Where have the good buyers gone?

[abs043]

I've been here since around 2001 and selling since 2008 and am top rated.  While I may not like or understand some of the changes over the years I have learned to work with them and still be successful.  However, the biggest change I am finding difficulty in learning to accept/work with is the attitude of many buyers now.  There have always been a few troublesome buyers and through good customer service I have always been able to find acceptable solutions which left everyone happy (a skill I learned in my first career as a social worker).

I sell plants and over the past year I have had more buyers than before contact me with questions and problems.  I take time to educate the them about the plants and the plants' care, answering all their questions and providing advice specific to their situations, all this in addition to the detailed care sheet which is sent with each plant.  At times I still end up giving a refund to compensate for any problems.  All this is fine as at least the buyer contacted me first and I would rather the buyer leave with more information and a little smarter than they were before.  And no, I do not allow buyers to harrass me into giving a refund, I am very judicious in giving them.

But my real gripe (and that's what this actually is, not so much asking for advice but rather a griping vent) is after all this those buyers who want me to be responsible for their errors and/or dead plants.  They then leave negative feedback.  In the past month I have received more negative/neutral feedback than I have in the past ten years combined.  It also is frustrating when such feedback is left and the buyer never gave me the opportunity to correct any problems.  For some buyers I truly do not know what they want or expect, and I don't think they do either.  Perhaps I should travel the country caring for their plants.

Just a small sample.  Two buyers claimed they did not recognize the plants.  When asked they sent photos of what they wanted which were very young plants; they received mature plants, just like those described and pictured in the listing.  Another refused to take my advice and then blamed me when the plants died after three weeks.  After more than 30 years growing these plants I know how to correct most problems but apparently not as much as he, who had never grown the plant he ordered and had less than a few months experience growing any plants.

It was not my intention for this to be so long and I am sorry for that.  Here's to all us buyers, may the good buyers with feedback by many and may the others blow away with the wind.

[futuretomorrow]

@goodluckselling

If you read my comment above, half of what you'e stated is simply not true. Because buyers have more protections doesn't mean that there are less bad actors here or that eBay has done more to protect them.

1. Chinese counterfeiters now use Sponsored Links to sell fake shoes. This never happened before because eBay didn't always have Sponsored Links. I warned eBay about other problems with Sponsored Links before it included fakes and then alerted them with evidence once it did. Does eBay listen? Ha...we know the answer to that one don't we?

If you post it on their FB they'll remove the Sponsored Links because that's public facing negative exposure they don't need. If you post that information here, Twitter etc. or anywhere else with low public visibility or engagement ? Good luck. Nothing is being removed.

2. You know what UA stands for in the sneaker world? Not Under Armour. It means "unauthorized". It's simply another way of saying fake without tripping the system. eBay "had" cut down on this but then they stopped trying, which I'll get to in a second.

3. Do you know how many satellite drop points Chinese vendors have in NYC, LA and Hawaii? My friend...you would be impressed by the logisitics and network they've set up. Some are authentic goods while thousands are counterfeit. In this life I don't think I've dealt with a more organized group of people than the Chinese and man are they smooth talkers lol. I won't get into details.

4. When you read my post above you'll soon realize why sellers are getting away with selling fakes here yet they can maintain a 100% positive feedback. Yes, there is an entire subset of buyers who know exactly what they're buying and are seeking them out. eBay has a plethora of evidence and has done nothing. Why? Right around the time their logic warped to allow multiple accounts when this was a previous no no (they needed every extra penny they could find for those investors) was around the same time they decided that if Amazon, Aliexpress, DHGate and others were making a killing off of fees from these items, well heck, they could to.

eBay if/when caught will be the driver that claims "But everyone else was doing 75mph". Let's not forget this was the platform caught trying to cheat Google's algorithms while everyone else was playing by the rules.

If you need evidence for any of this I have a phone full or can post live listings here. When you have the experience and knowledge I do there's no "well maybe they're real", they're fake and I'd bet you ever cent you own I'd be 1000% right. I have close to 100 videos doing fake vs real comparisons to educate people and at one point I had an email every other day in my gram or Tube asking me to "legit check" a pair of shoes.

eBay doesn't hire people like me. This isn't even my field of expertise. I'm just a sneakerhead that's gone way above the hype and I'm older, not some young buck.

