EBAY ON DOWNWARD SPIRAL-NOBODYS FAULT BUT THEIR OWN

[sara5769]

Right now they are so inundated with dissatisfied sellers I have a feeling they do NOT know which way is up.  Its completely gone downhill and many have found that its no longer a decent platform to sell their wares.  Just recently with the bonehead moves with the markdown manager and changes with the seller discount program.  People are walking.  We are all in this together.  Demand compensation for lost sales that is abounding the ebay community and entire web.  Rightfully so!.. What you sew you reap and as they say "Karmas a **bleep**" and every one needs to show their discontent.  Most likely, the higher ups are the one that made the latest ignorant decisons to commence on one of the busiest holiday sales opportunities of the year while their on their luxury vacations as the pee ons are left with endless fires that need to be put oiut.  I feel sorry for them. Plus the fact I would almost guarantee most of the decision makers have little to no business savvy and/or experience.  I dont care if you have an MBA or what.  A seasoned experienced employ is more valuable.   Theres one problem after another and frankly people are sick and tired.  Can you blame them? 

[kensgiftshop]

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@sara5769

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What good would it do to call the CS center, there isn't anyone there that can do anything.

They can barely take care of the problems they are supposed to do.

[pburn]

@sara5769

As a practicing Buddhist, I'm just sorry you would choose to say "Karmas [sic] a **bleep**." It's kind of like telling a Christian that "Crucifixion's a **bleep**."

Try to think of a metaphor that doesn't involve (or insult) anyone's religion. Maybe something like, "What goes around, comes around," or "You reap what you sew."

[racestuff4sale]

Totally agree but really, what are we to do after so much time and effort put forth in building up a store on eBay? I sure don't want to spend more time on the phone, as I'm lucky to be here on their forum. I have a couple of threads going myself over issues that are hampering my sales. And just like the message above, where someone with ZERO listings gets on here and moans about something you said, rather than offer solutions. A lot of trolls on here that fluff and divert away from the actual problems that sellers are concerned about.

Personally, I believe that eBay shouldn't employ ANYONE that has never been a Power Seller for a number of years. Maybe then they'd have some actual insight into the problems they create and how frustrating it is to run a store and continually be bombarded with assinine changes and demands. You don't hire a roofer to fix your transmission.

I'm dealing with the markdown manager changes now (with no help). Last week it was a large number of my images weren't appearing. And since the first of the year (actually over a year) I've had my 'request total' link BLOCKED in buyers shopping carts (have a 7pg thread going on that issue). It's always something.

[luckythewinner]

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@sara5769 wrote:

EBAY ON DOWNWARD SPIRAL

Its completely gone downhill and many have found that its no longer a decent platform 

People are walking

Theres one problem after another and frankly people are sick and tired 

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eBay's gross volume of merchandise sold in Q1 2018 was $23.6 billion, up 12.9% from 2017.  And eBay's gross volume of merchandise sold in Q4 2017was $24.5 billion, up 9.8% from  2016. 

So it is probably true that things are going downhill for some sellers, and that some sellers are walking, and that some sellers are sick and tired. 

But while individual sellers may be struggling to sell their items, eBay as a whole seems to be doing just fine without them. eBay has hundreds of thousands of sellers; a change in the fortunes of one seller is not going to result in a change in eBay's business plan. 

[patd3283]

Goodluck, those numbers sound rosy but know what is behind them and what went on to get them there - what was counted and what not.

Imagine what the numbers could be if the site wasn't full of problems!

Patd

[everything-from-trinkets-to-treasures]

This is their company and they are not complaining about the direction it is going and seem rather happy about it...and have plans for the future. They are not going to do something because you don't like it....you do not even work for them nor are you on their BOD.

We have our own businesses...and can make decision for them only

And I am fairly sure...this is a duplicate post....I have read this before a week or so ago

[auctionpet]

There are way too many sellers here, it doesn't matter how many walk, there will still be too many. Compare that with the huge number of other sites trying to attract buyers and it's simply impossible for all those attempting to sell to be successful. It's the same in the world of physical business, there are those who close up shop regularly.

Quite frankly, I hope more sellers leave. It's no fun to have once been highly successful and to be crowded out year after year with more and more competition. It would be nice to have a better chance of selling. The higher the number of sellers, the less that chance is! I was one of the first 250,000 users here, believe me, it was pretty nice!! When ebay's IPO hit in 1998, that's when this place went crazy with registered users, as it became a household name. This is why there are millions of sellers who started around then. That number has only climbed steadily since then.

Times change, and not always for the better.

[partsalot1]

your statistics are not complete.  i'm not saying they are un true But they are not complete.  EBay is Fourth-quarter results are always higher than the previous 3  quarters. At least it's been that way since 2014. For the fourth quarters of 2014 2015 and 2016 things have been relatively flat. In fact if you look at a bar chart  of these numbers since 2014 it basically goes up-and-down culminating in a high point of 22 billion in q4 2016.  The last 2  quarters have had a steep increase. This is undoubtedly due to the steep increase in economic activity. Which would make sense because as economic activity goes up so would each individual companies grow sales. 

But that being the case does that mean eBay is on solid ground. The increases from quarter to quarter may be nice but compared to others in the same industry  how do they look?  How much of an increase might  there of been without the loss of numerous sellers Leading up to this point.?   and with an economic boom pushing eBay to new heights what will happen when there is an economic retraction? 

