@blacktopautoparts wrote:
I always laugh when I see people on here use the economy or holidays as the problem every time someone creates these threads/posts. Sure it has an effect on sales and traffic, but is not the 100% the problem. These ups and downs that we are getting are not normal and there are no ebs and flows to any of the charting like there used to be. There are days where sales are down a good 50-60%, then we will get 1-2 days in a row with some very scary looking sales spikes. Which is good for those 1-2 days, but the rest of the week gets hammered badly.
Like you, I do feel shocked because there is so much here that I have also pointed out in the forums and even with eBay execs yet nobody does anything about it and I always see finger pointing to someone else in the company. I just think these issues will never be fixed and there is a lot done here that feel are intentional on how the system is designed.
Then add in the issue with the service metrics. I have proven time and time again with support that there is an issue in eBay motors on how these numbers are being calculated and something doesn't seem right. Yet it seems its another thing where "We Don't have enough resources" to do this and do that.
Yup! And it's not like we can't compare to our competitors to see if they're experiencing the same thing. As well as take in considerations where certain sellers offerings are better or worse than other competitors. Many of our livelihoods depend on researching the categories we sell in.
The economy/etc are used to basically dismiss any legitimate arguments, and to accept that as an answer, it requires the presumption that those who are bringing up the issues don't know what they're doing and haven't accurately assessed the situation. Which is true sometimes. But many of us have track records, experience, and are competitive enough to be confident in our assessments.
It's not just talking about sales that sellers get - or should we say conversion rate. It's the traffic, the impressions. You can't get sales without clicks/views, and you can't get clicks/views without impressions. But once the topic is on impressions, people on here will switch from "the economy" to raise questions on your competitiveness or dismiss it as you selling in a crowded category. Those claims have been quite frustrating for us to deal with, because we're obviously competitive and can sell in a crowded category considering we have a history of performing at the top of our category. And that allows us to pinpoint these fluctuations and spot problems/changes in eBay's algorithms.
This is besides the fact that evidence has been posted here of these type of things, and while some can claim they haven't seen it, it's there for anyone to check.
Service metrics are a whole different ballgame. No transparency at all. Based on OPENED cases and not DECIDED cases is inherently unfair. And the fact that the system is 100% automated and they have NO WAY to remove penalties given in error OR remove glitched service metrics from your record? That's insanity.
We've had eBay errors where our handling time was being ignored and it was allowing buyers to open an INR before the handling time/shipping date! This showed up in the Service Metric reports, and they STILL Couldn't remove them from our record.
Another occasion, our INAD was < 1% - and it says on the same exact page that < 1% is not eligible for a penalty. This was last ~Feb/March when they changed the shipping system to say the "Arrives in 3/4 days" banner. They MISTAKENLY gave us the INAD Service Metric penalty when we were UNDER 1% - which according to the very page, and policy page, is impossible. You're not eligible if you're under 1%. But eBay CONFIRMED the penalty was on us. And we had no choice but to wait for the end of the month for it to expire, because there's no way to remove it.
It's insane to design a system that doesn't even allow the CS or Tech team to repair errors. Especially considering how glitch filled eBay is.
