eBay

laszlo1031 · ‎11-24-2018

Sad and scary. I was at friends this weekend and almost all gifts for the holidays have been ordered on Amazon. My grandchildren want gift cards from Amazon. Not one person ever even talks about eBay, let alone buys anything. How did eBay let this happen? I used to be extremely successful with sales. I tried to jump through all the hoops to no avail. Sales just continue to tank. Some I understand i.e. many more places to buy. Some I don't, unusual items that are harder to find. Of my 3 accounts one has no sales since the end of October, one has 3 sales and one has 6. I sold more in August. Oh and I've had 3 returns. I'm not whining just stating facts. It is disappointing. I feel bad for anyone trying to make of living here although I suspect some sellers are doing fine. I don't expect anything will change

southern*sweet*tea · ‎11-25-2018

It's simple, really.

Instead of concentrating on being the BEST, Ebay wants to be the BIGGEST. So now, instead of having THE premier site on the internet for vintage, antique and pre-owned items we have an overstuffed, almost hoarder-ish cheap junk store with a few genuine treasures buried amongst the 99 cent Chinese rubbish.

Mass produced new items and vintage/pre-owned cannot be sold the same way. You cannot treat vintage merchandise the same as new when it comes to free for all returns, pricing and even marketing. It just doesn't work that way. You cannot shove round vintage into a square new hole. Ebay tries, and this is what happens - a spectacular and very sad mess.

It's all about the numbers. Ebay would rather have one million $1 sales than ten thousand $100 sales, because in Ebay's eyes a million sales is better than ten thousand sales even if the dollar amount is the same. The more cheap trash you sell, the better you look on paper, and I guess that's all that matters.

Buyers lose and sellers lose, but it's all good because Ebay gets their pennies.

Where is my family shopping? Of the ones that are actually shopping, most are doing it in store, and the ones shopping online are shopping on their favorite retailer's websites and not through third party sites like Ebay or Amazon. Combined with online coupons, the prices are much better overall.

The easier you are to offend the easier you are to control.

We seem to be getting closer and closer to a situation where nobody is responsible for what they did but we are all responsible for what somebody else did. - Thomas Sowell

creekcoyote · ‎11-25-2018

@castlemagicmemories wrote:
@grasshopperx wrote:
I think it may have happened from the micro management of every tiny thing. When to ship, how to ship, emails reminding people of their watch list. The dashboard, the stars, the color of the logo. All this junk that just clutters up the site. All the bells, whistles, bows and buttons. Everything BUT a decent search system. A good analogy would be a restaurant. One that starts adding and adding to their menu. Soon the foods stops coming out of the kitchen.
But the attraction of Amazon, just dont get it really. I always look there, and end up coming back here. But alot of people dont have the time to waste and browse. The site is too bogged down with repeat chinese goods. It takes time to go thru it all even if you know how to do refined searches. We may know Ebays little quirks, but maybe other buyers dont. They get frustrated and leave. There is alot of great stuff on here. Question is? does anybody see it?
With all due respect, I beg to differ. I see the things you mention, the Dashboard, when to ship (which conforms to the handling time that the seller has chosen), are Ebay's efforts to present a better buying experience and measurable standards for sellers by cutting down on SNADs, OOS, and late shipping, as opposed to stating a handling time and then shipping when you feel like it, or continually being out of stock, etc.

I agree with you, though, about failing to see the attraction of Amazon. I don't like their layout, and they have much less variety there. It's hard to find anything I want, and if I do, it usually costs more there.

It's possible that some of those buyers were extremely unhappy with the way they were treated here, and so they left, never to return.

Well, It seems to me that, even with all of E-bay's effort to present a better buying experience, it isn't happening. If it was, there would be tons of buyers here. Instead, buyers are going to Amazon and other sites.

So, all these so-called improvements don't seem to be working.

When E-bay decided to court big box stores, etc. and compete with other sellers of new products, they lost their core buyers.

When they screwed up the search engine, they lost a lot of buyers.

When they tried to force all sellers into a 'one size fits all' mold, they lost not only buyers but some of the good sellers as well.

And when you can buy the exact same thing on this site as you can buy at the big box stores, this site lost its uniqueness.

People used to come here for the unusual, the rare, the nostalgic items that no other site had.

Of course those kinds of items are still here, but the average buyer isn't going to sort through thousands of fake reproductions from China to find an authentic piece.

