PROMOTIONS MANAGER: Sale + Markdown Event NOT Working! Shows ZERO Items!

[bauble-babes]

I've had 5 Sales going on for quite awhile, all ending on same date/time, and I always follow the same procedure when they end: I 'Copy' each ended sale so I don't have to select the items again, set the start/end times and Launch.

Did that this morn with all 5 as per usual, but when they became Active, each showed Zero for the # of Items in the sale. I clicked on the Zero and below is an example of what I saw:

These "Skipped" Items were selected to be in the sale! All 5 Sales are showing ALL my selections as "Skipped!" This has never happened before and I've been launching these sales for at least 6 months. Further, there's no way that I know of to delete these faulty sales. Perhaps @Anonymous can shed some light on this new problem/error.

[techwiese]

Tyler,

I have been scouring these posts and the internet after frantically realizing all my relisted 30 day fixed price items that had ended in the past few days could not be marked down.  You don't have 60, 120 or 6 month listing options, and EBAY discourages good till cancelled, and we cannot switch our 30 day listings to good till cancelled anyway. 

I have to relist my items every 30 days if they do not sell.  I don't change the price but I do put them back on a 9-15% off sale at the same price they were.  But because they were on sale they now are considered to have had a price change.  I did  not change the price, all that happened was a item ended which ended a promotion price.  Now I have to relist and wait 15 days before someone would buy it.

I just wanted them relisted at the same sale price they had been at, since they did not sell in 30 days.

Now I can only effectively have my items on sale for 15 days a month (there is a 1 day waiting period now), which means for 15 days a month, that item has no chance of ever selling.  We cannot lower the price for 14 days even if we wanted to, as that would consitute a price change and restart the clock as we would have to put the price back to have a promotion.

Maybe I am the only buyer in the world that virtually refuses to buy anything for myself that is not on sale.  But I doubt it.  The price scratched out and the word "sale" draws me in.  The exact discout is irrelevant.  I can research that later.  I want to buy from someone offering me a bargain, a sale. 

Uh, maybe that is why almost everything in a Walmart has a Rollback sign on it!!!  Maybe that is why almost every item on Amazon says xx% off.  Maybe that is why newspapers are filled with sale ads, and virtually evey store has a sale sign out front.  And maybe why EBAY even has a markdown or Promotion Manager with strikethrough pricing!!!

EBAY's new policy not only prevents buyers from enjoying the opportunity to buy something on sale, it prevents sellers from being able to offer that opportunity to buyers more than 14 days of the month.  And because sellers cannot move the prices around without resetting the clock, they have only three choices.

1.) Only sell items 15 days of the month, as 15 days  is a waiting period and would have to be at some artifically high or non-competative price.  Buyers, sellers, and EBAY lose

2.) Never use promotion manager at all and set the selling price at the normal propmotion price.   Deprives buyers of getting a sale/deal, forces sellers to always accept promotion pricing rather than periodic or changing promotion pricing, reduces sales which is bad for sellers and EBAY.

3.) Simply close shop as the regulations and rules have become so overwhelming and cumbersome.  Bad for buyers, sellers, and EBAY.

Look at the US economoy as an example to follow, let the free markets thrive, let the genius of the seller entrepenures drive growth, remove regulations, not add to them,  Save regulations for simply ensuring a fair and legal trading marketplace.

So who in thier infinite wisdom would do something so insanely stupid as this particular policy?  Changes are suppossed to benefit the parties, but this policy benefits no one.   I have a degree in financial management and this is something for the textbooks and ranks right up there with "New Coke", or the "Ford Pinto" debacles.

What is almost as bad and is missing in all the information from EBAY is why such a obtrusive and nonsensicale policy was ever dreamed up or implemented in the first place.  I have seen several attempts to clarify the new policy, but nothing regarding empathy for tens of thousands of sellers who have entrusted EBAY with thier livlihoods, who need it to make thier mortgage payments, who have thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars invested in inventory, who are employing many tens people, and EBAY just throws them overboard with no explanation or reasoning for the change!

Maybe there is a good reason, but I have yet to see a single one theorized in hundreds of posts (other than an attempt by someone to suggest it might be related to a scam ruling by the FTC, which was nonsensicle if the TFC rules are understood), No FTC rules een come close to what EBAY implemented even for the worst practices. 

Sellers are clearly frantic because they will be losing 50% of thier incomes overnight.  This means EBAY will be losing significant final value fees as well.  Stockholders surely will not be happy!

I think EBAY really needs to explain why this was thought to be a good thing, and temporarily reverse this policy change and discuss it with sellers, discuss it with buyers, and whatever the goal of the change was, find a solution that will benefit buyers, sellers, and EBAY.  But this current implementation surley does none of this and EBAY really needs to listen to the people whos lives and livlihoods could be in shambles as a result of this.

