eBay

garymi6 · ‎03-22-2017

Its important. Its bound to drag exposure for regular listings down even further. Now that the TRS discount is slashed in half, its not worth having 1 day handling for many sellers (like myself) anymore. Not everyones orders go in bubble wrappers and small boxs. Its just not worth it if your packing heavy or big, time consuming orders anymore. Dropping TRS and not opting into this new program thats horrible for average to medium sized sellers, will push listings further and further down the page for otherwise great sellers.

As the article im posting a link to at the bottom mentions, ebay does intend for us to pay for the shipping refund a buyer gets if their package is past the guaranteed date. Money will come from our pockets. So if your not big enough to absorb the losses, or sell items with many many multiples where its finacially worth it to do everything to stay on the top of the list. For the average seller of single item listings though, your getting the shaft.

Ebays new changes make it so you have to jump through hoops to get the TRS exposure (because the discount is almost useless now). Take 30 day returns and ship next day for peanuts, but if you dont, exposure goes down. Now with this and the new promoted listings, you will have to pay ebay way more in for the listing, AND have to refund shipping (or take it back if they want) if it doesnt make it in 3 days.

So, if we dont want to get buried by big business compitition, and continue to get the same exposure we get today, we would need to continue to jump through hoops for the now useless TRS Plus listing discounts, pay extra for promoted listings, and offer 3 day guaranteed delivery or the shippings free. Just to end up at the same exposure. As it sits now only bigger companies can afford to absorb all these expenses. Its just wrong.

Is this the new direction the new young CEO wants to go? Hes dong a major diservice to many of his best sellers. He seems to forget that unlike Amazon (Amazon Prime - which is what he is attempting to compete with), ebay doesnt have a warehouse full of employees to expidite shipping. Plus they dont own the merchandise, nor have 3rd party items in their possession. Its not their guarantee to make, and to then make US refund shipping if its a day past their made up date!? Ridiculous.

Am I alone on this one?

Under the new eBay program, if a product doesn't arrive in the guaranteed time, both eBay and the seller will chip in to refund shipping costs. If an item was shipped for free, eBay and the seller will provide an eBay coupon, expected to be $5, Lawton said. Two-thirds of the products on eBay include free shipping, according to the company.

nawlinsron2 · ‎10-27-2017

They pretty much guarantee your buyer their money back if not satisfied, even for bogus or fraudulent reasons.
You tacitly opted into that.

aeamc-tx · ‎10-27-2017

If you're in the handling time option, THEY pay the buyer back for the shipping if it's late. I only pay if it didn't ship on time.

As for the product, the product guarantee is no different with or without the program. They're pretty much going to make you pay the buyer back for the product regardless.

This is why I say....you guys are angry, and don't really understand who pays for what and when. The seller is at no risk if they ship on time.

nawlinsron2 · ‎10-27-2017

I understand EXPLICITLY how it all works...
I have two misgivings...
1) You must require immediate payment...that turns off some potential buyers
2) I don't TRUST their statistics or their IT people...I was in it for a couple weeks, and got a pre-evalulation with bad numbers, and a later email with a link about GD...clicked it and got a "Sorry, something went wrong" response.
I've been here for 19 years...over $580K...the changes this year will have me gone by spring.

aeamc-tx · ‎10-27-2017

Then those are two good reasons to opt out. Neither has anything to do with getting hosed on shipping refunds, though, so let's just not mix the message. I'd think it would be very confusing for anyone to read this thread because they would think that if a shipment arrived late, eBay would take the shipping fee back from them, and that simply isn't the case.

As I say...I don't care who's in or out, but I don't like seeing people misled with false information. Thanks for posting your reasons for not liking it, and implicitly, at least, confirming that loss of shipping fees is not the problem here.

detectorwarehouse · ‎11-01-2017

I don't see the 3 Day Toggle anymore or the search by delivery days on the sidebar. Did Ebay just shelf this program?

dande2016 · ‎11-01-2017

@detectorwarehouse wrote:
I don't see the 3 Day Toggle anymore or the search by delivery days on the sidebar. Did Ebay just shelf this program?

I just seen it for the first time this morning on some listings. Not all of them but on most.

mslynch303 · ‎11-25-2017

As a seller, am I to guarantee USPS performance? Can't do it. I just had an iem lost in the mail for more than a month. I refunded the buyer, then she got the package, gave me my money back. Guaranteed Delivery just makes things more complcated. Count me out.

linus.hux72fe · ‎11-25-2017

Guaranteed delivery? Ebay must be out of their small minds.