Allowing so many Chinese sellers here with their cheap, counterfeit items has also caused an exodus of some buyers.

I loved to buy on here until I had the type of experience that I describe above. Going through tons of junk just wasn't fun.

This is my buying ID and you can see that I haven't bought much on this site in the last ten years.

COYOTES RULE!!!

Anonymous · ‎11-25-2018

Yesterday a friend was looking for a certain gizmo. I told him to check on eBay and his reply was that he didn't want a used one.

He's in his 40s and of the impression that everything on eBay is a garage sale. He remembers eBay started out with collectibles and/or used and since he never shopped here he wasn't aware how much the site has changed. He was surprised when I told him how different it was.

I spoke with someone in her 20s a few weeks ago and she knew that eBay had a lot of new and current items.

marilyn6122 · ‎11-25-2018

My friends and neighbors bring me their good clean boxes and packing from their online purchases and I have noticed that now I have more and more amazon boxes than regular unmarked or specific store boxes. This indicates to me that they are not buying from ebay as much as before. if at all. Times are changing and not for the better. I write notes on a regular basis to the "tell us what you think" feature and maybe it is looked at and maybe not. I still believe there is a substantial market for used, vintage, collectibles and out of production items found on eBay, but they may or may not have the visibility they use to have. A little discouraging to say the least.

fuzzface50 · ‎11-25-2018

People i know that are actually shopping went back to b/m stores. but not the b/m stores you might think. They are hitting the ones that are about to go under.

The ones shopping online are going mainly to b/m store sites with walmart being the most mentioned.

Another group that are just giving out gift cards seem to all went to walmart for them too.

Only a couple i heard about are shopping with amazon. Quite a few around here have nothing good to say about amazon or even ebay lately. Like i mentioned above, quite a few that do shop online are going back to the sites that have b/m stores.

castlemagicmemories · ‎11-25-2018

@twnpopcards wrote:
@castlemagicmemories wrote:
@grasshopperx wrote:
I think it may have happened from the micro management of every tiny thing. When to ship, how to ship, emails reminding people of their watch list. The dashboard, the stars, the color of the logo. All this junk that just clutters up the site. All the bells, whistles, bows and buttons. Everything BUT a decent search system. A good analogy would be a restaurant. One that starts adding and adding to their menu. Soon the foods stops coming out of the kitchen.
But the attraction of Amazon, just dont get it really. I always look there, and end up coming back here. But alot of people dont have the time to waste and browse. The site is too bogged down with repeat chinese goods. It takes time to go thru it all even if you know how to do refined searches. We may know Ebays little quirks, but maybe other buyers dont. They get frustrated and leave. There is alot of great stuff on here. Question is? does anybody see it?
With all due respect, I beg to differ. I see the things you mention, the Dashboard, when to ship (which conforms to the handling time that the seller has chosen), are Ebay's efforts to present a better buying experience and measurable standards for sellers by cutting down on SNADs, OOS, and late shipping, as opposed to stating a handling time and then shipping when you feel like it, or continually being out of stock, etc.

I agree with you, though, about failing to see the attraction of Amazon. I don't like their layout, and they have much less variety there. It's hard to find anything I want, and if I do, it usually costs more there.

It's possible that some of those buyers were extremely unhappy with the way they were treated here, and so they left, never to return.
With all due respect, I beg to differ with your thoughts on the matter. Unfortunately Ebay cannot stop changing things and when they do, many times they break some part of the current program and cause error messages or make it difficult to complete a purchase. Many Ebay buyers were Holiday shoppers each year, but every time they logged in Ebay had changed the layout or something else about the search engine and many got tired of the constant Disruptive Technology changes that failed or just caused them to not be able to find what they wanted.

I have buyers that made purchases from me on another site and asked why I did not have those items listed on Ebay. I told them I did but they were still unable to find the listings as i guess it was my time to have my listings hidden for whatever reason. So I made the sale on another site and now these buyers no longer look on Ebay for their items, but go to the other site and make the purchases there as nothing is ever hidden on that site. I now list my new items on that site first and then come back to Ebay, where in the past I would never have considered such a move. Buyers (myself included) want to be able to find what they want quickly and easily, which Ebay used to be famous for, but with the constant changes to the search engine algorithms buyers have to make multiple clicks to find what they used to find with one click and do not want to be bothered with it, period.

