You lose all control over your Promoted Listings to Ebay in June, but retain full responsibility

[rugerskick]

https://pages.ebay.com/sell/pl/termsofservice.html

If you read the terms to the changes in Promoted Listings, all your rights as a seller are out the window IF you use Promoted Listings after the June changes.

Here are just some of the things in the above changes.

They can add or remove your specifically chosen key words.

They can change your item prices.  They can change your ad rates.  They are going to allow third parties (brands, larger competitor sellers) access to your confidential sales data without your permission.  In order that they either file a complaint and say we don't want this seller selling here, or to find a way to take more sales away from you.  You won't be able to access others sales data this way as a typical, smaller seller.

After the June changes, there is now nothing in your Promoted Listings they cannot change or modify.  There is nothing they cant simply remove now for any reasons.  They can make any changes to your listing and if their changes run afoul of any third party issues/complaints/violations, its still going to be your fault and the damage will be placed on your ebay account.  They don't have to notify you of any changes they make to anything in any of your Promoted Listings.  You as the seller are responsible for everything but they can control every aspect of your Promoted Listings.  If Ebay makes a charging error to you, if you do not catch the error within 6 days of the charging error taking place, they won't fix it and you are out that money.  If you do catch it within 6 days and write them to correct it, they have a full 60 days to make the proper payments to you.  They give themselves ten times the amount of time to correct their problem than than they give sellers to notice a problem.

Have your attorney friends look over the ebay page above and get their honest opinion. Don't just take my assessment of their page statement above.

The rational advice is to no longer use Promoted Listings.  Your listings won't be yours anymore to control, but all the responsibility and risk are all yours.  Plus you could wind up with huge bills, removed listings, and defects to your account for things ebay did to your Promoted Listings that you had no idea they did.

Everyone who does not want this to have this mpotentially happen to them needs to stop all their Promoted Listings before these June changes take effect.

[farmalljr]

There will NOT be a checkbox.  If you use any promotions, you are agreeing to the "marketing services". Everyone thinking this is some kind of "new" program that you have to opt into is going to be rudely mistaken. 

There also in NOT an explanation,  if you were promoting after June 1st, IF you can even end promotions. You may be opted in for good at that point. 

[simply-the-best-for-you]

I haven't watched the auction professor, uh oh, my tag line is about going to 11 also LOL.  But, I am not concerned about this.  My interpretation is that it relates to PLA's (PPC) which I don't use.   

Also, a form of this already exists in PL Standard - Automated version, which I DO use, extensively & love!  The PLS Automated changes rates daily & I opted into it when it became available & I like it a lot.  Makes my management of PL's much easier.  YMMV.   I really don't think this affects anyone who isn't using PLA's. 

While I haven't watched the auction professor guy, I've seen a bunch of different YTer's for Ebay & a lot of other interests of mine & everything for regular YTer's with a channel is about creating hype.  If they don't create hype, how are they gonna get you to watch?  Just a glance down any of their thumbnails, will clearly show you that.   I don't say that as a criticism, it's true for even the ones I watch & love, it's the nature of the beast.  They are trying to get you to watch their content over someone else's 🙂

[gracieallen01]

@mr_lincoln 

Per Terms of Service page:

Cost per Click Pricing.

If you participate in the Marketing Services on a cost-per-click basis, you agree to pay an amount up to and including the ad rate reflected in your account settings for each click on your Ad.

Cost per Sale Pricing.

If you participate in the Marketing Services on a cost-per-sale basis, you agree to pay an ad rate based on the total amount of the sale for each Attributed Sale (as defined below). The total amount of the sale is the same value we use to calculate final value fees (described in the applicable eBay policies), and includes the item price, any handling charges, shipping costs, taxes (including, without limitation, sales tax, value added tax, and goods and services tax), and any other applicable fees.

An “Attributed Sale” means an end user or device associated with an end user (an “End User”) has (A) clicked on your Ad and (B) purchased an item featured in the applicable listing within thirty calendar days of that click (the “Attribution Window”). In the case of multi-quantity listings, if multiple items are purchased from the same listing within the Attribution Window, each item purchased will count as a separate Attributed Sale and incur its own fee. eBay will be the final arbiter as to whether or not a sale of an item featured in a listing constitutes an Attributed Sale. You may end a campaign at any time, but you will still be responsible for Marketing Fees for Attributed Sales if the End User clicks on your Ad prior to you ending your campaign, even if the purchase occurs after the campaign ends.

