Why do sellers fight eBay tooth and nail?

[jason_incognito]

It is what it is. eBay gets to set rules.

If they want you to list with best offer, figure out a way to make it work to your advantage.

If eBay wants to to take take returns, figure out a way to make it work....

Why is it that so many want to try and fight eBay to keep doing things the way they used to, and eBay is moving on from? 

Why are there 491 people that have an auction for Harry potter dvds? There are over 8,000 fixed price listings. I'm pretty sure that by now we all know what a Harry Potter dvd should sell for, no matter what the edition. It is a comodity. If you have a signed copy of the very first edition we can talk about an auction being a great way to sell it, but why?

I get that people don't like offers, but they exist and eBay hawks them. Why not figure out a way to make that work for you?

The number of people that just flat out refuse the item specifics part of a listing boggles me.

eBay is eBay, and fighting that.... expecting eBay to do things your way just seems so ridiculous. Why?

[readabouthorses]

Because some of the things eBay does is just downright dumb.

Go to the Shop By Category. Many of the listings that show up under various categories don't belong there by any stretch of the imagination. Last time I checked lip balm certainly is NOT a countertop blender. And yes, Ebay knows about it as I told them months ago the giant problem with items in wrong categories.

The mess with the photos in GTC ... I read where CS told the people who called in that it was handled but now today I see it is doing it again.

Item Specifics: the last 2 things I listed I couldn't even choose the country for the manufacturer .. the list stops at India and won't go down to United States no matter what you do. I was REALLY tempted to just choose CHINA!

Right now we would probably do better to talk about the things that Ebay is getting right so the list would be short because that list of stuff going badly is getting longer by the day.

[zamo-zuan]

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@jason_incognito wrote:

It is what it is. eBay gets to set rules.

If they want you to list with best offer, figure out a way to make it work to your advantage.

If eBay wants to to take take returns, figure out a way to make it work....

Why is it that so many want to try and fight eBay to keep doing things the way they used to, and eBay is moving on from? 

Why are there 491 people that have an auction for Harry potter dvds? There are over 8,000 fixed price listings. I'm pretty sure that by now we all know what a Harry Potter dvd should sell for, no matter what the edition. It is a comodity. If you have a signed copy of the very first edition we can talk about an auction being a great way to sell it, but why?

I get that people don't like offers, but they exist and eBay hawks them. Why not figure out a way to make that work for you?

The number of people that just flat out refuse the item specifics part of a listing boggles me.

eBay is eBay, and fighting that.... expecting eBay to do things your way just seems so ridiculous. Why?

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Honestly, this year has been so crazy from a sellers perspective, that you are forced to fight eBay as they introduce more and more sellers practices.

You can check Terapeak for statistics to prove what I am about to say. The majority of top sellers are doing far less on 2018 than past years. In our category the market share of top sellers has went down nearly 25% (from 40% to 32%). 

And while sellers visibility, and therefore sales and income, are being limited, they decide this would be a great time to introduce new policies that even more further favor the buyer (when buyers were already favored), and introduce a new catalog that sellers who do not offer a major large name brand have not been able to get themselves added to. 

This just furthers the suffering of businesses who are already suffering from the last changes. 

What are the choices at this point? If sellers can't thrive, or even have their businesses survive on eBay, they are being FORCED to leave eBay and diversify.

That itself, is not good for eBay. It directly hurts eBay. So sellers hope that eBay could follow the basic logic to where, if the sellers are not able to sell on eBay, they will leave.

So far it has not helped, because it is still getting harder and harder on eBay, and the upcoming changes are only going to make it worse.

Furthermore, leadership seems to be going in a ridiculous direction. In their stock report, CFO admit to limiting sales to favor certain brands that offer high priced items, and they include other things in their report like statistics about how many people are using Guaranteed Delivery, immediately after they falsified those numbers by a "bug" that turned GD on for sellers that never accepted it, just coincidentally right before the report.

It's just a huge betrayal of trust to sellers. It's ruining peoples livelihood. 

I'm not sure if it's silly that sellers actually believe eBay would care that they are ruining lives...