The people eBay should be hiring go to work at StockX, GOAT, Flight Club, Stadium Goods etc. Is it any surprise many of these avenues have taken significant sneaker market share from eBay because eBay can't tell a low quality fake much less the better 1:1's to save their lives? No one in the know is surprised. Everyone else might be.

[goodluckselling]

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@harleyman49-us wrote:

I am simply stating that by the two different links that were provided, showing a possible huge decrease over a one year period how can either be trusted? I am just not gullible enough to believe every stat that I see posted online to be accurate or truthful. If you want to believe the number you posted that's your choice.

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I do not know anything about another links provided.  I gave you a link to an article from a third party neutral sponsor that is just reporting about how the server industry is changing and how it is working very well. 

I am sorry that you can not understand that eBay makes a lot of very good moves that rwsult in increase for sellers tomcreate very successful businesses.

Can you imagine what it would be like in the ecommerce industry had eBay not had forsight  to spend a billion dollars on a server farm that could handle the atticipated increase in business.

At some point you and other have to understand or at least recognize eBay makes changes that effect business that will happen in the future.  eBay does not work on the here and now for most all changes.  They are a leader in the industry so they lead the way and and shape the industry just like Amaz does.

Gpod Luck Selling!

[futuretomorrow]

I think you should stay. Please don't go lol. I dropped so many facts on you just now I honestly can't wait to see where your responses takes us 

[jason_incognito]

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@abs043 wrote:

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@lewisburggold wrote:

The sales we are making have to make it through a 30 day try out run to see if they even want it and us sellers flip the hole bill for them to do so.

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This is something I find frustrating.  I think plants should be exempt from such long return times.  Of course I would be happy it the guarantee went no further than "arrive alive" but could also accept a 7 day time frame.  Thirty days is simply too long for such a perishable/easyily perished item.

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Well, here's the experience of an ex ebay plat buyer.

I got sick of paying for rare and exotic and then months or years later when they finally bloomed realize I had been had.

Spend $10 a fan for a special iris only to have it bloom the basic blue. Not even slightly like the picture, but a straight out fraud.

Plant tulips that all come up a basic pink when you paid the extra for the striped flowers......

That's even after steering clear of the pink hostas and the multicolor roses that come from china.

[la.bella.boutique]

EBay doesn’t protect its sellers! It’s just a fact! When I was able to earn a living on here, it wasn’t so bad paying them 10%. This summer I have been paying so much in fees, I’m giving them almost 30% and that is not all profit! Today was the last straw. eBay’s resolution team ruled in favor of a buyer who filed a complaint saying that the item wasn’t as described. The item said the size in the About Item “Size Type” section and in the “Item Description” I gave exact ounces. I could not have been more clear as to what she was purchasing. And this exact listing has been used 8 times with satisfied customers. How many costmers left negative feedback because they made a purchase without reading the listing at all?!?! I don’t see half of my listings when I try to search for them from a family members account so why am I paying them? I had a costumer leave me negative feedback for a package arriving a day later then she thought it should. She made her purchase the week of Christmas! Am I supposed to control how fast the post office delivers? I sent it 3 day Priority! We can’t warn Sellers about Buyers because we can’t leave them negative feedback. It should go both ways. And there’s not ONE PLACE to file a complaint about eBay. They suggested that I go to the “Tell us what you think” tab. What a Joke! Sometimes I wonder, if all of the **bleep** OFF SELLERS banner together and went on STRIKE, How much money would eBay lose? If there were enough of us would they lose tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, or millions? I just hope it would be enough $ to get our point across that the Sellers pay them... Not the buyers. I could afford to go on STRIKE but I’m only a drop in the pot. I’m willing to lose money for principle. If anyone is game let me know. If they pull this idea off the forum it will be on Facebook and several other well known sites.

[goodluckselling]

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@Anonymous wrote:
Yeah the OP is talking about where the good buyers have GONE, which in turn means the increase of problem buyers which he also speaks of. Get it? I don't know you and you don't know me, how am I "wrong as usual"? I think more will agree with me and that you're wrong. BTW this billion transactions a day you're referencing are not all sales transactions as you seem to think. The story's about their data center. There's no freaking way there's a billion sales transactions daily. Most of those are gonna be behind-the-scenes things, not upfront sales.

