eBay

my-cottage-books-and-antiques · ‎08-02-2022

I am glad to see ebay seems to have fixed an apparent glitch discussed here:

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/Did-the-extra-10K-free-listings-in-select-categories-end/m-p/3...

This glitch (if that's what it was) created a great deal of anxiety for many sellers.

Yet, as I write this , we still have seen no actual response to our questions about this.

So, here's my vent, directed , not at velvet@ebay (I do appreciate her efforts to get answers), but at ebay management:

Obviously, the glitch itself should never have happened. But we all understand that glitches do happen. I can accept that fact (while still wishing they didn't happen quite so often on this platform).

No, what is inexcusable to me (and I'm sure I'm not alone) is ebay's failed response. Well, NON-response.

There was a brief period of time when I might have expected Marnie or Harry or maybe Jordan to respond to an anxiety inducing problem like this. Instead, velvet@ebay is still waiting to hear back from the "team"

ebay, in this instance (as in so many others) you have utterly failed Seller Engagement 101. The cumulative effect of these persistent failures is to further deplete whatever confidence and goodwill the seller community still feels towards ebay management. In today's world, ebay faces very real competition, competition which is growing rapidly as ebay seems to decline. I am an ebay seller. I want ebay to be successful. I will not leave here while I can still manage to sell stuff here. I want to think of ebay as my partner, or at least, my platform of choice.

But I also want ebay to show sellers at least some minimal respect. This non-response to a significant issue displays ebay's complete lack of respect for its seller community. I will attend ebay Open this year. I'm guessing there will be a "clapping tunnel" type feature. It is very hard to take that seriously, or to take seriously management's talk of "seller engagement" , when management can't even respond to this matter.

If this was a glitch, we DESERVED a PROMPT explanation, an apology, and an HONEST statement about whether this fee provision will remain in effect, or is it slated for removal at some future point.

We still deserve all of that, but obviously, it is too late for a prompt response.

ebay, I've been with you since the early days. I will continue here, because I believe ebay has real value for both me as a seller and for millions more people, buyers and sellers.

After the departure of the last CEO, I had real hopes for an improvement in seller engagement. And I saw some real improvement. Mondays with Marnie, Harry's efforts to engage with the seller community, and more. However, the trend since then has been a lot of talk from management about the importance of seller engagement, while reducing the Seller Check Ins from monthly to Quarterly, Weekly Chat to Monthly Chat, and egregious non-responses to issues as we have seen here. It is past time to walk the walk, not just talk the talk.

ebay management, you have got to do better.

You can start by offering us a real explanation, a sincere apology and an assurance about the status of the fee feature.

lloydsteventaylor · ‎08-02-2022

agree 100%

another snafu earllier this year was the 2021 1099-k disaster. i did not receive my form timely which would be January 31. I contacted cs multiple times thru chat and phone. i talked to many supervisors. no response. my 2021 1099-k appeared finally on March 4 in seller hub. that was more than a month late. that was even more a grievous error because it affected my interface with the IRS. I have never heard one thing from Ebay on what caused the problem or their apology for why it happened or what they intend to do to make sure it doesnt happen again.

meme6253 · ‎08-02-2022

Completely Agree!!!!!!!

my-cottage-books-and-antiques · ‎08-02-2022

Thinking about this a bit more.... velvet@ebay , I'd like to ask you to pass this along to whoever is the current head of "seller engagement" or whatever it's called, since this is not a tech complaint about the glitch, but a complaint about the lack of seller engagement. And I'd appreciate a response from that exec, too, but admit, I don't expect one.

ckimodog · ‎08-02-2022

@my-cottage-books-and-antiques

Good read. I agree as well. Thanks for posting.

valueaddedresource · ‎08-02-2022

@my-cottage-books-and-antiques wrote:
Thinking about this a bit more.... velvet@ebay , I'd like to ask you to pass this along to whoever is the current head of "seller engagement" or whatever it's called, since this is not a tech complaint about the glitch, but a complaint about the lack of seller engagement. And I'd appreciate a response from that exec, too, but admit, I don't expect one.