I used to spend about $1000+ a month on Ebay for various items, but now I rarely spend anything more than the quarterly supply order that comes free with my store. Almost everything else is now purchased on Amazon and I am able to find it easily (they don't attempt to hide the sellers name that i bought the items from the last time, nor that price) and I can be done with my order in less than 5 minutes and with free shipping even though I do not have Amazon Prime. My purchases are large enough to always get free shipping to me and when I have compared the pricing against Ebay the price i got on Amazon for my items was cheaper. I also appreciate the ability to have items automatically re-ordered for me based on my selection of time for the automatic re-order and the discounts that come with that. With the constant changes to the policies and fees, Sellers on Ebay are forced to raise their prices in order to continue to make the profit margins they need to make to continue meeting Ebays changes and having to deal with all the constant glitches.

Ebay decided to go after the millenials who don't mind all the drill downs to find what they are trying to find. However, they are not who is spending the money on Ebay yet, and all I hear from my sons who are both millenials is why would I want to deal with Ebay when I cannot find what i am really looking for, only what they want to show me and at higher prices than i can get the items for elsewhere. We were actually talking about Ebay on Thanksgiving and the fact that Ebay is changing to managed payments and at this point in time cannot accept Paypal if you are in the MP program. All of them including their significant others stated that there is no way they will ever input their CC information into Ebay for them to share that information with those companies they sell it to. They all use some type of payment application similar to Paypal or Venmo for all their transactions and said if they ever ran across a site that did not accept that form of payment, that would be the last time they shopped on it. They also felt that Ebays security is not as tight as Paypals is as they are in the CC industry which does have very strict compliance rules, so that Ebay is more susceptible to being hacked.

I wish that Ebay was like it used to be for buying as i easily found what I wanted and so did my customers. I had no problem paying the fees as most of it was for sales, not for listings as it is becoming now. Between paying for a store for the listings, the FVF for a sale and if you want to hopefully have your items seen most of the month, you have to pay additional fees for Promoted Listings or whatever flavor of the Month ebay is using that month most of my monthly fees are no longer for the sale, but just for the ability to post on their website where they paste more and more ads on my listings for other sellers items. I pay nothing to list on the other site I was talking about, but pay a higher fee when an item sells, which in my mind makes more sense as I am only paying if something sells, which encourages the platform to make sure MY items are seen and they are not dependent on fees for nothing, which Ebay has now become dependent on.

A very thoughtful and insightful post. Ebay has been plagued with technical issues, an Ebay executive acknowledged such a few months ago~you are right~and when things don't work right, sales and customers may be lost. There are many reasons why buyers leave. Certainly if they can't find your listings here, but found them elsewhere, that would be a reason as would any technical issues. But it may also be because of SNAD items and how the buyer is treated as well. Buyers want what they bought in the condition specified, no disappointments or unpleasant surprises, then they may be challenged harshly, so they may be done then. Payments concerns enter into the picture as well.

I am not so sure,though, that millenials don't mind what you call "all the drill downs"~it seems to me they wouldn't have patience for that. They may not do any sort of buyer's due diligence. They just want to buy as they would on any web site.

It makes sense that Ebay would court millenials as those who have been here for many years may transition away, but appealing to a broad base of customers, everyone, to me, is the way to garner the largest segment of market share, and I think that is what drives growth.

varebelrose · ‎11-25-2018

RE: Amazon....

Some of this has to do with drop shippers as well. I tried for years to do all my buying of new, consumer items here on eBay, but it got to the point that they inevitably arrived in either an amazon or a wal-mart box, shipped from them. As much as I detest doing business with either of them, if I need something new, I realized I may as well skip paying the middle man and buy directly from those sources and save a few dollars.

ymmv.

castlemagicmemories · ‎11-25-2018

I think Ebay's strength is in the unique, the rare, hard to find, the unusual, and vintage, not in things that you can buy anywhere. Ebay is so much better than that~that's its' magic and strength~the huge variety and good prices. Just my opinion.

raven_rampkin · ‎11-25-2018

It seems to me that nowadays, there's a common (mis)conception that Amazon is for brand-new, still-in-production things, while Ebay is for everything else: NOS, used, collectible, samples, prototypes, you name it. And Chinese stuff with free shipping.

