Things I learned from a Ebay rep yesterday

[albanysales8259]

I called Ebay yesterday to ask a few questions and to have a negative feedback removed because the buyer said item not delivered which it was and still ebay wont remove the feedback....thats a whole other story! I talked to a rep in the sales department and asked why my traffic and views were down. This rep flat out told me it doesnt matter if you promote or dont promote and other sellers items are placed higher than yours because they need to sell their items also!!!! I almost passed out on the phone!!!! We promote all items offer 1 day handling free returns and we are top rated seller.  The rep said refreshing your account does not exist  promotions do not help you sell an item and basically tough luck if your item is on the 5th page because other sellers need to sell their items as well!!!!!!!! I do not know what to believe anymore with this platform!?!?! I really wish i had taped this conversation it would have blown many minds. Just wanted to share this experience I had with the community. good luck with your sales

[sumsum70]

                                We promote all items...

Why? You seem to sell stuff every day. Probably would have sold the same stuff without voluntarily giving eBay extra unearned money.

I have never promoted, never will and still sold a few grand here this week.

[ed8108]

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@albanysales8259 wrote:I talked to a rep in the sales department and asked why my traffic and views were down. 

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If manny people are no longer interested in visiting ebay they

won't be seeing your items.

Realize Ebay may be doing a great job to effectively discourage manny potential paying buyers from shopping ebay.

Good luck

[rourc-39]

We all know eBay's customer service reps all have master degrees....in being complete buffoons. 

[powell-memorabilia]

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@vintagecraze50 wrote:

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@inhawaii wrote:

I wish you would have called me instead.

I would have told you why your items aren't selling.

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That was not helpful at all. Sorry.

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Well, it was helpful to me.  Gave me a genuine little chuckle.  I’ll take that over eBay conspiracy theories any day.

[powell-memorabilia]

Truth is that the csr wants to get you off of the phone.  At some point, sellers that won’t listen get a weird answer to get them to stop asking for refreshes and an explanation as to why folks aren’t buying.

Really, if there was a grand scheme by eBay to push down your sales, would they tell a csr team in India or the Philippines?  They wouldn’t.

[tobaccocardyahoo]

If your promotion is working, you should see an increase in Top 20 search slot impressions  By looking at 

Performance>Traffic

If you do and see no increased in sales the issue is your product offerings.

[mam98031]

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@bimm_corp wrote:

Is it possible that the sellers listed above you are paying a higher percentage in promoted listings? Sounds just like eBay.

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I don't think that was the point @bimm_corp .  Besides buyers don't usually purchase the first thing they see anyway.  

[orangehound]

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@albanysales8259 wrote:

This rep flat out told me it doesnt matter if you promote or dont promote and other sellers items are placed higher than yours because they need to sell their items also!!!! 

The rep said refreshing your account does not exist 

promotions do not help you sell an item and basically tough luck if your item is on the 5th page because other sellers need to sell their items as well!!!!!!!!

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That pretty much sums up my experience with eBay, and it is what I tell people.  Listing placement is like a lava lamp.  Sometimes up, sometimes down. 

Generically, eBay's algorithm is based on a psychological phenomena called "ludic loops", where eBay manipulates visibility to spread out sales between sellers just enough to keep sellers engaged and active.   The sale is the ludic loop reward. 

(Ludic loops are used in all social media algorithms, slot machines, state lotteries, games like Candy Crush, etc.)

The ludic loops are obviously not the only things that get sales on eBay.  The attractiveness of merchandise, pricing, etc., still have effect.  But if eBay views your inventory as similar to 10,000 other sellers, then it will balance sales between those sellers.

[sumsum70]

             But if eBay views your inventory as similar to 10,000 other sellers, then it will balance sales between those sellers.

So you're saying the phenomenon commonly referred to as "throttling" is real and not a suburban legend.

I knew it! As has approximately half of this forum. 

But it isn't exactly working as planned because I sell more on FB and CL than eBay now.

[chapeau-noir]

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@inhawaii wrote:

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@vintagecraze50 wrote:

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@inhawaii wrote:

I wish you would have called me instead.

I would have told you why your items aren't selling.

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That was not helpful at all. Sorry.

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I'm sorry.

I just can't fathom anybody calling ebay because their stuff isn't selling.

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But people do for some weird reason. But at least this rep was honest.

[yuzuha]

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@inhawaii wrote:

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I'm sorry.

I just can't fathom anybody calling ebay because their stuff isn't selling.

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Yeah, if stuff isn't selling, it's for one of three reasons:

1) It's priced too high. This one is easily fixed by just checking the Solds to see what things have actually sold for and then adjusting your price.

2) The category is oversaturated. This one isn't anyone's fault and there's really nothing that can be done about it. Clothing, jewelry, and physical media like books/DVDs/CDs are the worst for this. This is also the one situation where Promoted Listings can sometimes be useful if it's an item that otherwise has demand but is being buried among hundreds of other similar listings.

3) There's just no real demand for the item. Again, no one's fault and nothing that can be done because you can't make buyers want items they aren't interested in.

[adamcartwright]

@vintagecraze50 

Of course not -- I didn't and don't price higher than the actual comps.

That would be a waste of my time and listings.

[luckythewinner]

Things I learned from a Ebay rep yesterday

The things you are told by an eBay rep may not be true. 

This rep flat out told me it doesnt matter if you promote or dont promote 

I do not think this is true. Promoting a listing at least gives it a CHANCE to be in the limited number of promoted listing slots, although it certainly is not guaranteed to be there. 

The rep said refreshing your account does not exist  

I do believe that this is true. As a software engineer this idea has never made any sense to me, and I think it is just a way for reps to get people off the phone. 

[vintagecraze50]

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@sumsum70 wrote:

             But if eBay views your inventory as similar to 10,000 other sellers, then it will balance sales between those sellers.

So you're saying the phenomenon commonly referred to as "throttling" is real and not a suburban legend.

I knew it! As has approximately half of this forum. 

But it isn't exactly working as planned because I sell more on FB and CL than eBay now.

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Yep. Some things are gonna sell better on Facebook and CL because the buyers can actually find those listings better. This website is GLUT of merchandise.