@my-cottage-books-and-antiques fantastic open letter and I believe the exec you are looking for would be Andrea Stairs, CMO & VP Seller Community. 😉

my-cottage-books-and-antiques · ‎08-02-2022

@valueaddedresource Well, in that case, let's hope Andrea decides to engage with her seller community right here on this thread. In ebay parlance: "Stay tuned".

farmalljr · ‎08-02-2022

I honestly don't know why sellers expect eBay to do anything "more". It's been trending for some time, eBay offers MUCH less. Non existent customer service, higher fees, a fleeting audience... It's NOT coming back, even if a new CEO came on the scene.

eBay does NOT care one bit about it's sellers. Hasn't for a long time. The value you get for your fees is about non existent.

If you want something better, I just have no confidence you are ever going to get it here, again. If you want your business to circle the drain, so be it. If you want more for your business, time to stop putting your eggs in the basket with the huge hole all your eggs keep falling out of. This platform has some use left, but like many other sellers, it's time to branch out. If you wait too long, once the ship has sunk, there may be no lifeboat left to get on.

Starting small branching out. Nothing gets built in a day. The vast majority of sellers here are having next to nothing selling. A shrinking buyer base isn't helping.

eBay sees a bigger profit for themselves as it is. Thy are not going to spend money on US customer support. They are not going to man call centers here again. They are not going to spend time addressing concerns, much less spend time fixing glitches that make seller's lives easier. Priority one for them is making money. ALL of their focus is about making more fees. They don't care about your vintage widget. They only care about a $500 graded card, the $200 pair of shoes or the 1K purse. They have plainly said those who buy and sell "small dollar stuff " mean NOTHING to them. The vast majority of buyers and sellers are not worth eBay's attention, in their own words.

If you haven't been listening, well, someday you may be REALLY upset. The silence should have been deafening over this subject. But instead, some still have "hopes" things will change.

gracieallen01 · ‎08-02-2022

I think people often tend to forget who is involved with ebay management. It seems that many forget Elliott & friends. who are in it for the money, period - getting money, not 'wasting' money.

Not saying 'NO' doesn't mean 'YES'.

The foolishness of one's actions or words is determined by the number of witnesses.

Perhaps if Brains were described as an APP, many people would use them more often.

Respect, like money, is only of 'worth' when it is earned - with all due respect, it can not be ordained, legislated or coerced. Anonymous

fern*wood · ‎08-02-2022

It's so disappointing that a business would have have so little regard for their customers or whatever they call the sellers. This fiasco seemed to have affected a large percentage of the store subscribers. It could have caused a large financial hit for many. I spent the day figuring out what I planned to do and actually did start ending listings. A simple message would have alleviated a lot of the worry and wasted time this caused yesterday. I don't need added stress in my life. This one I resent.

flyingmvp · ‎08-02-2022

@farmalljr wrote:
I honestly don't know why sellers expect eBay to do anything "more". It's been trending for some time, eBay offers MUCH less. Non existent customer service, higher fees, a fleeting audience... It's NOT coming back, even if a new CEO came on the scene.

eBay does NOT care one bit about it's sellers. Hasn't for a long time. The value you get for your fees is about non existent.

If you want something better, I just have no confidence you are ever going to get it here, again. If you want your business to circle the drain, so be it. If you want more for your business, time to stop putting your eggs in the basket with the huge hole all your eggs keep falling out of. This platform has some use left, but like many other sellers, it's time to branch out. If you wait too long, once the ship has sunk, there may be no lifeboat left to get on.

