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?

[skatefool]

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@jason_incognito wrote

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?

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Maybe 491 people took advantage of Ebay's 100 extra auction-style  listings, FREE! and they are trying to make it work for them.

[ten_o_nine]

I don't think like that, why do you assume sellers have that point of view?

[vintstylefashion]

I can tell you why I fight tooth and nail - because views are way down, sales are now nearly impossible to get whereas most everything I listed used to sell and is still in demand. I think another respondant had it right, when you search or view by category, what you see is a ton of **bleep** people are paying to advertise, but not what buyers searched for. 

What happens when you do buy it now is you get a few views and then it's never seen by anyone again. So what eBay has done is essentially is turn a selling platform into a paltform that sucks advertising dollars out of sellers and only the Chinese and big ticket sellers can survive. 

I will try a few more different ways (other than paying a steep price per click to advertise), but after that, I'm leaving eBay if I can get no results. There are other markets. 

[zamo-zuan]

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@vintstylefashion wrote:

I will try a few more different ways (other than paying a steep price per click to advertise), but after that, I'm leaving eBay if I can get no results. There are other markets. 

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That is the problem that eBay is facing. Many sellers being forced to leave, or at the very least, diversify because it's no longer possible to thrive on eBay alone.

This is a step backwards for the platform.

Sadly, it seems some sellers are encouraging others to leave. This is not good. It's in the sellers best interests that eBay succeeds, and in eBay's best interests if the seller succeeds.

I just hope they actually realize the problem. Because if they don't figure it out, and the numbers start showing a problem more and more, they will do more insane policy changes that don't benefit anyone just to stay in the positive, and this will lead to even more sellers leaving eBay...

[jason_incognito]

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@pburn wrote:
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

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It's not about complaints, it's about actions.

I can complain all I want, but the issue is that I don't fight them in the listing.

[lex-talon]

EBay doesn't force me to accept best offers or accept returns. I choose to accept returns & best offers. You have the option to not accept best offers or even accept returns.☺

[emerald40]

No you do not have to accept best offers, but you do have to accept return for SNAD.

And a determined returner is just going to lie and call it SNAD.

[tunicaslot · Accepted solution]

I get where Jason is coming from. People - we've said it before - if you sell here - you play by their rules - we may not like them but they don't actually care otherwise many of these rules would have been amended or ended. Instead of fighting it - find what works for you be it here or not.

I've said before that many of the vloggers are staring to cross post to other venues - do what works for you instead of complaining day in and day out about things you can't change.

[ed8108]

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@zamo-zuan wrote:

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

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

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EBay recognizes what is good for ebay may not necessarily translate as being good or fair for ebay's sellers.

EBay does an extremely good job in protecting it's interests, which can be argued results in a seller's interests failing to be adequately protected.

[emerald40]

Name a for-profit  company that does not act in their best interests and that of their shareholders.

[ed8108]

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@emerald40 wrote:

Name a for-profit  company that does not act in their best interests and that of their shareholders.

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Management may act in their own self interest and not in the best interest  of a company's  shareholders.

[emerald40]

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@ed8108 wrote:

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@emerald40 wrote:

Name a for-profit  company that does not act in their best interests and that of their shareholders.

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Management may act in their own self interest and not in the best interest  of a company's  shareholders.

_____________________________________

Yes, but when they find out, don't they try and vote you out.

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[godzilla_goose]

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@emerald40 wrote:

Name a for-profit  company that does not act in their best interests and that of their shareholders.

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@ed8108

emerald40,

ed8108 is absolutely correct.  All you need to do is look at the failed businesses like Enron or WorldCom, or in my country, Nortel Networks, for example, and what the CEOs and management did to these publicly traded companies and how much shareholders suffered financially.

In eBay’s case, just look at how much Meg Whitman was compensated during her tenure as CEO.  Then, look at how much John Donahoe was compensated during his tenure and let’s not forget the payout he received when PayPal was spun out of eBay.  How much “shareholder value” have eBay’s CEOs really created since inception and is the level of CEO compensation really earned?

There are good CEOs out there but there are a lot of CEOs that are going to pillage and plunder companies IF Boards of Directors aren’t really looking out for the shareholders’ interests.  In eBay’s case, just see what Carl Icahn had to say about Marc Andreessen, then an eBay Board Member,  and how eBay dealt with its interest in Skype.

[jason_incognito]

As far as returns, eBay simply does not get involved with the he said she said stuff. Once they enter that part of the transaction, then the take on liability.

When they tell a buyer to return the item bought to the seller, and the buyer doesn't, then that is on the buyer for liability. If eBay even looked at the specifics, they would hold liability. They aren't going to do that.

[vintagecraze50]

I am using the quarenteed delivery and not any problems with it. It's a good selling feature for people who want to be assured they will get their item for a special ocassion, or becuase they might be out of town when it arrives so the want to be sure it is coming on time. I think buyers should KNOW explicitly when their items are arriving and that in itself is a BIG PLUS. The free ship back can be a problem with high return type items so it's good to watch out this works for a bit and go from their, but in general, another good idea since a lot of people get really upset if they do not like something and then they have to pay to return it. It sets up an attractive buying opportunity with no hassles whatsoever if they do not like the item. If you usually do well here with not many returns the status quo should prevail. That has to be tested though.  Ebay has got to keep up with what the buyers are getting from other websites and stay attractive to them. It's like the other poster said, "It is what it is, and adding what it has to be in some ways to compete well. I do not complain much, I just pray a lot, and for everybody else here to have the best experience selling  as possible.