Culling the Herd aka New Defect Rate For Sellers

[merylwitch]

     Just finished reading the new selling standard guidelines to be implemented in August of 2014. All I can say is "WOW!". While this will not likely impact those that sell primarily new product (or those from overseas that ebay seems to coddle) this will most likely be the death knell for many of us that have been selling primarily used and vintage items. 
     Apparently eBay is once again blaming the seller's for the sales drop off that many of us have been experiencing since the end of January instead of the wavering economy and the extra expenses that millions dealt with due to the extreme winter. What they didn't bother to research was that this sales drop has impacted seller's on other similar selling venues as well. My volume is similar to last year, the big difference is that the buyer's are primarily targeting lower ticket items (at least for the time being). 
      What I find most bothersome about the defect rate is that now we'll be held accountable (defect rate wise) should any of the shipper's that we use lose or destroy our items. Also that if someone rates the transaction a "3" or leaves neutral feedback that in eBay's eyes that's the same as someone leaving a "1" or a negative feedback. Neutral to me was always indicative of the buyer saying transaction was okay. Wasn't great, wasn't bad, neutral. So perhaps ebay should just remove those options since in their eyes neutral = negative. Since they don't acknowledge average, it shouldn't be an option for the buyer as they buyer will be unaware that "neutral" or a "3" dsr will now impact a seller the same way a "1" or "negative" would. 
     As I indicated earlier in this post this will not likely impact those that primarily sell new items. It will however eliminate a number of us that deal in used, vintage or parts/not working items which is a shame as this is the area that has always made eBay a unique place to sell and shop. Only offering the same ware's as every other venue is a recipe for failure but does provide an opportunity to the smaller site's that cater to used and vintage seller's. My suggestion to eBay is to stop focusing on your competitor's business model and focus on what made eBay great.......uniqueness and variety. The dog that chase's his tail never catches it but will grow tired and lumber away. 
     On a side note, it always makes me chuckle when I see the phrase "selling privilege" as it's amusing to me that I spend thousands of dollar's for something deemed a "privilege". 

[janusxxllc]

RIGHT ON THE BUTTON, , RECENTLY SOLD OVER 1 MILLION AND NOT A WORD FROM THE FINE FLOKS AT EBAY, JUST TAKE THE MONEY AND HOLD METO A STANDARD THAT IS NEAR IMPOSSIBLE TO HOLD SELLING ONE OF A KIND ITEMS, !!

[tclaw99]

Looks like Ebay is in self distruct mode. I hope they all choke on it. A bunch of morons. No wonder they say Ebay worst run company in America and World wide.

[gleuny]

Ebay seems to have  lost focus on how they make money. Buyers DO NOT make ebay money, SELLERS DO!

Buyers are MY CUSTOMERS so dont tell me how to run my buisness.

Ebay gets a COMMISION from MY sales.

Unfortunately ETSY does not get enough traffic on their site, but hopefuly they will, and we can all kiss Ebay fairwell.

[tclaw99]

One heartless bunch is all i can say.

[rick72416]

Sellers have no protection. I had a guy wanting me to be a middle man on a transaction and when I refused he purchased something and left negative feedback a few minutes later and I had the email where he was cussing me and bragging about screwing up my feedback and I sent it all to eBay and they did nothing and then a friend of his bought 7 items from me and left negative on all 7 for not as decribed before they were delivered . More proof I sent to eBay and all 8 negatives are still on me. eBay is run by a bunch of dip **bleep**s . We need a sellers strike for about a week and see how fast they realize where their money comes from.

[tclaw99]

I have a feeling with all of Ebays problems another kid on the block is coming soon and they sure want have any problems being an overnight success

[tclaw99]

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@rick72416 wrote:
Sellers have no protection. I had a guy wanting me to be a middle man on a transaction and when I refused he purchased something and left negative feedback a few minutes later and I had the email where he was cussing me and bragging about screwing up my feedback and I sent it all to eBay and they did nothing and then a friend of his bought 7 items from me and left negative on all 7 for not as decribed before they were delivered . More proof I sent to eBay and all 8 negatives are still on me. eBay is run by a bunch of dip **bleep**s . We need a sellers strike for about a week and see how fast they realize where their money comes from.

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I have a feeling with all of Ebays problems another kid on the block is coming soon and they sure want have any problems being an overnight success

[bshop4u2c]

Lets all hope-this would be a dream come true!

[zinda2010]

