In every issue, readers soundoff about issues important to them. From feedback to payment services, from increased fees to posting policies, AuctionBytes Soundoff gives you a chance to air your views.
You can also read the AuctionBytes blog, which has a place for reader comments under every posting (http://blog.auctionbytes.com).
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Ina,
You may find this NRF (National Retail Federation) support for three federal bills more than a little disturbing:
http://tinyurl.com/4sby3q
It looks like a heavy and capricious financial and administrative burden to heap on the heads of the online competitors to the NFR brick & mortar crowd.
Best wishes,
Dee
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Hello.
THANK YOU so much for being the voice we sellers often DON'T have.
I have something that has p'd me off for almost 2 months. I am not one to go to forums or message boards, as I am not sure where to turn. I am sending this email to ask to you to forward it to your posts, boards, etc. Thank you.
I have sold on ebay for over 8 yrs. I have been a power seller in the past. I am currently a power seller.
I sell clothing and accessories. I am 12 kinds of confused & angry about many things the ignorant kids in charge are doing. I do not understand why we are told we have to revise our listings, to remove certain types of payments accepted.
Well, I understand they are making up rules..
What I DON'T UNDERSTAND is why I continuously get a red warning saying I "can't relist or revise this due to limits on my account for certain designer items".. It says I can't revise it for 30 days. I have gotten at least 30 of these while trying to manually revise my listings,which are over 1000. I have clicked on the link to ask to have "my limits" reconsidered.
I have a very high dsr (which is total manure to me..). I do not sell fake items & have never had a problem with authenticity.
How the devil (not my choice word...) am I suppose to have all my listings revised by THEIR APPOINTED DATE, when they keep freezing me out? This is such a waste of time & energy.. Thank you so much for letting me vent. This has turned many positive people into cranky, angry listers.
Thank you again.
C
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Hi Ina,
My husband and I have enjoyed your newsletter for many years. I just CCd you on a letter I sent to Ebay regarding one of our auctions. While checking over our auctions, my husband couldn't find one of our listings. We did searches by number, title, everything but it wasn't there. I finally wrote to Ebay to find out what happened to the item. Turns out they removed it - never contacted us about it, nothing!!
I've checked back through my emails and Ebay messages - nothing. Seem that they figured it was a fraud since I "attributed" it to Royal Copley. The item was unmarked and I researched it and found out that was the maker. We are talking about a $10. item here! What is going on with them and these witch hunts???
We have listed items for 10 years, have 100% feedback and have shipped thousands of items. Now all of a sudden we are bad guys. Do you think they are trying to get rid of us Antique and Collectible sellers? What really irked me was they didn't even contact us about it.
Sorry - just wanted to vent and see what you think is going on with them.
Thanks for listening.
Cathy
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Hi, just curious if this is an upcoming topic on your site as they have killed the UK shops off, I am afraid to put any inventory in my store now, the changes are all to fast and so much grief.
Johnny
Note from the Editor: We covered the changes to eBay UK Shops in this article and in this article.
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Ina:
Every time eBay changes policies I try to sit down and put a pen to paper and do the math. I'm mathematically challenged, but always do my exercise to see exactly what I need to do to keep my profit margin stable within the new rules. I recently sat down and did this with the new Fixed Price Listings as I feel that we eBay Store Owners will soon be faced with the decision on what to do with our Store Listings.
First, let's examine a typical Power User Store. It has 200 Fixed Price items. Currently per month, we are paying $10.00 a month plus our $15.95 a month store fee for our items to be in our Stores. With the move in the UK, that price will go up to $60.00 a month plus the $15.95 Store Fee. This is a very high increase in costs to most eBay Store owners.
Next I examined all the new options we have for listing. I hope my example below will show in real terms what decisions we as business people will need to make.
Using the new eBay pricing rules, I thought I'd pass along what I'm seeing.
I start a lot of auction listings at $9.99 with $6.30 1 pound shipping Priority Mail.
I now have several options in listing that $9.99 start price.
I can start it at $16.29 with Free Shipping. That brings my listing fee from $0.35 to $0.55. It also causes my listing to go down in Best Match because price is higher. The psychological impact to a customer is not Free Shipping but a high start price for a $10.00 item.