For me, I am self sufficient, I have done well on EBAY for years, I am near perfect or as perfect as a seller could ever be, and taken the other changes and adapted.  I pray this will be reversed soon, and if not my business partner and I just  have started discussions to simply close our doors and sell off our inventory at auction or locally.   Simply walk away and retire.  Others may chose to use other venues as I have read this a lot. This isn't an emotional threat as we are small peanuts, and our shutting down will only impact EBAY by $10,000 to $12,000 a year or so in selling fees.  But this policy change is just something that with our business model we cannot adapt to, and I suspect from reading the hundreds of other comments, this is something that will either force or drive many other sellers out of business. 

The other thing to remember is that many sellers are also buyers, and if the sellers realize the deals are not on EBAY (they are aware of this due to the policy), they likley will not be shopping on EBAY and will go directly to Amazon or some other outlet where they can get something on sale and feellike they are getting a deal.  This policy REALLY hurts remaing sellers who will have massive sales drop offs.

It is a cascading effect without a good outcome for buyers, sellers or EBAY.  So hopefully EBAY will quickly listen to the masses as they cry out for a reversal or rethinking this policy, rather than just saying this is what the policy is, take it or leave it.  

Things did not go well for Marie Antoinette when she said "let them eat cake"

[bitbeat]

"the shooting stars (that are exempt from this carp) have their 'sales' going. "

Are you saying some sellers are able to keep using markdown manager without the 14 day wait?  

Or perhaps their sales just haven't rolled off???  

I'm trying to decide whether to relist items that have rolled off, but not if I can't mark them down..  meanwhile I have many items that do not roll off their sale for another few days..

[bitbeat]

excellent review of the issue....

My items are mostly pre-owned - the original prices are just what I think they are worth and the markdown price is a deal for everyone.  Showing that by markdown manager has been effective for my bottom line.  It doesn't have anything to do with the "Wish" case.  

Now I have to decide whether to leave the prices for 14 days and make no sales, or manually change each of them and then give them away with a markdown in 14 days.  Confusing AND time intensive.  

[critter_mama_2007]

"the shooting stars (that are exempt from this carp) have their 'sales' going. "

Are you saying some sellers are able to keep using markdown manager without the 14 day wait?  

When this was announced in May (which no one realized what it would really do to sale use), chosen sellers were announcing they received notices saying they were exempt from the coming change.  I never saw an explanation why they were exempt.

[tyler@ebay]

---

@bauble-babes wrote:

tyler@ebay

Tyler,

Thank you so much for clarifying. Most of us have been to the Help page where the wording is vague so glad to hear you'll be adding the proper language there.

1) Do you have any insight as to why this policy has been implemented?

2) Is there a snowball's chance in hades that this decision might be reversed?

We sellers are hurting here. Our incomes are spiraling downwards, our stress levels are rocketing, our families are affected. Rolling with the punches has left us dazed, bruised, and battered. Our once lovely eBay world, that we helped to build, has been taken over by aliens who wish to annihilate us, or so it seems. We are fast losing hope and contemplating evacuation to another world, so if you have any pull with the powers that be, we implore you to help us.

---

Happy to help @bauble-babes - I know this has been confusing, and definitely impactful to the way you run your business. 

When it comes to why this policy was made, the intention is to be able to state to anyone who comes to the site that the pricing of your items is 'legitimate'. That is, it hasn't been artificially inflated in order to provide a 'discount' that isn't really a discount. It also helps communicate to buyers that any markdown they're seeing is a limited time special offer. 

As to the chance for this to be altered or changed, I don't have a lot of insight into that. I report out on your concerns weekly (that's where I was yesterday), and these discussions have absolutely been communicated. 

I know that order discounts (Buy/Spend X, get X% off) aren't as intuitive as Markdowns, but they do not have any of the waiting restrictions that a markdown does. It may be worth looking into, if only for the coming July 4th holiday week.

When it comes to your listing format @techwiese, relists or sell similar would reset the 14 day clock to put an item on a markdown sale. A Good Til Cancelled (GTC) item wouldn't have the same 14 day waiting period when it renews (though the 14 day between markdowns would still apply). You can change the duration from 30 day to GTC when relisting. This format is the right one to go with if you have multiple quantity of a single item that is selling well - it can get a boost in search from the sold product count, though it may not be the best fit for all items. 

You are still able to run a Markdown sale for up to 45 days at a time. I realize that one of the major ways this tool has been used in the past has been to put things on a quick flash or weekend sale. This isn't going to be the most strategic way to use this going forward. Instead, for short duration items an order discount, quantity or shipping promotion may be the best way to incentivize those weekend buyers. 

While maybe not '50% off', a 'Buy one, get one' promotion would definitely catch a lot of eyes. Thanks for your input on this as well. I can't promise changes, but I can say that I've gotten your feedback to the right people.

[sidde1234]

I don't use deceptive prices then have a sale to bring prices down to reality. I competitively price in the first place and then put on a 20% off sale just to keep thing moving. I buy stuff every day to put on here and just have ALOT of stuff that needs to move along. So this strategy ebay is coming up with just hurts me. 

[nepatriotsfan1973]

Order discount and promotions would be great but the problem is that the banner is now at the very bottom of the listing below everything where no one ever sees you are having any type of promotion....

used to be up top where it actually worked and I actually had people use it to get discounts on multiple items.

