http://money.cnn.com/2008/02/15/smbusiness/ebay_strike_update.fsb/index.htm?cnn=yes Not sure exactly who's planning this, since I haven't heard one word about it...but maybe I'm just clueless. Anyways, wonder if this'll affect anything at all. My guess is not.
I remember the last fee increase, when a ebay store went from around $6 to $16 a month, many left to go to ubid. They came back. Where is some decent competition? Clearly a market for another big auction site, and base of customers who will use it.
Thanks for the info! I have pretty much given up on Ebay for some of the reasons brought up in the article.
I for one have never liked the feedback system on eBay....if I as a buyer do my part (pay for the item in a timely matter) then I should automatically get a positive....some sellers use it as a hostage situation...they wait til you leave them a positive then they'll leave you one....sometimes. As far as the increased rates, I can see where sellers can get upset about it...I mean, pretty much, ebay is doing very little to make the money they get off of listings and sales...but thats the cost of doing business with a "middle man"... More power to you sellers...I hope you all get what you are going after, as long as it is for the betterment of the whole community... just dont be the person who complains about eBay being unfair, but still sells stuff during the "picket"....you're just defeating yourself from the inside out then...
Have you guys read the changes to ebay that take place in May 2008? They are attempting to address some of the crucial issues, I'd highly recommend giving the changes a good read. Other than the increased final fees, I think lots of the angry sellers are just being defensive as their exploitative and unfair-to-buyers practices are being challenged and picked apart. For one, sellers will NOT be able to leave negatives, but buyers will. That combats the 'retaliation negative' from sellers that keeps buyers from leaving neutral or negative feedbacks, which as with others of you I'm sure is/was one of my biggest beefs with buying on ebay. That should also help combat one of my other main beefs with ebay: US to CAN sellers charging for USPS Priority or Express and then using the vastly cheaper First Class. If they'd list the specific method in the auction when paid and then switch the buyer is always in the right for wanting a shipping refund, but in order to get it = strongly risking taking a -ive from the seller for doing nothing wrong when the seller did do something scandalous. Now when sellers do that to me I'll be able to negative their scheming @$$es without fear of unjustified retaliation!!!!!!!!! YAY! A big change for sellers is that gallery will now be included free with a standard auction insertion fee, so no extra $ just to make each auction sellable. Also, for Cdn sellers, they're lowering prices to match the Can-US dollar changes . There's various other changes too!
Haha SOME sellers? Man thats like 90% of everyone I've deal with. And like you mentioned, sometimes they don't even leave you feedback back.
I think P-S P might work for eBay... When I sell, which isn't often, I make a point to send a message requesting they confirm receipt and satifsfaction, after which I'll leave feedback. I don't wait for them to leave it for me. I want to make sure I've done everything possible to make them happy, but as the seller, I should leave it first. I understand that for bigger sellers, following up on each sale to leave feedback isn't convenient...but so what? It's an important part of eBay--they need to take the time.
Hehe, I jokingly thought that about my own post after posting it! But no I don't, and as buyer first and a seller second on ebay, I really think the 'hostage situation' and 'retaliation feedback' is one of the most crucial problems of the system as it is (and is very closely linked to overcharging on shipping & switching methods) and that the changes are trying to address. If an ebay seller rips a buyer off on shipping to pocket extra profit or purposely charges for an expensive method then uses the cheapest possible why should the buyer end up with a negative just for calling the seller on it? And, in being taken feedback hostage, the buyer ends up having to swallow the 'oh well, nothing I can do about it' option if they don't want to rack up these retaliatory and hostage negatives. Oh, and then there's the 'buyer leaves a neutral for a minor problem, seller leaves a negative in response for no other reason than that the buyer left a neutral' situation, which essentially makes neutral feedback useless, and many buyers learn this the hard way, leaving buyers with worse feedbacks than their respective sellers, even though it was the sellers who'd done something wrong and the buyers nothing wrong. Some sellers, like you say for yourself SCar, don't only leave feedback after the buyer does, and some don't try to use shipping as a profit mechanism, but unfortunately I find that the vast majority do. The switching methods for US sellers to CAN buyers is my particular touchy spot that makes me glad for the ebay changes and that those types of sellers, if angry at it, can go stuff it up their...
As a long term seller I'm not too worried but I dont like the vitriol directed at sellers such as ''all sellers are evil'' ''all sellers are there to rip you off'' I advertise my stuff honestly and try and deliver within 3 days and still I have to deal with assholes from singapore trying to rip me off and all these new rules accomplish is giving them more power to do so ebay are shit at customer service full stop so again I'm not really fussed but I cant see these new rules sticking, the action figure section is pretty sparse in the UK anyway dominated with crap from hong kong, I would love to see someone take ebay for all they are worth for endorsing piracy, search for versace or gucci and you can guarantee it is fake
re the sellers not being able to leave a negative, well of course if a buyer backs out and doesnt pay then surely yes. I had some swine take my money, run and then leave me a negative saying i never contacted him!! (some people would sell theor own kids if they could) that was after a long protracted debate about the ship price from the UK to USA (he gave me a $20 ship quote and post auction he said it was to be $50) anyway silly me didnt even bother with the paypal potection thing, anyway you live and learn....