Now, suppose I think my item will sell at $20.00. Do I go with Fixed Price Listing of $24.99 and do a Best Offer, using the reverse of Auctions? Let's do the math:
$9.99 start price Auction listing: $0.35
Sells for $20.00 Final Value Fee: $1.75
$24.99 start price Fixed Price Listing with Make and Offer for 30 days: $0.35
Sells for $20.00 Final Value Fee: $2.40
That's a difference of $0.65 between the 2.
Now I could start it at $31.30 with Make an offer and Free Shipping which would mean that I sell it for $26.30.
My listing fee would be $0.35 plus $3.16 for Final Value Fee.
So with my price point, I actually need to add $1.41 to keep my profit margin at the level of an auction style listing of $9.99, meaning I need to actually list it for $32.71 and accept no less than $27.71.
This needs to be looked at for various price points and each seller needs to examine what the market will bear. What eBay forgets to tell all sellers is that the attractive offerings of eBay are very expensive to both the seller and the buyer, as ultimately the buyer is the one who has to pay the increased costs.
If you haven't done the math on your average item selling point, please do. eBay is all about giving the best deal to the consumer and I believe that the new pricing can harm both the seller and the consumer of our goods.
Jennifer
OhiopotteryGlassware on eBay
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Everyday 1-3 sometimes more sellers come to SC that have been suspended from eBay .. most have non paying bidders leaving bogus feedback & most of the sellers have feedback of 99%+ .. this is just NuTz ... Thank You, PK
http://tinyurl.com/3pvw6o
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Re: "eBay In Person Miami - Event Overview (and Some Pictures)," from the eBay Chatter blog
http://www.ebaychatter.com/
"Most sellers seem to agree that bad buyer experiences caused by a minority of bad sellers on eBay, combined with buyers having many other shopping destination choices have led to the changes that were introduced recently."
um does that mean that we sellers were.... NOT? the problem after all? I thought the sellers were the problem extorting the buyers... whats the new-speak i should believe today?
did anyone from your camp cover this? i'd love to see what "Of course there was some criticism of eBay as well (I would be disappointed if our usually vocal Community chose to stay quiet during one of these events)," meant... the youtubes of ebay live were a hoot.
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Re: "eBay.com Advises Canadian Media Sellers to Adjust Pricing"
http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/cab/abn/y08/m09/i30/s04
Hi Ina,
I too am fed up with the shipping "notice" I receive when I list new items for auction. I am being TOLD that my shipping fees are too high and not in keeping with other sellers etc., etc. What a bunch of nonsense!
I have written to them twice and requested they remove that notice from by site.
Have explained that I ship from Canada to the States and overseas...and our postal costs are higher.
Also advised them, that I have never received a complaint from a buyer regarding these fees. NOT ONE WORD back from eBay...(yet they send me a follow-up asking me to rate their service!!)
I am outraged at this stupidity...telling a seller (I am a power seller...if that means anything) that I am charging too much for mailing.
Like many sellers, I employ someone to cut, wrap and prepare each drawing or piece of china we sell. I purchase supplies and I personally go (to Post Office) to have every item shipped. I also have to prepare Customs papers for all items I ship.
The notice also "advises" me that I could loose the ability to sell on eBay...because of the shipping fees that we clearly post!
I do hope Ina, that enough eBay sellers, with your help, will fight this outrage!
Joy
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Hi Ina,
It was suggested I send this link to you.
http://jburtphotos.com/eBay-Customer-Service
It is the correspondence between my wife Patti (pjburt) and eBay Customer Support. She decided that it would be good therapy to continue the correspondence. (Beats banging your head against the monitor.)
Jerry
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Hello, Ina:
For the past 2 days I have been watching my 30-day ebay DSR ratings creep down every couple of hours, 1/100th of a point or so at a time, here and there, sometimes when nobody has been leaving me any new feedback. I got suspicious a couple of days ago when one highly positive feedback drastically lowered 2 of my 30 day DSR's . . . so I began checking it every few hours. . . 3 of 4 of my 30-day DSR's have been slowly creeping down, sometimes even when there is no new feedback posted! If my scores change first thing in the morning, then I figure, "OK . . . 30 day rollover time . . . but, when they continue to drop several times a day all day long with no new feedback, what is that?
