7 recent changes that eBay has done to make selling HARDER for me!

[imapaqrat]

Right now there is so much to dislike about eBay.  Let me count the reasons, for me:

1. New Seller Hub - Horrible and unnecessary! HATE! HATE! HATE IT!
2. New Create, Revise, Relist, Sell Similar Pages - DO NOT WORK WITH EBAY INVENTORY / TEMPLATES! Seriously, am I the only seller that uses eBay Inventory / Templates?
3. New "No Watermark" Policy:  I have over 2,500 items; I would have to spend over 1,000 hours to comply with that, which I won't be doing.  Lets see if my listing really do dissappear from Google & eBay search results.
4. New "No Link" Policy: I have over 1,000 item that violate their new policy! What are the violating links?
   1. eBay Turbo Lister
   2. eBay Seller Manager Pro
   3. Yep the 1,000+ listing I need to revise are due to links that eBay added to my listings' descriptions and guess what, they don't give a rip! What's 80 hours of busy work anyway!
5. New Purchase History Screen - Horrible. They don't have the tracking numbers on the screen.  Now I can't receive my items by searching the tracking number. THIS IS WHY YOU NEED TO TALK TO YOUR CUSTOMERS EBAY! {FYI: I buy 100s of items every month, so yeah, this SUCKS!}
   
6. New Leave Feedback Screen - Horrible. Comment Field doesn't remember past feedback so it takes twice as long to leave feedback. I sent a message to eBay letting them know I won't be leaving feedback until they fix it.  If it's not broke . . . eBay will Break it! {FYI: I buy 100s of items every month, so yeah, this SUCKS TOO!}
7. New "You Won!" emails with STUPID SUBJECT text for Stupid Buyers. I can no longer search my eBay WIN folder to find how many times I've won a item.
   1. Old eMail Subject: "YOU WON: Original 1987 NIKE FLIGHT AIR JORDAN II 2 Vintage Poster Print Ad RARE"
   2. New eMail Subject: "You won! Pay now to receive Original 1987 NIKE FLI..."
   3. eBay . . . If they don't know they need to Pay for something, do you really think they can read? Once again, If it's not broke . . . eBay will Break it!

About Complaint #7: I have over 13,500 emails in a mail folder "Ebay - Won" The folder has over 15 years of eBay purchase history.  Up until a 7/4/2017 I could search the subject for "FLIGHT AIR JORDAN II" and see a snap-shot of purchases for that item.  NOT ANY MORE!  That was my only real way of searching 15 years of purchases and getting a snap-shot.  Thanks to eBay's stupid eMail Subject change; I'm buying fewer items, because I can't manage my business as efficiently as before.  eBay your losing money on both ends, me as a Buyer and then me as a ReSeller! Probably 50% of my sells are items that I purchased on eBay.

All I can say is eBay is so lucky they don't have a real competitor out there that can stand toe to toe with them; if there was, sellers would be leaving eBay in droves!

eBay, they have a virtual Monopoly; so they don't care, they don't have to!

There . . . the end of my RANT!

I Hope You're Having An AWESOME October!
Sincerely,
Bruce "ImaPaqRat" Fisher
Remember: People don't stop playing because they grow old; they grow old because they stop playing! So, NEVER STOP PLAYING!

[swenson8781]

Sorry for your frustrations.  Many are feeling the same pains you are, so you aren't alone by any means.  Although that doesn't really change anything.  

And several sites have tried to compete with eBay, however, none have taken off like eBay has/did.  I have tried venturing over to other sites, but as much as I feel the buyers here aren't what they used to be, the other sites are uber dismal compared.  It's too bad really.

I just keep hoping that someday a really bored billionaire will come along, start a similar site, and dump great marketing & advertising dollars into it so it can't NOT succeed and rise to the top!

[mr_lincoln]

@imapaqrat I respect your longevity here and I also understand the deep level of frustration with Seller Hub.  Our expereince here is different, being Sellers for less than 3 years, eBay has been nothing BUT change.  For my part at least I will keep sending in suggestions for Seller Hub in hopes they make it customizable enough that Sellers can feel some ownership and set it up to meet thier own business profile AND have easy access to everything they need and use on a regular basis.  And hopefully, they will do that sooner rather than later. 

[stitchesandseamsct]

To the no link policy complaints and revise/sell similar/template complaints. Get to know file exchange ASAP. Ive used everything. now, I can't even pretend it's OK to list items NOT using file exchange. Turbo lister is the worst you must have the patience of a saint to use that clunky 1998 tech.

I just updated 7000 unique items in under 2 hours using file exchange to comply with the no link policy.

Get to know FIle exchange. All that other stuff is for rookies and/or outdated. Not seasoned sellers like you.

Watermarks, just do your best to sell what you have with them, and stop using them in the future. Best of luck to you!

[imapaqrat]

a slight extention of my initial RANT . . .

Let me add #8:  eBay forcing buyer to Pay Immediately.  NONE of my listing every have "Require immediate Payment" selected.  NONE, EVER, NEVER!  I only have two payment policies, one for items that I will ship (99.5% of my listings) and one for items that I won't ship.

