Trouble In Paradise

[nc-daydreamer]

Out of all the poor decisions and updates made in the past 3 years, what is the worst? What has affected your business the most?

There are so many, it's hard to pinpoint just 1 or 2. I think it's time we sellers compile a list... Any thoughts? 

I'd have to say the defect program is the most unfair. The no questions return on the seller's dime and beyond the 3 years??? Removal of WANT-IT-NOW, and changes happening so fast and retroactively that it is hard to keep track of them.  Of course, there are more but I will limit myself on comments for the moment. (But feel welcome to include as much detail as you want.)

Thanks ya'll for your input - maybe (????) together we can get someone in admin to at lease notice the unhappy numbers of responders. 

[mg152]

It hasn’t affected me yet but I don’t think it’s fair to count all returns against us

[dirk12955]

Keeping score in my seller metrics based on the performance of the USPS

[pauls-parts]

No doubt the GTC for me. All the others were a pain in the backside but this one has hurt so much that I actually opened other selling accounts on different venues and am doing better on them. I have  so far removed half my listings and will probably do the rest when I get a chance and depending on what wenig says tomorrow.

[mudshark61369]

What has affected me the most is the tanking of sales since last fall.  There doesn't seem to be any reason other than ebay's screwed up search, all of their glitches and trying to become the bargain sub-basement of online retail.

The recent switch to GTC cost me most of today, because I parked some unsold BIN items that ended before the Mar. 18 GTC start, so I could take the items to live shows.  Today I wanted to relist 7 of the items as auctions. But they were automatically formatted to GTC, so I had to re-do them from scratch.  It didn't help that copied descriptions would not paste to the Advanced listing form without scheduling the start time then opening the listing, and clicking on revise.  Then the blank space where the Descriptions were had the pasted copy but not in the font and size the originals were. 

Now I see Wenig is going to announce positive changes for sellers?  The only positive changes I can think of would be to undo almost everything since May 2008, Scrap the current intuitive search,  fix the glitches, and let sellers go about minding their own businesses, without HELP from ebay.  

Wat the hell does promoted auto insurance ads on the listing page have to do with listing toy wind up cars, and how does that help me? 

[wee*threads]

hi there - what platforms do you suggest? do they bring similar prices? thank you!

[castlemagicmemories]

What the hell does promoted auto insurance ads on the listing page have to do with listing toy wind up cars, and how does that help me?

Wait, I got this one!  The toy car might need auto insurance!  

Ta da!

[femmefan1946]

Insisting that to get (US) Top Rated Seller and show the badge, most of our shipments must show tracking.

Only USPS has such cheap tracking. Canada Post charges $8.95 for a Canada->USA package weight up to 250 grams , but $16.04 if we want it tracked.

So we mail untracked and cross all our fingers and toes.

On the other hand, we do qualify for (Global) TRS, and the only difference is that our TRS badge does not show on the US site.

Another inequity is that we have to wait 96 hours to open an Unpaid Item Dispute rather than the 48 hours for US sellers.

And new non-US sellers have to wait a full 21 days for the Hold on customer payments to end and actually get our money. We still have to ship as soon as possible.

[weschurch]

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@nc-daydreamer wrote:

Out of all the poor decisions and updates made in the past 3 years, what is the worst? What has affected your business the most?

There are so many, it's hard to pinpoint just 1 or 2. I think it's time we sellers compile a list... Any thoughts? 

I'd have to say the defect program is the most unfair. The no questions return on the seller's dime and beyond the 3 years??? Removal of WANT-IT-NOW, and changes happening so fast and retroactively that it is hard to keep track of them.  Of course, there are more but I will limit myself on comments for the moment. (But feel welcome to include as much detail as you want.)

Thanks ya'll for your input - maybe (????) together we can get someone in admin to at lease notice the unhappy numbers of responders. 

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Thats like asking which root canal was your favorite

[kathieskorner]

Thats like asking which root canal was your favorite.

Good analogy.

I'd rate the changing search algorithms implemented with Cassini as having the greatest negative impact on both buyers and sellers - unless one wants to pay for promoted listings of course.

I expect GTC will eventually be a close second for used and vintage sellers.   I do know that out of 187 GTC rollover listings over my four accounts - none have sold in April with one day left.   All my sales ( a total of 35 which is about average for April for me) have been from newly listed items and manual relists.   This, my original eBay account,  has been unusually dreadful. but I did move a dozen listings to betsy a couple of weeks ago of which two have sold.   

[pauls-parts]

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@wee*threads wrote:

hi there - what platforms do you suggest? do they bring similar prices? thank you!

I guess we are not supposed to say but you can raft on one and listing to one of the spice girls on the other. The one you can go rafting on is way easier to list on.

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[dinpavent0]

You didn't have to redo listings from scratch. I decided to list some that were buy it nows to auction so I clicked all ten that I was going to relist and they all pop up in window so I could make the changes for them to be auctions and change the price. Took less than 5 min. You can do this if you bulk relist or if you are doing one, it will open so you can make the changes.

[tunicaslot]

1. Our Favorite AI - Cassini

2. GTC

3.Seller Metrics

4. Forced False SNAD Returns

My biggest problem is the constant change in algorithms for search - once I think I have it - they change it.

As a buyer - I search and find something - but if I forget to add it to my watch list - it doesn't come up in my search results when I try to find it again because Cassini assumes it wasn't to my liking the first time.