Wonder if eBay ever grasps the reality of their situation?

[chipper01work]

Ebay has been doing a lot of crazy things lately to try to be more like Amazon such as product reviews and now showing how many other of the same items are available. They even include that the others are "new or refurbished". This is a blatant copy of Amazon and just another attempt at trying to copy the success of others.

I wonder if ebay ever realizes that Amazon is Amazon because of Jeff Bezos and eBay is what it is because of those making the decisions at eBay? eBay thinks the future is to be like Amazon. I have news for them, as much as I really don't care for Bezos, if he decided to compete with eBay with a full blown sister site to the main site ran as an auction platform, the employees at eBay would soon find themselves in the unemployment line.  eBay cannot and never will compete with Amazon. Jeff Bezos would clean eBay's clock for them if he decided to compete with them. If eBay and Amazon switched leadership today within 10 years eBay would have a higher stock price than Amazon due to Amazon stock falling and eBay stock rising. The difference in the corporations is because of leadership and not product line. 

[myangelandmyprincess]

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@gramophone-georg wrote:

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@mistwomandancing wrote:

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@gramophone-georg wrote:

I don't think most sellers here have any problem whatsoever with providing exemplary customer service. The problems come when ebay sets up roadblock after reoadblock and glitch after glitch to prevent the seller from offering that service, then blames the seller for what eBay did.

Case in point: Forcing IPR on BINS even when the seller WANTS to provide combined shipping for the buyer up front.

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???  That never happened to any of my accounts.  When did they roll that out?  Or are you just grabbing something out of the air to illustrate your point?  I'm not getting what *roadblocks after roadblocks* you are saying eBay has put in your way to prevent giving great service to your customers...?

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I AM  "the customer". I'm a buyer. The experiences I'm relating through personal experience have happened to me AS A BUYER. 

IPR on BINs

Being told "This seller does not offer combined shipping" at the "request invoice" stage when they DO.

Calculated shipping telling me my zip code is invalid... sometimes

"Sorry, this function isn't available right now. Please try again later"

"OOps! Something went wrong! Please try again later".

And on, and on, and on. None of this is done by sellers, BTW.

I'm here as a buyer to tell sellers that this site has serious issues that are causing buyers problems with buying and paying for YOUR items. If you don't want to hear about it, just ignore it and go on your merry way like eBay seems to be content with doing.

The biggest food for thought here is the FACT- not pulling it out of the air- that I don't encounter these issues when I shop anywhere else. Not on any of the auto parts suppliers sites, not on any of eBay's competitors sites.

Chew on that for awhile.

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The way it's supposed to work is that the items are added to the cart you click the request for combined shipping at the top it will then give you a commit to buy and it will end the listings without you paying until the seller sends an invoice.  But there was a glitch where it wasn't working.  There are also sellers who have their combined shipping set to no without realizing or because they think if they click yes it means they have to set up a combined shipping rule.  

[lookng2015]

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@gramophone-georg wrote:

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@ersatz_sobriquet wrote:

Yes, forcing IPR on bins is part of the latest seller fall update. 

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I have a record seller in the Netherlands I buy a lot of records from.

Two weeks ago, I bought about 10 and went to request the invoice. Up popped the big red banner that the seller doesn't offer combined shipping discounts. I know better- this isn't our first rodeo.

So, I send him a message. Few days go by, and all I get is the shakedown "Pay up, Foo!" notice from eBay. So I finally contacted him about it off eBay (we also both belong to an antique phonograph group).

He'd been waiting for me to request an invoice. He also never got my message.

He went round and round with eBay who told him it's a glitch, it's on the buyer's end, yadda yadda yadda (as if the buyer programs his own "end" of eBay).  Poor guy was at his wit's end. I finally remembered about the "seller additions and subtractions" line on the invoice from my selling days and walked him through that. Worked fine.

This past Sunday, I see he has some new stuff I want so I buy one and suddenly there's no "confirm" page so I can keep shopping... eBay wants payment. NOW.

Well, I wanted six more items!

So, I had to contact him AGAIN and round and round he goes with eBay telling him his account is fine and it's all on the buyer's end. FINALLY after three days of garbage a rep tells him that YES, there's a new policy that they just implemented this new quarter on BINs under a certain amount that require instant payment, no input from the seller wanted, thank you very much!

Here's the rub- these are $5-15 dollar records, with shipping on each one being $28.00 from NL to USA. Now, of course seven records can travel for a couple bucks over the price of one, but eBay wants to charge me $196.00 shipping!

"No problem", he says. "I'll just refund you the excess shipping".