tunicaslot · ‎11-25-2018

@twnpopcards wrote:
@castlemagicmemories wrote:
@grasshopperx wrote:
I think it may have happened from the micro management of every tiny thing. When to ship, how to ship, emails reminding people of their watch list. The dashboard, the stars, the color of the logo. All this junk that just clutters up the site. All the bells, whistles, bows and buttons. Everything BUT a decent search system. A good analogy would be a restaurant. One that starts adding and adding to their menu. Soon the foods stops coming out of the kitchen.
But the attraction of Amazon, just dont get it really. I always look there, and end up coming back here. But alot of people dont have the time to waste and browse. The site is too bogged down with repeat chinese goods. It takes time to go thru it all even if you know how to do refined searches. We may know Ebays little quirks, but maybe other buyers dont. They get frustrated and leave. There is alot of great stuff on here. Question is? does anybody see it?
With all due respect, I beg to differ. I see the things you mention, the Dashboard, when to ship (which conforms to the handling time that the seller has chosen), are Ebay's efforts to present a better buying experience and measurable standards for sellers by cutting down on SNADs, OOS, and late shipping, as opposed to stating a handling time and then shipping when you feel like it, or continually being out of stock, etc.

I agree with you, though, about failing to see the attraction of Amazon. I don't like their layout, and they have much less variety there. It's hard to find anything I want, and if I do, it usually costs more there.

It's possible that some of those buyers were extremely unhappy with the way they were treated here, and so they left, never to return.
With all due respect, I beg to differ with your thoughts on the matter. Unfortunately Ebay cannot stop changing things and when they do, many times they break some part of the current program and cause error messages or make it difficult to complete a purchase. Many Ebay buyers were Holiday shoppers each year, but every time they logged in Ebay had changed the layout or something else about the search engine and many got tired of the constant Disruptive Technology changes that failed or just caused them to not be able to find what they wanted.

I have buyers that made purchases from me on another site and asked why I did not have those items listed on Ebay. I told them I did but they were still unable to find the listings as i guess it was my time to have my listings hidden for whatever reason. So I made the sale on another site and now these buyers no longer look on Ebay for their items, but go to the other site and make the purchases there as nothing is ever hidden on that site. I now list my new items on that site first and then come back to Ebay, where in the past I would never have considered such a move. Buyers (myself included) want to be able to find what they want quickly and easily, which Ebay used to be famous for, but with the constant changes to the search engine algorithms buyers have to make multiple clicks to find what they used to find with one click and do not want to be bothered with it, period.

I used to spend about $1000+ a month on Ebay for various items, but now I rarely spend anything more than the quarterly supply order that comes free with my store. Almost everything else is now purchased on Amazon and I am able to find it easily (they don't attempt to hide the sellers name that i bought the items from the last time, nor that price) and I can be done with my order in less than 5 minutes and with free shipping even though I do not have Amazon Prime. My purchases are large enough to always get free shipping to me and when I have compared the pricing against Ebay the price i got on Amazon for my items was cheaper. I also appreciate the ability to have items automatically re-ordered for me based on my selection of time for the automatic re-order and the discounts that come with that. With the constant changes to the policies and fees, Sellers on Ebay are forced to raise their prices in order to continue to make the profit margins they need to make to continue meeting Ebays changes and having to deal with all the constant glitches.

Ebay decided to go after the millenials who don't mind all the drill downs to find what they are trying to find. However, they are not who is spending the money on Ebay yet, and all I hear from my sons who are both millenials is why would I want to deal with Ebay when I cannot find what i am really looking for, only what they want to show me and at higher prices than i can get the items for elsewhere. We were actually talking about Ebay on Thanksgiving and the fact that Ebay is changing to managed payments and at this point in time cannot accept Paypal if you are in the MP program. All of them including their significant others stated that there is no way they will ever input their CC information into Ebay for them to share that information with those companies they sell it to. They all use some type of payment application similar to Paypal or Venmo for all their transactions and said if they ever ran across a site that did not accept that form of payment, that would be the last time they shopped on it. They also felt that Ebays security is not as tight as Paypals is as they are in the CC industry which does have very strict compliance rules, so that Ebay is more susceptible to being hacked.

