Defunkd

[mrs_stout]

Have any of you seen the recent seller update? With the exception of random items now & again, after August 20th, looks like I'll be done selling there.

http://pages.ebay.com/sellerinformation ... rview.html

[jimmyj]

Ugh. They keep tightening the noose so squeeze more profits out of us. Couple of execs were probably like:

"we're giving far too many top rated seller discounts, how can we earn more money for our greedy shareholders?!"

"we'll just make it next to impossible to get discounts!"

[mrs_stout]

Ugh. They keep tightening the noose so squeeze more profits out of us. Couple of execs were probably like:

"we're giving far too many top rated seller discounts, how can we earn more money for our greedy shareholders?!"

"we'll just make it next to impossible to get discounts!"

Ebay did, in fact, miss their earnings target and as a result, John Donohoe's compensation was cut 53% and he only made $13.8M last year.

[waxandthreads]

After a very long conversation with a rep, I feel like he finally leveled with me. Sellers will be penalized if an item takes longer than expected to arrive, regardless of when it was sent. Most sellers use USPS, and USPS has kind of been sucking lately. Their occasional delayed deliveries have been reflecting poorly on Ebay and making buyers feel like they had a "bad buying experience." They're encouraging sellers to use a quicker (more expensive) service, like FedEx. Of course, they'll still get their % of fees for shipping, buyers are very sensitive to shipping cost so it will just come out of the actual item cost and the seller takes the hit.

[jimmyj]

Whoa. Just when I finally figured out a way to use USPS eBay has lost faith in them.

[mrs_stout]

After a very long conversation with a rep, I feel like he finally leveled with me. Sellers will be penalized if an item takes longer than expected to arrive, regardless of when it was sent. Most sellers use USPS, and USPS has kind of been sucking lately. Their occasional delayed deliveries have been reflecting poorly on Ebay and making buyers feel like they had a "bad buying experience." They're encouraging sellers to use a quicker (more expensive) service, like FedEx. Of course, they'll still get their % of fees for shipping, buyers are very sensitive to shipping cost so it will just come out of the actual item cost and the seller takes the hit.

Buyers are either going to have a "bad buying experience" because USPS is having delivery delays or because they had to pay out the ass to use FedEx.

That being said, damned if you do, & damned if you don't.

There's also the Cassini issue to contend with. eBay (now part of the user agreement) admits that it may or may not show your listings to buyers during searches. That, in and of itself, is a huge problem, but recently it was discovered that not only does it do this in returned search queries, but also within seller's own stores. There was a forum post on ebay about a seller's listing, but when people clicked on "See Seller's Other Items", it showed that the seller had "0" items for sale.

Except that the seller had 1895 ACTIVE & LIVE listings at the time the link displayed "0". It literally showed the seller's store as empty.

This is not hearsay, BTW - I actually went to the seller's live listing and performed the action myself and sure enough, it showed that the seller no items for sale, although through a series of alternate clicks, I was able to access all of the seller's other listings.

Oh, and apparently buyers are experiencing problems with glitches on the mobile/iPad site.

I still continue to sell there because when it's good -- it's GOOD; but it is becoming more and more of a trial by fire to deal with the ever-changing landscape.