eBay

movieman630 · ‎03-02-2023

I was sick recently and it came on so sudden that when my shipping day came around I had several orders that needed to be shipped. I had no time to think about "Time Away" functions.

If ebay wanted to help sellers what would really be helpful (Especially in the age of covid-19) would be an "Emergency Delay Function". Something where if a SUDDEN onset emergency hits a seller can suspend sales and also automatically notify buyers that their items "shipping will be delayed but that if they wish to cancel the transaction and get a full refund they are welcome to do so."

This would allow the seller an easy way out of worrying about ebay punishing them for not shipping on time while also protecting the buyer from having to wait for something. If the buyer doesn't like waiting they can get a refund no questions asked and the seller doesn't have to deal with buyer abuse.

A function like this is long overdue. There's no reason why we can't have something like this when emergencies hit all the time for any and all reasons.

Just a suggestion for ebay of a function that would ACTUALLY HELP SELLERS! How about something like that for an update instead of just telling us how we're going to pay more fees?

movieman630 · ‎03-02-2023

Don't call it "sick day" call it "Emergency"

movieman630 · ‎03-02-2023

@dhbookds wrote:
That's not a function someone will willingly "abuse". You can't benefit from that.

Sure you can..........I'm out of stock.......If I admit that, I will put my account in jeopardy, so I'll claim illness to try to delay (or cancel the sale) so I won't get dinged.......

YOU CAN'T SELL ANYTHING DURING THE EMERGENCY! NOTHING!

ALL YOUR CURRENT ORDERS ARE ELIGIBLE FOR IMMEDIATE REFUND! Not just your "out of stock" items. So you're saying that someone is out of stock on Widget A and they get a new batch in a week. They'll shut down ALL THEIR SALES FOR THAT WEEK?? And risk refund on all pending orders?

Makes no sense.

luckythewinner · ‎03-02-2023

@movieman630 wrote:
Which is what I'm talking about! You hit ONE BUTTON for Emergency shut down. DONE! You're in the clear. You're protected.

As an eBay buyer it is infuriating to order and item with an expected delivery date and not get it on time.

As an eBay buyer it is infuriating to have to cancel an order and buy from someone else because the seller cannot deliver what he promised.

You are advocating for a way to disappoint buyers without any repercussions, and every other seller who does plan and meet his obligations has to pay the price as the reputation and reliability of eBay takes a hit.

You are right, I am not advocating for anything. I am simply opposing a bad idea by expressing an opinion.

But IMHO this is all academic, because there is no way eBay is going to provide a tool that degrades buyer confidence in the site simply because it is convenient for a few sellers.

movieman630 · ‎03-02-2023

As an eBay buyer it is infuriating to order and item with an expected delivery date and not get it on time.

As an eBay buyer it is infuriating to have to cancel an order and buy from someone else because the seller cannot deliver what he promised.

OK but you're not allowing for the definition of the word "EMERGENCY". Perhaps ebay could provide a form letter space for the seller to include personal details to their buyers if they wish to do so or are able. Tell the buyers "HEY SORRY I CAN'T SHIP YOUR RUBBER BOOTS THIS WEEK I'M IN THE HOSPITAL HAVING EMERGENCY BYPASS SURGERY"

iamalwaysright · ‎03-02-2023

@movieman630 wrote:
I found myself suffering through processing orders (that I would have gladly refunded to avoid doing if it wouldn't impact my ratings) during a week when I was very sick.

I kept asking myself. How could this have been avoided? If I just didn't do it my shipments would have been late and my account would suffer negative impacts. If I refunded and cancelled the orders I would have suffered negative impacts from that. THAT IS A LOSE LOSE. So I suffered through the process of shipping out orders, and greatly. I should have been in bed.

Other than a feature I'm proposing how else could this have been avoided?

Create that "feature" for yourself. I call it having a backup person. Years ago during my hospital stay I too wasn't able to handle my orders. Luckily I had a very good friend and fellow ebay seller/rival whom we made an agreement to take care of the daily matters in a situation like this for the other. At the hospital, I told my mom to call my friend and tell him I'm in the hospital, he'll know what to do.

You can make your backup plan as simple or as complicated as you want. Something as simple as putting a time away and sending out a mass scripted message to your purchased items, to more complicated to include cancelling orders and throwing back into your inventory systems, to even just running the day-to-day operations and fulfilling shipments and answering messages without even having a time away at all running business as usual.