But But But... I have to educate him that eBay won't reimburse him the FVFs they are going to charge on the ENTIRE amount, so this won't work! In fact, I don't know if PayPal will credit the fee on a partial refund... will they?

So, we're at sort of an impasse here as far as me buying from this seller on eBay anymore. Is it any wonder the "off eBay transactions" are becoming a red alert for eBay? What are we supposed to do here?

I bought just the one item. Stinks for this seller, and all sellers just like him... and buyers just like me.

This has absolutely GOT to be nothing but another eBay money grab. I can't think of any other reason for it. It doesn't benefit the seller, and it doesn't benefit the buyer. It's a money grab on inflated FVFs.

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George, the only way I found around this when eBay dumped one of my IDs into their 'forced IPR' (an ID that often sells multiples) was to REMOVE any seller checked IPR from the listings and then a buyer COULD 'request a total'.

[gramophone-georg]

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@tunicaslot wrote:

But georg the fact of the matter is you're still selling here, I'm still selling here as are millions of other sellers. Your record connection obviously thinks, dispite the glitches, that Ebay is the best venue for his sales or he would have moved elsewhere and you would have pruchased the records from him on another venue.

I hate some policies - I hate the glitches - but we continue to sell and buy here. I do think their IT is pretty inept as we seem to solve 1 problem only to find another - but we have both loyal sellers and buyers that have been here for 20 yrs because in the end ddispite the glitches, scammers, and bad sellers - it works for them. Complaining is only stressing you out - it has no impact on Ebay itself.

As retrose says - we use it and it uses us - and when it's no longer useful to us - we move on. 

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I don't know where your facts come from, but the real fact of the matter is that I stopped buying the eBay product for selling due to dissatisfaction with it over seven years ago.

As to my seller- well, he did think eBay was best for him until just recently when eBay changed how he does business out of the blue.

[gramophone-georg]

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@themagicmountain wrote:

Everyone including Ebay is having problems because Amzon is running an ILLEGAL MONOpoly

Jeff Bezos is just a pawn of Wall Street. Wall Street likes the idea of monopolies and control, and they hold his strings

They even gave him a newsaper so he could control public opinion and try to steer people away from monopoly busting, and try to intimidate any legislators who even consider it

Anyone who cares about their small business should be pushing legislators to break up the Amzon monopoly. If small business doesnt fight back, then Amzon will get so powerful that no legislator will even think about monopoly busting

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And eBay is totally innocent of any/ all of that stuff... right?

[d-k_treasures]

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@reallynicestamps wrote:

If eBay would stop pushing auctions, and allowed them to die the natural death they will, they would be rid of a lot more of the Disputes that cost them time and money, as well as unhappy members.

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Auctions will never die. And they are the best format to sell certain things in. I guess you've never been to a house auction or participate in any online live auctions? Think someone would pay 37k for a Gunthermann Felix the Cat windup carousel on here as a fixed price listing? Think any seller would even think of listing one on here if they knew what they had?

The problem is that sellers put commodity items up for auction, which are not suitable.

The good part is that since some sellers don't do auctions, they underprice great unknown(to them) items so someone can snatch them up for 5-10 cents on the dollar.

[themagicmountain]

LOL. You must be joking.

[themagicmountain]

As long as people let pawns like Bezos and his Wall Street captains tell them what to think and what is ok and what is not, then they will gladly take control and move for even more control

[themagicmountain]

No, but they too are suffering some of the consequences of this problem

Its a bigger problem

[tunicaslot]

georg - if your seller found that Ebay was no longer the best platform for them to use - more power to him - but all you have to do is google to see the amt of sellers on both Amazon and Ebay - and yes it's millions.

[afflv702]

I know THAT's right! Ha!

[5stardfind]

" I suspect that they feel that they are too many sellers tying up their resources with petty issues, why was I charged 30 cents for a listing, why do I have to pay a "Reserve" fee, why do I have to pay a Final Value Fee when my buyer didn't pay, etc.  Answers to these questions are available to sellers willing to put a little effort forth in preparing for their ebay selling experience."

You have a point but reality is... true example:

Question: "Hi, I wasn't given my TRS 10% FVF credit this invoice can you please help?

Answer: You're saying you should get a FVf credit? Can you give me an example listing number?

Question: Yes, all my listing that sold between july 16th thru sept 15th, please look at listing 12323454678

Answer: Ok can I put you on hold for 1 to 2 minutes so I can look at every listing and see what listing upgrades you have.

Question: No, I didn't use any listing upgrades, I'm calling about my TRS 10% off FVF's

Answer: Ok I have to transfer you to different department.

