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.

[cindylouwho0659]

Not rude, facts. I have several friends who moved away from CA due to their nonsensical laws, policies, cost of living etc, and it looks like it includes many businesses that operate out of CA.

[moxiedrinker]

You have covered a lot of ground. I have to agree with quite of what you have written. The old adage for carpenters applies "measure twice and cut once" Go over what you do before hitting that key! And treat people like you would like to be treated yourself.

[cindylouwho0659]

You are right. I dont do the amount of sells that you do, and i've only been a seller for 5 years, but up until the past few months, I made eBay money, and I made money. The past month, I actually LOST money due to the automatic relisting that eBay started, as well as increase on ALL fees, including paypal, shipping etc. I dont like that we have to abide by their return rules, now it's 30 day return, when I used to have 14 day on everything. with jewelry, my main items, it is easy to know whether you like something within 2 weeks, now eBay is giving buyer time to wear the item, the return it for whatever reason they want, including "didnt like it" REALLY, it took you 29 days to figure it out. eBay needs to remember sites like Myspace, and stores like Sears, JC Penneys, who were once on top, and due to insane policies and poor customer service, wound up going out of business.

[moxiedrinker]

Can I get a blog on my flip phone?

[moxiedrinker]

Don't quit now. Find a way to not let it bother you.

[lovefindingtreasures2]

Yes! You have been found out, Spock tattled on you too 🙂

[lovefindingtreasures2]

I don't know, maybe!

[moxiedrinker]

You are not alone! I fear for the future too!

[amp_global]

Hi Lasantino, you're very welcome, I guess that I have been lucky I am much more mindful these days, I understand your feelings entirely, we never know I guess, good luck with everything.

[uniwarehousewares]

i totally agree with you what you have explained, i have got the same notification this month, even though many returns opened by customers and they didn't return the product within time frame, and also some reason of customer in message were different from the reason they selected when they opened return, some returns because item broken by carrier no matter how the hell we pack, sometimes heavy items carrier will damage during transit, i call high end cs and they told me "no matter if customer make false claim or not, ebay count all kind of returns on seller metrics despite if return is legit or not." which is out of sense even kid will accept this logic.
when returns are closed before processing how the hell it should effect seller metrics? does it make logic??? also when when return is remorse itself why the hell it should effect seller matrices? one side there is protocol for customer to return the item by remorse reason other side ebay take those transaction against seller metrics!!!!!
example if you sell 1000 units of same item, there is always possibility of having 3 returns by remorse reasons, or damaged by carrier or any kind of return, i hope ebay should recognize that sellers work hard and brush ebay teeth every day to make it shine.

i wish you good luck, and hope ebay should define some clear policies before its too late for ebay to loose thousand of good sellers !!!!

[themightyquinnbrassandwinds]

It isn't that my pieces don't 'match' what eBay wants. My merchandise is new or near new for the most part. It's that buyers abuse returns and falsely use a reason that allows them a free return AND THEN I get the additional 5% fees.

[themightyquinnbrassandwinds]

Well, of course. And that is exactly what I do.

It doesn't keep people from abusing returns.

[auctionpet]

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@themightyquinnbrassandwinds wrote:
Honestly, I've been in business for 22 years and I really don't need your advice on my business model. First off, I sell brass and woodwind instruments, not guitars and basses so my fees are not that low. They should be, as eBay has lost all of the major sellers in these categories except me, but they do not care about revitalizing this. My business model was jsut fine before the eBay fee creep, but I have been seeing them take more and more out of my pocket every single year.

My base fee rate is 7.15% because I have an anchor store. I am indeed selling $400k per month to incur an additional $20k in fees per month. Walking away is certainly the right decision when I am now losing money and can't pay my employees. I'm not throwing good money after bad.

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.

Incidentally, when I quit my full time job for a technology company to sell on eBay, the eBay fee schedule was markedly different. They have gradually changed it to trap those of us who committed to them early on to soak us for everything we are worth.

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Apparently you do or you wouldn't be failing. Guess what.....I've also been here 22 years, but  didn't see the need to post that!  You act like your the ONLY one fees have gone up for, they've gone up for EVERYONE!!

Buyers find websites with proper advertising and key word search, but since you can't turn 4 million into anything over 250k in profit, I guess that wouldn't be something you'd be able to do.  There's a movie poster guy who left here and started his own site well over a decade ago. He's thriving. I stated you should have started a LONG time ago, now may be too late.

No one forced you or anyone else to quit their fulltime jobs to sell on ebay. That was the risk you took. Just like companies also change and ppl lose jobs. Times change.

I guess you posted for sympathy and not help! I should have guessed that by the foul word used in your title. I can only imagine what the mod edited out of your post and the language you must use with your customers. No point in returning to this thread.

[themightyquinnbrassandwinds]

Well, I guess I must be the only person who doesn't enjoy having my fees arbitrarily raised every single year. You go ahead and have fun paying 15% fees on everything you sell.

[dtexley3]

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@themightyquinnbrassandwinds wrote:
Well, I guess I must be the only person who doesn't enjoy having my fees arbitrarily raised every single year. You go ahead and have fun paying 15% fees on everything you sell.

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You are definitely NOT the only person annoyed with the current smash and grab.