eBay

sweilems · ‎09-21-2023

i had a buyer that contacted me about an item and informed the buyer that i have more of this item as he is interested in them all, within 5 minutes i created a custom item for the buyer, and sent the new item link via messages to purchase it, then after the sale and payment there was no ad fees applied deducted from the order,

after 24 hours or less ,

i checked again and i can see there is ad fees applied to the order,

i contacted customer service about the issue but of course without any result , keeps telling me the customer maybe clicked on your advertised item, i said I HAVE SENT THE LINK WITHIN SECONDS OF CREATING THE ITEM TO THE BUYER AND HE PURCHASED IT !!! , this situation is getting out of hand, i think ebay should do something about this, im barely covering the cost of the product!

brightlightbookseller · ‎09-21-2023

It has to do with something I think I've seen referred to as the Halo effect. Basically, if a buyer clicks on any of your advertised items, then buys something else from you (I'm not even clear on whether or not that item needs to be promoted, though I would think it does?), you still get charged the ad fee. Did you promote that custom listing for the customer? There would have been no reason to, but of course if you're using automated campaigns you might not have gotten much choice, or at least might not have been paying attention.

ajs_coins_and_alchemy · ‎09-21-2023

@sweilems wrote:
i had a buyer that contacted me about an item and informed the buyer that i have more of this item as he is interested in them all, within 5 minutes i created a custom item for the buyer, and sent the new item link via messages to purchase it, then after the sale and payment there was no ad fees applied deducted from the order,
after 24 hours or less ,

i checked again and i can see there is ad fees applied to the order,

i contacted customer service about the issue but of course without any result , keeps telling me the customer maybe clicked on your advertised item, i said I HAVE SENT THE LINK WITHIN SECONDS OF CREATING THE ITEM TO THE BUYER AND HE PURCHASED IT !!! , this situation is getting out of hand, i think ebay should do something about this, im barely covering the cost of the product!

You're talking PLS right? Promoted Listings Standard?

1) New listing created for buyer, right? I believe there is a thing with existing listings that if you had promoted it and buyer clicked ad, then you un-promote it and sell it to them you still pay ad fee.

2) If yes its a new listing, why the heck did you promote it? It's for 1 specific buyer. You're sending them a link. You don't need it promoted. That was a big mistake

3) As @brightlightbookseller said, there is the HALO effect. This is "fairly new" (6 months now?)... Long story short, if buyer purchases one of your promoted listings, you will pay an ad fee for that listing if they clicked on ANY ad of yours in the past 30 days. Doesn't matter what listing, if they click on an ad for (promoted) Item X and then 3 weeks later they buy (promoted) Item Y... you're paying an ad fee.

All of this is 100% prevented though if the custom listing was a NEW (not existing) listing and you did not promote it when you created it.

ajs_coins_and_alchemy · ‎09-21-2023

@sweilems wrote:
i had a buyer that contacted me about an item and informed the buyer that i have more of this item as he is interested in them all, within 5 minutes i created a custom item for the buyer, and sent the new item link via messages to purchase it, then after the sale and payment there was no ad fees applied deducted from the order,
after 24 hours or less ,

i checked again and i can see there is ad fees applied to the order,

i contacted customer service about the issue but of course without any result , keeps telling me the customer maybe clicked on your advertised item, i said I HAVE SENT THE LINK WITHIN SECONDS OF CREATING THE ITEM TO THE BUYER AND HE PURCHASED IT !!! , this situation is getting out of hand, i think ebay should do something about this, im barely covering the cost of the product!

Sorry, forgot to address this. This is a whole other issue. If you can't afford ads, then don't use them. Or don't promote at such a high rate. Minimum PL rate is 2%. I do 3% across the board and it works extremely well for me. In my case, the 3% ad fee works well in achieving desired results, and I have high margins so 3% is a drop in the bucket.

Either your ad rates are way too high or your margins are way too low. Both are things you should consider and address and find ways to improve.

Best of luck

coolections · ‎09-21-2023

@sweilems wrote:
i had a buyer that contacted me about an item and informed the buyer that i have more of this item.

So the buyer clicked your listing then you sold the buyer what was in the listing plus more. Yes you pay an ad fee because how else would the buyer have seen your listing without clicking on the ad. If you did not get charged an ad fee, every seller would just cancel a listing, write a new one and message a watcher of your item.

turtles-trading-post · ‎09-21-2023

I had been using Promoted Listings Standard prior to the "Market Rate" addition where they change the rate daily automatically for you. I noticed a high fee on one of my sales so I went to check my account and found that they automatically enrolled me in Market Rate! Nothing I did myself as I immediately was opposed to it. So I cancelled the entire thing.

Recently I thought I'd go back to Promoted Listings Standard at a rate I choose. Upon pulling up the page they had automatically put 25% in the ad rate spot! Of course I could change this, but really???

Still with Promoted Listings Standard at a 10-12% rate I still wouldn't find my items in the first 25 pages of "Best Match".

Sending America's collectibles where they belong, one auction at a time!