I've had a bit of free time on my hands to read through some of the boards this week, mainly spurred through my own frustrations as a seller with recent issues and glitches. I am also a buyer, as many of us are. I've had pictures disappear, views not showing up, limited visibility of my listings, and most recently, incorrect shipping costs shown to buyers on best offers (and then correct costs showing up at checkout).
However irritating these issues may be to me (yes, my sales are down also), and even though there are scamming buyers out there, there are still many, many, many sellers who don't treat this like a business. Some are small, some are large.
I have a lot of first time buyers finding my items through Google searches, and I think about whether or not they would ever buy again on Ebay if I didn't provide as good of a customer service experience as I possibly can.
In my mind, Ebay is right to side with the buyers, and cater to the buyer's experience, even though I DO NOT always like how it affects me as a seller (especially lately). I take appropriate precautions, like not shipping to countries that I have had issues with, and trying not to sell in categories that are fraught with scams on the part of both buyers and sellers. There is still no better venue for my merchandise, other than loading the trailer every weekend to attend swap meets.
I mentioned this in another post, but it's worth repeating. I also teach at a community college, and I see the same mindset of immediate gratification and incompletely researching a topic or item before making a decision that I see in many of my buyers. It's really a societal shift, in my opinion.
The reality is that if I want to continue to sell on a faceless website where my buyer's can't develop immediate trust by me shaking their hand and looking them in the eye, then I have to cater to the changing societal demographics of buyers and their changing expectations. It's not easy, and sometimes costs me money, but I view that as a cost of doing business on the Internet in a world where online scamming proliferates. Even though someone may be thoroughly versed in Twitter, Snapchat, for us "seasoned" folk Facebook, and every other social media platform, there is still a presumption, to a degree, that you may get scammed buying something online.
Have I been actually scammed by a buyer? Sure I have. More than once. The actual percentage is pretty low, though. In my opinion, I can't manage the other 99.5% of my potential buyers due to the actions of the .5%. It's like the Craigslist car ad that screams "PRICE IS FIRM!! NO OFFERS!! DON'T EVEN TRY!!". That's not good business sense for attracting potential purchasers.
I'll get off my soapbox now, but seriously - if you haven't yet, read some of the stories on the buyer issue board. Too many basic customer service issues for any selling platform to ignore. Some are the fault of the selling platform, and glitchy or unituitive software, but most are not the fault of the buyer.
