@papermoneyforme wrote:
@mg152 wrote:
We had a very pleasant chat yesterday with eBay executive Sarah Brubacher. Very nice person BTW. She has assured us that ebay values & wants to keep small/part time sellers around. I’ve always believed that long time sellers of any volume are the backbone of eBay & according to what Sarah said EBay recognizes that.
This post is for informational purposes. Some will believe it & some won’t.
Have a great day my friends! 😀
I guess she wasn't at Ebay Open 2017 where it came out point blank that sellers of used or collectibles don't fit in the Ebay mold or the Ebay of the future.
Hi papermoneyforme: This is Sarah. I was at eBay Open this year. I'm curious what at the event told you that Used and Collectible seller don't fit in at eBay? That was not the intent at all -- in fact, we had a workshop dedicated to Collectible sellers (hosted by Sam Bright, GM for Collectibles) to speak about the importance of Collectible sellers to our marketplace? I'd be curious what you heard that made you think otherwise. Thanks! Sarah
@llllady wrote:
@mg152 wrote:
We had a very pleasant chat yesterday with eBay executive Sarah Brubacher. Very nice person BTW. She has assured us that ebay values & wants to keep small/part time sellers around. I’ve always believed that long time sellers of any volume are the backbone of eBay & according to what Sarah said EBay recognizes that.
This post is for informational purposes. Some will believe it & some won’t.
Have a great day my friends! 😀
No, really? Did you expect an eBay employee to tell you otherwise? I just got a look at that chat. I read through 3 pages of pretty much nothing. Looked like a bunch of "friends" talking to each other.
Sorry I wasted even 5 minutes there, let alone 15.
Hi @llllady: Tuesday's "exec chat" was a test for us -- the goal of which was to increase communication between eBay execs and the community in a chat forum. I'm sure we didn't get it all right -- but I'm hoping we're on the path. Like you, my impression of this first chat was that it was mostly friendly community members welcoming me to the chat (which I thought was super nice!) -- and less substantive questions....but I'm hoping that will change as we do more of these. Thanks! Sarah
@katfreikh_0 wrote:
@mg152 wrote:
We had a very pleasant chat yesterday with eBay executive Sarah Brubacher. Very nice person BTW. She has assured us that ebay values & wants to keep small/part time sellers around. I’ve always believed that long time sellers of any volume are the backbone of eBay & according to what Sarah said EBay recognizes that.
This post is for informational purposes. Some will believe it & some won’t.
Have a great day my friends! 😀
Hi. I was on the thread yesterday although I did not participate.
I saw your question, and the EBay executive’s reply. I also saw that she asked for additional input as to why there is a belief that EBay is ignoring small sellers.
and then *ironically* completely ignored the one small seller that gave concrete, valid, legitimate reasons why.
It was a little frustrating to read through the fawning interpersonal fluff just to see the one question I would’ve loved to see an official response to completely and totally ignored.
Honestly I think the numerous “hi! OMG! Nice to see you!” posts should be prohibited as the time frame is so short.
Hi @katfreikh_0: I'm sorry if the thread was frustrating. Yes - an hour is a short amount of time to have an open chat but it is a start. I don't agree that friendly posts should be prohibited but I hear your frustration that there were alot of those posts and fewer questions until the end. What I would ask / hope is that folks start asking questions sooner in the hour? Would love to hear your suggestions. Thanks. Sarah
@creativecrisis wrote:
@katfreikh_0 wrote:
@mg152 wrote:
We had a very pleasant chat yesterday with eBay executive Sarah Brubacher. Very nice person BTW. She has assured us that ebay values & wants to keep small/part time sellers around. I’ve always believed that long time sellers of any volume are the backbone of eBay & according to what Sarah said EBay recognizes that.
This post is for informational purposes. Some will believe it & some won’t.
Have a great day my friends! 😀
Hi. I was on the thread yesterday although I did not participate.
I saw your question, and the EBay executive’s reply. I also saw that she asked for additional input as to why there is a belief that EBay is ignoring small sellers.
and then *ironically* completely ignored the one small seller that gave concrete, valid, legitimate reasons why.
It was a little frustrating to read through the fawning interpersonal fluff just to see the one question I would’ve loved to see an official response to completely and totally ignored.
Agree. Exactly one substantive question was asked during the chat, and it didn't receive an answer.
Hi @creativecrisis: Good call out that we need to ensure that we circle back to the thread and answer all questions after the thread has been closed. We'll seek to do that for future chats. Thanks. Sarah
@a_c_green wrote:
katfreikh_0 wrote:It was a little frustrating to read through the fawning interpersonal fluff just to see the one question I would’ve loved to see an official response to completely and totally ignored.
Honestly I think the numerous “hi! OMG! Nice to see you!” posts should be prohibited as the time frame is so short.
I had similar thoughts, though perhaps for different reasons, as I read that transcript just now.
The "fawning interpersonal fluff" (Heh...
) was a bit much, I agree (and doesn't anyone there know how to trim quoted replies?), although in printed form, it's a lot easier to skip past than, say, a live Q&A event where someone gets up and hogs the microphone for ages over some trivial point.
