Why oh why did ebay bring back variable time limit offers? I thought we banished this 4 years ago?

[netherworldgames]

Seriously. eBay. You tried this 4 years ago.

It made it impossible for sellers to keep up with offers, and created (sigh, even MORE,) unrealistic buyer expectations.

All of this was covered here:
https://community.ebay.com/t5/Archive-Selling/Yes-eBay-modified-Best-Offer-system-Yes-it-is-terrible...

But most notably, ebay, why did you AGAIN make this change without notifying sellers, or even your own reps? When I called in to ask about it, none of the MSO reps knew about it.

[castlemagicmemories]

Search this Board under Ebay adding Best Offer.

Many threads have been posted on this by sellers who never  wanted it on their listings.  Ebay announced last year they were adding it to many listings.

[couldabeenworse]

The main reason this flopped a few years back was that eBay slipped it in under the radar.  Hopefully, this will be better implemented this time, including a warning to buyers that selecting short times and off hours may result in offers that expire before the seller gets to see them.

The current page looks like too many options to me, but 48 hours is downright ridiculous in this day and age, even more so now that multiple offer haggling is encouraged.

I'm not really the haggling type, but might be willing to give Best Offer a try as a buyer if I could be confident that the deal could be concluded in less than a day.

[grumpus_otter]

I'm glad you posted this topic because i didn't realize it was buyerr's choice--i was trying to figure out why the offers all had different expiry times!

[netherworldgames]

@reallynicestamps
The answer would be to set automatic refusals on Best Offers under a certain amount or percentage and an automatic acceptance above a certain amount or percentage.
Let the customer haggle with a machine. 

I appreciate the positive looking solution. However we are in a collectibles market, and prices are constantly changing, so we've found automatic refusals to be detrimental. 

@couldabeenworse
The main reason this flopped a few years back was that eBay slipped it in under the radar. Hopefully, this will be better implemented this time, including a warning to buyers that selecting short times and off hours may result in offers that expire before the seller gets to see them.
The current page looks like too many options to me, but 48 hours is downright ridiculous in this day and age, even more so now that multiple offer haggling is encouraged.
I'm not really the haggling type, but might be willing to give Best Offer a try as a buyer if I could be confident that the deal could be concluded in less than a day.

I don't think that was the main reason it flopped. If you've been a seller on the site as long as we have you're used to ebay springing things on you without warning, or instruction. And while many of them fail, some do succeed. But it is not because we aren't told about it in advance, it is because they're usually bad ideas.

I can't say for sure why it flopped the first time. However if you look at it from a math point of view, 48 hours is pretty reasonable for a business. Consider that regardless of what the offer time is, you probably want to be checking 2 to 4 times per that time period. So if buyers can make 48 hour offers, you should be checking once every 12 to 24 hours. So 48 hours is reasonable, as is 24.

Anything shorter than that, and you're going to constantly have offers expire before the company can even reply. Especially since about half of our business is international. 

Four years ago when they foisted this on to us with now warning it created an incredibly bad buyer experience and we immediately got angry messages from buyers wondering why we were ignoring their offers and swearing to not buy from us. That was our first indication that something was wrong.

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[couldabeenworse]

I can't say for sure why it flopped the first time. However if you look at it from a math point of view, 48 hours is pretty reasonable for a business.

This isn't 1968 when business was done by mail, or even 2008 when one had to fire up a computer to check email.  I am notified on my phone of emails within seconds, 24 hours per day.  I can choose to pounce on them or ignore them.

Expecting a buyer to sit for two days while the seller awaits better offers, then potentially waiting additional days if the seller counteroffers is horse-and-buggy technology.

Anything shorter than that, and you're going to constantly have offers expire before the company can even reply.

I think some Offers expiring will become the norm.  I also think that those sellers who are willing and able to adapt will find this to be a much more vibrant marketplace - when and if everybody gets used to it.

[netherworldgames]

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@couldabeenworse wrote:

This isn't 1968 when business was done by mail, or even 2008 when one had to fire up a computer to check email.  I am notified on my phone of emails within seconds, 24 hours per day.  I can choose to pounce on them or ignore them.

Expecting a buyer to sit for two days while the seller awaits better offers, then potentially waiting additional days if the seller counteroffers is horse-and-buggy technology.