We all face the the same problem no matter how big or small when you sell very unique items that may be just pieces of sets or very limited production items such as toys or collectibles. The main problem we all face is getting eBay to actually show those items in their search results.
I have concluded that any lack of sales can be directly linked to their search engines failing to yield proper results for buyers.
I myself have had numerous run ins with this problem and it makes me so frustrated that I end up searching at Amazon to find what i need. I'll look for the exact identifying name that is used and then retry my search at eBay. About 20% of the corrected names searches will then actually give some results.
After trying for nearly 30 minutes to find what I want here even as a seller here, knowing that those items I'm looking for are here, but eBay has effectively blocked me from seeing those exact matches, I will give up. Now how long do you think a buyer who isn't a seller here is going to search for something? Do you think they will be returning to waste another 30 minutes searching through lists of non-related items? Not likely!
When this happens, which is more often than not, we all lose sales, we lose out on future return customers that were not able to even buy anything here. This selective search that eBay uses is killing us, only to promote certain sellers who are paying for the most expensive stores here or use eBay's extra cost items in their ads. making the search results either not show the items buyers are looking for or placing the exact matching items so far down the list that buyer will never see them.
Most buyers don't know that eBay's does this and after a few pages of unmatched items they will turn to another source for exact matches.
Pushing unmatched items onto buyers is not only dumb or not profitable it is ruining what buyers used to come here for, strange items that can only be found here! Once you remove that possibility from the equation you are looking at a discount store that sells junk for less.
Knock-offs and copies of things that don't fit or work is what's flooding this site, their is little room for those who offer the type of things that eBay was built on, you're not going to find a 1970's GI Joe Army helmet for sale on Amazon, or an old antique Bicycle that needs restoration, soon you won't find them here either, or for that fact not on any sites if this continues.

[dzines72s_emporium]

I have tried Etsy and have sold a few things already. Depending on what you sell, it can be a very rewarding & definitely less stressful environment. The quality of their traffic is good and they have easily used measurement statistics. It's not for everyone, but it definitely is a great alternative for my fixed price items.

[envyotb]

My primary merchandise for sale is collectibles (toys, comics, magic etc) and normally I dont "feel" like Im having this problem particularly, however I have had in the past. Ive witnessed first hand what delisting does to you when you are experiencing dsr issues and I have to admit it was beyond ridiculous.
Its not that I dont understand ebays reasoning, I completely get the buyer experience they are attempting to insure. I certainly cant fault them for lowering visibility to sellers whose customers are increasingly disatisfied.
Be that as it may, however, I was completely baffled by exact searches not turning up exact items. If there are 5 Ninja Batmans on ebay and someone searches Batman, I get why lower performing sellers batmans are going to appear further down. If I search exactly Ninja Batman and only 3 of the 5 appear followed by completely different items before i see (if i see) the other 2, this makes no sense.
How are you serving the buyer hiding exactly what he wants from his results? This is the flaw I find in their argument and I have yet to hear any reasonable rationale put forth that supports that logic.
If my feedback isnt high enough to warrant my item appearing under an exact search for it then just suspend me. Period. Because taking my money to sell on ebay then hiding my listings from exact searches is simply dishonest no matter what way you slice the cake.
I think of myself as a very rational person and businessman in general, Ive been in management before and I understand how to look at things from the company perspective. There are a tremendous amount of ebay sellers who completely lack any understanding of running a business and forums are rife with nonsense conspiracy theorists and their imature and unknowledgeable rants against ebay. Im one of the first ones to call them out.
Ebay cannot be defended when it behaves like my example above however. They simply must do a better job insuring they provide as equitably to their sellers as to the buyers, and must hold themselves internally to a higher standard accordingly.
You can skip the multiple "ebay sucks they are going down someones gonna take em out" posts herein, that blah blah blah can be found in every forum post dating 10 years back to now and it simply isnt happening folks, its inane, immature and devoid of any factual basis to say that ad nauseum.
constructive posts like zindas however are worthy dialogue and refreshing to read, I applaud your well written post Zinda!

[zinda2010]

Normally I never bother to come back and read any replies to my posts, mainly due to the fact that they are either not completly read by others and commented on in a fashion that plainly shows that the person obviously didn't read it or didn't understand what I was actually trying to say.

 Or of course, the replies left are so immature and off-base that I begin to wonder who's actually really selling here? They can't all be complete idiots? Seems that those who scream and cry about eBay restrictions placed on them are the ones who probably need to have them, meaning eBay is doing somethings right but just not quite understanding what customers want. Sure they don't want to deal with idiot sellers, I mean who would? But even those idiot sellers have their moments and can and do make good sales , sometimes things just get messed up, it happens to even the best sellers.

This is where I agree with your statement when you said "Don't block my listings, if I'm such a bad seller, cancel my account", absolutely correct.

That never occurred to me, why won't they simply get rid of the problems? That would be money lost, easier to have the seller stick around and make that last few bucks off them until they eventually close their account due to no sales. most won't even understand that their listings are not even appearing for buyers to ever have a chance to sell. 

This practice has to be illegal, the contract of making payment is for the services offered by eBay, my payment is the same money as every other sellers payment and deserves the full exposure to buyers without any restrictions when my item is an exact matching search! This hierarchy of who eBay likes more is completly childish and serves no purpose, it's just bad for everyone, especially to prospective buyers. That in turn eventually effects us sellers. The smaller sellers are hit the hardest since they depend on the buyers finding those strange items, not just for the sale right then but for the buyers to mark that seller as a favorite and return to eBay to buy again. Maybe not off of that favorited seller but they will start with that link and browse from there.

I've made serveral "friends" from people who contacted me about an item and I never sold them anything, but they still drop me a message every once in a while just to chat about things. I may not ever sell them anything, it may be due to their preference is in a higher caliber of items that I may never have in my posession or maybe they only buy pristine items that must be pefect and keep missing anything that I may have had but sold before they could see it. The thing is they are here and looking, that's what eBay needs to understand.