only other real choice is to trust AI and its likely screwing things up or alienating buyers.
Cheers, Duffy
broto_64
·3 weeks agoThe ROI isn't worth the expenditure, in terms of energy AI isn't free, even if we're not currently paying for it per se... Well, actually we are, our electric bill just keeps going up, have you noticed?
nyr134
·3 weeks agoIn this situation if I, a potential buyer, realized that I was communicating with an AI thingy, I would take my business somewhere else.
upgr-60
OP3 weeks agoWould you, as a buyer, choose to be auto-declined? :)
nyr134
·3 weeks agoNo, I wouldn't be happy about it - but my objection is to the part where AI gets involved in the messaging or in the conversations. That's a turn-off...just like AI writing the item descriptions. Having said that, I acknowledge that there's plenty of people who wouldn't care or wouldn't notice.
shire123
·3 weeks agoThe fact that the buyer placed an offer they should realize that the offer may very well be declined. I don't see how being auto-declined makes any difference. If me as a buyer suspected that AI is doing the decisions then I would steer away from that listing. If you wish to rely on AI then maybe let's have AI do everything on ebay (sarc)
duffy4444
·3 weeks agoeBay's AI is unreliable enough without adding an extra job on it to screw up. Offers are important enough for us to take the time and care of our customers in a more real way, not artificially.
IMHO, the last thing we would want is to have AI with its fingers further in the pie with things that allow us to become even more lazy and complacent than we already have become by being forced to trust AI.
There's something to be said about the human touch rather than relying too much on something that is a replacement for reality.
Cheers, Duffy
upgr-60
OP3 weeks agoHey Duffy, that's fair. I'm rather talking about high-volume sellers who just aren't able to process all incoming offers manually
shire123
·3 weeks agoThat's what the auto accept/decline feature is set up for. So that sellers don't have to deal with each offer.
albertabrightalberta
·3 weeks agoIf they're unable or unwilling to do the work (and it's not much!) involved in considering and responding to an offer, they shouldn't make the option available without setting an auto-accept and/or auto-decline.
shire123
·3 weeks agoI always have the auto accept/decline values entered on all my listings. It has saved me a lot of time so that I don't have to answer somewhat ridiculous offers.
upgr-60
OP3 weeks ago · EditedThanks for the answer! Do you believe AI is able to sell the same product at a smaller discount with help of auto-counteroffers?
shire123
·3 weeks agoI don't think AI has anything to do with sales through offers. You set the minimum price you would accept. AI just compares the actual offer with your minimum acceptable offer and then accepts the offer if it is equal to or greater than your minimum.
upgr-60
OP3 weeks agoYou're right, that's how it works now. But I feel there's a lot of money left on the table with that logic. After receiving a lowball offer, an AI (connected through eBay's API) could message the buyer back, asking for the reasoning behind their bid. That starts a conversation where the seller might land a good enough offer so the customer isn't lost. Another scenario is where the AI waits for a second or third offer from the same buyer and, at some point, shoots back a counteroffer.
shire123
·3 weeks agoI would never let AI make my pricing/selling levels. I set them as I know all the inner workings of my listings such as shipping costs/acquisition costs, etc
broto_64
·3 weeks agoI get irritated by pushy salesmen and that's exactly what this comes off as to me.
pickapaper
·3 weeks ago@upgr-60 "an AI (connected through eBay's API) could message the buyer back, asking for the reasoning behind their bid."
If I tried to make an offer on eBay and got messages "asking for my reasoning" about anything, I would be really, really PO'ed.
Yesterday, I was looking at a company's website (not eBay) and put a couple of things in their cart. I wanted to think about of couple of other things so didn't complete my order until this morning and when I did, a little message popped up wanting to know why I didn't order yesterday. I found that very annoying and I ignored it.
chapeau-noir
·3 weeks agoAfter receiving a lowball offer, an AI (connected through eBay's API) could message the buyer back, asking for the reasoning behind their bid.
This would bother me.
kensgiftshop
·3 weeks agoIf you're worried about leaving money on the table, don't do offers.
They either pay your price or not.