What is ebay's biggest problem?...Learning?...Perception?...Common Sense?...(Write-Ins?)

[nawlinsron2]

Judges?

[coolections]

I suppose you would need to tell us what is YOUR problem with Ebay. I doubt Ebay thinks they have any problems.

[nawlinsron2]

" I doubt Ebay thinks they have any problems."
If a problem is not brought up at the Monday morning meeting, does it really exist?

[coolections]

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@nawlinsron2 wrote:
If a problem is not brought up at the Monday morning meeting, does it really exist?

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Maybe not. It could be just a complainer that doesn't like the situation but is really not even a problem when looking at the big picture.

[ted_200]

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@coolections wrote:

I suppose you would need to tell us what is YOUR problem with Ebay. I doubt Ebay thinks they have any problems.

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You may have just hit several nails directly on the head.

eBay has lots of problems.  They keep telling us the problems aren't problems.  Instead they fix and "improve" stuff that's NOT a problem, and then deny what they just did is going to cause another problem.  That's why they have so many problems.

[turquoisetulips]

Failure to test features before going live.......resulting in glitches, while at the same time, not announcing changes which leaves everyone to wonder if something is a "change" or  a "glitch", with the ensuing confusion, resentment, etc. dhbooks - unquote ----------------------------------

I don't know if its a gliche or e bay  has changed something again , but I can't get to my listings the way I always have. The list on the left hand side of my summary page is missing . It had vanished when I logged on tonight  but it was there this morning . Shrug . tulips 

[turquoisetulips]

Just like individual sellers — or rather, that's what individual sellers are supposed to be doing. thallidguy - unquote ---------------

  I don't think that theory sums it up for how I do business just speaking for myself  . I keep my prices pretty low, lower than most other U.S  sellers who have the same type of items  I do . I just need to supplement my income a little  . However I'm a bit concerned over this new 30 day free returns  policy . I would like to keep my top rated seller status and the nifty gold star  but I'm not 100 % certain it will work out well  in the long run. I have some holiday and special themed jewelry for sale right now,, ya know the kind some  people will  '' rent ''  . Even though I don't consider myself the type of person   who takes advantage  of others ,, I know there are people out there who don't mind at all . tulips 

[Anonymous]

eBay is the same as any other corporate environment. Always trying to tweak everything to make it "better". When it reality it's almost never so. Managers and such always have to make changes for the sake of change to justify their jobs and make themselves feel important. Because otherwise what's their use? Most of us that have worked for companies would agree that managers are often clueless and don't know anything about what the workforce is really doing. The people working under them are what really makes a company tick, and at eBay it's the sellers. Without the sellers eBay is nothing. Without sellers there aren't buyers. It's surely not these people running eBay that are making a fiasco of the site with every new rollout and every change taking it downhill in a hurry. They only have a platform with no actual inventory but they're trying to control every aspect as if they own all the items for sale. And policy after policy giving more advantages to the buyer and taking away from the sellers is disgusting. We're paying for stores and fees on a site that isn't functional most of the time and features randomly working or not. Not good for seller or buyers!

[luv3labs]

All of the above are genuine problems of eBay...

in my opinion, that they skewed the use of percentages in DSR's to purge a great many longtime and fabulous low-volume Sellers over just a few imperfections, while rewarding the mega-Sellers (especially from China) who have hundreds of Negative transactions every month, led to a huge alteration of the mix of products available to the Buyer...

and, the Search function has been "new & improved" to the point of being almost completely useless...

due to these issues, we now spend only about 5% of what we used to on eBay purchases...

we are now in our 14th year as eBay customers, and though we used to spend several thousand dollars every year shopping eBay on our 3 accounts,

we are now down to 2 accounts & just a couple hundred dollars total since the start of 2017.

eBay worked long & hard to ruin the Buying experience for their customers, and has done a very thorough job of it.
Yes, we are still spending the same dollars to get what we want, but instead of eBay getting most of our shopping dollars, we are buying: from Etsy & Amazon; from individual websites of the eBay Sellers whose wares we liked , and who are no longer selling on eBay; from local "brick & mortar" shops; and from Fire Mountain Gems.

Of course, being hit by the "purging by %" situation, and thus no longer Selling on eBay has also encouraged us to shop elsewhere...

interestingly, since we no longer sell on eBay, we are getting much better prices for our products, and selling very significantly more, with much less time required to do so, and only the tiniest fraction of the amount of hassles & headaches eBay's "new & improved" system was causing for us.

On our own, we likely would have never stepped away from eBay.

We were extremely loyal and enthusiastic long-time customers who very actively recruited friends and family to Buy & Sell on eBay.

eBay has convinced us to go elsewhere for almost everything we had been in the habit of buying via eBay...

life is good... feels like getting free from an abusive relationship; what was familiar was no longer good, but not knowing what the post-relationship life might be, keeps one in that bad relationship...
and once one is "free", life is good again.

[where*you*crowin]

Failure to listen to its users, both buyers and sellers alike, in favor of believing they are a tech company and relying on AI instead of common sense and true intelligence.

[57nicks]

Like many large companies who constantly need more and more, it is greed.

[retrose1]

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@nawlinsron2 wrote:
Great point.
ebay is supported by what...100M/day decisions?...EVERDAY?
Statistics...to this point in time...as been their friend.
If they get just 2%, they're in like Flint.
Methinks that 2% is in jeopardy.

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Would that be Flint Michigan?  Which lost everything including it's respectful position in the marketplace do to overwhelming corporate greed causing buyers to look elsewhere for better quality product?

[grasshopperx]

What an  EXCELLENT post!

[d-k_treasures]

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@kathieskorner wrote:

Ebay's biggest problem is being expected to be all things to all people.

Second biggest problem is not having the IT expertise needed for this site. 

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No,, ebay's biggest problem is that they think that all things apply to the same types of sellers, ignoring, of course, the china and india sellers, who get away with anything they feel like.

[nawlinsron2]

yep...it's hard to hear your customers over the din of the corporate jet.

[retrose1]

I think that ebay's biggest problem is failure to realize that all buyers and sellers are NOT alike and trying to force them to assimilate to the ebay way of thinking instead of catering to each group individually.

ebay fails to see that buyers of new are vastly different than collectors and expect different things - yet ebay is attempting to create a catalog that includes items that are not brand factory new and never were.  ebay's incompetant search is defaulting to showing only new merchandise when I am looking for vintage, how is that serving a buyer?

ebay is forcing sellers of used/vintage/antiques to conform to the site policies as if their merchandise is new, and to use ebay tools as if vintage merchandise have the same properties as new.

If ebay seperated into new merchandise and a seperate area/site for used/vintage/antique/ooak items, like the ebay of old, then most of ebay's glitches and problems caused by trying to do the impossible by including everything as if it were all the same, then most of ebay's problems would solve themselves.

ebay has made it obvious that they believe that users have short term memories, it is sad that ebay doesn't act on that premise and forget the failure of ebay express and divide the site.  If nothing else, it will eliminate the unwanted Chinese merchandise from searches of vintage merchandise.