I think some Offers expiring will become the norm.  I also think that those sellers who are willing and able to adapt will find this to be a much more vibrant marketplace - when and if everybody gets used to it.

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This is not my selling account.
We get hundreds (occasionally a thousand) of offers a day, and reply to them about every 8 hours or so. 
We have been selling for a little more than 20 years on ebay. 

On the mouse over text it pops up saying
"You can now select how long your offer remains valid for. If you’re in a rush, select a shorter time to get an answer faster!"

That is quite ridiculous. How about:
"You can now select how long your offer remains valid for. If you’re in a rush, CONSIDER USING BUY IT NOW!"

I wasn't even born in 1968, so I'll take your word for it. I get that people want things faster, however as sellers I'm sure we can all agree that there are plenty of things ebay can/should fix before tinkering with things like this to make it so buyers get their items faster.

"Some offers expiring becoming the norm" is a bad experience for the buyer. Trust me. eBay lost us a ton of customers 4 years ago when they did this. 

[annaba_38]

I love the idea of being able to put time limits on it.

I find it beyond frustrating to wait to see if the seller will even bother to accept best offer, so I rarely use it

[couldabeenworse]

We get hundreds (occasionally a thousand) of offers a day, and reply to them about every 8 hours or so. 
We have been selling for a little more than 20 years on ebay. 

If you received twice as many legitimate offers, would it be worthwhile to either hire somebody to process them in an hour, or use the automated features?

"Some offers expiring becoming the norm" is a bad experience for the buyer.

Once it becomes the norm, it becomes the norm.   Buyers will learn to use the times accordingly.  I would also expect eBay to eventually allow sellers to select what time limits they can offer. 

Trust me. eBay lost us a ton of customers 4 years ago when they did this. 

So you're saying there's a huge buyer demand for this, but we should try to crush it?

[readabouthorses]

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@couldabeenworse wrote:

I can't say for sure why it flopped the first time. However if you look at it from a math point of view, 48 hours is pretty reasonable for a business.

This isn't 1968 when business was done by mail, or even 2008 when one had to fire up a computer to check email.  I am notified on my phone of emails within seconds, 24 hours per day.  I can choose to pounce on them or ignore them.

Expecting a buyer to sit for two days while the seller awaits better offers, then potentially waiting additional days if the seller counteroffers is horse-and-buggy technology.

Anything shorter than that, and you're going to constantly have offers expire before the company can even reply.

I think some Offers expiring will become the norm.  I also think that those sellers who are willing and able to adapt will find this to be a much more vibrant marketplace - when and if everybody gets used to it.

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You take your phone to bed with you? That's borderline obsession. And not everyone has a sillyphone. I don't have one because there are zero to 1 bars where I live and my internet is also spotty at best ... neither are something I can depend on with anything that has a short timeframe. I do have an old cellphone but it doesn't text and if I want to take or make a call on it I have to (a) go outside (b) find the highest spot on my 5 acres and (c) hope it isn't a zero bars day. That is why it is for emergencies only and nothing I can depend on.

I don't use Best Offer as a buyer or a seller because I can't depend that I will be available with the buyer sends it or the seller accepts it.

If it works for anyone as a buyer or a seller, I'm glad it does. But don't be mad at a seller who may not be there when you send that 1 hour Best Offer.

[netherworldgames]

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@couldabeenworse wrote:

If you received twice as many legitimate offers, would it be worthwhile to either hire somebody to process them in an hour, or use the automated features?

"Some offers expiring becoming the norm" is a bad experience for the buyer.

Once it becomes the norm, it becomes the norm.   Buyers will learn to use the times accordingly.  I would also expect eBay to eventually allow sellers to select what time limits they can offer. 

So you're saying there's a huge buyer demand for this, but we should try to crush it? 

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Based on what happened 4 years ago, there is not huge buyer demand (especially with more offers expiring) for this feature.
Based on what happened 4 years ago, this did not double the amount of offers we got. I'm not sure where you're getting your numbers from
I'm not saying there's huge buyer demand for this.