I wish that Ebay was like it used to be for buying as i easily found what I wanted and so did my customers. I had no problem paying the fees as most of it was for sales, not for listings as it is becoming now. Between paying for a store for the listings, the FVF for a sale and if you want to hopefully have your items seen most of the month, you have to pay additional fees for Promoted Listings or whatever flavor of the Month ebay is using that month most of my monthly fees are no longer for the sale, but just for the ability to post on their website where they paste more and more ads on my listings for other sellers items. I pay nothing to list on the other site I was talking about, but pay a higher fee when an item sells, which in my mind makes more sense as I am only paying if something sells, which encourages the platform to make sure MY items are seen and they are not dependent on fees for nothing, which Ebay has now become dependent on.

I've shopped on alot of sites thru the years. The only sites that retain my credit card information are either those I have store credit cards for or if I check - keep this payment option on file - during check out. Are you sure that Ebay makes it mandatory to store your credit card information here as a buyer?

tunicaslot · ‎11-25-2018

Every site no matter who they are will have dissatisfied buyers. We see it right on this thread that many prefer Ebay to Amazon or vice versa - that's the beauty of a free market place - lots of options. A buyer can have a bad experience on any site or in a local B&M and vow never to return.

But I think these days buyers tend to go where they find the best price or the quickest delivery - even if it's someplace they swore they'd never buy from again. I believe the claims of so many receiving less than adequate customer service may be because often a buyer doesn't properly vet the seller - be they new with the lowest price or a seller who's items are mostly flea and garage sale items and they don't provide adequate descriptions so they don't know what they are talking about and should probably be avoided.

southern*sweet*tea · ‎11-25-2018

@tunicaslot wrote:
. Are you sure that Ebay makes it mandatory to store your credit card information here as a buyer?

I shop quite often using my debit card directly, bypassing Paypal. Storing card info is not manditory. The option is there if one chooses to use it. I don't.

The easier you are to offend the easier you are to control.

We seem to be getting closer and closer to a situation where nobody is responsible for what they did but we are all responsible for what somebody else did. - Thomas Sowell

creekcoyote · ‎11-25-2018

@castlemagicmemories wrote:
@twnpopcards wrote:
@castlemagicmemories wrote:
@grasshopperx wrote:
I think it may have happened from the micro management of every tiny thing. When to ship, how to ship, emails reminding people of their watch list. The dashboard, the stars, the color of the logo. All this junk that just clutters up the site. All the bells, whistles, bows and buttons. Everything BUT a decent search system. A good analogy would be a restaurant. One that starts adding and adding to their menu. Soon the foods stops coming out of the kitchen.
   But the attraction of Amazon, just dont get it really. I always look there, and end up coming back here. But alot of people dont have the time to waste and browse. The site is too bogged down with repeat chinese goods. It takes time to go thru it all even if you know how to do refined searches. We may know Ebays little quirks, but maybe other buyers dont. They get frustrated and leave. There is alot of great stuff on here. Question is? does anybody see it?
With all due respect, I beg to differ. I see the things you mention, the Dashboard, when to ship (which conforms to the handling time that the seller has chosen), are Ebay's efforts to present a better buying experience and measurable standards for sellers by cutting down on SNADs, OOS, and late shipping, as opposed to stating a handling time and then shipping when you feel like it, or continually being out of stock, etc.

I agree with you, though, about failing to see the attraction of Amazon. I don't like their layout, and they have much less variety there. It's hard to find anything I want, and if I do, it usually costs more there.

It's possible that some of those buyers were extremely unhappy with the way they were treated here, and so they left, never to return.
With all due respect, I beg to differ with your thoughts on the matter. Unfortunately Ebay cannot stop changing things and when they do, many times they break some part of the current program and cause error messages or make it difficult to complete a purchase. Many Ebay buyers were Holiday shoppers each year, but every time they logged in Ebay had changed the layout or something else about the search engine and many got tired of the constant Disruptive Technology changes that failed or just caused them to not be able to find what they wanted.

I have buyers that made purchases from me on another site and asked why I did not have those items listed on Ebay. I told them I did but they were still unable to find the listings as i guess it was my time to have my listings hidden for whatever reason. So I made the sale on another site and now these buyers no longer look on Ebay for their items, but go to the other site and make the purchases there as nothing is ever hidden on that site. I now list my new items on that site first and then come back to Ebay, where in the past I would never have considered such a move. Buyers (myself included) want to be able to find what they want quickly and easily, which Ebay used to be famous for, but with the constant changes to the search engine algorithms buyers have to make multiple clicks to find what they used to find with one click and do not want to be bothered with it, period.

