Why would a founding member leave? Why would one close their account?

[cedar_brewed_bourbon]

I'm categorized as a founding a member. I've been with eBay since: Jan-01-00. I have a 98.5% satisfaction rating. he big question is; Why would I leave eBay after almost 20 years of selling?

A little about me

I am a seller who runs this part time from home as a side business. I do not sell in large scale typically 200 to 300 sales a year. Grossing between $1500 to $5000. ***Both these number's  have declined over time. Recently eBay bumped my free sales per month to 200 then called and asked if I was going to list more items. I told them I was and started to but...

I keep asking myself; Why am I still here?  Especially with falling sales margins and dwindling numbers? The answers are few;

1.) History mostly I've been here for a long time and have adabpted to the changes. I sell across catagories, From Comic Books to Computers and anything else of value. Heck I've evan sold a Ford Taurus wagon many years ago.

2.) When I've used other sites I've not had as much success. bonanza brought me a whopping 5 sales in the last 5 years. Not really worth it there. Unless I pay a monthly subscription. And cannot afford it as my margins are tight and don't leave much room for extra fees.

Overtime I have tried some of the extra fee items with a mixed bag of results. Example; eBay's advertising option which has helped but not so much as to make it worthwhile.

I also donate to some of my favorite charities directly through eBay via sales.

So what is the nail in this coffin? More to the point the direct question; Why would I leave eBay after almost 20 years of selling?

eBay's forcing sellers into their poorly designed single stream payment method. I do not have a lot of working capital to wait 2 business days for eBay to send me my money. I've had 6 sales so far this month and 4 of them within the last 24 hours. Today is the 15th of November and well into the Christmas selling season. eBay's single payer system will force me to ship an item I that has not been paid for and wait 2 business days. This does not support my working business model.

I'm not naive I know eventually every buyer and seller will all be forced to use only eBay payments. eBay dropped PayPal and is going to this method to keep more of our cash as processing fees. When that happens my days of buying\selling on eBay are over.

I wonder how the masses will respond?

[chapeau-noir]

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@tev4all wrote:

@chapeau-noir 

You would be wrong on that. I am not currently listing on this real estate. In the past I did and maybe, just maybe, one day, I may list here again. Too many questions that need to be answered first. 

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That's irrelevant to the point I just made.  Whether you are currently listing or not makes no difference - the fact still remains that this is eBay's real estate. 

[tev4all]

THANKS,  I had no idea this was eBay's real estate. 

[tellmemama]

In the past my payment processor sent all processed payments to the bank of record for my business, not to some other middleman who then disbursed these balances to me.    

And yet even with eBay's involvement I get the money in my account just as fast as if I were getting it directly from Adyen or through my own merchant account processor.  Except for the interest they may make from the "float", it's almost like eBay isn't there at all.  So all the screaming and gnashing of teeth doesn't make much sense to me.

Strange, huh?

[mam98031]

It is likely the biggest Cash Flow advantage Ebay is receiving from MP is the immediate collection of FVF instead of waiting 30 days to get paid by the sellers.

[myboymeizel]

I have been on eBay for a long time as well.  I normally sell 20 - 30 items a day (however lately this has decreased to around 10 per day).  I was also forced into the managed payments as well.  At first I fought the idea as I was upset that I could not receive my payment through PayPal.  I then found that I do have a "checking account" through PayPal and was able to provide all the required information to eBay so that I could continue to get my managed payments through PayPal.  I though "GREAT!  This can work".  But, no, they wouldn't accept the PayPal info.  However, I could not get a clear explanation on why and had a couple of customer service reps tell me everything was in placed, even though I kept getting the "warning" about updating my info.  The managed payments started and... they funds were going into my PayPal direct deposit!  The "warning" was still there however since the payments were going through I figured it must be an error.  Well, over a month of payments going into my PayPal checking and then they stop!!  Says they cannot verify the info, again!  Yet, they must have verified something as there were more than 30 payments already sent.  After not being able to get a clear reason on why I cannot use this account (other than knowing that eBay separated from PayPal and it seems they are trying their best to prevent sellers from using them at all for whatever reason) I gave in and put my personal bank info in.  Knowing it's a credit union that does not have a link on the eBay site I also provided my latest (October) statement with all the info as well, per their instructions.  Well, that was on Nov. 5th and guess what, they are still declining the release of my funds.  I called in at the end of last week... actually, I'm sorry, we cannot call them so I waited for the 2 hours for someone to call me.  Anyway, they confirmed the info I provided was accurate and would be all that is required.  They also went to another "member" who looked over the document and confirmed it was good and my payments would be released.  
Well, today they are still saying I need to sent info to verify the account!!  Of course there is no actual explanation, again, of what they feel does not meet their "needs" and it's impossible to get someone who knows what is going on.  

