It is becoming very difficult to do business on eBay when you have so many technical problems and don't fix them.
Problem 1:
Customers don't know an item is on sale when the item is shown on the search results page and the item is shown much lower down in search results when one sorts by price + shipping from lowest to highest, because the original / regular price is shown and not the sale price.
I have listed multiple items on sale using the Sale event + markdown manager. I currently have a 5% off applied to a set of items. However, no one knows any item is on sale until they click on it! When on searches through all my items or the items comes up in a search result, as I said previously, you don't know it's on sale because no message whatsoever is displayed and the lower price is not shown! Only after you click on it is when you see a message at the top of "Extra 5% Off" and then a link to the right of it with the words of "See all eligible items". This, first of all, is not clear that the item one is looking at is applicable for the 5% off. To know for sure, one has to look at the item's title or item number, click on the "See all eligible items" link and look for the item there and compare it with the item's title or the item number that shows up in the URL when one hovers over the item. Alternatively, one could add the item to one's shopping cart to see the discount. Why isn't the original price crossed out and the sale price shown along with a counter like I have seen in the past? Why does the potential customer have to do the math and or go through the steps I outlined above? A few months ago the discounted pricing won't show up in the search results also, which is why I would still use the old Markdown manager as it had that effect of letting customers know an item is on sale (a common sense thing to do). However, all it does now is direct one to the new markdown system.
When I spoke to a rep about this, she tells me this is the way it's supposed to be after doing research and then sends me an email telling me that eBay decides which offers gets shown in the search results pages. Here is some of the wording from that email: "eBay is testing the rollout of a new capability that displays certain seller promotions on the search result page. Items selected for display includes many factors including promotion quality, item value/price, and item relevance. To increase your chances for this additional exposure, please follow eBay promotion best practices of creating compelling promotional offers that include:
Compelling promotional discounts
Curated, and relevant items logically grouped together from a buyer's perspective at reasonable prices"
This sounds absurd to me. What's the point of having a sale if it's a secret sale?
Problem 2A:
Carrier-specific discounts passed on to buyers is not reflected on the search results pages, resulting in our items being shown lower down in the search results pages when one sorts by pricing from lowest to highest and also in confusion for the customers, as they see one price in the search results page and then another when they click on the listing.
I have been complaining about this for about 4 to 5 months now, and nothing has been done!
I have enabled the option of "Offer carrier-specific discounts to buyers" via Site Preferences > Shipping Preferences and clicking on the Edit link. On the page that comes up, titled " Shipping rate preferences", I have the second option enabled of "Offer cheaper online/discounted shipping rates for your listings checked, and then I have the "FedEx eBay discounted" option checked, which states below it "These rates are discounted rates available through eBay label flow". I have only passed on the discount for the FedEx rates as it seems to be the most accurate when I looked into this months ago, but I won't be surprised if this problem also exists for USPS and UPS.
As I said though, the discounted rate is not shown on the search results page. So, one would see $103.10 for shipping for an item on the search results page and if they happen to click on the item, they then see it's $52.47. If any eBay rep is actually looking at this, I am tired of explaining this simple procedure to verify what I am speaking about: On any item that doesn't offer free shipping and has no pending offer, 1. click on the Revise your item link, 2. Scroll down to the bottom until you reach the Shipping details section and click on the Calculate Shipping link, 3. Enter the same zip code you used previously when looking at the item and click on the FedEx tab and look at the "FedEx Ground or FedEx Home Delivery" option below. You should see a price in green because the "eBay Rates' radio button above should have been checked by default. That's the same price you saw on the listing page. Now, click on the "In-store rates" option above and you will see a price in black font--that price is the one shown in the search results page.
This is the new SR number for this issue, which I had the rep create a new one because the reps mixed it up with a related issue, which I will mention further down for reference: 1-133724236087
Now, I know I can offer free shipping, but I prefer not to as there is extra time involved in researching shipping rates and determining how much the final price should be, but also, those customers nearer to our state would have to pay more for shipping because the item would have to be priced with the assumption it's always being shipped to the states farthest away from me in order not to lose money on sales from those states.
This is the previous SR number that I received on July 8th, which when I called back to check on it, the rep was describing the other related issue, which I will mention below: 1-120943045370
eBay --- PLEASE FIX THIS PROBLEM!
Problem 2B:
This related problem has been resolved, after months of it existing, upsetting customers and making us look bad! It was finally fixed about a month ago. However, I gave the rep the SR number just to see if the case had been marked solved or to see if any updates were applied, which unfortunately, none of them had occurred: 1-119023684277.
Here is what the problem was:
Whenever a Best Offer was accepted by either party (the buyer or the seller), the shipping amount shown to the buyer on the invoice would be the In-Store rate (the higher shipping amount). So, the customer would see $52 and change for the listing, make the offer expecting that to be the final shipping price, only to see almost double that price when the offer was accepted. We had to warn customers about this every time a counteroffer was being made, telling them please don't be alarmed at the higher shipping price, it's an eBay bug and we will send you a revised invoice if you accept the offer. At other times, we had to calm customers down who would think we were trying to pull a fast one on them. So, every time we accepted an offer, I would immediately have to send the customer a revised invoice with the shipping corrected to prevent them from sending me an angry email about this and to ensure they follow through on purchasing the item. When we would counter offer, I would have to be checking the orders page frequently to see if they accepted so I can send them that revised invoice as quickly as possible.
I am glad this is finally fixed, but it shouldn't have taken so long and there was never any communication about it.
I read all the time about sellers leaving eBay and going elsewhere and I am beginning to understand why.