Starting small branching out. Nothing gets built in a day. The vast majority of sellers here are having next to nothing selling. A shrinking buyer base isn't helping.

eBay sees a bigger profit for themselves as it is. Thy are not going to spend money on US customer support. They are not going to man call centers here again. They are not going to spend time addressing concerns, much less spend time fixing glitches that make seller's lives easier. Priority one for them is making money. ALL of their focus is about making more fees. They don't care about your vintage widget. They only care about a $500 graded card, the $200 pair of shoes or the 1K purse. They have plainly said those who buy and sell "small dollar stuff " mean NOTHING to them. The vast majority of buyers and sellers are not worth eBay's attention, in their own words.

If you haven't been listening, well, someday you may be REALLY upset. The silence should have been deafening over this subject. But instead, some still have "hopes" things will change.

Yup,

I also had "hopes" when the current CEO arrived , but I can't think about a worse CEO when it comes to the amount of new selling fees on top of increase of already existing selling fees, the Iannone is the Ebay record holder of all fees collected so far, sellers never paid so much to receive so little in return.

on top of the continued glitches, outages and other tech related drama.

Tommorow is the Q2 22 earning report...

valueaddedresource · ‎08-02-2022

@gracieallen01 wrote:
I think people often tend to forget who is involved with ebay management. It seems that many forget Elliott & friends. who are in it for the money, period - getting money, not 'wasting' money.

@gracieallen01 Elliott and Starboard both divested their interests in eBay long ago.

https://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/news/2021/02/17/elliott-management-sells-ebay-stake.html

Whether that was because they felt the new CEO meant "job done" or they decided to get out while they could is a matter up for interpretation, but they are not currently a major factor in management decision making as far as I know.

zamo-zuan · ‎08-02-2022

@my-cottage-books-and-antiques wrote:

After the departure of the last CEO, I had real hopes for an improvement in seller engagement. And I saw some real improvement. Mondays with Marnie, Harry's efforts to engage with the seller community, and more. However, the trend since then has been a lot of talk from management about the importance of seller engagement, while reducing the Seller Check Ins from monthly to Quarterly, Weekly Chat to Monthly Chat, and egregious non-responses to issues as we have seen here. It is past time to walk the walk, not just talk the talk.

ebay management, you have got to do better.

You can start by offering us a real explanation, a sincere apology and an assurance about the status of the fee feature.

Well said and 100% agreement.

EBay often says they want more engagement, but often... Doesn't engage. If they do give a response, it's PR rather than legitimately addressing the issues. And often raises more questions than answers, at which point the only response is radio silence.

I know there's only so much velvet or any of the moderators can do on here. Sellers really need an advocate between us and "Corporate eBay". As the moderators of course need to check with other teams/employees to get answers. But what happens when the answers are insufficient and eBay's reps aren't doing their job? Communication shouldn't fall off then. Leadership should really have some employees put in a place where they could push for answers when the ones eBay representatives give are insufficient, can be factually proven false/debunked, or where they basically don't respond at all.

Sellers should be able to demand answers for issues that affect their livelihood. But it doesn't go very far when even eBay representatives don't have the ability to demand answers on our behalf.

There's been a trend for the last few years where more and more power is taken from CS/representatives, coincidentally at the same time the tech issues have gotten worse and worse. Which means the problem for sellers has only gotten worse, while eBay's press releases and quarterly reports consistently claim they're engaging with us more and more and how their tech led reimagination and marketing are doing so great. It's all smoke and mirrors, and sellers aren't blind to it.

velvet@ebay · ‎08-02-2022

@my-cottage-books-and-antiques wrote:

Thinking about this a bit more.... velvet@ebay , I'd like to ask you to pass this along to whoever is the current head of "seller engagement" or whatever it's called, since this is not a tech complaint about the glitch, but a complaint about the lack of seller engagement. And I'd appreciate a response from that exec, too, but admit, I don't expect one.

Hi @my-cottage-books-and-antiques! I've passed your post on to a couple of people and am still working to figure out what happened. I'll follow-up here, along with the original thread, with whatever I'm able to find out.

Velvet,