Removal of What Ebay Declares as Duplicate Listings and TOP RATED DISCOUNTS

[wholesalejim]

I have been selling on Ebay for nearly fifteen years, today was the first time I felt my business may be in jeopardy of shutting down. I employ three people, two of three of my employs have been with me for years. Approximately, fourteen months ago I was told that I could not list items with expiration dates in the same listing. I complied by making several listings with unique expiration dates to each one of my listings. Today, Ebay has decided to remove a large portion of those listing that I sell on a regular basis. They are duplicate listings now and will need to list them in a multi variation listing. The feature when Ebay shows how many of an item you have sold in the past to the consumer is now gone. After I sold over 500 of a particuler  item, I am back to square one just like someone new to Ebay. How is this remotely fair? When consumers can see that I have sold over 500 of the item it gives them confidence to buy that item from me. I have paid my dues  in more than just a financial aspect to ebay.  This is just not the right way to treat people after they have helped build their business over so many years. I also was told about 90 days ago that being Top Rated will no longer get you the 20% discount off your FVF it was going down to 10%, this takes an additional 10K a year right out of my pocket. Ebay, you can learn a lot from this old saying, "Pigs get fat and Hogs get slaughterd". Quit being a hog and let things be.

[liq1000]

eBay is not being a hog by any means, they are killing their own business in a hurry by removing sellers listings.

Running ads on TV is not going to help them when the servers stall a few dozen times a day.

[timemachine777]

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@wholesalejim wrote:

I have been selling on Ebay for nearly fifteen years, today was the first time I felt my business may be in jeopardy of shutting down. I employ three people, two of three of my employs have been with me for years. Approximately, fourteen months ago I was told that I could not list items with expiration dates in the same listing. I complied by making several listings with unique expiration dates to each one of my listings. Today, Ebay has decided to remove a large portion of those listing that I sell on a regular basis. They are duplicate listings now and will need to list them in a multi variation listing. The feature when Ebay shows how many of an item you have sold in the past to the consumer is now gone. After I sold over 500 of a particuler  item, I am back to square one just like someone new to Ebay. How is this remotely fair? When consumers can see that I have sold over 500 of the item it gives them confidence to buy that item from me. I have paid my dues  in more than just a financial aspect to ebay.  This is just not the right way to treat people after they have helped build their business over so many years. I also was told about 90 days ago that being Top Rated will no longer get you the 20% discount off your FVF it was going down to 10%, this takes an additional 10K a year right out of my pocket. Ebay, you can learn a lot from this old saying, "Pigs get fat and Hogs get slaughterd". Quit being a hog and let things be.

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Your just one of many who are experiencing this. eBay is shooting themselves in the face with a double barrel shotgun, with these moves. They are going to have a huge revenue shortfall this year.

[marketcandles]

They have destroyed my toy business by removing 100 listings with long history of sales for the last 5 years yesterday.  None of the listings were duplicates per their own policy. They ruined my business on here that I built up in one second . All my years of hard work and history is gone in a flash.  I am going to leave Ebay now in the next few months due to what they did to me. No one there can help me rectify this as they cannot relist the items including the sales history. They are now on a road to self destruction by sticking it to their best sellers and letting some idiot upstairs and a bot destroy there own business and mine. This is a disaster

[cal_w62]

It's the result of the clear thinking of the new executive team, the same way Yahoo was ruined by:  Marissa Mayer

https://www.google.com/search?num=30&site=&source=hp&q=marissa+mayer&oq=marrisa&gs_l=hp.1.0.0i10k1l1...

[cal_w62]

See this, they are doing the same thing, deleting listings of thousands of sellers with automated programs, the same sellers who pay them big money every month for eBay stores, eBay management does not have a clue of what they are doing to the company by destroying sellers businesses with ill advised policies.

http://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/Ebay-is-going-to-destroy-my-business-removing-old-listings/m-p/...

[threshold.sales.group]

OP, your prior way of listing makes perfect sense.  Bundling items with multiple expiration dates (where the expiration date is meaningful) into a single listing is asking for trouble and I assume the sale price changes with the dates too. 

Were you given any prior notice or did the listings just disappear? 

[timemachine777]

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@marketcandles wrote:

They have destroyed my toy business by removing 100 listings with long history of sales for the last 5 years yesterday.  None of the listings were duplicates per their own policy. They ruined my business on here that I built up in one second . All my years of hard work and history is gone in a flash.  I am going to leave Ebay now in the next few months due to what they did to me. No one there can help me rectify this as they cannot relist the items including the sales history. They are now on a road to self destruction by sticking it to their best sellers and letting some idiot upstairs and a bot destroy there own business and mine. This is a disaster

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Here's the really sad part. 1000's of you sellers can show them the facts and even though they know the outcome, they'll continue to do it even more. They either don't get it, or they just don't care. It one or the other.

[sockmonkeydave]

@wholesalejim

It looks like the bots have been programmed to start with sellers with huge inventory.

I think they said if an item had recent sales, they would be OK.

But I think they forgot to program that bit in.

I have less than 50 items, and most have been listed for years.

They have not got to me yet, and I have all my stuff in TL.  I will be revising soon.

They botched up this rollout, they should have given a lot longer lead time.

[timemachine777]

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@sockmonkeydave wrote:

@wholesalejim

It looks like the bots have been programmed to start with sellers with huge inventory.

I think they said if an item had recent sales, they would be OK.

But I think they forgot to program that bit in.

I have less than 50 items, and most have been listed for years.

They have not got to me yet, and I have all my stuff in TL.  I will be revising soon.