In November i sent a package from Illinois to Florida Priority Mail. After 10 days buyer is screaming at me how i better get off my fat a$$ and deliver his product. Tracking shows package was delivered that day to alternate location. Further tracking shows package sat in a sorting facility 6 days before sent to his local post office. Alternate location turned out to be buyers picnic pavillion on the edge of his property just off the service road several miles from his residence.

Post office explained as follows:

1. Priority carries no guarantee of 3 day shipping. It is a hoped for time frame.

2. Post offices and sorting facilities are understaffed or staffed with temp workers who may or maynot be aware of usual procedures and may not have an adequate number of people to sort all packages within the time frame of priority shipping.

3. Post offices are treating unusual or large size packages differently at this time of year. They have a limited amount of space on trucks pallets and hampers. If your package takes up more than usual space they tend to set it aside for later. So say your package can be replaced with 3 smaller packages. Thats allowed since 3 customers are happy versus 1.

4. Leaving a package in an alternate location is acceptable. Period. The post office left buyers package on his property in a protected location so acceptable in that driver broke no specific rules. Its not relevant the package was left miles from the house. Worker may not have been familiar with the route and been unaware a house was farther on the property.

Guaranteed Shipment??? Ebay you must be out of your mind. Chinese **bleep** may fit in a bubble mailer but my stuff doesnt and im not guaranteeing anything i have no control over.

Further, if you want to be more attractive to buyers, increase sales and thereby your bottom line and stock prices, how about focusing on MAKING YOUR SITE WORK CORRECTLY???

rosiegrady2012 · ‎01-25-2018

No, my sales have dropped 55% since this nonsense. I have run businesses for 35 yrs, this is an unfair and unrealistic option. I wrote a letter to corporate headquarters. Did receive a response, all the corporate **bleep**, and me as a seller need to this, that and the rest. I do promoted listinds, refresh titles, etc. Who are they kidding. I have another platform that sells the same products, up 35%. Guaranteed delivery is a terrible idea. How much money is ebay losing by hiding listings from sellers who ship within 2 to 3 days. Their own representatives won’t even opt in. Waiting until subscription is up, then gone.

rosiegrady2012 · ‎02-07-2018

Not alone! Letter to corporate addressing this issue got me this response: You are only using one photo in your listing. Kidding right? You think that is causing 67% drop in sales? I sell quality hand dyed yarns and trims, and use closeup edited photos. How many photos can one take of a skein of yarn? For 5 years, across 3 platforms this has been more than fine. Have run businesses for 35 years. A 67% drop in sales. How can we guarantee delivery, when the USPS won’t.

I took off some expensive listings, moved them to my etsy store. Sold in 2days.

I rest my case, all about visibility.

My conversation with a supervisor this morning. If you do listings by guarenteed delivery, none of my 400 listings show up. Buyers do not know that when they toggle, they are not seeing us sellers with i day ship.

Probably will close store when subscription is up, have opened a mirror image store on another platform. Used to like EBay. Not anymore.

Patti. Rosiegradysemporium

chicboutique31 · ‎02-07-2018

I agree with this statement

kathy507 · ‎03-23-2018

I am trying to understand this program but after reading through this whole thread I still have some questions.
I understand that if you ship within one day and have the scans, eBay says it will guarantee delivery to the buyer in a fixed time frame. Here are my questions on that:
1. Will the buyer have to file a complaint first to let eBay know the package is late and want a refund or does this happen automatically?
2. EBay only says they will refund the buyer the shipping charge, not the price of the item too, right? If so, and the seller offers free shipping on the original listing, what does the buyer get back if the package is late?
3. If packages are late often-- even if the seller ships within one day-- will eBay start dinging the sellers in some way?
4. Will we find buyers hoping packages are late to get a refund? And if that happens, how long will eBay pay for these refunds before it becomes an economical drain on them?
5. If the package is late, am I understanding the program right to say the buyer has the option to return the package to the seller? If so, who pays for that return shipping?

I hate to be so confused.

I also agree that the local post office here does not always scan the items when you take them in unless you stand in line and get them to do it while you are there. This means more time in lines waiting for service, so I am not sure how practical that is for me.