More BAD then GOOD

[newdealpawn]

Scrolling through the " community" boards on myriad topics there is very little GOOD and HUNDREDS of unique posts DAILY as to the BAD, about the state of eBay these days.  Does any of the leadership at eBay pay attention to such?  As for my own recent experience, as a well WAS a couple thousand a month seller..Tells me BIG PROBLEMS AT eBay on multiple levels.. Basic good business practices are not a priority on this venue.  Eventually the thousands of small leaks will sink the ship.. Sellers we are going to have to find another venue, the old "build it and they will come" I think applies here..

[katzrul15]

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@newdealpawn wrote:

Scrolling through the " community" boards on myriad topics there is very little GOOD and HUNDREDS of unique posts DAILY as to the BAD, about the state of eBay these days.  Does any of the leadership at eBay pay attention to such?  As for my own recent experience, as a well WAS a couple thousand a month seller..Tells me BIG PROBLEMS AT eBay on multiple levels.. Basic good business practices are not a priority on this venue.  Eventually the thousands of small leaks will sink the ship.. Sellers we are going to have to find another venue, the old "build it and they will come" I think applies here..

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We sell here and Amazon and right now, are fine with both venues.  2021 was a challenging year for many on e-Bay, yet others report Record years.  Really depends on what you sell, etc.

Interested in what e-Bay has in store for the Spring Seller update and any fee changes on the horizon.  Otherwise, willing to continue plodding along like usual.  

Good luck with whatever new venue you find.  There are lots of choices, but very few, minus the Behemoth that have "traffic".  

[rabites-n-chocobos]

Ebay is still the king. If it fails, sellers will move to another...its as simple as that. Are you trying to give Ebay some constructive criticism?

[smileytown18]

Regarding BAD NEWS posts:

You do need to take into consideration that only a very small percentage of sellers actually post on boards. Sellers that are doing well and don't have specific concerns (or need to vent) and are mostly satisfied, tend not to post about it. It's not much news.

Large corporate accounts, I would venture, never visit these boards at all.

So I'm not sure the boards are an accurate portrayal of what's going on on eBay. 

[lamber9347]

There's not much reason to simply post when you had a good sale, that's expected. It doesn't lead to more discussion. People come to these boards because they need assistance with an issue or looking for advice before making a decision. Sellers are concentrating on getting the next sale and buyers are looking for another bargain. Considering the tens of thousands of individual sales that take place on this platform on any one given day, there would be no reason for leadership to stop here to read a rant. Best of luck to you....

[dbfolks166mt]

     I started diversifying across multiple platforms when eBay announced managed payments and currently sell on a number of venues. While most of them, other than the river, have the buyers market that eBay has a lot of them are more focused on a particular area or product which is a benefit. I also use multiple local P2P platforms and several consignment auction houses due to the ever growing list of items you cannot post on eBay. 

     At present only about 20-30% of my sales are on eBay at any given point in time. A lot of the other forums have lower fees and less risk of scamming. With the local forums I don't have to deal with the shipping and other logistical issues and the buyer can inspect the item before they take possession so very low risk of return. 

     EBay is still a viable platform but it no longer holds the quasi monopoly that it once held. 

[domin-tomas]

I agree, ebay isn't my go to platform anymore. I will list but I don't expect to sell, and if I do I take it as a bonus.

[chapeau-noir]

Exactly.  People come here to complain, just like a lot of chatboards.  Definitely to seek help with problems.

If anyone thinks any forum like this is an accurate representation of a giant corporation as a whole, they're deluded.  We're a chattery minority.

[yes_treat_yourself]

eBay makes its decisions by committee, via focus groups of established buyers and sellers, particularly sellers.  NOTHING here happens by accident, but eBay DOES have a HISTORY of backing off or changing policy as a result of member feedback.  It's happened many times.

You can believe that eBay has a NUMBER of staff specialists whose daily job it is to monitor these boards.

It's a long-established fact that for every complaint lodged there is a multiple of 7+ times of others who feel the same way, but who will not post a complaint.  Just FINDING these boards is a challenge in itself, even for established members like myself.  eBay used to have a 'Community' link right at the top of every page.

No longer.  Major media publications and broadcasts would do stories on what members posted on these boards.  Your voice does not stop here.

I've been around since 1999, a PowerSeller for the first decade.  One of the original PayPal members.  Many many thousands of sales.  

