eBay

etxcltr · ‎06-01-2017

Ebay you just keep killing this site. Its just that simple.

Started out as a great site. Cheap listings. Everybody took cash or checks or money orders.

Then the Greed from ebay kicked in and its been down hill since.

Now in 2017 Ebay thinks its silly Walmart. Lets do 30-60 day returns.

And this some how make ebay a better place?

HUH? Go to walmart and look at all the meth heads-dope heads-scammers who return stuff.

Now look around ebay at all the sellers that complain about being scammed on ebay buy a buyer. Its unreal.

So it seems ebay you took a great idea and flushed it down the toilet.

30-60 day returns. This is the death nail on ebay. How can any company survive when you sell a product and 30-60 days later its returned.

Sorry ebay but this site worked better when it was just a Auction site with NO RETURNS as-is just like at a auction. NOT WALMART!!!

thatsallfolks · ‎06-02-2017

@phcd1 wrote:
EBay has no skin in the game, they receive 100% of their money from sellers and advertising, not a penny comes from buyers.

That's absolutely hilarious. The success of eBay depends on attracting AND retaining BUYERS. They have way more sellers than they know what to do with. Every time a buyer has a bad experience and leaves the site, that affects eBay's bottom line. It doesn't matter WHO actually pays eBay; it only matters where that money comes from. And that's from buyers' wallets.

mistwomandancing · ‎06-02-2017

emerald40 wrote:
double2trouble wrote:
You can't return a brick to Walmart and get your money back.
You are comparing 2 party sites to 3 party ones.

When I worked in retail in returns I got to see the item being returned. And while we gave every benefit to the buyer, of course we did not accept bricks.

But with ebay they do not see the item coming or going. So like most stores, they err on the part of the customer, hoping for good relations in the future.

And I do understand that some people on ebay have abused this trust, just like B&M stores have to contend with the 5 finger discount.

Exactly. And the brick & mortar Walmarts and others DO take back and refund a lot of *very questionable* merchandise, just in the name of good will. "The bowl was already chipped when I took it out of the box! -or- Those scratches were on it already.. the black marks.. the spots.. the screws were missing when I opened it." and on and on and on. Yeah... right. But money is refunded because it's good business.

At least we don't have to put up with people coming into our inventory rooms and shoplifting, or breaking items and not telling, which is another cost of doing business in a B & M shop.

emerald40 · ‎06-02-2017

@phcd1 wrote:
@emerald40 wrote:
...But with ebay they do not see the item coming or going. So like most stores, they err on the part of the customer, hoping for good relations in the future....
The problem with that theory is that the seller is eBay's customer and the buyer is the seller's customer therefore, the seller should be the one to "err on the part of the customer, hoping for good relations in the future" if they wanted to, NOT eBay. EBay has no skin in the game, they receive 100% of their money from sellers and advertising, not a penny comes from buyers. How would eBay feel if the seller gave 100% of the advertisers on eBay their money back because they were dissatisfied with the service or the click through was SNAD?

Yes, but if buyers do not feel comfortable and will not buy here, then ebay loses those fees. And if buyers do not come here, then sellers will leave as they are not doing any business.

ted_200 · ‎06-02-2017

Once they purge the site of anything without a UPC

Why do you think this is where eBay is headed?

At this point eBay has stated that used and vintage items do not require product identifiers.

Well, I suppose I think that because all of the site functionality, the "relevancy" in their search, is all pointing that direction. They don't want people searching keywords, they want people searching UPCs - which they facilitate by using "Product Pages" tied to their search.

Whatever is going on over at walmart.com and Amazon, it's pretty unsuited to anything without a UPC.

You can try to assign it one, like Amazon does, but it's folly. It's not designed for non-conformity driven products, which is pretty much anything used or vintage.

eBay has also stated that GTIN's will be provided for new/unbranded items that do not have existing product identifiers.

So, if I have a new and unbranded 1889 silver dollar, they're going to provide it a GTIN? Swell. Or is that a "no", since it's an antique?

Long before Product Identifiers, before the eBay Product Catalogue people have posted here that eBay want to "get rid of small seller of used/vintage items" yet millions are here listing millions of items and bringing in millions of dollars for themselves and for eBay.

Yes. That's despite eBay, not thanks to eBay. But I can tell you just from the state of my Saved Sellers List, they are doing a very good job of "getting rid of small seller of used vintage items". People who had sold successfully here for years, people who had sold successfully in the real world for years before trying eBay, and who are still successfully selling out in the real world... left.

As a buyer, what they're being replaced by is not particularly enticing. I mostly don't even bother looking, and haven't bought a single item in the category I sell in over a year. I used to by dozens of items a year. Reviewing my own purchase history on eBay over the last year, it would seem I see eBay as more of a Big Lots! factory outlet these days. Other than a $30 used water pump I bought from the midwest, and a lot of US Postage bought at 70% face value, the ASP of my purchases might be as high as $1.05 or $1.06! And shipped from China.

The Floggings Will Continue Until Morale Improves.

rolenboy01 · ‎06-02-2017

@mistwomandancing wrote:
@emerald40 wrote:
@double2trouble wrote:
You can't return a brick to Walmart and get your money back.
You are comparing 2 party sites to 3 party ones.

When I worked in retail in returns I got to see the item being returned. And while we gave every benefit to the buyer, of course we did not accept bricks.

But with ebay they do not see the item coming or going. So like most stores, they err on the part of the customer, hoping for good relations in the future.

And I do understand that some people on ebay have abused this trust, just like B&M stores have to contend with the 5 finger discount.

Exactly. And the brick & mortar Walmarts and others DO take back and refund a lot of *very questionable* merchandise, just in the name of good will. "The bowl was already chipped when I took it out of the box! -or- Those scratches were on it already.. the black marks.. the spots.. the screws were missing when I opened it." and on and on and on. Yeah... right. But money is refunded because it's good business.