I used to spend about $1000+ a month on Ebay for various items, but now I rarely spend anything more than the quarterly supply order that comes free with my store. Almost everything else is now purchased on Amazon and I am able to find it easily (they don't attempt to hide the sellers name that i bought the items from the last time, nor that price) and I can be done with my order in less than 5 minutes and with free shipping even though I do not have Amazon Prime. My purchases are large enough to always get free shipping to me and when I have compared the pricing against Ebay the price i got on Amazon for my items was cheaper. I also appreciate the ability to have items automatically re-ordered for me based on my selection of time for the automatic re-order and the discounts that come with that. With the constant changes to the policies and fees, Sellers on Ebay are forced to raise their prices in order to continue to make the profit margins they need to make to continue meeting Ebays changes and having to deal with all the constant glitches.

Ebay decided to go after the millenials who don't mind all the drill downs to find what they are trying to find. However, they are not who is spending the money on Ebay yet, and all I hear from my sons who are both millenials is why would I want to deal with Ebay when I cannot find what i am really looking for, only what they want to show me and at higher prices than i can get the items for elsewhere. We were actually talking about Ebay on Thanksgiving and the fact that Ebay is changing to managed payments and at this point in time cannot accept Paypal if you are in the MP program. All of them including their significant others stated that there is no way they will ever input their CC information into Ebay for them to share that information with those companies they sell it to. They all use some type of payment application similar to Paypal or Venmo for all their transactions and said if they ever ran across a site that did not accept that form of payment, that would be the last time they shopped on it. They also felt that Ebays security is not as tight as Paypals is as they are in the CC industry which does have very strict compliance rules, so that Ebay is more susceptible to being hacked.

I wish that Ebay was like it used to be for buying as i easily found what I wanted and so did my customers. I had no problem paying the fees as most of it was for sales, not for listings as it is becoming now. Between paying for a store for the listings, the FVF for a sale and if you want to hopefully have your items seen most of the month, you have to pay additional fees for Promoted Listings or whatever flavor of the Month ebay is using that month most of my monthly fees are no longer for the sale, but just for the ability to post on their website where they paste more and more ads on my listings for other sellers items. I pay nothing to list on the other site I was talking about, but pay a higher fee when an item sells, which in my mind makes more sense as I am only paying if something sells, which encourages the platform to make sure MY items are seen and they are not dependent on fees for nothing, which Ebay has now become dependent on.
A very thoughtful and insightful post. Ebay has been plagued with technical issues, an Ebay executive acknowledged such a few months ago~you are right~and when things don't work right, sales and customers may be lost. There are many reasons why buyers leave. Certainly if they can't find your listings here, but found them elsewhere, that would be a reason as would any technical issues. But it may also be because of SNAD items and how the buyer is treated as well. Buyers want what they bought in the condition specified, no disappointments or unpleasant surprises, then they may be challenged harshly, so they may be done then.   Payments concerns enter into the picture as well.

I am not so sure,though, that millenials don't mind what you call "all the drill downs"~it seems to me they wouldn't have patience for that. They may not do any sort of buyer's due diligence. They just want to buy as they would on any web site.

It makes sense that Ebay would court millenials as those who have been here for many years may transition away, but appealing to a broad base of customers, everyone, to me, is the way to garner the largest segment of market share, and I think that is what drives growth.

The part I pointed out is interesting.

If millenials want to buy here like they do on anyother website, then they should expect to pay for shipping unless they purchase so many dollars worth and they rarely, if ever, get return shipping free on many sites.

There is no on-line norm for shipping and returns. All companies are different.

If one buys from Lands End, Foot Smart, LLBean, etc., if the item does not fit, is not the right color, isn't the quality you expect, etc. the BUYER pays for return postage. If they use the return label from these companies, the labels state that 'so many dollars will be deducted from your refund.' If you don't use the return label, you pay for the return postage at the shipping company.

Under those circumstances that other companies impose on their buyers, one would think that buyers would flock to E-bay to get free shipping on $10.00 items, free returns and 30 day returns.

Not happening, though.

E-bay can put its sellers through the proverbial 'wringer' and make them conform to impossible standards but it still won't get more buyers here.

