Disappointed in eBay

[lyndasprinh]

Is anyone else disappointed in eBay lately, the fees are higher, charging you % of postage too, I was just told by an agent that eBay is structured to favor the buyer, that was disappointing, also found out that with international sales if you have a dispute and eBay go in favor of buyer you can’t even send them a return label through eBay now. This used to be my number one selling site but not any more, I favor sites that give  the buyer a few days to inspect the item  and return if necessary in that time period, after which the sale is final,I don’t like that with eBay people can buy, keep it a few months and then decide to return it. Would like to hear other sellers opinions

[downunder-61]

Fee's have gone up once in 10 years, from 12.55% to 12.90%

Shipping costs have been subject to FVF since 2011

eBay only allows a buyer 30 days from purchase to dispute - not received or not described

eBay is very much for the buyer as without the buyer's eBay and seller's would cease to exist.

Some parts of eBay can be infuriating, site issues/glitches, but the above issues I see as non issues so long as you follow protocol and procedure to the best of your ability and allow for shrinkage as all businesses do.

[bonjourami]

"that eBay is structured to favor the buyer, that was disappointing, also found out that with international sales if you have a dispute and eBay go in favor of buyer you can’t even send them a return label through eBay now. "

I dont remember ever being able to provide a return label for an international return. Always had to go to PP and provide those shipping funds to return the item .

[maxine*j]

When eBay became more buyer-oriented, my sales improved.  Buyer confidence makes for more, and more robust, sales.

I don't know what you mean when you say that a buyer can purchase something and "keep it a few months and then decide to return it..."  There's been no change in the eBay 30-day MBG so far as I know.

If you'e talking about credit card chargebacks, that has nothing to do with eBay.  And a buyer can do a chargeback no matter where he bought something, on eBay or any other venue.

Anyhow, to answer your question, eBay -- with all its imperfections, including a tendency towards change without progress -- still works for me.  

[wrong66]

After 11 years you just noticed they take a % of shipping? Nice catch...

[maxine*j]

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@bonjourami wrote:

...  I dont remember ever being able to provide a return label for an international return. Always had to go to PP and provide those shipping funds to return the item .

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Right.  There's no way to generate a shipping label that would work in each of the world's national postal systems.

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[dbfolks166mt]

     At times I am disappointed that eBay does little to address the concerns expressed by the seller community. The fees I have no issue with they are clearly defined and stated, I know what they are up front and accept that. Things that I am disappointed in include. 

1. The technical changes that always seem to have "glitches". I am however grateful that their IT department

   is not running our nuclear weapons programs. 

2. The conflict between the sellers ability to choose NOT to ship/sell to foreign buyers and the way eBay

     ignores the sellers preferences when it comes to items going through freight forwarders. 

3. While I understand the MBG and live with the seller risks associated with it eBay does little to nothing,

    at least that they make public, regarding efforts to address the scammers and buyers who are stealing

    merchandise.  This is especially true with regards to dealing with the increasing problem of chargebacks

    since eBay moved to managed payments. However this is not a eBay unique problem and is becoming

    a multi-billion dollar problem across the ecommerce markets. 

4. The call in technical support has become abysmal and pretty much useless these days.

5. There are other minor annoyances that I simply accept and live with, aka the international fee, amongst

    others. However, the increasing risk of selling on eBay and the lack of any effort towards improving 

    seller protections keeps me from listing high target and high value items on this platform. Those I list

    elsewhere. 

     While I consider eBay to still be a viable platform they are no longer the only game in town and I have diversified across multiple ecommerce sites as well as some other platforms/forums for selling. 

[luckythewinner]

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@lyndasprinh wrote:

Is anyone else disappointed in eBay lately, the fees are higher, charging you % of postage too, I was just told by an agent that eBay is structured to favor the buyer, 

---

All this has been true for a decade or more. 

[dbfolks166mt]

Fee's have gone up once in 10 years, from 12.55% to 12.90%

Shipping costs have been subject to FVF since 2011

eBay only allows a buyer 30 days from purchase to dispute - not received or not described

eBay is very much for the buyer as without the buyer's eBay and seller's would cease to exist.

     The relationship between buyers and sellers is a mutual one since neither would exist without the other. As far as eBay goes, they could survive through a limited time without any buyers or sales. The loss of fees would be monumental but other revenues from the sellers would at least still provide revenue although limited but those streams would also dry up without sales. 

[chapeau-noir]

The technical changes that always seem to have "glitches". I am however grateful that their IT department

is not running our nuclear weapons programs.

Oh gawd!  You just HAD to say that!   Now I have visions of some eBay IT genius being hired on at the Nuclear Reg Commission. 😣

[rugerskick]

I am disapointed in the board denigrating most of the sellers and buyers here that pay the bills for ebay.  They have a poor view that "low dollar" sellers equates to "low value" sellers.  These "low value" sellers account for the vast majority of sales here and ebay's revenue.  About half of purchases here are under $30 and about 90% of purchases are under $100.

I am disappointed they don't have effective advertising to draw in more sales in the under $100 range.  "I found it on Ebay" was hugely successful, and highlighted ebay as the site to go to when you were looking for something, you could search for it and find it.  Whatever "it" was.

Linked to the above point, I am disappointed the search algorithm on site has horrible, awful performance finding things for sellers.  They screwed it up with the initial changes recently, and its clear it affects sellers all over, its a site problem.  When Google can find more accurate items on ebay than the ebay search function, that's just awful, terrible performance.

I am disappointed the site still seems to for no apparent reason, route traffic and buyers to sellers for a day or two, and then seems to flick a switch and traffic and views and buyers are gone several days, despite consistent listing practices, as well as delisting/sell similar tactics, being consistent in practices does nothing to prevent this.  I also believe this is tied to the screwed up algorithm.

I am disappointed that ebay will not help sellers at all if their account is in danger of being banned.  You all probably know the instances where this occurs out of the blue, Chris/sneakers is the most obvious.  Sellers get the short end of the stick from all sides here and the only consistent thing we can count on is ebay apologists complaining about the posting, or complaining about the poster not being a good seller.

There are good things here, no question.  Its why we are still here, posting topics to discuss.  We are realistic and see things for what they are, and we want to highlight and share the issues we see needing to be addressed and corrected.  Hopefully.  In the end we would love ebay to be a much better place for everyone.

[mam98031]

@lyndasprinh 

"... the fees are higher..."  Higher than what exactly?

"charging you % of postage too"  YES for over 11 years now.

How would you propose to send an international buyer a return label exactly?  You would have to start off by purchasing the return label through the shipping service available in that country.  We don't have the ability to do that.  So the buyer has to purchase the return shipping and then the seller should REFUND the buyer for whatever they spent to send the return.  That is how most sellers have done this for years.

We were NEVER able to send an international shipment label to a buyer on Ebay in a claim.

It appears you may be upset about things that you simply have a misunderstanding about but that Ebay hasn't done anything wrong, you just are unaware of certain things.  Which we can help you here to have a better understanding.  Ask all the questions you need to so that you feel better about selling here.

[inhawaii]

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@lyndasprinh wrote:

Is anyone else disappointed in eBay lately, the fees are higher, charging you % of postage too

---

Fees haven't gone up in years.

They started charging fees for shipping years ago.

[dnasilver]

"If you'e talking about credit card chargebacks, that has nothing to do with eBay. "

But, it is eBay that takes the money out of your account. Managed Payments is still eBay and that does happen long after 30 days.  So yes, it has everything to do with eBay otherwise many sellers would tell the buyers CC to take a walk and that is exactly what eBay should be doing. 

[store_spark]

Totally agreed.