For the items I will ship, every items has "Pay on Pickup" and  "Money order / Cashier's check"  as payment options. That 3 reasons why my customers should NEVER be forced to pay immediately, but at least 3 times a month I get a message from a potential customer complaining that they are being forced to "Pay Immediately".  I know for a fact that I have lost sales because somebody thought I was trying gouge them on shipping.

eBay, if you are so serious about improving the "Buyer's Experience", then quit forcing them to Pay Immediately, when the seller doesn't require it.  I believe that would help more than having me remove my 75% transparent watermark.

OK  . . . Rant 2 over.

Also thanks for the support and feedback.  I will definitely look into file exchange Stiches!

[*eponymous*]

When you post a thread, go back and read the replies before posting the same complaints in a new thread.

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/Thank-You-eBay-for-yet-MORE-BUSY-WORK-Removing-YOUR-HTML/m-p/2...

Your listings that eBay takes down for your non-compliance will not show up on google. 😉

[lemarcheaupuces]

---

@imapaqrat wrote:

a slight extention of my initial RANT . . .

Let me add #8:  eBay forcing buyer to Pay Immediately.  NONE of my listing every have "Require immediate Payment" selected.  NONE, EVER, NEVER!  I only have two payment policies, one for items that I will ship (99.5% of my listings) and one for items that I won't ship.

For the items I will ship, every items has "Pay on Pickup" and  "Money order / Cashier's check"  as payment options. That 3 reasons why my customers should NEVER be forced to pay immediately, but at least 3 times a month I get a message from a potential customer complaining that they are being forced to "Pay Immediately".  I know for a fact that I have lost sales because somebody thought I was trying gouge them on shipping.

eBay, if you are so serious about improving the "Buyer's Experience", then quit forcing them to Pay Immediately, when the seller doesn't require it.  I believe that would help more than having me remove my 75% transparent watermark.

OK  . . . Rant 2 over.

Also thanks for the support and feedback.  I will definitely look into file exchange Stiches!

---

my understanding is;

if you have "pay on pick up" along with "paypal"  (that makes it 2 payment options) in your listings, buyers will NOT be forced to pay immediately.

i could be wrong...

but that is what i was told long ago...

[z50com]

1.   I don't have seller hub

2.  I don't use templates

3.  I don't watermark my pictures

4.  I am removing all http from my listings

5.   "New Purchase History Screen" ~ I have no idea what you;re talking about? ~ It must be a seller hub thing

6.  "New Leave Feedback Screen" ~ Again I have no idea what you're tlaking about?

7.    I never look at my eBay emails ~ EVER!

I feel for you! I was stuck in seller hub for a few days and I didn't like it. . .

[arisdisc]

Is anyone ready for #9? Has anyone ventured into 'markdown manager' territory yet?
I honestly can't believe it. Constant change is the norm in this place, but how can any reasonable company make changes that are absolutely ridiculous?

No longer able to mark something down by just $1 or $2 or even 3-4 dollars. It's gotta be $5 minimum.
And the clincher? 500 items minimum for any sale!

WHAT???

Perfect example: The rock band from Canada called 'The Tragically Hip' lost their lead singer to cancer yesterday. Fans are grabbing up their cd's and LP's. I have two promo cd's that have been up for quite a while. I'd like to discount the price a bit for a few days in hopes they move.

NO. YOU CAN'T.
You need to choose 498 other items to add to the sale or forget about it.

Since the cd's are pretty cheap to begin with ($9-11 each) I'd like to drop them a dollar or two.

NO. YOU CAN'T.
You have to go with $5 or forget about it.

My solution? Forget about it.
I just tried to put them on sale, found the new rules and have decided to not bother with any of it.
For the past few years, I've used Markdown Manager a few times a month.
With the new 500 minimum rule? I'd say chances are really good I'll never use it again.

[critter_mama_2007]

Can I add #8?  The ebay catalog.  It's the biggest pile of carp I've seen in a long time.  I have to use it for dvds and its a mess and doesnt load pix.  No wonder I cant sell anything!!!!!

[smileytown18]

@arisdisc and most of the ebay catalog item pics are outdated. I used a few times for cosmetics, where the packaging changes. People don't want old looking stuff so they skip the listing.
@imapaqrat the only way to get around that new leave feedback screen that is totally cluttered up (and looks like its for people with poor eyesight) is to click on items in your "order" (sold items) section and click on "leave feedback button on top. This gives you the old sellers feedback screen where you leave feedback for all in one shot.

[smileytown18]

oops the first comment was add on for critter_mama_2007. sorry

[z50com]

"And the clincher? 500 items minimum for any sale!"

It's 500 items maximum!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Why am I restricted to discounting 500 items compared to 5,000 items in the old tool?The new tool gives you greater flexibility in how you can select inventory. You can choose, or copy and paste, up to 500 item ID’s or SKUs per campaign. By choosing eBay categories, or Store categories, and applying filters and exclusions, you can discount up to 10,000 items per campaign.

[imapaqrat]

lemarcheaupuces,

That is correct, except for the exceptions. The exceptions have to do with category, price, country and I think the Lunar cycle. (joking about the last one).

IMHO the issue is that all their exceptions make the payment logic so complex, almost everything is treated as an Immediate Payment needed.

Worst part is if the potential buyer calls into eBay, the rep will tell them that it is because "that is who the Seller has it set up." I've reported the bug at least half a dozen times and the Rep makes it sound like it is the 1st time it has been reported.

[imapaqrat]

"It's the biggest pile of carp" I knew something smelled FISHY with all these eBay changes! 🙂