With respect to Cost per Click Pricing and Cost per Sale Pricing, we charge Marketing Fees at the rate in effect for a particular Ad at the time that Ad was clicked. Accordingly, in the event that you revise your campaign, if your Ad is clicked prior to the effective time of your revisions, then the Marketing Fee attributed to that click will be calculated based on the rate in effect prior to your revisions. If your Ad is clicked after the effective time of your revisions, then the Marketing Fee attributed to that click will be calculated based on the revised rate.

[lepke1979]

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@gracieallen01 wrote:

@mr_lincoln 

Per Terms of Service page:

Cost per Click Pricing.

If you participate in the Marketing Services on a cost-per-click basis, you agree to pay an amount up to and including the ad rate reflected in your account settings for each click on your Ad.

Cost per Sale Pricing.

If you participate in the Marketing Services on a cost-per-sale basis, you agree to pay an ad rate based on the total amount of the sale for each Attributed Sale (as defined below). The total amount of the sale is the same value we use to calculate final value fees (described in the applicable eBay policies), and includes the item price, any handling charges, shipping costs, taxes (including, without limitation, sales tax, value added tax, and goods and services tax), and any other applicable fees.

An “Attributed Sale” means an end user or device associated with an end user (an “End User”) has (A) clicked on your Ad and (B) purchased an item featured in the applicable listing within thirty calendar days of that click (the “Attribution Window”). In the case of multi-quantity listings, if multiple items are purchased from the same listing within the Attribution Window, each item purchased will count as a separate Attributed Sale and incur its own fee. eBay will be the final arbiter as to whether or not a sale of an item featured in a listing constitutes an Attributed Sale. You may end a campaign at any time, but you will still be responsible for Marketing Fees for Attributed Sales if the End User clicks on your Ad prior to you ending your campaign, even if the purchase occurs after the campaign ends.

With respect to Cost per Click Pricing and Cost per Sale Pricing, we charge Marketing Fees at the rate in effect for a particular Ad at the time that Ad was clicked. Accordingly, in the event that you revise your campaign, if your Ad is clicked prior to the effective time of your revisions, then the Marketing Fee attributed to that click will be calculated based on the rate in effect prior to your revisions. If your Ad is clicked after the effective time of your revisions, then the Marketing Fee attributed to that click will be calculated based on the revised rate.

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And? Bolded part seems like a fairly obvious thing that should happen.

[mr_lincoln]

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@gracieallen01 wrote:

@mr_lincoln 

Per Terms of Service page:

Cost per Click Pricing.

If you participate in the Marketing Services on a cost-per-click basis, you agree to pay an amount up to and including the ad rate reflected in your account settings for each click on your Ad.

Cost per Sale Pricing.

If you participate in the Marketing Services on a cost-per-sale basis, you agree to pay an ad rate based on the total amount of the sale for each Attributed Sale (as defined below). The total amount of the sale is the same value we use to calculate final value fees (described in the applicable eBay policies), and includes the item price, any handling charges, shipping costs, taxes (including, without limitation, sales tax, value added tax, and goods and services tax), and any other applicable fees.

An “Attributed Sale” means an end user or device associated with an end user (an “End User”) has (A) clicked on your Ad and (B) purchased an item featured in the applicable listing within thirty calendar days of that click (the “Attribution Window”). In the case of multi-quantity listings, if multiple items are purchased from the same listing within the Attribution Window, each item purchased will count as a separate Attributed Sale and incur its own fee. eBay will be the final arbiter as to whether or not a sale of an item featured in a listing constitutes an Attributed Sale. You may end a campaign at any time, but you will still be responsible for Marketing Fees for Attributed Sales if the End User clicks on your Ad prior to you ending your campaign, even if the purchase occurs after the campaign ends.