At least we don't have to put up with people coming into our inventory rooms and shoplifting, or breaking items and not telling, which is another cost of doing business in a B & M shop.

We do deal with people coming into our digital stockrooms and breaking items if they don't get their demands met or flat out switching items which is stealing.

ted_200 · ‎06-02-2017

Do you have sources on that? I'm not seeing a ton of sellers talking about huge increases in returns all of a sudden. Most buyers (me included) hate to have to return things.

In my belief this is another of those urban board legends.

I'm suggesting it's widespread knowledge that's the situation on eBay. I don't know how many returns, faulty or otherwise, any particular seller may get. Yes, there are a lot of topics here from sellers complaining about increased returns, and increased "faulty returns".

I understand there are even instructional videos on YouTube.

But that wasn't really my point.

My point was that honest buyers, who have no intention of returning anything... the sort of buyers sellers actually want... have their behavior changed by the iron clad MBG too. There is no risk in buying from the seller with 43 f/b and 96%, instead of the seller with 4300 f/b who is 100%, if the price is 75 cents lower. So that's what they do, the MBG is the same either way, they have a marginal experience from a shady seller, and that's eBay's "reputation".

Back before all this MBG stuff, a seller with 43 f/b and 96% couldn't sell anything to anyone on eBay. Honest sellers with actual good feedback (not some arbitrary awarding of a yellow ribbon, and a Free Shipping gimmick) had a HUGE advantage over other sellers on eBay, because buyers knew to protect themselves with good buying decisions. This produced a higher rate of positive transactions, for most buyers. Honest ones in particular.

The Floggings Will Continue Until Morale Improves.

ted_200 · ‎06-02-2017

@couldabeenworse wrote:
You can't return a brick to Walmart and get your money back.

You probably could if you purchased and returned to walmart online and contacted your credit card issuer. The difference is that if you did so, walmart would likely file fraud complaints against YOU, as opposed to eBay sellers who seem to save their rage for ebay and paypal.

And the other difference is if you did this a couple of times a month, it would not be long before your credit card company cancelled your card.

The Floggings Will Continue Until Morale Improves.

the*dog*ate*my*tablecloth · ‎06-02-2017

Returning things is a pain in the butt. I do not agree the MBG changes the behavior of "honest" buyers unless they're also "stupid" buyers.

Whether or not the MBG exists, most normal people try to minimize hassle. I think you're making some pretty uge assumptions here. Even if they didn't have the MBG they would have credit card protection.

Many sites have reviews. If I buy from Lands End I read the reviews. To suggest i would just randomly buy something because I know someone has my back is insulting. In fact I don't know anyone who would behave that way. Most people I know read all the reviews they can.

I don't even borrow a free book on Amazon without reading the reviews.

Sorry, I'm pretty tired of people discussing other people like herd animals. Left wing people, right wing people, buyers, sellers. ALL people have functional brains and most people USE THEIR brains and follow their morals and make good decisions. Regardless of whether they have a safety net. People are human beings. They are not the Borg.

rolenboy01 · ‎06-02-2017

Well it seems a lot of people willy nilly order things like they are playing pin the tail on the donkey because they know eBay is on their side .

couldabeenworse · ‎06-02-2017

Back before all this MBG stuff, a seller with 43 f/b and 96% couldn't sell anything to anyone on eBay.

You must have been on a different eBay than the one I remember. Sellers with 0fb had no problem selling $10,000 items and getting paid by Western Union.

There is no risk in buying from the seller....

Bingo; that's the way mail order works in the 21st Century. Consumers are supposed to just buy stuff; if they want to play the lottery, they can buy a powerball ticket.

vintagecraze50 · ‎06-02-2017

Yes Victor, very few 30 day returns here as well. Most people if they are going to return something do it lickety split.

couldabeenworse · ‎06-02-2017

And the other difference is if you did this a couple of times a month, it would not be long before your credit card company cancelled your card.

I have never seen any documentation that this is more than a legend.

mistwomandancing · ‎06-02-2017

rolenboy01 wrote:
mistwomandancing wrote:
At least we don't have to put up with people coming into our inventory rooms and shoplifting, or breaking items and not telling, which is another cost of doing business in a B & M shop.
We do deal with people coming into our digital stockrooms and breaking items if they don't get their demands met or flat out switching items which is stealing.

I guess, occasionally. We read about it on the forum here rarely, but occasionally. We read about posters SAYING that, but not that the incident happened to them... just that they're out there talking about all the people getting back a rock sort of deal. We HEAR about it all the time. I don't think it happens remotely that much.

I'd bet if there was a way to actually get these numbers and prove it, the theft and the times they break something and then don't let on they did, but just leave the shop and don't come back.. happen far more often in a B & M shop than on eBay when the total number of transactions are weighed in. No way to prove it one way or another, but that seems to be how it tilts by my observation over the years.

Which goes to telling us that with business being business, we're going to have to suck up the occasional loss that isn't our fault and is totally unfair to us, and is a **bleep** side to being in sales. Always a bummer when it happens. NOT the fun part of being in business, that's for sure.

mistwomandancing · ‎06-02-2017

rolenboy01 wrote:
Well it seems a lot of people willy nilly order things like they are playing pin the tail on the donkey because they know eBay is on their side .

Do you have these people buying from you?

I'd like to know where there are a lot of buyers who are order things willy nilly, 'cause I could always use more buyers who buy one ton of stuff! Please send those *lot of people* my way!

rolenboy01 · ‎06-02-2017

You want buyers who literally surf eBay with a blindfold on and don't read descriptions who then want to return the items costing you even more time and money? sure you can have them.