You can say the plight of a few sellers has nothing to do with eBay as a whole but that is And incorrect way of looking at things. EBay may be on an upswing  but it is also very true that this upswing may have nothing to do with eBay doing things right and everything to do with the academy at large.  if this is the case and I believe it is then what happens next when the economy slumps  as it is sure to do eventually?

[luckythewinner]

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@patd3283 wrote:

Goodluck, those numbers sound rosy but know what is behind them and what went on to get them there - what was counted and what not. Imagine what the numbers could be if the site wasn't full of problems!

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First off, I'm not "goodluck". But that aside ...

I did not characterize the numbers I gave as "rosy". But those number do show that eBay is growing slowly and steadily, and if you look further you will find this has been true for at least five years.

What is "behind" these number? A corresponding growth in net revenue, actually. 

Your last bit is a completely different argument - that eBay is growing, but is not growing as much as they could be because of "site problems". Perhaps that is true - but unlike my argument about growth, your argument requires speculation.

If I were to speculate, I would say eBay's growth has not been hampered by site problems as much as it has been hampered by the maturing of ecommerce in general. Buyers are getting smarter, and know how to find deals by searching many sites, not just one.

IMHO eBay's primary problem is competition - but not from a goliath like Amazon, but rather from thousands of little Davids that are springing up as smaller companies have realized they can sell directly to customers, and as specialized ecommerce sites have begun carving out small niches. 

It used to be a no-brainer that I would come to eBay for things like pool filters, furnace filters, and CDs and records.  But this last week I bought pool filters directly from the seller who I used to get them from on eBay - he now has his own website with cheaper prices. And after this past Record Store Day, I bought one of the new vinyl releases directly from an eBay seller's own website for $21 all in. (The cheapest copy on eBay was $35, and the seller I bought it from did not even bother to list it here). 

IMHO this is competition eating away at what used to eBay's exclusive domain - nothing to do with "site issues". 

[sara5769]

BOTTOM LINE....LIKE OR DONT LIKE THE TERMINOLOGY, THE POINT REMAINS THAT EBAY SCREWED UP BIG TIME AND PEOPLE ARE SPEAKING THEIR MIND.  I DONT THINK THAT WHAT WE SAID SHOULD BOTHER YOU.  YOUR TAKING IT WRONG AND TOO PERSONALLY. WE ARE PROUD AND OBSERVANT AND MANY OF MY FRIENDS ARE BUDDHISTS.  PLEASE FOCUS ON THE THEME HERE.  THEIR GUFAWS MUST NOT HAVE AFFECTED YOU.

FACT OF THE MATTER (HOPE THAT FITS THE BILL)) MANY MANY PEOPLE INCLDUING US HAVE GONE OVER THE CALL OF DUTY AND EBAY EVEN. IF YOU HAVE HAD OPEN EARS AND EYES LATELY MANY SELLERS HAVE BEEN AFFECTED NEGATIVE.  DID YOU READ THE EBAY SELLERS ALL COMPLAINING ABOUT THE SAME THINGS...VIEWS NOT SHOWING..LITTLE OR NO SALES AND OR VIEWS.  ELIMINATING THE SALES DISCOUNT MARKDOWN LIMITATIONS.  PEOPLE AND FAMILES HAVE BEEN DEEPLY AFFECTED MONETARILY.  FOOD AND NECCESSITITES HAVE COME HARDER FOR THEM TO AFFORD.  LITTLE TO NO ADVACNE WARNING TO SELLERS ETC ETC ETC....THEY SHOULD NOT HAVE STARTED SOEMTHING NEW WITHOUT THE KINKS" BEING ALL WORKED OUT AND ON ONE OF THE BUSIEST HOLIDAY SALES WEEKENDS OF THE YEAR??  SO YEA YOUR "DARN RIGHT"  

[jason_incognito]

eBay has never done particularly well on holidays. 

Many people even skip running auctions on the holidays because so many people have better things to do.

[tunicaslot]

This is one of the slowest holiday weekends of the year - people are at parades, cook outs, swimming and vacationing - the 4th has always been slow on Ebay.

Caps are not your friend and you'll get more people to read your rant if you do without them and all the hoopla.

I've been here since 1998 - and yes - this is the worst it's been as far as I'm concerned - but guess what the whole week had been slow in my stores on other venues - so while these glitches did cause a loss of sales - it's slow all over.

Try to be respectful of others - remember what goes around comes around.

[everything-from-trinkets-to-treasures]

If you expect an form of technology or computer program or mechanical object to be perfect all the time then you are just not being realistic.
You also have no call of duty here to have gone over. Your only duty is to run your own business.
As far as slow sales...that is happening everywhere and on all sites but also it isn't effecting everyone either...there are and will always be some that are fine while others are not.
EBay has pretty much always used a live environment to implement changes...this is nothing new.....and lots of sites do this and none of them need permission to do it either. And there has always been a period of time after when there are glitches. Also nothing new.
If you are doing nothing else to resolve issues of slow or no sales other than blaming ebay then that is on you....because this will not help you pay the bills and will not change anything to help you get sales.

[everything-from-trinkets-to-treasures]

and also note...you are NOT an ebay employee either. You do not work for ebay. You are an independent business that uses ebay as a venue to sell items on for as long as you choose to use the site...nothing more. Same as the rest of us.