mam98031 • Volunteer Community Member • Buyer/Seller since 1999
Simply-the-best-for-you Volunteer Community Mentor
Noticed today that on the View Item page in the Feedback module for some sellers eBay is showing an average message response rate.
It's not showing for all sellers and I'm not sure what the criteria is - I don't think it's only for sellers that are particularly fast because I'm seeing anywhere from 1 hr to 24 hrs.
devon@ebay kyle@ebay - any insights on this you can share?
@whatamisellingtoday wrote:Then... it will just state that you're not as responsive a seller as some. Also you can set your status as away on ebay. I would think you're aware of that as a bigger seller. You don't have 2 minutes to tend to your business? All this feature does is give people an idea of how fast they should receive a reply. Simply put in my opinion if you're serious about being a seller on ebay, you need to be serious all the way, you need to tend to your customers, be ready to answer questions, be communicative.
Huh???? You think most sellers respond in an hour or two? I've been here for a very long time. You are looking at this way too simplistically.
The danger in this is NOT Ebay changing your response time from 2 hours to 3 hours. The danger is how your BUYERS take to this change. Buyer's don't always remember time differences, nor to some care if the seller gets to sleep. Some buyers will get disappointed and potentially upset because they didn't get lets say a 2 hour response. They may go ahead and purchase you item and then hurt your feedback with this nonsense that you won't be able to get removed.
Most sellers don't even know Ebay is testing this and therefore have no idea how fast Ebay is saying they respond. So they can't even prepare.
Think outside of the response time and buyers reaction if those response times are NOT met.
@nilis13 wrote:It's horrible, my response time says one hour. Insane! They don't account for sleeping, etc..this needs to be changed.
I'm lucky, mine gives me enough time to take a NAP. LOL
@whatamisellingtoday wrote:LOL no.. The hyperbole in this thread is wild. 6 hours is really good. A DAY isn't bad. There are sellers here who do not communicate at all, and when some of them do reply it's like they didn't even read what I said.
Also why do I have to abide by what that thing says? All I'm saying is I like the feature, it gives the customer a rough idea of how responsive I am. It's not like some rule you and I must obey. We're not bound by the holy response time ticker in our profiles lmao
Oh, so lets punish them ALL instead of trying to get sellers that misbehave to be more responsible.
We currently have 48 hours to respond to emails, but I did notice they took that out of the policy, not sure when, but it is gone now.
Sellers simply are NOT required to work 24/7. Sellers are not required to never take a day off. I get it, you like it and that is fine. You will likely feel different when a buyer gives you a negative because you didn't meet the timeframe sometime because you finally got tired and needed to sleep. Or your family got tired of you saying you can't ever do anything with them because you must wait for a buyer email to come in.
This is so beyond ridiculous. It is just more of the same that some think we have to be available 24/7/365.
I don't know about you, but I'm not just a Seller on Ebay. I'm a Mom, Wife, Family member and Friend too. I do have a life that I love.
I really don't see what the big deal is. If you can't meet whatever is showing, it will most likely change to whatever your new time is. Big deal. Etsy has this, AMZN has this (at least some sellers), it's pretty standard, if anything eBay is way behind in implementing it, it's been on Etsy for years. As an Etsy buyer all it does is lmk how quickly I might expect an answer.
This is just a big nothing burger to me. But then I'm a very fast responder, so if anything, maybe it will give me a competitive edge 🤞
@simply-the-best-for-you wrote:I really don't see what the big deal is. If you can't meet whatever is showing, it will most likely change to whatever your new time is. Big deal. Etsy has this, AMZN has this (at least some sellers), it's pretty standard, if anything eBay is way behind in implementing it, it's been on Etsy for years. As an Etsy buyer all it does is lmk how quickly I might expect an answer.
This is just a big nothing burger to me. But then I'm a very fast responder, so if anything, maybe it will give me a competitive edge 🤞
It seems that Ebay is doing an average amount of time it takes us to respond. So it is unlikely that missing a couple is going to change the timeframe in which Ebay says you will answer.
I don't have this happening to me on Amz, other things I don't like, but this has not been something I've experienced there.
Maybe it will be a "nothing burger" until we get that buyer that is ticked off because we didn't meet the recommended time, goes ahead and buys the item then hits the seller's FB because of it. Maybe you don't see that happening, but I do.
However I would much prefer for you to be right.
