"It is not dishonorable for anyone to enforce their policies."
This is not a matter of 'policy', it's a matter of providing reasonable customer service in an understandable situation. A low-volume seller is much more vulnerable to the impact of a few cancellations. Changling was caught in a web set for third party sellers, those who fill orders by shipping from someone else's stock.
Obviously, Changeling does not fit that criteria. Just as obvious is that the punishment, the financial penalty, far outweighs the crime. Ebay failed to account for the way those low volume sellers were unjustly affected,
and they gave every sign of knowing what they were up to, and wanting it that way.
Ebay knew that they could trap many people with additional fees, if they only:
1) bombarded our inboxes with notices about shipping, and fast n' free, and ratings, and countless minutiae;
and never one, Not One, direct notice about the cost of accruing cancellations, and the very low numbers involved in being 'penalized'.
2) And if they put all sorts of information about shipping time and feedback on our main seller page - keeping calculations and percentages, falsely designed to look of primary importance, right in front of us;
and then kept any mention of cancellation history 2 pages away, with Zero warnings or notices that directly addressed cancellations (so why worry anyway?).
3) And if they then continued to glad-hand people about cancellations - "Thank you for your cancellation!" "Thank you, we'll take it from here!" "Thanks for using eBay!" -
Without Any mention of a cancellation count, or Anything about the cost they're about to charge you.
(As I recall, first ebay notice about the extra 4% fee was first sent out about 4 months prior to implementation.)
Well, if they did all those things, and they certainly did, they had to have been planning on their ambush for some time - a sudden windfall of 4-5% extra profit from tens of thousands of sellers, many lulled into complacency by a lack of any guilt, and a suspicious lack of any notifications from ebay.
** Consider this clincher: ebay had a target percentage for sellers to stay under (Changeling says 1%, I heard .5%), but they let those sellers cancellation percentage get to 2 or 3 times their target, Without Saying A Word About The Target. **
Ebay?! Not say anything about a seller crossing the line?! Not say anything? WHat?
**Sellers were not notified about an impending penalty fee, until they were deep enough to be locked in for years.**
They might be informed that their current rate is 2.5%, and they shouldn't have let it get above 1%, so now they'll be penalized until they get down to what are highly unreasonable target numbers for any kind of specialty store. (300 x .001 = 3 sales) Only 3 sales? When selling fine instruments, old photo equipment, vintage military... these are not stores that stock items in multiples, so cancels are not going to be an issue of 'in stock'. If something happens to one of Changling's guitars in storage, and it sells, he will have to deal with that. That should not be a penalty, when the seller is not taking an advantage, but is actually losing one.
When 1 or 2 inevitable cancellations a year get added to a seller's backlog, that person can be locked in for 2 years or more of a 4-5% profit loss. And if they slow their selling rate, possibly out of frustration and depression at the constant Below Standard sign that now adorns their store - their selling percentage will only get worse! And what have they done wrong?
Many of them just fell into Ebay's trap.
I feel ya, Changling93305.
Cheers/
P.S. There are unfortunately, too many ebay forum members whose purpose seems to be to defend ebay against any charge, without compromise. They insist they are being helpful, but all they do is tell the OP that their complaint has no merit, because.... rules & regulations, no exceptions allowed.
Sellers come to these forums for help, and the bums rush of holier-than-thou responses that many get almost immediately, is a real turn-off. A reason to stay away, altogether. It is not helpful to tell a seller with a reasonable complaint that 'they should have read the fine print'.
Most likely an unhelpful respondent doesn't read all the fine print either. But the number who claim to know better, and who dismiss an individual's case as fast as they can type, is way too high on the ebay forums. Perhaps they are paid to drive complainants away, scarecrows for the ebay corn...
Predictably, most have never even been sellers. They have no experience selling, but they are available to judge sellers. if a respondent tells you that you should have known the rules, and that your special case is no exception at all, chances are excellent that they do not sell. That they have never been sellers. Yes.
They'll say that they have a 'separate account for selling', but there's never a Seller ID history that shows that, and they won't provide one....
So don't let the naysayers and the boo-birds get you down, Changeling. They have little to offer - it's their personal trip.
You were done wrong, because no one could be bothered to do the right thing.
(BTW, thank you for your measured analysis of how it all went down. Very cool customer.)
