SMART BEST OFFER Are there any other sellers that want this to stop or has everyone given up?

[good_guy44]

I have fought with eBay for over two years to "opt out" of their Smart Best Offer program. I have been an eBay member for 17+ years. I am a Top Rated seller with 100% positive feedback. I suppose I am considered a "casual" seller in their eyes with 35-40 sales per month. I have made 45 calls to complain about this practice of modifying my prices by adding Best Offer. I have spoken to supervisors, filled out surveys and answered the "questionnaires" on numerous pages. I have contacted the eBay Business Page on Facebook. I have started conversations here on the community forums (which for some reason are no longer accessible). 

Since there are so few references to Smart Best Offer on eBay community pages, does that mean it is no longer an  issue? Has eBay "broken" sellers and convinced them that nothing will (or can) be done about this? I'd like to hear from other sellers that want this practice to stop, as well as any actions they have taken. Even sellers that have not been bullied by eBay are welcome to chime in - after all, you may be next! In fact, maybe eBay should start doing this to EVERY seller. That alone should generate a response large enough to overturn their policy. Does anyone recall the short-lived sale price policy where an item had to be listed at a fixed price for two weeks before it could be added to a sale? Overwhelming response was AGAINST it and it was soon discontinued.

Since their research "proves" Best Offer increase sales and makes more money for sellers, how about having Best Offer on eBay's overpriced shipping supplies?

Any guidance we provide as part of our Services, such as pricing, shipping, listing, and sourcing is solely informational and you may decide to follow it or not.

The above sentence is from section 2 paragraph 2 of the eBay User Agreement.

Providing guidance That would be SUGGESTING that adding Best Offer, offering free shipping, adding more or better photos, revising the description, lowering the price etc, may result in a sale.

Once I have listed an item I have already decided to NOT FOLLOW those suggestions, and when eBay performs the action of actually changing the price by adding Best Offer it is most certainly NOT "solely informational"! 

I refuse to believe that this policy can't be modified by the actions of eBay's only customers - it's sellers. I've made my last phone call concerning this policy and have just printed out a Cease and Desist Demand Letter. I'd be happy to share this letter with any interested sellers. Although in itself it has no legal "teeth" it may get the attention of someone with intelligence at eBay. This is the perfect scenario for a class action lawsuit - many parties with similar grievances that can't afford an expensive legal battle. But alas almost every seller is banned from participating in one thanks to eBay's cowardly decision to "say they're not allowed" coupled with a bad US Supreme Court decision that allows cowardly Fortune 500 corporations to do exactly that.

However, maybe sellers could share legal resources to obtain a Cease and Desist ORDER which does have the teeth of the law along with possible financial penalties if the order is ignored. Perhaps sellers could share a legal resource to represent us in the arbitration process? Although each case is heard independently, a winning strategy could be devised by a single lawyer that represents several sellers in each of their own arbitration cases. I want to hear from others that think this is possible. Let's discuss this...Don't be shy!

Of course no talk of legally challenging eBay in any form would be complete without a mention of the

R word.

If a company is big enough to bully you continuously, violate their own user agreement, ignore reasonable requests and create a legal climate that favors themselves, could they do more? Could they Retaliate?

Yes. Yes they could. And like Mission Impossible self-destructing smoking tapes, all knowledge of their actions will be disavowed by anyone with authority up to and including the CEO:

https://www.justice.gov/usao-ma/pr/two-former-ebay-employees-plead-guilty-aggressive-cyberstalking-c...

Perhaps it won't get that bizarre, but that doesn't mean your "Partner" won't retaliate in other ways. Just sayin'.

[99centhousefund]

What do you mean by "Smart Best Offer"? I have never heard that term. Do you mean Smarta** best offer? One thing you can do is clearly state in your listings 

"I DO NOT ACCEPT BEST OFFERS. EBAY HAS PUT THIS ON MY LISTING WITHOUT MY CONSENT. ANY OFFER SENT WILL BE IGNORED. THANK YOU."

[easeltine]

Original Poster is a reflection of my question.  I think I may be canceling my 21 year old account.

[dhbookds]

I've never had ebay put B/O on my items...........At one time it was discussed that if you use the short form, they will do it........but not with the advanced form........   Have no idea if the short form is still in use.........  Also not clear on what "smart" best offer is..........  ( I do have b/o on some items but I put them there)..........