They botched up this rollout, they should have given a lot longer lead time.

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I was talking to a CS rep yesterday, and she told me that I want to back up all my listings on TL, off TL using CSV export because when TL goes offline I might lose access to them. I don't know how much accuracy is in that statement.

[victorjunkman55]

Very well said. Sad it falls on deaf ears. Good Luck to you.

[slippinjimmy]

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@wholesalejim wrote:

I have been selling on Ebay for nearly fifteen years, today was the first time I felt my business may be in jeopardy of shutting down. I employ three people, two of three of my employs have been with me for years. Approximately, fourteen months ago I was told that I could not list items with expiration dates in the same listing. I complied by making several listings with unique expiration dates to each one of my listings. Today, Ebay has decided to remove a large portion of those listing that I sell on a regular basis. They are duplicate listings now and will need to list them in a multi variation listing. The feature when Ebay shows how many of an item you have sold in the past to the consumer is now gone. After I sold over 500 of a particuler  item, I am back to square one just like someone new to Ebay. How is this remotely fair? When consumers can see that I have sold over 500 of the item it gives them confidence to buy that item from me. I have paid my dues  in more than just a financial aspect to ebay.  This is just not the right way to treat people after they have helped build their business over so many years. I also was told about 90 days ago that being Top Rated will no longer get you the 20% discount off your FVF it was going down to 10%, this takes an additional 10K a year right out of my pocket. Ebay, you can learn a lot from this old saying, "Pigs get fat and Hogs get slaughterd". Quit being a hog and let things be.

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Sorry that most people who responded just want to rant and rave without addressing your specific question.

In order for similar items not to be considered duplicates the Pics, Title and Description need to be a least somewhat different from each other.

If you put the expiry date in the Title your problem would likely be solved, if you use the same pics and the same Title and only make note of the expiry date buried somewhere in the description it's likely they will be considered Duplicates.

[gracieallen01]

However, it would be extremely easy to program the 'bot to recognize a date format in the description text, and, with the other specs of the title, determine that it isn't a dup.  Whereas, a person could easily miss or mis-interpret or mis-read a date and declare it a dup. 

Seems there should be less chance of an error with a 'bot - well, IF ebay wanted to, that is. 

Oh, that's right, ebay doesn't know anything about tech or programming.  Good thing they don't consider themselves a cutting-edge, hi-tech company.

[threshold.sales.group]

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In order for similar items not to be considered duplicates the Pics, Title and Description need to be a least somewhat different from each other.

If you put the expiry date in the Title your problem would likely be solved, if you use the same pics and the same Title and only make note of the expiry date buried somewhere in the description it's likely they will be considered Duplicates.

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The new policy is one listing per GTIN - UPC and /or Part #, so differences in the title wouldn't matter.  That's what is tripping up the auto parts folks. 

[squidmusic]

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@marketcandles wrote:

They have destroyed my toy business by removing 100 listings with long history of sales for the last 5 years yesterday.  None of the listings were duplicates per their own policy. They ruined my business on here that I built up in one second . All my years of hard work and history is gone in a flash.  I am going to leave Ebay now in the next few months due to what they did to me. No one there can help me rectify this as they cannot relist the items including the sales history. They are now on a road to self destruction by sticking it to their best sellers and letting some idiot upstairs and a bot destroy there own business and mine. This is a disaster

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They have done the exact same thing to me, ending over 600 long time and many of them successful listings. And... I have been saying this in the thread I started about this exact thing on 5/26, not a single one of those listings was a duplicate. Not one. For most items I sell, I bundle a desireable free item with it. This is totally allowed per eBay's duplicate listing policy. So I might have five listings for the same UPC. One of those listings would have free international shipping, a $19.25 value for the buyer. Another listing would include a free 18' guitar cable. I sell those for $20 in my brick and mortar store. Another listing would include a free guitar tuner that I sell for $15 in my store and another listing would include 3 free sets of guitar strings that is a $15 value. ALL of these are popular with buyers and each one covers a different potential need for each individual buyer with a free item of real value. The pictures in the listings are different. The title is different. The description is different. The price is the same of course because I am throwing in a "free" item. The UPC is the same because the buyer is getting the same main product. In studying the over 600 listings of mine they have ended, it appears they are going solely by UPC. They stated other things factor into it, but I don't see it. My results are purely matching UPC's.

They ended a $200 item that I had 109 sales of and kept a newer listing with the same UPC that had 11 sales. These two were even priced differently. The only thing they had in common was the UPC. This makes no sense to have chosen to keep the one they did, for my sake, for their sake and for the buyers sake and the 100+ watchers that listing had.

My bundled items are in compliance with the eBay duplicate listing policy.  On the duplicate listing explanation page it gives an example to not sell one computer type item and give away 7 free envelopes and then do another listing for the exact same item and give away 8 free envelopes. If you gave away 7 envelopes with one listing and 100 envelopes with another listing for the same item, that would attract two different types of buyers according to them. My free bundled items included $15-$20 real world values and were substantially more different than a 7 envelope bundle and a 100 envelope bundle that they say is a proper example of non duplicate listings. The bundles were great for the buyer, which was great for me and... that translated into lots of fees for eBay.

I have competitors who do the exact same type of bundling sales. A year ago when eBay pressured us into adding UPC's to every listing with an implied threat it would hurt sales if you didn't, my competitors ignored it and left Does Not Apply selected for UPC on an item that clearly has a legit UPC. Guess who didn't have any of their "duplicate" listings ended?

I am stumped at who they feel this is going to help. I am stumped at who devised this plan as a way of somehow improving eBay.