(I am a Silver Powerseller receiving 20% discounts ever since July). Is there a glitch, I wonder, (?), or, is ebay easing down (manipulating) the DSR scores to lower my discount(?)
A couple of drops have been mathematically impossible lately. I can't help but wonder! (FYI)
Larry
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For your information I attach a PDF copy of a letter that (being a resident of Australia) I have addressed to the Attorney-General of Australia regarding what I consider to be reprehensible behaviour by the online auctioneer eBay in Australia (and also in the United Kingdom, Ireland and the Philippines) with respect to the application of absolute anonymity of bidding (ie, "Bidder N") and the consequences of that action, being the effective hiding of any "shill" bidding, that could otherwise have been detected by an alert buyer, thereby enabling this unlawful activity by unscrupulous sellers to run rampant.
For those other countries where eBay has not yet applied, or has retreated from the use of, absolute anonymity, this letter also offers a criticism of eBay's lack of any "active" processes for the detection and control of such unlawful "shill" bidding activity which, in its most blatant forms, may still be detected by experienced eBay users (in these other countries) but in its more subtle forms cannot be detected as, obviously, eBay users lack the access to the necessary "black and white" data base records that would provide the basis for any effective detecting regime.
Regards
Philip Cohen
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http://www.medved.net/cgi-bin/cal.exe?SIND
Hi Ina,
Firstly thank you for your wonderful, valuable and informative web site.
My attention has been drawn to the above linked web site which aggregates statistics from Ebay.
The link above connects to the Item Sell-Thru stats page. Click on "Yearly" and "2008" and it showes a graph which indicates that the balance between BIN and normal sales on Ebay has changed dramatically since early September from the steady state it's been in for many, many months.
I would be most interested in any analysis you or your experts might care to publish on this phenomenon.
Best wishes,
Steve
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Hi, Ina,
We always had a good sell-through rate of 38% to 42% on eBay, even through tough times. Now we have a 20% on a good day as we end auctions in batches. We prefer the BIN format overall.
It has been awful this September, although the traffic seems to have increased. Traffic on our store did not increase by as much as I though it would considering we moved 200 items to core listing on 9/16.
Sales on those listings are dismal. I decided to go take a look at the Auction Counts site, and my jaw dropped when I saw the Sell-through chart for the year of 08 and for the month of September. It's a real shocker and I suppose the opposite of what eBay intended to do. Here is the link
http://www.medved.net/cgi-bin/cal.exe?SIND
I am wondering if anyone else mentioned a similar occurrence to you. I looked at the posts on the blog but did not see any mention of this. Just wanted to share this with you.
Thank you for taking the time to read this email.
Vera
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Re: "Collectibles Expert Harry Rinker Protests eBay's Ban on Checks"
http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y08/m09/i24/s01
I applaud Harry Rinker. And you, for sharing this information. I had an experience last Monday with Paypal, owned by ebay, that made me think I will take my business elsewhere. I made a purchase on ebay and wanted to pay for it with my credit card through paypal. Paypal would not allow that because, according to them in a phone conversation, I had enough cash in my paypal account to pay for it. I had my own reasons for wanting to pay via credit card. I told the Paypal agent that Paypal was not going to tell me how I would pay for my purchases. Enough is enough.
Thank you,
Constance
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Hello Ina,
I am writing to see if you would be willing to do an indepth story about eBay's upcoming "PayPal Only" plan.
We were specifically told from eBay earlier this year when they tried to force PayPal Only upon Australia that such a plan WOULD NOT go into effect in the United States.
"In the US, we are not mulling, planning, or otherwise seriously considering a move to PayPal-only. There are US market-specific reasons why PayPal-only is something we simply cannot do in the US." -Usher Lieberman
To get around anti-competitive laws, eBay is going to allow the use of ProPay as a PayPal alternative. There is a HUGE problem with this, though. ProPay requires a monthly fee ($34.95, $59.95, $119.95, or $299.95) and additional fees on every transaction to use its service. Unless you are a big-time seller, such as Buy, the option to use ProPay simply does not exist and you are FORCED to use PayPal. Because of that, eBay is essentially instituting a PayPal Only plan for the majority of its members.