It just depends on what you want to teach your backup helper. Nowadays I have multiple people who can contact my backup helper without my authorization. My mom, wife, and sister.

movieman630 · ‎03-02-2023

I hear what you're saying. But you're not making it EASIER to have an emergency. The main reason is, you have to involve OTHER PEOPLE.

What I'm proposing is that a major tech company like Ebay, provides their MAIN source of income. TOP SELLERS with stores the ability to declare they have an emergency with one button.

Hit the button and it

- SHUTS DOWN ALL FUTURE SALES AND HIDES LISTINGS

- GIVES PENDING ORDERS ABILITY TO REFUND OR WAIT WITH AN AUTOMATIC NOTICE THAT YOU HAVE THE OPTION TO PERSONALIZE WITH DETAILS OF YOUR "HEARTBREAKING SITUATION". THEY CAN REFUND IN FULL OR WAIT

It literally simplifies a problem that you're dictating to other people and relying on them knowing exactly what to do. Take the other people out of it.

There's no benefit to "abusing" this. There are ways that I haven't thought of where this "abuse" could be reigned in. Perhaps even allowing that ebay gets to keep some of the FVF's for any of these refunded sales. So that would solve the problem of people "abusing" it.

As I said. I was so sick I was willing to refund $1000 worth of sales to not have to ship them. If I was willing to do that. I'd certainly be ok with Ebay charging me for the ability to do that.

Anyone who's ever had an Emergency knows they'd be willing to pay to not have to do certain things during that emergency. It's a sacrifice. Not a reward.

luckythewinner · ‎03-02-2023

@movieman630 wrote:
So you're saying that someone is out of stock on Widget A and they get a new batch in a week. They'll shut down ALL THEIR SALES FOR THAT WEEK?? And risk refund on all pending orders
Makes no sense.

They will if they are in danger of going to Below Standard Status and being hit with penalty fees and having their items demoted in search. Makes PERFECT sense.

iamalwaysright · ‎03-02-2023

@movieman630 wrote:
Ok but your "plan" still allows your account to suffer from "dings" by ebay for cancelling orders, etc. And you have the added stress of having to worry about someone else handling things for you. You're not making a good argument AGAINST my idea.

If you really think about it, what about my idea wouldn't help your "plan"? What is the downside?

Yes it will suffer dings. If you argue this with ebay, they will come back and say this is precisely why their defects tolerances and metric requirements aren't 100% compliance. They give you 2% leeway before going to Below Average, 3% leeway for late shipments to drop out of TRS. One day of sales with bad dings and defects shouldn't be more than the leeway.

The downside people see is that the significant abuse that will be done to this program will cause many buyers to notice this and make a general blanket statement about ebay as a whole like "oh yea, I never order from ebay anymore because so many times I order something and I never get the item because they claim to be hospitalized. So I don't even bother to try there anymore."

Many already complain about their listings are not getting any views or sales, this program will even result in less. While your program won't directly hurt you when you activate it, you will already suffer by the overall drop in views and sales since the public will view ebay as "not reliable." We all will suffer from lower overall sales. That's why I don't buy on craigslist, facebook marketplace, or offerup. Too many failed transactions.

For example, if you go to McDonalds to get a soft serve and they always tell you the machine is broken you'll eventually never want to go to McDonalds for that. This is actually become a viral punchline, many locations hate using that machine and many suspect they aren't even broken, min wage employees just don't want to deal with it. Now McDonalds is never on peoples mind when hankering for soft serve. The consistency and reliability is gone. https://www.mashed.com/135144/the-real-reason-mcdonalds-ice-cream-machines-always-seem-to-be-broken/

yuzuha · ‎03-02-2023

@iamalwaysright wrote:
Create that "feature" for yourself. I call it having a backup person. Years ago during my hospital stay I too wasn't able to handle my orders. Luckily I had a very good friend and fellow ebay seller/rival whom we made an agreement to take care of the daily matters in a situation like this for the other. At the hospital, I told my mom to call my friend and tell him I'm in the hospital, he'll know what to do.
You can make your backup plan as simple or as complicated as you want. Something as simple as putting a time away and sending out a mass scripted message to your purchased items, to more complicated to include cancelling orders and throwing back into your inventory systems, to even just running the day-to-day operations and fulfilling shipments and answering messages without even having a time away at all running business as usual.

