EBay modifies my listing on their own?

[bonzaibilly]

Why is it that pushy greedy ebay thinks it's ok to just accept offers when I say none accepted? Next they'll be deciding the price, and just give me what they feel like for my item!! What it does, is cause problems for me, a perfect seller, by insisting there is some timeframe I have to reply to offers, then they can punish me for not complying, and potenetial buyers, who then make an offer instead of just buying it, now have to wait, and if I don't accept their lowball offer, I lose a potential customer.  Pushy Ebay is flat out setting me up for failure, and as long as they get their greedy cut, they don't give a darn if you lose money on the deal! When they start making more off a listing than I do, and want to control my listings regardless of what I want, it's time to take a serious look at the whole "submissive servitude" they seem to be demanding now!!  I have read there is some way around it, but it is outright rediculous that they make you jump through 20 hoops just so they don't screw you over...   and then they often change it anyway..   VERY BAD PRACTICE!!!

[good_guy44]

eBay is my landlord. I rent a selling space. I am a tenant. In fact sellers are really eBay's only customers. eBay is not a retailer - they don't even sell their own shipping supplies **bleep**.

So in your mind a brick and mortar mall owner could go in to his tenants' stores in the middle of the night and add "Best offer accepted" stickers to the sale signs...and you would say he has the "right" to do that? And thank him for "helping" you to boot?

eBay modifying listings in this manner is an inappropriate action and it doesn't matter how easy it is to "fix", it simply should NOT be done in the first place. It's late 2018 and they are still doing it. They are now targeting my listings and I resent it. I do not want to be part of this experiment. All I ask is a method to "OPT OUT". Those of you that choose to tolerate this intrusion can still have it. Just because it's eBay's web site does NOT give them power to do anything they choose. 

[good_guy44]

Server space? Have you seen the mega sellers that eBay has invited to sell here? 50,000 to 2 million listings each. Ported over with tools that for some of these sellers puts 100,000+ items in wrong categories (somehow they default to books. Look at the BOOKS category and tell me how this is a GOOD thing?) Their catalogs virtually mirror each other, and most items are at MSRP or higher.  Some are drop shippers that promise 3 week delivery. Most do not even reside in the US (some operate out of Israel with same phone and address), but ship from US (frequently Kentucky for some reason). How many are Top Rated Sellers? NONE!!! So eBay is worried about my 250 listing subscription? If I have 250 listings a month who cares how I use them? What's a bigger waste, sellers like me or the mega sellers eBay lets in for nearly "free" and really add nothing of value to the site? It's OK to admit that eBay does some blunderous things. I am so sick of eBay spouting the "buyer experience" mantra when they themselves are diluting the site and downgrading "buyer experience" in their zeal to become "Amazon-like".

[goodluckselling]

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@feefoo72 wrote:

Did ebay put  "Best Offer" option on your listings when you didn't list it that way? That's horrible!

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As @emerald40   mentioned it is a policy change that took place over a year ago.

Here is a link to the announcement  -  Click Here

The last sentence in the link above says this  -  There are no plans to enable this feature for business sellers.  Hopefully that will help some of you out who do not want to be part of this program?

Good Luck Selling!

[castlemagicmemories]

You don't have to respond to offers.  You can let them expire.  They don't punish you for this.

Edit~  I see some say Ebay posts that seller does not respond to offers.  If you don't want them, you won't care if this shows up.  I have never seen seller does not respond to offers on any listing.  IIRC this was a test.

Buyers know that they may have to wait when the submit a Best Offer.  You can set your auto accept/decline if you are concerned about having them wait.

You don't have to accept any low ball offer.  Set the auto accept/decline and you won't even see them.

If you use the Advanced Listing form, you may be able to take that Best Offer off.  

[mrtwiddle]

One thing corporations hate is lousy numbers. There is probably some muckety-muck who is responsible for seller satisfaction. This is the one area where we might be able to get their attention.

Everytime I have to revise my listing to remove the Best Offer option, I'm presented with a message "What do you think?"
I respond with: Very Unsatisfied / Please STOP adding "Best Offer" to my listings!!!!

Now I know that aside from providing me with my own personal satisfaction this just a drop in the bucket BUT if everyone that is unhappy with their Best Offer algorithm did it they just might sit up and take notice when their numbers start to tank. Call me crazy but this just might work.

[twnpopcards]

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@myboardid wrote:

One other thing - eBay does NOT require a seller to reply to an offer, and they don't "punish" a seller for not replying. 

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Try declining an offer or not responding to an offer and then watch your impressions and views for the next week or so.  You might feel differently after doing this experiment.

[myboardid]

I use best offer a lot, but there are some I don't respond to and others I decline, and it has not affected my impressions or views even a little bit. 

[good_guy44]

There are no plans to enable this feature for business sellers.

Yet.

Well, maybe some business sellers would benefit. This listing is from one of the "mega" book sellers (Initials are Thrift Books). They have the same book offered on Bookfinder.com for $8.97 with free shipping. But not to fear, they have it listed on Amazon for $42,503.39 as well. So I guess eBay = Amazon !! Sadly, this is not an isolated case. How does  c r a p  like this happen? Bad 3rd party tools? Bad algorithms? Testing gone bad? Employee pranks? In this case we know it wasn't eBay 'Bots because it would be $.99 plus free shipping plus free returns plus free electronic updates for life  plus pdf version plus bonus DVD & CD plus a kitchen sink.

If eBay wants to put their 'Bots to work they could ZaP things like this. And any listing with placeholder photos. Or no photos. Or the 100s of thousands (maybe millions?) of miscatagorized listings by "mega" sellers. And leave mine the seven seven three four alone.

RIP eBay...

[berserkerplanet]

>>How does c r a p like this happen? Bad 3rd party tools? Bad algorithms? Testing gone bad? Employee pranks?

As I speculated in another thread, it could be an intentional way to game the Promoted Listings feature.

Notice that that is a sponsored listing. That seller can commit to paying up to 100% of the selling price as additional Final Value fees - but only IF THE ITEM SELLS! They would pay 110% of the selling price as FVF if it sold, which it won't in a million years, and that insane promoted listing ad rate "wins" them the category with no cost and pretty much zero risk.

Free sponsored advertising.

A loophole in the PL system where once a seller or 2 or 10 set high enough prices on sponsored listings that they know will never sell, the other sellers betting "reasonable" trending rates might be wasting their time (depends on the eBay algorithms for PL visibility, what those algorithms are based on, and how many sellers in a category are going the crazy high route.)