[hioctane62]

"Deal with it, figure out a way to make it work, get used to it"

Sounds like that could have come from ebay themselves.

Many of us are figuring out a way to make it work. But not on ebay.

[ed8108]

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@jason_incognito wrote:

It is what it is. eBay gets to set rules.

If they want you to list with best offer, figure out a way to make it work to your advantage.

If eBay wants to to take take returns, figure out a way to make it work....

Why is it that so many want to try and fight eBay to keep doing things the way they used to, and eBay is moving on from? 

Why are there 491 people that have an auction for Harry potter dvds? There are over 8,000 fixed price listings. I'm pretty sure that by now we all know what a Harry Potter dvd should sell for, no matter what the edition. It is a comodity. If you have a signed copy of the very first edition we can talk about an auction being a great way to sell it, but why?

I get that people don't like offers, but they exist and eBay hawks them. Why not figure out a way to make that work for you?

The number of people that just flat out refuse the item specifics part of a listing boggles me.

eBay is eBay, and fighting that.... expecting eBay to do things your way just seems so ridiculous. Why?

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A sense of entitlement ?

Result from too much sensitivity education ?

Refusal to accept authority ?

Inability to accept and comprehend information presented.

[orangehound]

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@jason_incognito wrote:
Why do sellers fight eBay tooth and nail?

eBay is eBay, and fighting that.... expecting eBay to do things your way just seems so ridiculous. Why?

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I think a lot of the fighting comes from those who have slow/no sales, and they think it is the fault of eBay doing changes ... their logic, as best as I can tell, is that if eBay would just go back to the good old days of 2006, 2010, or 2014, then sales would be good again.

Success in retail happens because a seller is constantly changing, and specifically is not doing what they did last year.  Success doesn't care how long one has been selling on eBay, that one has 100% feedback on eBay, or that one had great sales in 2016 ... success only cares that one is able to adapt to whatever retail environment exists today.

[dola-71]

eBay is eBay, and fighting that.... expecting eBay to do things your way just seems so ridiculous. Why?
_____
Because it's easier to die than adapt

[ed8108]

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@hioctane62 wrote:

"Deal with it, figure out a way to make it work, get used to it"

Sounds like that could have come from ebay themselves.

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Yes, Or may just be the result of something very similar to Stockholm syndrome.

[fabelous_records]

Not sure when you started selling on eBay.  In my particular case, back in the good old 2005, it was virtually between sellers and buyers trying to resolve specific issues.  Scam artist and incompetent sellers are few and far between.  We need not settle for the return of merchandise due to buyer's remorse nor not as described.  30 to 60 days for buyers to return was unheard of.  In the event, both sellers and buyers agree to return/accept amicably, it is always the buyers who are going to pay for return postage.  Ther buyers don't get their money back until the seller receives and inspect the merchandise.  There was no chaos, no backstabbings, no issues with the selling site etc.

Now, spot the difference to know why others are not happy and whining in today's selling atmosphere.

[zamo-zuan]

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@fabelous_records wrote:

Not sure when you started selling on eBay.  In my particular case, back in the good old 2005, it was virtually between sellers and buyers trying to resolve specific issues.  Scam artist and incompetent sellers are few and far between.  We need not settle for the return of merchandise due to buyer's remorse nor not as described.  30 to 60 days for buyers to return was unheard of.  In the event, both sellers and buyers agree to return/accept amicably, it is always the buyers who are going to pay for return postage.  Ther buyers don't get their money back until the seller receives and inspect the merchandise.  There was no chaos, no backstabbings, no issues with the selling site etc.

Now, spot the difference to know why others are not happy and whining in today's selling atmosphere.

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I have no problem with the return systems as long as they allow us sellers protections in cases we are taken advantage of.

I do have a problem, however, with them intentionally limiting visibility for nearly every top seller in all of the categories we sell in, even though the market is up, top sellers have plummeted, simply becuase sellers don't even see their items in search.

[jason_incognito]

I bought around here prior to 2000. 

I used to have a half dozen listings printed out above my desk. All items I had paid for and never received. 

