With all due respect to those who are much more ssuccessfuland or bigger than my wife and I:
Thank you for the helpful suggestions youve posted on threads.
However, the bottom line is that goods will not sell if they are not seen by the public.
My sales are way down. I understand selling can be cyclical. I understand we have no choice but to suck it up as this is Ebays playground. I understand tastes and preferences change. I understand dozens of threads have been written as to the whys and such. I understand some of you have not experienced a downturn. Until this last 6 weeks or so i sat feeling cocky and smirking at the often smart a$$ed responses that were posted here. And then it happened to me.
Few if any views.
Few if any watchers.
Then a message asking where my listing went? That the buyer was ready to purchase and my listing disappeared.
Then a message asking why i was not visible in Utah.
Then an irate customer who had to have her sister in another state purchase my items and send them to her costing her double plus in shipping as they had to go to the East Coast to be shipped to the sister in the West.
Then my family in 6 different states asking me why i had nothing listed when in fact i had 51 things listed.
Then a customer messaged me irate because it had been over 2 weeks since i had promised to list a particular advertising item for him and still had not listed it. In fact i had listed it the same day he requested it. He could not see it. So he did a google search. The item came up listed as Ebay Ireland Ebay Canada Ebay some Asian country. Nothing in Ebay USA. When he went to purchase it anyhow, shipping was astronomical. So he refused and instead fired off an irate message to me.
I called Ebay. Ebay stated:
1. They dont control Google. Absolutely irrelevant.
2. All customers must search Ebay itself not google. That they had never heard of anyone using google to search for an item.
3. That my 17 screen shots were all simply wrong because this could not be happening.
4. That my 17 screen shots were obviously from people who didnt understand how to do a correct Ebay search.
5. That customers should be searching for a specific item rather than generalizing and window shopping.
6. That customers should not be using phones to shop.
7. That customers should be told that in order to have the full and proper Ebay experience they need to use Internet Explorer rather than Google Chrome. When i asked how this was to be communicated to any possible unknown future customers, his response was he didnt know but it must be done and i should focus on doing that.
8. After over 65 minutes of my time and 2 calls a technical fix form was supposedly filled out. But i was told this would take 72 hours to fix because they had many more pressing problems including fixing the pagination on the discussion boards, and that he doubted this was happening to anyone but me because he had heard nothing but positive comments about Christmas sales and the search upgrades.
No response yet from Ebay. But im no longer smirking about the smart a$$ed responses here on the board. And im no longer running about trying to implement each and every helpful suggestion listed here. Id hope that each and everyone of you that write these smart responses about your sales not being slow would consider how you would feel if the situations were reversed. I didnt do that before smirking over my morning coffee and now my coffee is flavored with a side of crow. And im learning a bit of patience and humility.
Some things are Ebays fault. Some things are my fault. Ill own mine. When will Ebay comunicate honestly and own theirs? It would go far with both buyers and sellers, improve trust, and perhaps limit some of the conspiracy theories even.
Just my opinions and all due respect to those who have had a different experience. Best of luck to you all. Thank you for your time. I am due back at my 9 to 5 job now.