I know that eBay management reads your blogs, as do a lot of eBay sellers and buyers. If you could possibly put this out there for all to see, it might just get the attention of some very important people. Maybe we can then do what Australia did and get this shot down before it even gets started.
Thank you for your time.
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I was reading the story one of your readers had sent in, about how Ebay accused her of selling a counterfeit item. No matter what she did, she could not convince them that it wasn't, and now has a stike on her record.
I am having similar problems with Paypal. I sent an expensive item to a buyer, who then said it wouldn't fit and wasn't as described. Even though my auction states no returns, and had pictures of the item. Paypal took his word for it, and refunded the money to him (first they took it out of my account and held it). They stated in their decision that the buyer was to return item in original received condition. He didn't. I tried to call and tell them, email and tell them, and nothing. Now I have a destroyed costly item, no money, and seemingly no recourse. And, this was a consignment item, so I am out the money I paid the seller, the shipping costs, and now have a completely useless item that I cannot resell.
Paypal and Ebay, are getting dangerously close to being a dictatorial monopoly.
Because of this, I no longer will use Paypal. So, this has cost me business, and made my business harder in terms of shipping and accounting. And, luckily, I have my own merchant account, so I can use google checkout. Otherwise, I wouldnt even be able to sell under Ebay's new rules of no money orders or checks.
What recourse do I have? Anyone want to do a class action??????
Please advise and thank you,
Chris
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Hello. I just spend 90 minutes on the phone with chat and Power Seller support. Here's why.
I moved an old (before fp/30) listing from the unsold items in MyeBay to active listings on eBay. I then went in an updated the listing to meet all the shipping, payment and return policies, added updated item specifics, free shipping and return policy. By being sure there was item specifics and free shipping the item qualified for the special 5 cent media promotion.
No...I was charged 15 cents.....live chat tried to find 3 ways that it was my fault and couldn't so said that they would have to get back to me because - surprise - I was right. I asked about a 10 cent refund and they weren't authorized to do that.............so I called Power Seller Support.
After about 15 minutes the fellow (whom I feel sorry for, cuz he really got a earful from me) said that the charge was correct because you can't change a listing once its made. I told him to check with a supervisor...he did and the answer was the same....so here's eBay rule:
You cannot list old fixed price listings to active listings from myeBay closed listings and make the required changes and qualify for the special 5 cent promotion. Do they have a clue how many listings are in unsold waiting for this promotion to begin!
Sellers deserve a warning about this....there's none coming from eBay!!
Essentially what this means is that only brand new listings will qualify for the 5 cent promotion.
Very, very ticked,...
F.
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Re: "Editorial: eBay's Top-Seller Organization Protests Favoritism"
http://auctionbytes.com/cab/cab/abn/y08/m10/i02/s01
Hello Ina:
A big Bravo to you for todays story "eBay's Top-Seller Organization Protests Favoritism," As a teeny-weeny eBay seller, since 1998, I have witnessed the PESA advantage demanded and then granted by eBay. Now the big box boys have done the same thing to the disadvantage PESA group.
Your word substitution statement is absolutely brilliant: "After all, in PESA's paper, just substitute "PESA members" for "big box retailers" and "advantaged" for "free," and PESA suddenly finds itself as disadvantaged as the thousands of smaller eBay merchants who have been feeling that way for years."
So, as a disadvantaged eBay seller am I now double-disadvantaged? It feels like it. Maybe even triple.
A great story, keep up the insightful observations.
Best Regards,
Elliott
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Hello,
Wondering if you are familiar with what is going on now at ebay? They are forcing ALL sellers to accept THEIR paypal and credit card payments or they will not be allowed to sell.
Seems to be a clear-cut case case of violating anti-trust laws.
Do you have any information on a class action law suit against ebay?