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The great thing about this forum is that you can now prove me wrong.  I do not know any person that would just take your word with out any kind of proof? 

You make complete sense and that tells me you have some intellegence but that alone does not prove anything you are speaking about?

You have although tapped into something I granted you would not understand.  An eBay transaction means something different to eBay than it does to you and I.  What defines a transaction on eBay?

I assure you, we are probably closer together to what that means than what eBay defines it as.  The whole point of the number is to get some here in the forum to say

• WOW! 
• that is a huge number! 
• How could that be true? 
• Maybe I need to rethink about how successfull eBay really is?
• How could these numbers actually happen with all the problems reported here in the forum.

AIl  I can say is that when I read about issus here the forum I try to duplicate the issues and rarely can make it happen.  I am not saying they are not real, but I am saying that I am interested in knowing what issues are real so I take the time to research them without much success.

Good Luck Selling!

[goodluckselling]

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@futuretomorrow wrote:

I think you should stay. Please don't go lol. I dropped so many facts on you just now I honestly can't wait to see where your responses takes us 

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• Your definition of a fact is what exactly? 
• All I see from you is opinion. 
• Show your facts

Silly are you.

Good Luck Selling!

[daneiac]

I

[daneiac]

Bought or ordered buddleia seeds.  Turned out to be foxtail too late to get straightened out.. Let them know and they added insult by laughing at me all under the sun seeds

[castlemagicmemories]

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@goodluckselling wrote:

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@paudoh-16 wrote:

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@goodluckselling wrote:

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@harleyman49-us wrote:

Many of the good buyers were good sellers who have left out of frustration with to many unnecessary changes, constant glitches, and lack of sales.

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There must be a whole lot of them still here because eBay completes over One Billion Transactions daily.  Click here to see the article

Good Luck Selling!

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Still can't find anything more recent?

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If you can not disprove what I provide then what you are you really doing!

Good Luck Selling!

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??????

[sidemouse]

Here is a good one to ask yourself as a seller...

When is the last time you went through each and every one of your listings, one by one, with a fine-toothed comb to look for errors and inconsistencies and any other number of things you could easily fix?

If not why not, are all your listings perfect?

Are you sure?

I thought all of mine were...

Due to recent circumstances I am creating a full backup of each and every listing of mine, images and all... Doing so has given me the above opportunity, today I backed up 6 listings.

Four were not "Mobile Friendly"

Two were missing pictures (3 on one, 6 on the other, total of 9 pictures gone).

One was still "old" format, meaning I had upgraded my listing descriptions but apparently some slipped through the cracks.

One had an obvious error in the description, could not begin to tell you how I could have done that.

One was perfect.

Pretty bad for someone who thought all the listings in my account were gtg.

I had figured a 'few' would be off and possibly in a bad way, but 4 and 5 out of 6?

Just food for thought, going to do 5-6 more tomorrow.

[abs043]

That illustrates part of my point.  A broad brush stoke of policy does not work; more categories should have policies which are better tailored to those items.  I also understand that caveat emptor applies particularly to online purchases.  Plant listings are stuffed with words like rare, exotic, unique and any other special description.  Just the vast overuse of those words should cause one to question their veracity.  This is where the feedback system could be vastly improved so buyers are not repeatedly duped by the false descriptions, in turn allowing the market to self-regulate.

[coldcanadian-40]

HAVE YOU TRIED TO BUY ON EBAY

CHINA SELLERS RIP BUYERS OFF ALL THE TIME AND SO DOES A LOT OF OTHER SELLERS

NEGATIVE FEEDBACK IS THE ONLY RESPONCE BUYER HAVE.....THERE ARE SO MANY BAD SELLERS ON EBAY THAT GOOD SELLERS DO NOT SHINE ANYMORE

[abs043]

This is something I am quite vigilant about.  On average listings are reviewed about once a month.  I use the buyer problems as an opportunity to critique the listing, asking if the problem could have been avoided by changing, adding or removing something in the listing.  But to be honest I could replace text in listings with lorem ipsum and some buyers would still make purchases and ask the same questions or have the same problems because it is clear they stopped reading after the title.  The formating shenanigans (failures) of our gracious host is no help here and holds at least some culpability for this.