Exactly. I have had my mom take packages to the post office for me to make sure they were shipped on time when I had a very bad migraine and was unable to go myself. Both of my parents know how to put my account on "Time Away" if needed.

Every business needs a backup person who can handle immediate matters if needed, be it an online business or a B&M one.

coolections · ‎03-02-2023

Get yourself a backup and don't rely on Ebay to do your work.

iamalwaysright · ‎03-02-2023

@movieman630 wrote:
@luckythewinner wrote:
@movieman630 wrote:
Again, You're all missing the counter point. Your buyers can all cancel and get refunded during that "emergency period" if they want. So if you abuse it, your opening yourself up to cancelled transactions and refunds.
No, you are missing our point.

The buyer wants his item as you originally promised. The sick Day button offers the buyer two options (cancel or delay) that were NOT what they were promised and that tends to erode buyer confidence in the venue.

Our point is simple - suck it up and live up to what you promised your buyer, even if that means a little extra work on your part to set up a backup plan.

That's exactly the problem with people today. No empathy for others. Sorry but I'm not running Wal Mart. I don't live by the mantra the "customer is always right". I'm not here to bend over backwards to "Deliver" even at the expense of my own health. "Confidence in the venue" shouldn't suffer because someone has an emergency. And if you're the type of customer that is more upset about a delivery delay than someone's health then I don't want your business anyway. And "Confidence in a venue" isn't going to suffer from the occasional emergency from sellers with good reputations.

Your point is WAY to "J.P. Morgan" for my taste. You're advocating for the type of attitude that had the railroads being built on the corpses of expired workers.

Yes, being an online seller on ebay and it's ever changing buyer landscape isn't for everyone.

iamalwaysright · ‎03-02-2023

@movieman630 wrote:
There are a lot of people out there who just like to be contrarian for the sake of doing so.

Couldn't have said it better myself given the reception of this topic.

Contrarian: a person who opposes or rejects popular opinion

movieman630 · ‎03-02-2023

You'll excuse me if I don't take advice from someone who has ZERO feedback and no listings.

I'm out.

luckythewinner · ‎03-02-2023

@movieman630 wrote:
You'll excuse me if I don't take advice from someone who has ZERO feedback and no listings.

We'll excuse you for not understanding that some people use a posting ID when they interact with the message board. I have six selling accounts, but you won't see any sales on this one.

iamalwaysright · ‎03-02-2023

@movieman630 wrote:
Still not a valid argument against protecting the accounts of sellers who have an emergency. If ebay loses good sellers because of that, that's a bad business decision. There is a way to make it work and avoid "abuse" which I can't see because you don't make money and can lose money if you use the function. There's literally no benefit to using it unless you have an emergency.

You can't leave your listings visible during either. It's essentially "time away" without visibility and sales. It's protection of your account. That benefits ebay and the seller. The buyer benefits because they're notified that the seller had an emergency and they can cancel and refund or wait. If I'm buying a "collectible widgit" I don't mind waiting a few days or a weeks. If I'm buying something I need right away, I'll just cancel and buy it from someone else. It wouldn't make me mad at ebay if I knew someone had an emergency. My first thought would be "Geez I hope their ok".

Have faith in people. Nobody is going to say "ebay's the worst" because some seller had an emergency.

I just had a thought that might improve your Sick Day button idea. The popular opinion is that the major issue with it is that this will be abused. Regardless if you agree or not with it, that's the part of the issue that needs to be addressed. Here's my idea(s).

1) Your account will enter a sort of Probation Period when you apply the Sick Time Away.

2) This Probation will have a lengthy minimum duration. Like 30 days. For 30 days minimum your listings will not be visible, nor can you make any sales.

3) You will not be able to create any new seller accounts within this Probation period.

4) Once your Probation period is up (30 days minimum) and you want to be reinstated, you'll have to go thru a lengthy and vigorous process that will include providing documentation. Once approved, all of your penalties caused by the sick day will be expunged and your previous seller level will be retained. If you don't try to reinstate your account, it will eventually be restricted or banned.

This plan I think is an improvement of yours. Sellers would have to decide if it's worth saving their seller level status to have ebay expunge their accounts. It may also deter abusive sellers using it nilly willy. Your thoughts? I doubt ebay would ever do this though.