Ebay is too controlling True or False?

[disneyfanatic1515]

I am a member of 10+ years here and Im feeling like I dont even own my stuff I sell. The fees are getting too high, dont have any control of my listings with them adding best offers when they feel like it or charging shipping fees on top of already high shipping prices to ship our items, my fees are based on their messed up grading system and much more like no protection for us. REALLY@@!! I have ended all my listings and refuse to sell here anymore until who ever owns EBAY understands all you are doing is hosting our stuff and should charge only for that, paypal is a separate entity and does charge a small fee for their part, but it is within reason!!! We are not in school and dont need to be graded for higher fees, on stuff we own. All you need to do is host and add the paypal link in the ad. Thats it.

[fisstan0]

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@disneyfanatic1515 wrote:
I dont have bad performance, so that is the whole point of my post. Why am I getting higher fees, and basically no say so with my stuff I own. Really!!

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Obviously you do or you wouldn't be getting charged more.

What does your dashboard say?

[mycarolinavintage]

Sorry you are feeling that way. I have not noticed such an escalation in my fees. maybe I need to double check on it. Or maybe there is a reason you can address ebay about.

A few months ago I received offers on a couple of my items and thought it strange because it would be rare for me to use the Let Buyers Make An Offer method. I corrected the listings thinking I had selected that option by mistake. Shortly after that, it happened again. I called ebay about it and the rep. was very helpful in getting me squared away so this would not happen again. And it hasn't. 

There are other sites. Have you tried selling on any of those? Do you check items that have sold before you price and list your items? I found a lot of some of the movies you had listed that had sold for much much less than your price. Some were included in box lots with one or two other movies. Maybe that is part of the problem. Just a suggestion. If you list on another site and don't research what's selling for what, the situation may be repeated.

[dr.clockenstien]

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@caninekopz wrote:

As you stated "eBay has the money back guarantee and this same guarantee lets sellers work out any issues with buyers on there own before eBay steps in.  This sure sounds like you the seller have some control over how you react."  Let the buyer and seller try to work it out.  If the buyer is unhappy then they can pay higher prices for someone who takes returns, and the seller gets bad marks and no one will want to buy from them. 

Rich 

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Exactly!

Way back when, that is how I always researched here on ebay.

If a seller offered an item for a few dollars more and returns, SOMETIMES I bought it.

Also, if another seller offered something else for a few less and no returns, I also bought that.

I'm sure alot of us seasoned buyers know the risk we take.

I think it really depends on the value of the product, condition, and the necessity.

But for a universal policy on ALL products, related or not, should not be governed by a platform who supposedly welcomes all to sell.

Especially when they don't back up their own standards.

[mycarolinavintage]

If someone asks you where you got so and so, you would say from majicalebay seller on ebay or whoever? Wow. I can not tell you the name of a seller I bought items from last week. After having been on ebay for many years, my answer to that question would still be "I got it on ebay." But maybe that's just me. 

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energy flows where attention goes

[ted_200]

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@disneyfanatic1515 wrote:
I dont have bad performance, so that is the whole point of my post. Why am I getting higher fees, and basically no say so with my stuff I own. Really!!

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Well, we're a good 50 posts in, I'll go ahead and ask it, what happened? 

I think a lot of their "grading system" is messed up too.  And if you don't sell a lot of volume, it's easy to get tripped up on just a couple of items that may or may not have had anything to do with you doing anything wrong. 

LOL at the fees comment ^^^.  As you see, anyone who runs afoul of the "grading system" gets a 40% fee hike.  If the seller is really no good, I don't see monetizing them as any kind of solution to improve the site, and it's not like the rest of us got a fee cut to go with it as some kind of reward. 

So what happened?  Which metric caused you to go below standard, was it something you did?  Even if it doesn't fix anything for you, someone else may learn from it. 

[tunicaslot]

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@disneyfanatic1515 wrote:

I am a member of 10+ years here and Im feeling like I dont even own my stuff I sell. The fees are getting too high, dont have any control of my listings with them adding best offers when they feel like it or charging shipping fees on top of already high shipping prices to ship our items, my fees are based on their messed up grading system and much more like no protection for us. REALLY@@!! I have ended all my listings and refuse to sell here anymore until who ever owns EBAY understands all you are doing is hosting our stuff and should charge only for that, paypal is a separate entity and does charge a small fee for their part, but it is within reason!!! We are not in school and dont need to be graded for higher fees, on stuff we own. All you need to do is host and add the paypal link in the ad. Thats it.

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I'm reading the OP's post here and I don't see how some can defend obvious complaints that are true. This is not a bash Ebay thread - it's discussing a platform that has made many bad decisions in the past and continues to do so while the competition is more competiive than ever. Long time sellers like myself - don't want to see the venue fail - I love it here - but I'm not going to be like many parents today and say - sorry my kid would never do that - without weighing the evidence. 

The fact that best offer has been thrown on many sellers items is upsetting and disconcerting for many sellers. They know what they want for the item - if they priced it too high - then it won't sell. Instead of sending a message with comparable solds shown and the going price they just add best offer - which they shouldn't do.

Other venues have higher fees and other's lower - I can't agree with the OP here as we all choose to sell here - if they feel things are too expensive  - they may have to look and see what they are on other venues. I don't mind the fees as I know how high they are elsewhere.