1) Yeah, there are good sellers out there too, just gotta find them amongst all the BS. Some of the US sellers who rip off Canadians with the shipping method switcheroo might well be ok sellers within the US too, but once it goes international they feel a need for a cash grab for the troubles or see an opportunity there or something... 2) Isn't Singapore, China, and Africa well known for ripping off? Maybe not selling Worldwide would help that? I only sell to US and Canada to avoid those kinds of problems (i.e. 'package never arrived'), which means less people bidding but can't have the best of both worlds. 3) Yup, ebay is massively overstuffed with fake crap from China being sold from Hong Kong, etc. In the transformers world (search 'G1 transformers', 95% of auctions returned are either cheap KOs or the newer bootlegs) or otherwise. It drives me nuts because it floods ebay with so much crap that barely even sells, but if those sellers can get 1 to 2 hits out of 50 somehow they're able to repost it all again even though most of it won't sell. I'd like to see action against that and supporting piracy/trademark infringements too.
its annoying but i have a 99.5% feedback, why? because 1 seller took my money and ran, left me a negative! and another sent me a way misdescribed item, paypal forced me a refund and he left me a negative for that. basically i paid for two items fair and square and i get 2 negatives, incredible.
Yeah I know it sucks and like I said all I have to fear is an asshole looking for a free ride. I know sellers rip people off and have been on the receiving end of it, the changes will hopefully do well as it has already rid ebay uk of one of its most horrendous sellers TNM Collectables I'm just not happy about the final value hikes
As usual, eBay fails, and it makes me sad that so few see the glaring flaws in their new "system" (makes me sick to call it that). 1) Increased fees - thats all fine and dandy if you are a powerseller or sell many high end collectibles that can still make you some profit. However, a seller like me that rarely sells anything over $25, its financial suicide. 2) The new feedback situation is a turd. Sorry, but there are just as many asshole buyers as there are asshole sellers and, as usual, the corporate stooges at eBay fail to see that. I had already seen an increase in the bad buyers over the last year and now it's going to be open season. 3) They claim this new "system" helps new sellers.....bullshit. With their new system, one asshole can completely ruin a new seller's chances. With their new system, that new seller (or any seller for that matter) can't defend themselves. With that new system, their little evil stepchild PayPal can hold a seller's funds until AFTER they ship. What other market system dictates that the seller give up their merchandise BEFORE the buyer pays for it? I was already iffy about selling anymore on there due to their problems with the messaging system, now I have tons of shit in my basement I probably will never be able to sell because of their ******ed changes. I wish I could go to another auction site, but I don't really want to wait years to sell my stuff because the alternate site gets no traffic. Face it folks, eBay has become a corporate monopoly just like Microsoft. Until the SEC actually does its job and actually breaks up these companies (not just giving lip service like it did with Microsoft) the consumer - buyer or seller - is fucked. Maybe with democrats coming in, it will, I don't know. I'm all for the boycott, but I just don't think it will work. They need ALL the sellers to participate and, for many reasons right and wrong, they won't get them all. What the eBay consumers need is an attack from the top. They need an advocate lobby that will bring the house down on eBay, not a little sit-down strike. Unfortunately, again I dont see that happening. As much as I loathe to do so, I'm just gonna take the wait-and-see approach, expect the worst, and hope for the best.
Words such as nose, face and spite come to mind. eBay's feedback revision is a clumsy solution but it's not like they have much competition.
More power to those striking. I'd say I am too, but I didn't really plan on listing items. Those are all problems that eBay have never addressed properly, and this new positive-only for buyers is the biggest BS that still doesn't fix the problem. Frankly, I do request feedback left for me first as a seller - I state this in my auctions and in an email when I inform buyers their item has shipped. DC, which I use on all auctions, tells me the item has been delivered, but that doesn't necessarily tell me if the post office left it on the correct doorstep of the right house out in the rain, if the package was damaged, or in the rare case, that I messed up with the item. I want to encourage my buyers to communicate with me so that i might rectify any problems rather than buyers be triggerhappy (hey, that's a Transformer!) with a negative and think the transaction ends with them unsatisfied. The new system encourages the latter and is contrary to any "customer service" that I'm capable of.
As a buyer I'm glad to see an end to the feedback hostage situations. Nice to know some real arsehole sellers are finally going to end up with honest and real feedback for their arsehole ways. As someone looking at selling in the future it does make things a lot more daunting. Bad buyers now look to be able to get away with more garbage behavior. But then again I'm not sure how else they could put an end to the seller-takes-feedback-hostage problem... thoughts anyone?
For me this is just one more reason not to use eBay and stick to Junkion and the B/S/T forums over at Cybertron.ca
I've given up on the feedback system myself. I agree whole-heartedly with the idea that once the buyer pays, he deserves the positive. I know others disagree with that, and they are entitled to their opinion. As a buyer, I've taken to leaving no feedback until I receive it first from the seller. I will let them know that the item has arrived, but they don't get anything from me unless I have received it from them. I've been screwed over MANY times on this and this seems to be the only solution that works for me. Lately though, the sellers I have been dealing with have left feedback right after they get the money. Kudos to them! Word!