With respect to Cost per Click Pricing and Cost per Sale Pricing, we charge Marketing Fees at the rate in effect for a particular Ad at the time that Ad was clicked. Accordingly, in the event that you revise your campaign, if your Ad is clicked prior to the effective time of your revisions, then the Marketing Fee attributed to that click will be calculated based on the rate in effect prior to your revisions. If your Ad is clicked after the effective time of your revisions, then the Marketing Fee attributed to that click will be calculated based on the revised rate.

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Thank you @gracieallen01  ... yes, those two sections pertain to PL Advanced (pay per click) and PL Standard ... I knew the Ad rate was going to be charged on the Gross sale in the future ... no mention of eBay changing pricing OR changing Seller selected Ad rates ... was there something specific you wanted to point out or where you just tagging me for an FYI?  I'm good either way ...

Mr. L

[gracieallen01]

Hello Mr. L,

Partly FYI but I think that the real meat of the problem many are seeing is in the beginning, under 'Marketing Services'.  And, the 'Marketing Terms' didn't help, but rather, to me, seem to compound the issues.  With the ambiguity, language and lack of specifics the meanings of what is written can be not only confusing, but construed many ways and a lot could be in there, but left unsaid.  I had to read it over more than twice and with a different mind set each time.  It sort of raised the hackles, so to speak.

However, as has been mentioned, time will tell.  This is ebay, what could go wrong? >;>

[valueaddedresource]

velvet@ebay  adsteam@ebay  - just a suggestion, but it seems like a dedicated chat or at least a sticky topic with dedicated Ads staff available to answer questions about these changes would be warranted, and hopefully sooner rather than later.

There are several active posts on this topic, not to mention it's spreading all across YouTube and social media - getting out ahead of things with transparent communication and engagement could save us all a lot of stress and be massively helpful as a reference. 😊

[rugerskick]

Exactly correct.  Its exactly what they state.

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

@valueaddedresource velvet@ebay adsteam@ebay 

Agree with valueadded, and want to add, for future reference: This sort of User Agreement Update should NEVER be released without an accompanying FAQ asking the sort of questions that some of us here could have told you would arise, such as: Does this mean ebay can change my PLS rate anytime it wants to, to anything it wants to?

Releasing this without taking into consideration the long history of ebay sellers (and some influencers) inevitably misinterpreting these things is simply negligence on ebay's part. 

[rugerskick]

Respectfully disagree.

If Ebay werent finding new and special ways to nickel and dime more money out of sellers at every turn, I would be more inclined to agree with you. 

But everything they are doing lately to increase revenue is to take more from sellers any way they can.  At the same time not being grateful for what they deem are low quailty buyers and sellers, who make up the large majority of ebays income.  Everything done lately to "improve" things for sellers actually are regarded by the majority of sellers as a negative.

[itscalledapostingid]

It seems like this isn't the first time ebay sent out a notice like this at the end of the week causing a weekend of speculation since their blues don't reply to anything on weekends.

Their communications definitely need some work.

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

@itscalledapostingid Yes. Yes, it does. It is a deep seated problem at ebay. The moment I read the new Agreement, I immediately KNEW it would be misinterpreted  and cause all sorts of unnecessary anxiety, and ebay would have NOTHING in place to prevent or minimize the anxiety.

Sadly, after 20 plus years on ebay, I'm very close to giving up hope that this company will ever  comprehend how many unnecessary problems could be completely avoided if they would learn to communicate properly.

[itscalledapostingid]

It is fascinating to see how wild some of these interpretations are though. Really wild!

[chapeau-noir]

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@itscalledapostingid wrote:

It seems like this isn't the first time ebay sent out a notice like this at the end of the week causing a weekend of speculation since their blues don't reply to anything on weekends.

Their communications definitely need some work.

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Including better writers.

[lepke1979]

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@itscalledapostingid wrote:

It seems like this isn't the first time ebay sent out a notice like this at the end of the week causing a weekend of speculation since their blues don't reply to anything on weekends.

Their communications definitely need some work.

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Well, with political stuff. Friday is when you release stuff so it will not be seen or be forgotten about by Monday.

But with business. It just causes people to stew and come up with wild ideas. As warranted as some may be...