So this message from a repeat customer explains why my sales have been so slow...

[dudadz]

I just received this message from a repeat customer: 

Good Afternoon, I am currently on hold with PayPal; I’m having some some type of difficulty regarding a single transaction going through. I previously wasn’t able to either place this necklace in my cart, or contact you about your other listings. I know I’ve previously purchased from you and am trying to discern if this is an eBay problem; I contacted another Seller that I’ve previously purchased from, and was also experiencing the same difficulties.

So apparently, no matter how much I list or revise, I am not going to be able to make any sales? I notice I'm still being charged fees with no problem though.

Anyone else getting messages like this from buyers?

[dirk12955]

No


What makes you think this is YOUR problem when it may be the customers issue? If the buyer has issues with you and another seller............

[dudadz]

The buyer does not have issues with me and the other seller. The problem they are having is not being able to add items to their cart right now. 

[woothy]

Don't know if it related or not but yesterday was the first day I had zero sales. I hope they finally are able to make the purchase!

[caninekopz]

There are those on here that thing the no sales and issues like this do not exist in Ebay.   They are Ebay Cheerleaders.  

I have seen the following post:

Yesterday Ebay put out an update and a link.  The link did not work for almost 24 hours.

Others experienced issues while trying to list items while others got messages like " its not your issue its ours" from Ebay when receiving error messages. 

What ever happened about 2 weeks ago has put us all at a stalemate. 

But you will never get some to think that Ebay is having a problem.....a serious one

Rich 

[lex-talon]

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@dudadz wrote:

I just received this message from a repeat customer: 

Good Afternoon, I am currently on hold with PayPal; I’m having some some type of difficulty regarding a single transaction going through. I previously wasn’t able to either place this necklace in my cart, or contact you about your other listings. I know I’ve previously purchased from you and am trying to discern if this is an eBay problem; I contacted another Seller that I’ve previously purchased from, and was also experiencing the same difficulties.

So apparently, no matter how much I list or revise, I am not going to be able to make any sales? I notice I'm still being charged fees with no problem though.

Anyone else getting messages like this from buyers?

---

Not at all. The past few days, my sales have been going great. I would wake up with 3-4 offers or a sale. 

I would just ignore that message. Take it with a grain of salt.

[boots8]

Hi, I got a several messages from buyers who won auctions and it took a day or more before it showed up in their cart or whatever and they was able to pay.

[eburtonlab]

@dudadz 

No idea if this was a problem on the buyer's end, or if it was a temporary glitch.

Just now I was able to put two of your items in my cart, and see that the 10% discount was applied, for what it's worth. No issues or problems that I could see. Just a data point.

Good luck.

[orangehound]

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@caninekopz wrote:

There are those on here that thing the no sales and issues like this do not exist in Ebay.   They are Ebay Cheerleaders.  

---

I think problems like this exist (I had a customer this evening claim to send me two messages, neither of which I received) - eBay has horrible software development processes.  But I do not think these problems are the reason why a particular seller is seeing poor sales.

To blame eBay for poor sales is a deflection of responsibility.  It is a seller's responsibility to get the sales, and in particular to make the changes necessary to navigate eBay to their advantage.

In retail, the formula for success is always changing.   If a seller is struggling and doing the same things that they did 2, 4, or 10 years ago**, then that's the problem ... not eBay.

** For example, selling the same sort of inventory through the same market channels ...

[trukfixer1]

Have seen the same several times the last couple months, have had former buyers call us to order parts they needed over the phone since they were unable to buy them on ebay (Couldnt check out,couldn't add to cart, buy now button didn't do anything, etc) So yeah we've been aware for some time that it is an intermittent glitch on ebay that is preventing people from buying at all. (Could be some sort of smart phone browser security thingy? - Data privacy and all that... )

[caninekopz · Accepted solution]

Orange,

"To blame eBay for poor sales is a deflection of responsibility.  It is a seller's responsibility to get the sales, and in particular to make the changes necessary to navigate eBay to their advantage."

I have to disagree.  If Ebay changes the rules everyday (rules of algorythms) It is impossible for anyone to keep up.  Searches should be simple.