[bigchief2472000]

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@netherworldgames wrote:

@bigchief2472000
The problems with it were explained in the original post and in the subsequent discussion. I'll list them for you again so they're all in one place:

1) They tried this 4 years ago. It was awful. They undid that after a minor uproar from sellers
2) It creates an unrealistic buyer expectation. If offers last X hours, a seller need check offers once every X/2 to X/4 hours. If offers last 48 hours, checking ever 12-24 hours is reasonable. If offers last 6 hours, you need to check once every 3 hours to keep buyers happy. If you offer buyers a 1 hour offer option, buyers WILL EXPECT sellers to reply to their offers. This is unrealistic
3) eBay is already crazy buyer-centric. Buyers can already retract bids and offers with literally no penalties. If you're a buyer, and you want your offer to be valid for 6 hours, or 1 hour, or 9.5 hours, you can make a 48 hour offer, then retract it whenever you want. A system already exists which does this, but which doesn't unrealistically raise buyer expectations
3b) buyers can also add "terms" to their offer. So right now a buyer can make a 48 hour offer and say "please accept this within 5 hours of me making it. If you view this after 5 hours, please decline." And then even if the seller accepts after 12 hours, the buyer can still weasel out of it, because ebay lets buyers cancel for no reason.
4) eBay made this change with NO NOTIFCATION, not just to us lowly sellers, but with no notification even to their reps.
5) "If a person is just impatient and gets mad because they don't get a response within their timeframe, oh well, let em pout." Last time ebay tried this, this is exactly what happened. They didn't tell us about it, and we just began getting angry emails from buyers wondering why we were "ignoring their offers" and saying they'd never buy from us again.

Just to restate #5, because this is important, eBay made a change to their site, didn't notify us, that change changed buyer expectations, making buyers mad at us the seller.

This is a problem. 

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I personally don't worry about any of the things you mentioned.  Truth be told, I don't list any of my stuff with a Best Offer option, but I do still get offers through messages quite frequently, and I typically just ignore them.  But even if I did list with BO, I wouldn't be worried about jumping through hoops to respond to offers. I would check for offers in whatever I deemed to be a timely manner and if I missed some sales because I didn't get to an offer in time, I'd either check more frequently if I desperately wanted the sells or just not worry about it.  As far as the buyers that send angry messages, I view that as a dodged bullet by avoiding dealing with them.

The benefit of being able to place a time limit on your offer as a buyer is that if you find an item for auction and another BIN with BO, you can send an offer and not have to worry about missing the chance to bid on the auction if the seller doesn't accept your offer.

[couldabeenworse]

Based on what happened 4 years ago, there is not huge buyer demand (especially with more offers expiring) for this feature.

Then how did you lose a ton of customers?   Even though the options were not promoted to buyers?

[netherworldgames]

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@bigchief2472000 wrote:

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@netherworldgames wrote:

3) eBay is already crazy buyer-centric. Buyers can already retract bids and offers with literally no penalties. If you're a buyer, and you want your offer to be valid for 6 hours, or 1 hour, or 9.5 hours, you can make a 48 hour offer, then retract it whenever you want. A system already exists which does this, but which doesn't unrealistically raise buyer expectations

3b) buyers can also add "terms" to their offer. So right now a buyer can make a 48 hour offer and say "please accept this within 5 hours of me making it. If you view this after 5 hours, please decline." And then even if the seller accepts after 12 hours, the buyer can still weasel out of it, because ebay lets buyers cancel for no reason.

The benefit of being able to place a time limit on your offer as a buyer is that if you find an item for auction and another BIN with BO, you can send an offer and not have to worry about missing the chance to bid on the auction if the seller doesn't accept your offer.

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Yes. I get the benefit for the buyer. The text I quoted above, which you also quoted and i assumed read, addresses that. Buyers already have a way to do that.

[netherworldgames]

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@couldabeenworse wrote:

Based on what happened 4 years ago, there is not huge buyer demand (especially with more offers expiring) for this feature.

Then how did you lose a ton of customers?   Even though the options were not promoted to buyers?

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The options weren't promoted to buyers in the sense that ebay bought billboads advertising it or did a large email campaign.

However it was promoted on the site as you were making an offer. The current verbage they're using when you make an offer and are offered the choice of duration is:

"You can now select how long your offer remains valid for. If you’re in a rush, select a shorter time to get an answer faster!"

Which is both incorrect and misleading.

[netherworldgames]

For those of you interested, here's my original thread from 4 years ago when they sprung this on us with no warning for a month or so then got rid of it:

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Archive-Selling/Yes-eBay-modified-Best-Offer-system-Yes-it-is-terrible...