Back in the day we had regular eBay employees who not only monitored the boards, but regularly commented and provided answers to members, INCLUDING when they admitted to making bad policy decisions as well being regularly sued over certain policies, such as when they insisted that PayPal, which they owned, was the only SAFE way to pay.  After litigation they changed their statement to the 'SAFER' way to pay.

The only thing that matters to eBay is PROFIT.  Nothing else.  They calculate how many sellers they'll lose as a result of focus-studied policy changes that they implement, and live with the results.  

One example is the 12.55% fee they charge sellers on the taxes the buyers pay per transaction.  Not only do we sellers NEVER SEE the taxes, but we have to pay a fee on something that has nothing to do with our income.  Some defend eBay by stating that they're doing us a favor so we don't have to calculate taxes based on thousands of tax codes across the USA. 

But that's not why they do it.  They do it because they know that the majority of their sellers would leave the site if they had to deal with all of the tax tables in the USA, at risk of prosecution if they don't get it right.  eBay is protecting its own best interests, and charging sellers for the 'privilege'. 

After 22 years, enough is enough.  We canceled all of our listings and refunded $1700 in PAID SALES after this latest fiasco was sprung upon us, with eBay holding our funds hostage until we agreed to their extortionist tactics.  We told them to shove it.

[fashunu4eeuh]

People have  been predicting eBay’s demise for years here in the forum. Ebay remains. The number of forum posters are an infinitesimal fraction of a fraction of the millions of eBay buyers and sellers across the globe. Ebay is in 190 countries, not just the USA. So even if our US board was an accurate cross-section of experiences, whose to say the rest of the eBay world is represented? No, eBay isn't going under anywhere anytime soon.

[chapeau-noir]

The only thing that matters to eBay is PROFIT. Nothing else. They calculate how many sellers they'll lose as a result of focus-studied policy changes that they implement, and live with the results.

Yeah, that's how it works.  There are too many sellers and not enough buyers, so what do you THINK they're gonna do? 

But refunding $1700 in sales so you can storm out in a huff?   ROFL - OK. 

[pburn]

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@yes_treat_yourself wrote:

Just FINDING these boards is a challenge in itself, even for established members like myself.  eBay used to have a 'Community' link right at the top of every page.

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@yes_treat_yourself 

I'm not sure why "finding these boards" was a challenge for you, considering this link is on every single Community page.

And this link (or the one above) is on every single page of the marketplace platform.

And given the fact that you've been posting in the Community since 2016 . . .

[yes_treat_yourself]

Well, you clearly haven't been around long.  What?  2018?  

Then you're not aware that finding the 'Community' has changed a number of times, even since 2016, right?

No, I haven't been posting since 2016.  I've been posting for more than 22 years.  Back then it had meaning.  The only BENEFIT of posting here now is that it can stimulate a group discussion among eBay management.  Otherwise it's an absolute meaningless waste of time.  And members like me, who've been around since nearly the beginning (1999), need to pass on a little knowledge, experience, and oversight to those who are relative newbies by comparison.  I've been around longer that most eBay staff members, back to the days of that gawd-awful CEO Meg Whitman, who was soundly rejected by California voters after she self-funded a run for Governor after leaving eBay.  She was DESPISED by sellers, almost universally.

eBay used to be an awesome place to do business.  We built a life and business around it.  The only reason I post now is to make every attempt to slap those greedy ignorant members of management across the face in an attempt to snap them back to reality after spending decades of such pitiful performance that an entire industry of competitors sprang up around them to provide their better version of eBay's mousetrap.  Amazon quickly caught on, and kicked their a$$ in the process.  We ourselves now buy far more on Amazon than we'll ever do on eBay.

Early on, eBay was getting so incredibly FLAMED on the community boards by it's members, having it quoted on media outlets such as Forbes, the WSJ, and CNBC, that it became a total embarrassment, forcing them to either listen to their members and change policy, censor members, or move/hide the chat boards.  Mostly a combination of all three.  eBay staff was in fulltime damage control.

As I said, at the TOP of every page was a prominent 'COMMUNITY' link.  Couldn't miss it.  Even then a lot of people didn't know what it was.  

Go on believing that it's simple to find.  You've been trained well.

[johnrj1226]

Just  like the nightly news  programs - more neg news is posted/talked about than the good things  - human nature for "some" to complain but  not accept any responsibility for their issues.

Food for thought:

1.) There is no such place as  Utopia

2.) and no matter what one does you  will only please 80% of  the population/crowd, group, etc with  ones very best  efforts - the remain 20% will complain the loudest.   Call it  "human" nature.   But that 80/20 bell curve has proven it self over time.

[chapeau-noir]

True words.