If I list my product as lowest on the big ole site of Ebay and a buyer does a search by lowest and is looking for what I have......UPC, product description or any other way to search, then my product should pop up at the top of the list.  PERIOD.  Now if the buyer wants to do a general search or a search for most recommended by Ebay then I can see Ebay pushing sponsored products or products where people have paid extra to have their products promoted.  

Ebay does not do this.  As a matter of fact I have done a search for a widget by lowest price including shipping because the is the way I want to shop.  If I choose the lowest price item and purchase it, then why when I am going to check out does Ebay show me the same item but at a lower price after I already purchased my product.  Most will then cancel the item they just bought and re-purchase at a lower price, some will just move on with disgust and wonder what the heck just happened.

This above situation happens every day.  I have customers tell me that Ebay offered them a lower price that is why they cancelled the sale.  I do think that is a software problem that Ebay is directly the reason for poor sales.  Not just that I did not get the sale, but the buyers experience was horrible and the buyer does not trust shopping on Ebay.  The seller is mad and decides to move on.  Ebay has lost a seller and a buyer.

If you have not looked lately, the selection of things on Ebay has dwindled.  I used to spend over 1000 a month on Ebay buying things that I need in every life.  It was easy and I was here all day anyway.  Now Ebay is lucky to get 10 dollars a month.  I do not like the searches, the variety of good used or new items has decreased severely due to sellers leaving the platform or no longer finding it profitable to be here.  I blame this on Ebay.

Less traffic=Less views on my products= people looking other places for the things they want in everyday life=the likelyhood of them coming back is very limited=Ebays fault for changing things too quickly trying to become something they will never be.

Be honest, Ebay will NEVER be Amazon.  No matter how hard they try.  That is like saying that Ross,or Goodwill will become Macy's or Bloomingdales.  They sell the same stuff sometimes, heck Ross and Goodwill sell the things Macy's and Bloomingdales can't, but I can assure you they will NEVER be the same.  The difference between Goodwill and Ebay is, Goodwill knows their place in the market and strive to be the best in that market instead of trying to be Macy's

Rich 

[relaxintowealth]

Yes, a few months ago I had an international buyer and they had that very same issue, took almost a week and then it worked.

[luxgoods]

I am curious, there is one cheerleader that seems to answer every post on this board.  I am not sure how this individual has the time to sell anything when they spend so much time commenting on everyones post.  It seems that they may be an ebay plant as stated in another post awhile back.  

[relic-stories]

Well said! and DITTO!

[kaliforniakollectibles]

You made it clear that you feel anybody who searches by lowest price should, by default, be your customer if your price is lowest.  How did it go?  PERIOD?  That sounds fair, I suppose.  But it seems like you feel that customers should be directed to the lowest price if yours is lowest, but they shouldn't be directed the lowest price if they are about to buy from you, though your price is higher.

I wonder if you have contacted your customers to find out how many times they were on the way to checkout with another seller's product and were redirected to your store because you offered a lower price than your competitor.  I realize that it probably isn't as irritating to you when you get the sale, which must be more important to you than a customer getting the best price, even if that's what they were looking for, uh, how did you put it?  Oh yes, PERIOD.  No fair demanding that a customer ends up at checkout with the lowest price if you think you offer it, then complaining if they end up at checkout with the lowest priced product and it isn't yours.

You want eBay to forcibly place people in your presence if you truly are what they are looking for, but you want eBay to sit silently and watch if customers are mistakenly headed to checkout with your product rather than direct them to what they were looking for.  Sounds a little sketchy if you ask me.  Unless you have proof that the lower price didn't exist elsewhere and was adjusted to be lower than yours at the time of checkout, you should look into the process for removing baseless snivelling from your account.  Then focus on improving sales instead of pointing fingers.  Everybody in every business loses sales.  We don't like to assume the blame, if there is any.  But most of us do it privately because we don't exepect support.  The worst thing you can do for your mental health is chase down money that has already been spent elsewhere.  You are going to lose the next pile of cash, as well, if you are busy staring in the rear view mirror.

I need to get back to searching for the solution I was looking for when I saw this train wreck and couldn't help but rubberneck...