eBay, what the hell is wrong with you?

[themightyquinnbrassandwinds]

I have been on eBay since 1997. That's right, 22 years. It was AuctionWeb when I joined.

I have gross yearly sales on eBay approaching $4 million.

I paid eBay over a quarter of a million dollars in 2018, which, by the way, was substantially more than I took home.

I have watched over the years as my FV fees have climbed from an average of about 3% to 7.15% for my category, and that is just because I have an anchor store. I've watched as the cap on items went from $100 to $250. I watched you reduce the Top Seller discount from 20% to 10%- a move which it  took $40k a year out of my pocket.  And all through it I have tried to hang on and grow my business.

The final straw came this week when I was informed I have 'Very High' rates of returns due to item not as described.

We all know this new and completely arbitrary standard is just a bullying tactic to get people to offer free returns. Well, I sell musical instruments, and I am absolutely not in the business of providing free rentals for a money and paying the shipping both ways. Even so, there is an awful lot of abuse, and people will list an instrument as defective if they don't like the way it plays, just to get a free return.

Over 3 months I had a total of 28 returns due to 'item not as described'. 18 of them were abusive.  And these are not appealable.

But those 28 returns are enough to get me an additional 5% final value fees with no cap. This stands to literally add $20,000 PER MONTH to my eBay bill. Because of a few people who abused returns.

This is ridiculous, and it is also an existential threat to my business.
 

So I did what anyone n my position would do. I called my Personal Account Manager. He's on vacation without any information for who is covering for him. I called another contact who passed my request for a call to the person covering my account manager. She's 'really busy' and will call me next week. 

She's too busy to call a $250k customer who is facing a threat to his business.

Ever since I got a Personal Account Manager (for the second time) 3 years ago, I have been telling eBay what I need them to do to expand my business. eBay has ignored me. eBay is no longer interested in creating partnerships with business and growing online sales-they have instead resorted to the tactic of increasing revenue by increasing fees.

I am leaving eBay after 22 years.

[gac-stop]

Wow, selling for that long time and not getting treated right by eBay is sad. Lesson learned, "Don't put all your eggs in one basket".

[this*old*attic]

@ifyouloveit 

I saw this the other day and couldn’t resist taking a picture:

[ifyouloveit]

"You are the third or fourth person to mention starting up my own website. Do you people really think a website is a magical thing that buyers will automatically find? I have had my own website for several years and it gets nowhere near the traffic eBay does. That's why I pay eBay fees in the first place."

Thank you, you beat me to it. I too owned and ran my own website from 1995-2011, unless someone has done it they have no idea what is involved, from the webmasters and search engines, the huge amount of advertising money spent to get traffic to the site, click through rates with engines (if they still have those!), web pirates, banking and credit cards, you know, I know, they don't.

A REAL website (not some throw it together site you do yourself or some college kid puts together) costs a fortune to keep up. Go try it and report back, lol 🙂 I won't even start on the daily stress load!

[ifyouloveit]

I sell on another site that is actively seeking guitars for sale and just through out a,"List your guitars for free", or something like that.

eBay is without a doubt blowing it in your category, I wonder why they don't take notice? Other sites are begging for guitar sellers 🙂

[ifyouloveit]

@this*old*attic:

HAHAHAHA!! Awesome! LMAO over here, I want to blow that up and leave it at my doctors office, ha ha ha ha 🙂

Thank you! I needed a laugh right now, since nothing is selling, time to laugh!

That was great, I spit on my keyboard ;-O

[amp_global]

You are correct.

I found that listing products for sale on a website was a mission to nowhere, when my website was product based I got nowhere, when my site progressed to a blog based site (with products available but not actively marketed) my traffic exploded, I write about the products, the artists using them, the issues, the history, the investment potential etc, the online interest in the conversations converted to sales, ebay cannot do this, your own website can, if you just list products for sale you will get nowhere, social interaction with zero sales pitch is the key and I just sold a $250k guitar this last week......, granted, a well known historically important guitar but 250k all the same...my monthly webmaster fees are a shade of what I used to pay you know who.

[lasantino]

I just took a look at your listings.. I see that gorgeous 1978 Zemaitis.. then I took a look at your sold items and see the 1978 was purchased and i guess returned... that's got to hurt!.. how did you protect yourself from a fraudulent return?? have you had any problems with fraudulent returns.?? Ebay really needs to allow sellers to charge restocking fees ... without any kind of consequences. buyers are just buying to try knowing they can return it willy nilly and it's killing sellers.

[amp_global]

The Zemaitis was an odd one, I encountered a situation that I have never eperienced before.

the guitar was bought by a buyer based in Japan, I know him well having sold him perhaps 10 guitars over the last 20 years, he purchased the guitar and he paid in full,

For no reason whatsoever, paypal seized the funds and declared the sale "suspicious", I worked on it this end and my buyer did the same from Japan, ebay had nothing to do with the hold either, after 72hrs PP announced that they were going to hold the funds until the guitar was delivered, considering that the guitar contained rosewood and mahogany ( the guitar is CITES certified, I have filed all of the paperwork and the guitar is free to be exported and imported worldwide) also considering international customs along the way the buyer and I agreed that the safest course of action would be to cancel the sale  & live to fight another day, at the very same time a buyer in Italy bought another guitar, the funds were not held, go figure.

I read the boards and I shudder at some of the horror stories that buyers have had to endure and sadly, the situation is getting worse, to this day, touch wood, I have never experienced a scam return where something different comes back, or there is a claim of an empty box, never any stolen parts (vintage guitars from the 50s & 60s contain many parts worth multi-thousands), I am very mindfull of the current situation and of course, I weigh my options daily.

I received my "high returns" email just yesterday, the Zemaitis was my only one in the last three months, I have 5 dating back to June 2018, no appeals, no ability to be aware of exactly who my peers are, the system is rigged in ebays favor and it is nothing but a cash grab.

The very best of luck to all sellers out there.

[soh.maryl]

So your daughter-in-law cannot find a way to find something more useful for these CS reps to occupy their time? 

[luckythewinner]

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@themightyquinnbrassandwinds wrote:

Ever since I got a Personal Account Manager (for the second time) 3 years ago, I have been telling eBay what I need them to do to expand my business. eBay has ignored me. 

---

Whether eBay was justified or not in ignoring what you told then you needed them to do would depend entirely upon exactly what you told then you needed them to do. 

[ifyouloveit]

My site was interactive with streaming videos, the works. I had a blog too 🙂

[unique-finds-for-everyone]

I am with You! Thinking to close my store after 20 years...It is very stressful now and Not Profitable any more...!!!

[masam1108]

Over 3 months I had a total of 28 returns due to 'item not as described'. 18 of them were abusive. And these are not appealable.
___

Rather than stress over the bogus returns, you should concentrate on the 10 that weren't, and try to prevent more of those.

[themightyquinnbrassandwinds]

You can't please everyone all the time. Also, mistakes do happen. eBay needs to be in the business of supporting their sellers and helping their businesses grow, which makes everyone month, instead of being in the business of profiting off of their sellers with arbitrary fee increases.

[classic_luxe]

Yes, maybe eBay needs to look back at Sears, The Sports Authority, Radio Shack, Circuit City and a host of others that probably thought the same way.