The idea that a buyer had a bad buying experience here and they never came back just doesn't fit the facts. I have had several transactions that did not end the way I wanted and yet I still came back and bought here. I do not blame E-bay for the bad transactions. I blame the individual seller and just won't do business with that particular seller again.

It is not the sellers on this site that are the problem and when E-bay recognizes this, then, and only then, they might be able to turn things around.

COYOTES RULE!!!

castlemagicmemories · ‎11-25-2018

The part I pointed out is interesting.

If millenials want to buy here like they do on anyother website, then they should expect to pay for shipping unless they purchase so many dollars worth and they rarely, if ever, get return shipping free on many sites.

There is no on-line norm for shipping and returns. All companies are different.

If one buys from Lands End, Foot Smart, LLBean, etc., if the item does not fit, is not the right color, isn't the quality you expect, etc. the BUYER pays for return postage. If they use the return label from these companies, the labels state that 'so many dollars will be deducted from your refund.' If you don't use the return label, you pay for the return postage at the shipping company.

Under those circumstances that other companies impose on their buyers, one would think that buyers would flock to E-bay to get free shipping on $10.00 items, free returns and 30 day returns.

While certainly there are companies that require the buyer to pay return shipping, I did a little research and found:

L.L.Bean- Easy Returns and Exchanges

https://www.llbean.com › Customer Service

You will still be charged $6.50 to ship your returned item if using the UPS convenience label. Returnshipping is FREE for L.L.Bean Mastercard members.

Lands' End | Customer Service | Returns | Online | U.S.

https://www.landsend.com/customerservice/returns/online/us/

*If you need to return an item or items AND want to re-order the same item or items in a different size or color‚ we will offer you FREE SHIPPING on your .

Not happening, though.

What is FootSmart's return policy? | Return Saver

https://www.returnsaver.com/return-policies/footsmart-return-policy

Returns for most items can be made within 60 days of purchase. Return shipping isn't free unless you're returning because of a FootSmart error. Exchanges are .

So only FootSmart doesn't offer free returns of the companies you quoted.

E-bay can put its sellers through the proverbial 'wringer' and make them conform to impossible standards but it still won't get more buyers here.

The idea that a buyer had a bad buying experience here and they never came back just doesn't fit the facts. I have had several transactions that did not end the way I wanted and yet I still came back and bought here. I do not blame E-bay for the bad transactions. I blame the individual seller and just won't do business with that particular seller again.

Yes, there are many good sellers here and bad sellers should not reflect badly on them, but sadly, many times, they do when a pattern develops, or simply multiple experiences that destroy the buyer's trust. Respectfully, I understand your point BUT I never said it was due to one bad experience, although I have read posts that said that they did leave and not come back after one experience. One that particularly stuck in my mind was a post that said after the seller said the buyer was a scammer when the item was SNAD, the person, the poster's Mother, left and never came back. I was referring to multiple instances of being disappointed and not getting what they ordered, condition wise, and being hassled because of that. It's not the buyer's fault many times although it is easy to claim the buyer didn't do their due diligence when the condition was not accurately described as feedback may have been scrubbed and you can't judge what isn't there. Damage may be hard to see in listing pics by accident or by design, and if it isn't noted in the description, the buyer is flying blind. I've done the same as you and am still here after multiple such flagrant experiences. But those who don't have long years here, or a loyalty to the site, may not stand for that as we do, and there have even been posts by long time, loyal sellers who, because of their buying experiences like this, won't buy here anymore. That says a lot.

It is not the sellers on this site that are the problem and when E-bay recognizes this, then, and only then, they might be able to turn things around.

We can agree to disagree here. I respect your opinion. But I feel the problems are not just the buyers and that has been acknowledged in threads and posts by sellers. There are problems on each side, problem buyers and problem sellers. Neither group is without flaws or issues, although I understand that each group may prefer to think they are blameless.

emerald40 · ‎11-25-2018

The smartest thing Amazon ever did was create Amazon Prime. A lot of men hate to shop, especially young men.

_____________________________________

You just explained my 30 year old son and most of his friends. They hate to shop. And holiday shopping is the worst for them. They all have Amazon Prime. They shop during football commercials. They can find everything they want, it is easy, free shipping, and they never have to leave the couch. My son rolled his eyes when I told him I got up at 6 am to fight the traffic and the people looking for gifts. You could not pay him to do that.

At my insistence last year he tried ebay. He did a search and much of it was everything but what he was looking for, He never went back.