Advice on getting out of"Below Standards" Hell

[dochubcap]

I've been a longtime E Bay seller, over 20 years. I was not very active this winter due to prolonged health issues, and had much fewer sales. As a result, because of some inventory errors I made.,having had 6 sales I had to cancel in the past year, the ratio of defects vs sales has put me in the "Below Standards" niche for the first time ever.

Means I cannot promote my listings, and am told by the rep this classification could last for months, and nothing E Bay will do.

I explained to her that with me, E Bay is not a hobby, but how I help pay my bills. told her I'd doublechecked all of the nearly 350 listings currentlY on, to ensure accuracy. That didn't fly either

she claims there is no one higher up who can reverse this, just has to run its course.but, of course, the less promoted listings, the less sales, so I may never get out of this trap Grrr!

[glenvonnie]

Duplicate Scanner:

https://www.isdntek.com/ebaytools/DuplicateListings.htm

[femmefan1946]

If you are only depending on eBay, you have to branch out.

Including the misery of selling on local sites like FBMarketplace and Craigslist to no shows and hagglers.

Are there hobby sites for hubcaps?

Do you have a FB account and follow any enthusiast FB accounts? I occasionally mention some of my Firefly * stuff on "It's a Browncoat thing..." and usually get a sale or two.

Were you actually talking with a phone rep?

Not that she was lying but...

The phone reps have a terrible reputation for getting you off the phone as soon as possible even if that mean giving you the advice you want to hear instead of the advice you need to have.


https://www.facebook.com/eBayForBusiness/ — Message button in upper right on landing page.

https://twitter.com/askebay?lang=en


https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/How-do-I-contact-Customer-Support/m-p/32016431#M1783851 -> Automated Assistant, type AGENT -> enter. You will then get more options.


The social media Chat accounts are covered by trained eBay employees with some authority.
And you get a transcript so you can compare what you heard with what you were told.
 

I like the $2 bill idea. Selling postage stamps under face works pretty good too- and you can sell more. Check how much Costco sells stamps for. Sell with Free Shipping. And don't bother tracking, most people are honest.

*It's a cult science fiction show that was cancelled before half the first season was shown. But the fandom is  fanatical.

[mycheaperstuff]

@femmefan1946 "don't bother about tracking!!!

That seems like very bad adviDoing that will cause other seller performance to tank.

I can't even wrap my head around "most people are honest" as part of sage advice.

ce! 

[femmefan1946]

Most people are willing to believe that others are as honest as they are and will treat others as they would wish to be treated.

What a sad and dangerous world it would be if that were not true.

[dochubcap]

Thanks for the suggestion, I've already done sales since February, from 20-25% off on most of my higher priced items. It has helped a little, but not much. Most of my sales have always been need-driven, rather than price-driven.

[dochubcap]

Thanks for taking the time to write and for your suggestions.

I've done Craigs almost as long as I've done E Bay, but in a sparsely populated state it does not help much, for vintage hubcaps. Use FB some.

I will look at your other suggestions regarding contacting E Bay.

[dochubcap]

I'm wondering at this point if I'm better off to just close my account and restart with a new one. Is there a way to transplant my listings to the new account? Is it even doable?

I just cannot match my sales of a year ago, despite increasing the amount of listings, without the use of promoted listings, but my below standard collar continues.

catch 22!!

[femmefan1946]

Well it's possible.

Many of us Canadians did it a few years back when we were told that we had to register on eBayCanada and could no longer sell in US dollars on the eBayCanada site.

Meanwhile, we could not transfer our descriptions nor pictures to dotCA.

I was lucky because I had kept all my Descriptions in a desktop file, because I don't trust computers much. I even had those files on thumb drives.

Scanning over 1500 books was a bit of a job though. It took nearly a month, since I didn't want to put everything up at once. (Better to have a few items opening and closing every day.)

But a new account would lose all your feedback, an important way of showing trustworthiness, and you would be restricted in the number and value of your listings for a month or so. You would also have a Hold on your payments until the new account proved itself.

It's not a terrible idea though.

Why not close some of your oldest listings and then list them to a new account?

They are not selling now, so ...

And those closed listings would stay on your Unsold List for a couple of months in case you change your mind.

Just don't double list. That can be a killer.

[buyselljack2016]

If the current ID tanks (gets closed by eBay) because of the poor performance not being improved upon, will that have any effect on another account that would be linked to the OP  ????

[buyselljack2016]

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@mycheaperstuff wrote:

@femmefan1946"don't bother about tracking!!!

That seems like very bad adviDoing that will cause other seller performance to tank.

I can't even wrap my head around "most people are honest" as part of sage advice.

ce! 

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Nothing wrong with that advice.

Not having tracking will take a seller out of (prevent obtaining) TRS status but will not cause an account to "tank".

Tracking is not required to maintain an "in good standing" account with eBay. Some sellers have accounts where they sell items that do not get tracked, and do just fine.

Thing is ..............  without tracking............  no proof of delivery, so the seller must refund for INR, but as long as the seller handles it they get no defect and remain "above standard".

[mam98031]

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@dochubcap wrote:

I'm wondering at this point if I'm better off to just close my account and restart with a new one. Is there a way to transplant my listings to the new account? Is it even doable?

I just cannot match my sales of a year ago, despite increasing the amount of listings, without the use of promoted listings, but my below standard collar continues.

catch 22!!

---

You should read the email you got from Ebay a bit closer when they told you that you were below standard.  Ebay is typically really clear that if a seller tries to get around being sanctioned like this, you will risk losing your selling privileges on Ebay forever.  So you may want to re-think that as an option.

Keep in mind it is a small fraction of listings using Promoted Listings.

Try listing things that are NOT related to Ebay Motors.  Clean those closets out, time to spring clean.

[buyselljack2016]

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@dochubcap wrote:

Thanks for the suggestion, I've already done sales since February, from 20-25% off on most of my higher priced items. It has helped a little, but not much. Most of my sales have always been need-driven, rather than price-driven.

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Although the overall goal to getting out of "below standard" is obtained by the total # of sales, doing price cuts on the "lower priced items" would be a better plan $$ wise.

I realize the overall long range plan is to be able to keep the account, and continue to sell, but minimizing the actual $$ loss while doing that should also be a consideration. 

Because it's an overall #'s %age, and not a $ amount, then as has been suggested, finding low selling price/low COG items to sell quickly, if even at a loss, serves the purpose of getting back up better than taking a 20% beating on higher price items.

[mam98031]

Since your regular items are not selling fast enough, getting you a larger number of transactions so you can dilute your numbers that go you in trouble.  Find some stuff in a different category to sell.  New or used.  It is a great time of year for Yard Sales.  Typically the upcoming weekend is one of the biggest of the year for yard sales.