So... for me... I am just frustrated with eBays way of handling their own process.  If they are putting this process in place they should be able to assist sellers to assure we are also in a good place and feel secure staying with eBay.  We should be able to reach someone or, at a minimum, if they want us to provide something they should give clear instructions on what they need... not a summary of a general list, not specific to each circumstance.  I sell a lot of minimal priced items, normally $10 to $15 on average and of course I have to ship these and pay about $3.50 per item.  Yes, if you do the math, I'm only making a couple of dollars on each transaction after fees.  But, it's something I can do without going out of the house and working another "2nd job".  Right now eBay is holding close to $1500 of my funds hostage and cannot give me clear direction on how to get these funds!!!  Granted I am still paying between $35 to $50 a day in shipping charges I do still need the funds to cover all of my other shipping expenses.  

Yes, I am frustrated.  Not so much over the managed payments that we were forced into with no consideration of what type of arrangement we had set up with PayPal... I am frustrated with the fact that they do not seem to have support to assist sellers in making sense out of the process if they are stuck in a situation like I am currently in.  So, as I wait again for a call from eBay (it's been a little over an hour so far tonight), I decided to look at some posts and put in my 2 cents (which sadly I don't have:()  I am so exhausted and wish I had the time and energy to go elsewhere.  Unfortunately, as much as I do not really want to move my over 600 listings to another platform, I may eventually need to do so as eBay obviously does not care what so ever about their sellers.  I get the current "Covid" situation and understand things are different and many people are working from home however there are ways to handle calls just the same as being in the office.  I know because I happen to work full time for a large corporation and though we have had a lot of layoffs, those of us still fortunate enough to have a job are working from home and things are "business as usual".  I have my work computer, set up, phone, etc... exactly as if I were working in the office however I'm home and don't have co-workers in the next "cubical".  It can be done so why is eBay still fixated on poor customer service when we are going into at least 10 months of the "new norm".  

[mrdutch1001]

I put my plan in place 2 years, when it was first announced about MP becoming mandatory for eBay sellers...

(I'd left Etsy at the time they forced all their sellers to join the Etsy Payment system(Adyen)) & made the decision to work my way away from eBay...

I moved all 1500 of my items to eCrater...

eBay, Etsy, Bonanza,etc don't give a rats ass about their sellers, and any kind of seller support is pathetic on all those sites.

[chapeau-noir]

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@tev4all wrote:

THANKS,  I had no idea this was eBay's real estate. 

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Awwww...

[antqrus]

100 % CORRECT. I have been on ebay for 20+ years and this "Managed Payments" is the last straw. I am fazing out ebay as a selling platform, Managed Payments helps ebay to make more money from us, does nothing but add more trouble and fees to sellers. All to keep the share holders happy at the sellers expense!

[airdzi]

Just watch your buyers go away since payments are so mangled 

[stereobass2001]

I too agree. I've been a member since 2001. Margins have been steadily declining while their fees just keep increasing.

I too, will close my account. Everyone's prices are going up on items to offset these fees. EBAY will get more on those sales based on the price, but people (buyers) aren't going to pay. So, I'll just be stuck with paying the fees for attempting to sell items that won't actually sell...

I'm, over it 

[airdzi]

Watch the buyers go away in bulk, Amazon  - good price - next day delivery, EBay - good price - 10-14 days delivery (7 days for seller to get paid). My last 2 items purchased on EBay took forerever to receive to the point I no longer needed them.

Who wants to wait 2 weeks for delivery? 

What ebay is doing is stupid nonsense and they are drowning in their own greed. Wrong people at the helm are likely to blame. EBay is its own worst enemy! 

[disorderlieder]

Who is their target seller now?  I noticed most of the Chinese sellers seem gone now too.  

[mam98031]

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@airdzi wrote:

Just watch your buyers go away since payments are so mangled 

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Why?  Buyer's shouldn't be affected by sellers going into MP.  Other than they gain two more choices of ways to pay.  And any seller that tries to drag buyers into this dispute they are having with MP because they don't like it, will hurt us all.  Buyers do not belong in the issues sellers have with MP.

[cedar_brewed_bourbon]

Founding members are defined as members that have been on eBay since early on. I received my founding member notice \ discount last year 2019

[cedar_brewed_bourbon]

I really can't understand how eBay can get you to believe that it;'s your banks fault when in reality they should have the cash on hand to pass to you immediately. PayPal for example is a 24 hour transfer to my account eBay is 48 hours.