Question: Isn't this the billing department?

Answer: Yes

Question: Ok what department do I need?

Answer: Selling Limits, transfer now

Answer: Can I get your name and user ID

Question Yes It's................

Answer: Ok I see you were transferred because you want to change your selling limits

Question: No I'm calling because I did not receive my TRS 10% FVF Credit this month

Answer: I only handle limits, I don't know why you wanted to talk to the selling limit department, you need billing.

Question: Yes I know, they transferred me to you, can you please transfer me back.

Answer: Can I get your name and user ID

Question:Yes It's................

Question: Hi, I wasn't given my TRS 10% FVF credit this invoice can you please help

Answer: I need to see if your listing qualified, your listing have to qualify, if you didn't get the discount then they didn't qualify.

Questions: all listings qualified, you can see all sold listings had the TRS Plus seal, all had 30 return and one day handling time.

Answer: You will have to talk to the dispute department so they can tell you why.

Question: NO! They can not correct my invoice only the billing people can...

Answer:Can I get your name and user ID

Question: No, this is ridiculous My TRS 10% FVF credit Was Not added to my invoice

Answer: Well this is the dispute department, you need the billing department. I transfer

Answer: Can I get your name and user ID

Question: YES ITS.....I need to talk to someone that understands a billing question

I wasn't given my TRS 10% FVF credit this invoice can you please help, all listing are verified

Answer: Well I need to do a tech ticket to find out why you don't get. We call you back in 48 hours.

TWO HOURS ON THE PHONE MULTIPLE DEPARTMENTS 7 DAYS LATER STILL HAVEN"T HEARD BACK!

POINT:sellers tying up their resources  because reps can't answer or correct anything anymore. a 30 cent's question should take 30 seconds to answer not an hour with no resolution. I am not even exaggerating this happened.

Had a glitch for two weeks , 2 calls later found out the original rep made a tech ticket for something that had nothing to do with the issue.

Come on, customer service is a huge problem and basic questions can not get answered most of the time.

[castlemagicmemories]

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@mistwomandancing wrote:

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@gramophone-georg wrote:

I don't think most sellers here have any problem whatsoever with providing exemplary customer service. The problems come when ebay sets up roadblock after reoadblock and glitch after glitch to prevent the seller from offering that service, then blames the seller for what eBay did.

Case in point: Forcing IPR on BINS even when the seller WANTS to provide combined shipping for the buyer up front.

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???  That never happened to any of my accounts.  When did they roll that out?  Or are you just grabbing something out of the air to illustrate your point?  I'm not getting what *roadblocks after roadblocks* you are saying eBay has put in your way to prevent giving great service to your customers...?

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New rule recently put into effect has fixed price listings under $1,000.00 get a forced IPR.

Ebay did this to try to curb UPI, UIDs.

It has caused some difficulties for both buyer and seller.

[tunicaslot]

Did you call and talk to an American rep tho - I agree there are some problems with CS overseas - but in the 20 yrs I've been here - I've had to call CS maybe 5 times. I see other sellers on here - who have only been here 2 yrs and they call for every little thing - this just wastes time so CS can't get to calls with actual problems.

One seller already noted that if they don't get sales for a couple of days - they call CS - and then seem to get a few sales - when the actual reason is - when they had visibility - none of the buyers were interested in their items so they fell down the ladder - only to rise up again a few days later and someone wanted their items and they started having sales.

I've called and received assistance from CS overseas - 3 times - never had a problem.

[5stardfind]

You do make a good point, if so many users are constantly calling for information that is already available on the site. The cost of hiring and educating reps to handle those calls would be to great. So it appears as if the reps overseas are just not trained to handle an actual problem. They are also not given access to fix a problem once you manage to explain it clear enough. 

What should happen is when you reach one of those reps that just don't have the training, understanding or ability to help you, they should have the ability to transfer a call to higher trained rep that can. Instead of going around in circles for hours wasting everyone's time. You can not reach a US rep and they will not transfer you to one when you ask.

I get it, they need these people to screen through all the ridiculous calls.

I'll be honest, once I hadn't had a sale for 2 weeks after years of daily sales. By the time I got off the phone asking if there was a problem with my account, I had a sale and they started back up. I was told they had to refresh my account. Few months later same problem and was told there was no such thing as refreshing your account. Which rep was lying? If the first rep had not have told me he needed to refresh my account, the second call would have never been made.

[nawlinsron2]

There should be a banner on every page..."ENTER/CLICK AT YOUR OWN RISK"