We have been ebay sellers for over 10 YEARS - 100% feedback with thousands of satisfied customers - and have refused to be bullied and forced into this (Ebay) monopoly's controlling of every seller's actions and squeezing every penny possible out of its' sellers. It's wrong and it is mostlikely illegal and something needs to be done. This is the United States of America. This is not China.
Please advise if you have any information regarding a class action law suit against ebay or any other information that may help us to stop this monopoly's illegal and shameful actions against the very seller's who made this company the #1 auction house - and most profitable internet company - in the world.
Thank you in advance,
Tom
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Ina,
Add me to the list of super angry eBay sellers/buyers that are moving off of eBay as soon as I can. These latest changes are the last straw. Making Sellers accept only certain kinds of payments is horrendous. That's not the only bad one, it is just the worst one of this group.
It started long ago with idiotic changes including only positive feedback for buyers, and now I am done. Some of their changes border on being un-American. Even their "explanations" of why all their changes are good is ridiculous.
Sorry for the venting, but I wanted to share our view with you.
Thank you,
Howard
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Dear Ina.
When you try to list with the new $.35 listing fee check out the optional fee prices. I listed an item yesterday for the new fee and was going to put a gift icon on it also. The price of the icon has risen from $.25 to $.75. Other optional items have risen as well. If you are not watching what you are doing, eBay is going to get you in the pocketbook again.
Judy
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Re: "PayPal Double-Dips with Billing Glitch; eBay Credits Coming?"
http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y08/m10/i02/s02
Just a note to let you know that PayPal has indeed started reimbursing for their double-dip error. I received an email and credit from PayPal Wednesday evening for my eBay fees. Needless to say, I withdrew it ASAP.
Also, just a note to let you know how much the information you relay is appreciated.
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Hi Ina,
Looking at today's "Newsflash News Roundup", I followed the link under ""The Sting: Keep Paul Newman's legacy off of eBay" to the press release from Anthony Burke Boylan.
In the release, he writes: "At least one ghoulishly opportunistic seller already has dealt a signed copy of a Newman book attributed to "the late Paul Newman.'' There is also a link to the auction in question.
If anyone bothers to view that auction, they'll see it ended on August 26th, exactly a month before Mr. Newman died! In the auction, the Seller even admits that they had been confused about whether or not Paul Newman was still alive and apologized about their error.
I'm sure Mr. Boylan won't be making any apologies about his Press Release.
Ken
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Hi Ina,
Here's a lovely catch-22 that ebay has going that I got ensnared in last night.
Buyer buys product. Buyer pays incorrect amount via Paypal (in my case, they wanted to upgrade the shipping but chose the wrong shipping class).
I go to Paypal and refund their payment.
Then I go to ebay to re-invoice them. I CANNOT RE-INVOICE THEM. Ebay has removed the Invoice option.
So I go to paypal to use Request Payment to invoice them. Guess what? Paypal throws an error message as soon as you choose ebay item and tells you that you must Invoice them through ebay!
Back to ebay-still cannot invoice them because there is no Invoice Option.
Waste a half hour, get online with Live Help. Guess what? this idiocy is By Design. They remove the Invoice function from the drop-down menu as soon as the buyer pays, even if you have refunded the buyer and thus need to send a corrected invoice. And you cannot get round it by invoicing from Paypal. Live Help actually suggested I print an invoice and mail it to my customer (so much for Paypal only!!)
I finally got round it by choosing type Other instead of ebay on PP and sending it. But this is idiotic, esp if PP is now a required payment form. Either they have to put Invoice back in the drop down menu on ebay if a payment is refunded so one can re-invoice if necessary, or they need to let you be able to send an invoice from Paypal. But apparently it never occurred to the brain trust at ebay that a seller MIGHT NEED TO SEND AN INVOICE MORE THAN ONCE.
Sheesh.
Marilyn
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Yes this is happening to me and there is no one to complain to. We list an item for 7 days and pay a fee but our item does not show up for days and buyers can't see it. Is this fraud . at ebay there is no one to voice a complaint to . I wish i knew of another online service to sell on.
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Hi Ina,
If you have not heard the DSR's have vanished from the seller dashboard. I 1st noticed it last night and they are still missing. the rest of the dashboard is there but there is a blank space where the DSR's are normally found.
Jacob
