One important aspect of buying something online where I think eBay greatly outperforms Amazon

[adkhighker]

is an aspect of doing business where IMO eBay should give credit where credit is due to its sellers:

Packaging

All too often Amazon throws your item into a box 3 times the size necessary for that item and with hardly anything packed around it to prevent it from banging around .... like a new paperback I received with bent corners ... or like the plastic baseball card pages I needed right away and when I received them they were folded and bent to make them fit into a small plastic shipping bag, and I had to heat them up and weigh them down with heavy books to take the creases out.

I have always found packaging to be so much better on my eBay purchases over the years. As sellers, we get no way for our buyers to show their appreciation in terms of a star rating, although some buyers do let me know how well the packing was in their feedback message. I think most of us sellers pack our items so well that there is virtually no conventional way the item inside could get damaged.

Wouldn't it be wiser for eBay to finally replace the practically useless shipping cost star with a star rating for packaging instead? Not only would it give credit to all of us sellers who make extra sure the items arrive to our buyers in great shape, but it would also save eBay time and money on the the transactions that they have to jump in on, all because of the occasional times when packaging was not done carefully and a return is involved because of it.

[ct_thrifter]

eBay should also lean into it's biggest asset:  Their small sellers.  A large percentage of sellers are small businesses who hand pack their items and provide good, personal customer service.  Most amazon sellers are FBA and faceless, and disconnected from the actual sale/customer service process.   Why not exploit that fact?  To me, that is the biggest edge eBay has on Amazon

Instead they do everything they can to squeeze every penny they can out of their sellers with things like promoted listings and inflated final value fees, and do nothing to protect them.   

[farmalljr]

Amazon offers zero hassle returns. If you open a return for an item damaged in shipping, they give you a label instantly. They also ship your replacement as soon as you ship the item in question. Does not work that way on eBay. Can take days/weeks to get a refund. 

I would not credit eBay sellers as stellar shippers. Some are, but not like it used to be. More and more sellers do a bad job of shipping. Many sellers are combative with buyers. Some sellers do not even ship within their stated handling time. Many sellers also can't describe their items accurately. Had this stuff happened on Amazon, those sellers would be gone, banned, permanently suspended. A percent (maybe 50-75%) do it right, take good care of buyers. But it's way more than just a few sellers, who have no business selling here and ruin the buyer experince. 

Many sellers, especially on this board, tend to give selling here and the sellers that sell, WAY more credit and kudos then they deserve. Most or the majority do an acceptable job, a few are over the top awesome, but a large segment are a total manure show. 

Say what you want about Amazon, they are doing a better job then eBay sellers, despite some of the things people may want to complain about. They have a much larger share of ecommerce then eBay ever will have. Much of that has to do with buyer's experiences here. eBay is screwing up plenty on their own. But some of the sellers here only contribute to the negative view many buyers have of the platform. eBay needs to be tougher on sellers, not lax like they are now. Buyers expect better. 

[12345jamesstamps]

And then there are those selling on eBay and your package comes from Amazon. LOL

Our UPS and USPS have a key door to leave packages in our lobby...which a lot of eBay sellers use.

And Fed Ex rings our door bell hanging packages to us.

Amazon usually just leaves packages on the outside by our door.

[dollocity]

I bought two totes.  From a drop shipper I think.

They were 6 inches high- they stacked together. They were long.  But not high-The under the bed kind. I got a box about 3 or more maybe 4 feet high- All empty- with reams of brown paper in there. Hahaha

I huffed and puffed. tied it up... thanks a lot... I was exhausted by the time I tied the box up.😀 I took the brown paper - cut it up- it will go in my stove. 

I also think ebay has More choices. I don't bother with amazon at all.

[lakefor94]

Well stated, @farmalljr 

[luckythewinner]

---

---

Wouldn't it be wiser for eBay to finally replace the practically useless shipping cost star with a star rating for packaging instead?

I think all the stars are practically useless.

That aside ...

Buyers have a money-back guarantee. If the packaging is inadequate, the buyer can file a dispute.

it would also save eBay time and money on the the transactions that they have to jump in on, all because of the occasional times when packaging was not done carefully and a return is involved because of it

Disputes do not cost eBay time because they are automated.

That aside ...

It would only save eBay money if buyers made decisions based on practically useless stars. As a buyer I have not looked at any seller's DSRs in years.

Sellers with inadequate packaging get weeded out by disputes, feedback, lowered seller metrics, and higher fees. Just like they do for bad descriptions and slow shipping.

[adkhighker]

---

@luckythewinner wrote:

---

---

Wouldn't it be wiser for eBay to finally replace the practically useless shipping cost star with a star rating for packaging instead?

I think all the stars are practically useless.

That aside ...

Buyers have a money-back guarantee. If the packaging is inadequate, the buyer can file a dispute.

it would also save eBay time and money on the the transactions that they have to jump in on, all because of the occasional times when packaging was not done carefully and a return is involved because of it

Disputes do not cost eBay time because they are automated.

That aside ...

It would only save eBay money if buyers made decisions based on practically useless stars. As a buyer I have not looked at any seller's DSRs in years.

Sellers with inadequate packaging get weeded out by disputes, feedback, lowered seller metrics, and higher fees. Just like they do for bad descriptions and slow shipping.

---

Hey, I don't blame you for not looking at the stars if you think they're all useless. I don't dwell on them myself when I'm buying, but when there are 10 or 20 choices of who I can buy the same exact item from, the first thing I do is to check out their feedback and their stars because it only takes seconds to do it.  Depending on the circumstances, two stars I often check are shipping speed and accurate description.  OTOH, the shipping cost star is one of the most useless ratings eBay continues to use to this day. It makes no sense at all unless they think all buyers are too dumb to just move on to another seller if they don't like the shipping cost that's staring them right in the face. The only point I'm making is that if eBay wants to rate sellers by star ratings, at least replace the useless shipping cost star with something else that makes more sense like packaging.