eBay adding Best Offer in the middle of the night

[stumblebumble]

eBay should keep their noses out of our listing prices.  In the middle of the night they changed six of my listings and added Best Offer ON THEIR OWN.  I did not add BO nor do I ever add BO.  I see the new listing format forces it on us.  You have to go in and amend your listing immediately to remove it by clicking "Manage Offers" unless there is another way.    I double check to make sure there is nothing there but I see the new listing format doesn't seem to give the option to opt out of BO when creating the listing.  I guess eBay changed that also to allow them to control us even further.   Now eBay,  I will never, ever allow best offer on my listings.    I set a price and that is what I expect to get.     I am certainly not allowing offers on $2.99 and $3.99 items.     I have my items priced low enough. I got this notification in my message center this morning at 6:03 am PST saying "buyers can now make best offer on your listings" .... then it showed the list of what was changed.   eBay you control everything else, you are not going to control what I accept or not accept on my listings....only I control that.   If it doesn't sell, I won't give it away on here.  I will donate it to worthy cause instead.  DONE.      

[adkhighker]

I agree it's pathetic that ebay is doing this. I had it done to me on a listing a few weeks ago, and I was totally taken by surprise when someone made me an offer on something that I had priced at the lowest possible price I could sell it for. I was thinking "What the #!X#? Why is someone making me a best offer on something I didn't list as Best Offer?" I ended up refusing the offer, of course, and then I terminated the listing, choosing "item is no longer available."

If ebay keeps this up, we'll have to start posting a disclaimer in our listings stating that there is no "make an offer" option even if the listing says so. Thanks, ebay, for always fixing something that works by breaking it.

[stumblebumble]

Agree with you adkhighker....eBay has become pathetic in their business model.  I don't even know why I stay here.  I don't sell to make a profit.  In fact, there is usually no profit for my items.  I am just clearing out closets of items that I paid much more for in the beginning, but no longer have a use for, don't fit, or no longer like.  I don't waste my time going to flea markets, garage sales, or thrift shops.   There are much more enjoyable things in life to do than shopping for useless STUFF just to clutter my home with and try to get rid of here.  Then, eBay has the nerve to dangle a carrot in front of my face...."List 200 more items for free".   Unless you pay additional for listing to get your placement,  no one sees them.    Not a chance.    I am not that desperate.  

[goodluckselling]

It is not a new policy.  It was announced more than a year ago. 

Here is a link to the announcement  -  Click Here

The last sentence in the link above says this  -  There are no plans to enable this feature for business sellers.  Hopefully that will help some of you out who do not want to be part of this program?

Good Luck Selling!

[mypostingid15]

hmm, it says "Based on previous tests, we found this feature drives higher sales conversion"

No kidding!!!

My previous test shows that listing items for a penny drives sky high sales conversions, how did I think of this?

I must be a GENUIS,

[adkhighker]

"There are no plans to enable this feature for business sellers."

How does ebay determine whether someone is a business seller or not?

[adkhighker]

oops, never mind my question in my previous post. I see that you have to sign up for it if you want a business account.

[mrtwiddle]

One thing corporations hate is lousy numbers. There is probably some muckety-muck who is responsible for seller satisfaction. This is the one area where we might be able to get their attention.

Everytime I have to revise my listing to remove the Best Offer option, I'm presented with a message "What do you think?"
I respond with: Very Unsatisfied / Please STOP adding "Best Offer" to my listings!!!!

Now I know that aside from providing me with my own personal satisfaction this is just a drop in the bucket BUT if everyone that is unhappy with their Best Offer algorithm did it they just might sit up and take notice when their numbers start to tank. Call me crazy but it just might make a difference.