Where I think all that fluff does the most damage is that it, and the equally vapid replies that follow it (not to mention all the photos) let legitimate questions and gripes get buried amongst irrelevant posts, where it's easy to ignore them (or forget that they were ever posted, several pages back).
I sensed that there was some shying away from replies to awkward topics, but really, if you're going to have a live chat with eBay buyers and sellers, you're going to have to expect some tough areas of discussion. Whenever someone posted a fluffy comment or minor point of praise, it seemed like the eBay employee responders all lunged towards it like a lifeboat from the Titanic, giving only cursory answers to those who actually wanted to have a business conversation.
For example, notice the posting from tenbigdogs, which was roundly ignored (even after he posted a followup ping about it), and was instead followed by an interminable series of posts (and more duplicated photos) involving eBay sneakers and where to get them.
Those chat sessions are in desperate need of a moderator who'll actually jump in as needed to get the conversation back on track, and maybe even quietly nuke the umpteenth repetition of some photo or 5th-level re-quoted reply that didn't need that much screen space in the first place. Reading on a mobile device in particular can be agony. It might be worth preserving that particular chat session, to serve as a good example of how not to do it, and to show what happens (or doesn't happen) when things just wander out of control.
Hi @a_c_green: Thanks for your thoughts on how we can do this better in the future. Sarah
@buyselljack2016 wrote:
Sarah(aka Peggy, just like all Peggy(s)) said what was wanted to be heard.
As a small seller I have no real complaints, but I don't believe the "canned answers" to be anything but what they are.
Hi @buyselljack2016: Could you help me understand what you mean by "Peggy" as I don't understand the reference. And my apologies if my responses to questions sounded like they were simply "what folks wanted to hear" - what I try to do is answer directly and authentically to questions to the best of my ability -- and will double down on that effort going forward. Thanks. Sarah
@the*dog*ate*my*tablecloth wrote:
The comment was MANY changes affect small sellers and show Ebay is trying to drive small sellers off Ebay. Now one was about returns and one about handling time. Interpreting those to be the most egregious examples of how Ebay is picking on small sellers is kind of fluffy.
I wouldn't look at those two buyer driven requirements and say they are proof Ebay is trying to get rid of small sellers. IF someone believes that Ebay is really trying to force small sellers off, they will have to come up with more meaningful reasons IMHO.
Hi @the*dog*ate*my*tablecloth: Thank you for your comments. eBay's work on Returns and Handling time are efforts to meet ecommerce buyers' demands -- and ensure our marketplace of sellers are meeting those demands. It is not easy, but it is necessary if we (as a collective marketplace) want to remain relevant and a destination for more buyers. Thank you for your recognition of that. Thanks. Sarah
@southern*sweet*tea wrote:
**General reply not directed toward any particular poster**
IMO if Ebay wanted to get rid of small sellers, they'd...just get rid of them. They'd stop advertising for sellers. No more "sell your old phone" campaigns, et. al. They would set requirements that you would have to sell X amount of items per month/quarter.
No, Ebay does not want to get rid of small sellers. They want small sellers who act like an online business. They want to be just another big box selling venue. They want sellers who absorb losses like big business. They want sellers who don't call CS every five seconds with complaints, be they valid or invalid. They want sellers who can handle things on their own. They want a "seamless" buying experience for buyers. Generic. Anonymous.
No, small sellers are welcome here as long as you toe the line and keep your mouth shut...but what Ebay doesn't realize is the thing that made them special IS the SMALL SELLER. Lots of small sellers run their businesses in the above manner. Lots of small sellers don't. ALL these small sellers are valuable, and Ebay is too short sighted to realize that. What once made Ebay special was the one on one interaction between buyer and seller. I guess with the advance of internet selling, along with a bit of entitlement from the buying public and credit card companies who don't give a rat's patootie about retail businesses, trust and personalization is a bad thing in Ebay's eyes. It's actually very, very, very sad.
Hi @southern*sweet*tea. I agree with you that small businesses is what did (and does) make eBay such an amazing marketplace -- and specifically, I think the interactions between buyers and sellers are what makes it special. I like to say that eBay is a place to buy and sell -- but most importantly, a place to belong. This community and are ability to interact with one another -- sometimes agreeing, sometimes disagreeing -- is just awesome.
The challenge I think you rightly raise is that the buying public's expectations have increased. Buyers expect quick responses to their questions - they expect two day shipping - they expect FREE shipping -- all because there are companies out there that are providing it. One of the compelling things Pierre Omidyar saw when he created eBay was the ability for small businesses to compete with large businesses because buyers would not be able to tell who was big and who was small online. THAT was awesome -- what is challenging in that is that buyers (not knowing who is big and who is small) still hold both to the same expectations.
I don't agree with you that eBay doesn't want to hear from small businesses. We do. It is why we host events like eBay Open (1500 small businesses in attendance with 500 eBay employees) and it is why we continue to host these Community discussion boards. It is why I have asked the Community team to start hosting exec chats. We want to figure out these challenges together. Sarah