Many sellers feel that these new metrics are punishments that will result in higher fees - the additional 4% - if you get too many returns. The OP isn't the only one that feels this way and being we've had numerous threads about CS not allowing discussions when a return req is filed - sellers have every right to be upset about these metrics. We can take it up with Ebay after the fact - but many of us spent hours back in the days of DSRs trying to get those changed even when the decision was ruled in our favor.

This is not about being pro-Ebay or anti-Ebay - all sellers have got to be aware of how these changes affect them personally. Some sellers aren't affected at all due to their niche but this is a concern for other sellers and I hate to see others make them feel they shouldn't have concerns.

[ted_200]

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@mycarolinavintage wrote:

If someone asks you where you got so and so, you would say from majicalebay seller on ebay or whoever? Wow. I can not tell you the name of a seller I bought items from last week. After having been on ebay for many years, my answer to that question would still be "I got it on ebay." But maybe that's just me. 

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energy flows where attention goes

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That would be my answer too, I think everyone would say that.  However... if the person then said they wanted to buy one too, I would definitely provide them (even if they didn't ask) the Seller ID of the person I bought it from, if not just email them a link to that seller's listing.  If they tried to come here and find "IT" on their own using search, they'd be calling me for that link after half an hour anyhow. 

[the*dog*ate*my*tablecloth]

Sellers are essentially being penalized for being out of stock and for refusing returns. Those are the requirements for sellers now. Sellers need to realize that things are not going to be 100% sunshine and rainbows and sometimes they have to take returns they don't want to.

That's not including fraud. Anyone who has been repeatedly reported for fraud should be gone.

Don't get me started on the whole Ebay is changing listings thing. I think that's terrible for sellers AND for buyers. Ebay doesn't really care what I think though.

[luckythewinner]

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@disneyfanatic1515 wrote:
I dont have bad performance, so that is the whole point of my post. Why am I getting higher fees, and basically no say so with my stuff I own. Really!!

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The only thing that matters is how your seller dashboard rateds you against the criteria for Above Standard.

Setting your personal feeling about the performace criteria aside, your Seller Dashboard should tell you exactly what criteria caused you to go Below Standard on your last evaluation. Unless you are willing to give us that information, we really can't help you.

While you may feel that eBay has no right to judge you ... that will not change the fact that they do judge you. So if you want to continue to sell here, you will need to stop complaining about eBay does, and figure out how you can get back to Above Standard.

[ted_200]

And back to the OP...

eBay is too controllling on a lot of things the seller should be controlling... setting return policies (that can be enforced), controlling payment options, adding Best Offer to listings, using carrots and sticks to modify seller behavior that isn't always in the best interest of that seller or the market niche, and buyers, they are serving. 

A lot of other stuff, they have to control.  A uniform checkout is a good thing.  You can only have one search engine.  How your listings and listings management appears and works HAS to be under their control.  They have to control the photo viewing mechanism.  The primary complaint isn't that they control this stuff, it's that they do a poor job with it, often for reasons that make absolutely no sense.  We need a uniform checkout, but we need a cart that actually works, and we need to be able to combine items and manage shipping charges before someone pays. 

[the*dog*ate*my*tablecloth]

Ebay needs to control the quality of the buyer experience because unfortunately too many sellers were not doing it themselves.

[caninekopz]

So then, who is going to control the seller expierence?  Ebay is not doing a very good job and I pay a lot of money for it.  Buyers certainly are not doing it themselves.

Now I say this with a baited tounge as I have a lot of good customers and cherish every one of them.  So I can not say that the above is a truely fair question, but one bad buyer can wipe out a whole weeks worth of selling profit for me.  And Ebay does nothing to curtail that activity.  

Rich 

[ted_200]

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@the*dog*ate*my*tablecloth wrote:

Ebay needs to control the quality of the buyer experience because unfortunately too many sellers were not doing it themselves.

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Well...

a)  90% of the "expereince" problems my buyers have faced over the years were caused by eBay, and were something I had to try to correct (sometimes successfully, sometimes not).   As a buyer myself it's not that bad (90%), but over half of my own poor buyer experiences are because of eBay.

b)  It's not a one size fits all proposition.  What someone who buys stuff on Amazon finds to be a good "buyer exeprience" may be a very poor buyer expereience for someone who bids on collectibles auctions.  That's part of the cause of a) above.  The rest of the cause of a) above is that eBay has poor quality control themselves.

[dr.clockenstien]

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@the*dog*ate*my*tablecloth wrote:

Ebay needs to control the quality of the buyer experience because unfortunately too many sellers were not doing it themselves.

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Agreed.

But I believe that ebay also needs to acknowledge that bad buyers lower the quality experience alltogether as well.

Isn't this why you see long written policies from sellers who have been burned before?

I have also seen the same style of discaimers for the bad ones also... to escape accountablity of course.

For the Good sellers, we are suffering reprecussions for bad sellers on a whole level.

Bad buyers can just come and go as they please, and there is no way for ebay to regulate that.

But I will say that any (good) seller already puts their head on the chopping block anytime they list, and that risk alone should have some merit to ebay.

For us it's all about reputation to sell more and ebay already does enough to make this more difficult.

To be fair,

I'm just going to assume, for now,  that there are equal sides of bad buyer/sellers out there anyway.

[ted_200]

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@the*dog*ate*my*tablecloth wrote:

Ebay needs to control the quality of the buyer experience because unfortunately too many sellers were not doing it themselves.

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Left out c)...

c)  Even if we accept that theory, the consensus seems to be that the quality of the sellers and the quality of the "buyer experience" is declining while eBay increases their attempts to control it.  It's not working, their idea of "quality" is flawed, their execution is poor.