I bought an item and the paid for it. She refused to ship it unless I paid more for shipping. If I refused to pay the extra, she would keep it and charge me $5 a month for storage and then it was hers after that?

get ripped off by a seller only to get a neg after leaving them one?

So not the glory days. I understand why so much needs to be done. I get it. Even if I didn't, this is the reality and you can either chose to list on eBay the way it is and work with that or not, but what I don't get is listing on eBay while at the same time not accepting how they do things. 

Don't like returns? fine, but that doesn't mean you won't get them. Have a no return policy all you want, but understand that they will still come. When you get one, follow the instructions and take it, don't dig in your heals and refuse, then complain that eBay should ne honoring your policy.

[emerald40]

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@fabelous_records wrote:

Not sure when you started selling on eBay.  In my particular case, back in the good old 2005, it was virtually between sellers and buyers trying to resolve specific issues.  Scam artist and incompetent sellers are few and far between.  We need not settle for the return of merchandise due to buyer's remorse nor not as described.  30 to 60 days for buyers to return was unheard of.  In the event, both sellers and buyers agree to return/accept amicably, it is always the buyers who are going to pay for return postage.  Ther buyers don't get their money back until the seller receives and inspect the merchandise.  There was no chaos, no backstabbings, no issues with the selling site etc.

Now, spot the difference to know why others are not happy and whining in today's selling atmosphere.

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I started in 1999.  Yes honest sellers and honest buyers working things out for themselves.

Then as more people got access to computers the scammers found us.  And it got really bad for buyers.  We were at the mercy of sellers, hoping we were dealing with an honest one.

Not ones that listed items they did not really have, took your money and ran.  Or ones that sold you junk.  Or in my case one who lied, said his house caught fire and he lost everything.  So no football cards, no money back.  That is until 3 days later when he was back to listing again.

So why did ebay change?  Because people with low morals found ebay.  So ebay had to change before all its buyers left as well.

[zamo-zuan]

I think regarding returns, it comes down to an issue of fairness.

The #1 feedback I seen regarding returns for years, including my own feedback, was that there should be at least "some" procedure allowed to sellers where, if they follow every step to a T, they will be protected.

I would not mind jumping through a few hoops, if I was actually protected.

This year, eBay has added many more "hoops" for the sellers.

But in the end, sellers are less protected than ever, and even less protected than promised.

Now we can't even get full refunds when we're scammed. We only get 50% refunds maximum. 

Now eBay is not able to change the return reason, even if the buyer leaves evidence of lying.

Now they tell us there's no way to remove defects that were previously removable.

Now we're encouraged to use free returns, which leads to a higher risk of being scammed, and penalized for increased return rate due to free returns.

We're basically paying the shipping fees now, for less protection, and more scams.

All while receiving reduced visibility in search... 

They even promise if you use Guaranteed Delivery that you will be protected if an item is late. Then they change the INR policy and say "Oh, protection from late's does NOT mean protection from INR's!!". 

Even if the item gets delivered, they can't update the return case anymore as it is closed? You are stuck with a defect that might lead to increased fees, when you did your part, shipped on tiem, and told you would be protected in return for using eBay's new GD feature?

Shouldn't the sellers receive something in return for being a good eBay seller and offering all these things to customers?

I can only speak for myself, but I believe that's the main issue with sellers regarding returns. We've offered free returns and GD since the beginning. It doesn't feel good to be taking a monetary loss for eBay's recommended policies, only to see our visibility be hurt, receive defects when we did nothing wrong that are somehow no longer removable, and sellers who do not offer these things become favored in search above us?

EBay is truly driving sellers away. This isn't a good thing for eBay.

[pburn]

Same reason you're railing about the "drop $5 and relist" message you got from eBay. What's the difference between your complaint in that previous thread and the one you just can't understand other people making in this thread? Are complaints you think are legitimate okay to start threads about, but other people's complaints aren't?

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/Here-s-a-good-one/m-p/28772393#M1256208

[ersatz_sobriquet]

Here's a question--why do you care what other sellers are doing? Do what works for you. I do...and no, I am far from adapting to ebay's increasing demands. 14 day returns when I can, no free anything, 4-5 day handling, I could go on. I do it my way or I take it on the highway. 🙂