Would be home depot having a sale on lawn mowers but instead of putting up banners at the front of the store they put them way in the back down the hallway outside of the bathrooms..

[krysiaskloset]

Just waited for 30+minutes to talk to someone at eBay regarding the MARKDOWN/PROMOTION issue only to be given evasisve answers of:

"It will be fixed in a few days" 

followed by,

"First week of July sometime."

I don't know about any other sellers/store owners on eBay, but my business is suffering because I am unable to do markdowns. I asked if there is any other way of doing this and was given a "No" answer.

Anyone know of other ways to circumvent this situation while waiting for this to be fixed??

How is everyone handling this loss of business?

As eBay store owenrs we are expected to pay our monthly subscription rate, but how is eBay going to help us with the loss of business?? 

[bauble-babes]

tyler@ebay

Tyler, you are a true pro! Your willingness, thoroughness in addressing questions/issues, and your response time is most appreciated.

Though I realize this new policy is not your doing, I am compelled to take issue with its implementation:

"When it comes to why this policy was made, the intention is to be able to state to anyone who comes to the site that the pricing of your items is 'legitimate'. That is, it hasn't been artificially inflated in order to provide a 'discount' that isn't really a discount. It also helps communicate to buyers that any markdown they're seeing is a limited time special offer."

1) The vast majority of sellers are not guilty of artificially inflating prices to create the illusion of a discount. When we (sellers/buyers) occasionally see this, we laugh at the absurdity and never visit that store again. Those kinds of sellers slice their own throats and the other 98% of sellers wouldn't even think of following suit.

EXAMPLE: I sell many OAK antique/vintage items and the going price for many of these is high. I undercut the 'going rate" via Sales and the Sale may go on awhile because higher priced items often take longer to sell. This has no bearing on the price being inflated, because it's not! Simply put, the object is rare, expensive, and takes awhile to sell even On Sale and 45 days is not enough time for items such as these.

2) DON'T PUNISH EVERYONE because a few are breaking the rules! Clearly establish said rules and go after the ones that break them...it's that simple!

3) As the number of Sales Events decline (and they alrady have), Buyers will go elsewhere to spend their money (and they already are - check eBay's stock prices). Promo Mgr is Dead to me as I cannot afford to have a Sale anymore - 14 days at this price with few or no sales, then 14 days at Sale price with some sales providing I haven't lost every watcher since many will head elsewhere during off sale periods (already happening). Think about the prospective buyer who finds the item the last day of the sale, but doesn't get paid for 7 days so can't buy yet. They will hope the Sale will be re-newed as in the past, but when it isn't, they move on. It will be a continuous cycle of building Watchers/Losing Watchers. SO, I will mark my expensive items well below the true selling price and pray they sell since not On Sale. While I'm waiting and praying, I'll also be investigating to find other sites that facilitate selling rather than obstruct it.

[bauble-babes]

@krysiaskloset

This is the new Promo policy, it is not a glitch/error/broken thing, and Tyler from eBay explained this a few posts back, but here it is again...brace yourself:

"In order to have items discounted, your items must have been listed for 14 calendar days at the same price.  In addition, the item must have not been included in another Sale event or markdown promotion within the past 14 days. We are working with the right teams to get this information added to the Promotions Manager help page. The Markdown tool does check listing eligibility regularly, and items will be included in the event as they qualify. You can also consider other options like the Order Discount promotion, which does not have this restriction. "

[clevelandclove]

Thanks Krysiaskloset, Very helpful. I think we should keep sharing here until this change takes back.

EBAY - change back to the old promotion manager right away!! It is crucial that buyers realize they ARE getting a deal. We are listing at prices based on historical ebay sales and then, at times immediately, pass on to them a discount through a sale price that we are able to accept. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that. We can't and don't want to wait for top dollar, but we DO want our customers to know they are getting a deal.

[bluemoon-half]

Only thing to do is put some of the items at auction with buy it nows similiar to old sale prices and hope they sell.  I had to spend around $50 in fees to do this and hope I can sell enough to cover losses.  Went from over $100 a day to $50 or less since this happened.   My items have been on sale for years and now all of a sudden no sales so no buyers, pretty simple.   Oh well, if I go out of business this month, at least I can hopefully find a LESS stressful way of making a living!

[acemerchorabilia]

Horrible change

Hopefully they see a drastic dip in their numbers and revert back to the old way

This is total **bleep**

[millionmagazines]

This is a mess. I run a sale of 12,000 items and none of them are showing. No sales. I'm suppose to wait 14 days before I can run a sale again? I called Ebay and they explained. So for 14 days Ebay and I make very little money from my listings. Fix it Ebay. youi're losing money and we are too.

[alexer1]

---

tyler@ebay wrote:

---

A Good Til Cancelled (GTC) item wouldn't have the same 14 day waiting period when it renews (though the 14 day between markdowns would still apply). You can change the duration from 30 day to GTC when relisting. 

---

I do not understand. You previously wrote that after the sale of the GTS to start a new sale in a one day. But now you write that you have to wait 14 days again. Please make it clear.