any sellers getting upset with ebays new focus on "metrics"?
By Troublegum
@Troublegum (641)
United States
May 25, 2012 7:43am CST
I have been selling on ebay with success for a number of years, but their new focus on metriics has pushed me away from their platform. I understand that they want to provide the best possible service for the buyers, but they also must be realistic. Here is what I have been dinged for (and the rason I have pulled back my ebay selling by about 400%.
Slow shipment: In the past year I have sold over 3000 products on ebay. Of those 3000+ transactions, only about 800 have left me feedback. Of those 800, 17 said I was slow to ship the products. Remember this may or may not be that I was actually slow to ship, but that the buyer perceived that the product took too long to get to them. Ebays metrics don't look at this as 17 of 3000+, but rather look at it as 17 of 800 which means I have bimped over their 2% slow ship rule that makes me an unsatisfactory seller. To punish me they are now holding all the money that I get in my paypal account for 20 days before they let me have it. Granted I am expected to ship the products and pay for all the shipping charges, I just don't get paid for it until a later date. If you want to see slow shipping watch what happens when you are suddenly short a months worth of cash and you have to continnue to replentish inventory and pay to ship it out.
Slow response: Another thing I have gotten dinged for. consider the following conversation.
Q: Will this part work for me?
A: Yes
Q: Thanks
Considering that this whole conversation took place over the couse of an hour I would be dinged for lack of communication because I have only "answered" 50% of the "questions" Granted there is a check box i can click on e-bays site that says "no response required" but if I am working on my phone I will be working on email notifications and may not take the time to log into ebay so I can check a box that says "no response required" when someone tells me thanks.
Anyone else getting dinged for silly stuff like this?
Anyone else clearing out and selling more heavily on their own sites or Amazon?
1 person likes this
2 responses
@katie0 (5203)
• Japan
26 May 12
Wow, now I'm really down with starting selling there.
So they are really worried about pleasing the buyers and care not for those like you who sell?
It seems to me that if you sold 3000 items you are used to it and doing what you are supposed to, I'm sorry 17 answers were negative, that was just not fair.
Your dog is really cute!
@Troublegum (641)
• United States
26 May 12
I talked to someone a while back who was complaining about sellers not being able to leave feedback for buyers unless it is positive. He had approached someone at e-bay and they had pretty much said "though luck". He threatened to stop using e-bay and they basically said, "we don't care, there are plenty of sellers out there to take your place"
Basically they have become so large, that they can step on a few toes and not have to worry about it. I am guessing though that what we will see is that e-bay will return to primarily auction based listings for used products as many of the commercial sellers are moving to other platforms. Most savvy shoppers have realized that because the fees are so high on e-bay, commercial sellers can offer better prices on the same products on their own websites.
My normal website is pretty pricey and even as such, my end cost for selling an item is about 6%. The ebay/Paypal group takes about 15% of my sales. This means I can sell an item for 5% less on my site and make about 4% more in profit. Better for me and my customers.
@Troublegum (641)
• United States
19 Sep 12
As a follow up, I have backed way off on eBay and am having better luck with amazon so far. I will most likely be canceling my pro account with eBay and using just using a basic account for a couple things from time to time.
@silverfox09 (4708)
• United States
21 Sep 12
The thing about me prefer to buy from ebay or amazon than someone personal website is because of scam . I never sell anything online so I am not clear on what you are taking about but it make me feel safer as a spender to buy from sites like those .
@Troublegum (641)
• United States
21 Sep 12
Another thing to consider. It costs sellers about 15% to sell on ebay which means they have to accept 9-12% less for their product or charge you 9-12% more. So for buying new products, you can always find a better deal elsewhere. I can tell you this as someone who sells in alot of places.
EBay is great for used stuff. You get better deals locally, but don't have near the selection. The problem is that used stuff is always a bit risky when you can't look at it first.