Personally, if it were happening to me, I wouldn't spend 45 calls on it..........just set the b/o parameters to more or less declaw it......... 

But I will say..........you can sell well with b/o......... at least I do pretty well with the ones that buyers make even without best offer being enabled. 

[bimm_corp]

You can use eBay's mania for "Best Offers" to your advantage, whether you list with auction or BIN.

1> In the Selling Details section of the listing form click on the Best Offer click box

2> Just below that you will see two click boxes marked "Automatically accept offers of at least" and "Automatically decline offers lower than"

3> Click both these boxes and enter your lowest acceptable price in both

Now if a buyer makes a lowball offer, it gets automatically rejected and you will never get a notice or email. If the buyer makes an offer equal or higher than your lowest price, it will get accepted and the item will close the same way as if the buyer did a BIN. And you don't have to be bothered with all the back-and-forth offers and eBay can't sneak in a BO without your knowledge. You might even get lucky as has happened to me now and then and the BO will be above your lowest price. I list auctions only but it works fine for me. It still can't stop nagging emails from problematic buyers, but that's what your BBL is for.

https://www.ebay.com/bmgt/BuyerBlock

[deutsschland]

If i learned one thing about being 40 plus years in the good old USA, Contracts are made to be broken.

Just to give a few examples: A) Business and or Partnership Contracts here in the US are like a book.

B) The same Contract in Germany is about 3 pages. C) However you go to Japan and that Contract

would be a 1/2 page and a Hand-Shake . What does that tell you...?

[bimm_corp]

@deutsschland 

>What does that tell you...?

My first boss in the auto repair racket was a giant Hungarian with monstrous hands and a big handlebar mustache. He used to say, "English is funny language. "Lawyer" and "Liar" sound like the same, spell different, but mean same thing."

[kensgiftshop]

@good_guy44 

Do you use the quick listing form or the app?

I hear they like adding best offer if you use those.

I use the advanced/business listing tool on a PC and never had the best offer added to my listings.

[good_guy44]

I create 90% of my listings using the Android App. It suits my needs, especially uploading camera pics, and when I need to add fields or features that aren't avail on the app I use advanced listing tool on a PC or the desktop site setting on Android Chrome.

Regardless of how the listing was created is beside the point - eBay has NO business changing any pricing whether a seller is large or small volume. 

[releasethekraken_1]

---

@good_guy44 wrote:
I have made 45 calls to complain about this practice of modifying my prices by adding Best Offer.

---

That's rather obsessive, and completely pointless.

BTW, they don't modify your prices.

[corvettestainless]

I don't understand any of this ranting. You have used, "1 -of" items that have no 'book' value so someone adding 'make an offer' to a pair of bobbleheads listed at $75 BIN- what does it hurt? All listings have that available in the 'ask seller a question' where it gives buyers a 'title' of what they want to ask you about; under this particular one is says 'seller has not enabled 'offers' but send them a message and see if they'll accept'. 

So, even if the blue box 'make offer' is gone, it will always still be there for customers to send you an offer in messages. 

And if someone offered you $60 for your $75 item- what does it hurt?? Either accept or ignore it. But...maybe you'll take $60 since nobody knows the real value anyway and maybe it's been listed for several weeks/months and you want to get rid of it. I make new items, and I don't 'do offers' so when someone messages me I simply say "Sorry, we are a business doing business on ebay and our prices are set as is-Thanks".  Simple. 

Best offer is not a problem; you should really spend much less time worrying about it being one. 

[perfumenmore]

I'm having pretty much the same issue. I understand why ebay does it. They want products to move. But I do my research before listing my items. I try to make sure I have the lowest price to begin with comparable to other items of equal value. I don't make a killing. I usually break even which is okay because I don't do this to make a profit. I do it because it feeds my hobby. Sometimes ebay lowers the b/o price so low that to accept the offer is equivalent to me paying the buyer to purchase my product.  I'm beginning to think I should make my prices way higher so that if this occurs without my knowledge, which it often does in the middle of the night when I'm sleeping, I won't feel ambushed by a buyer wanting my product at a give away price. The problem is with raising prices higher is it will be quickly passed over by many potential buyers.