My thoughts on improving the buyer experience.

You want honest feedback? Force sellers to leave feedback for buyers before they can receive one from buyers. Positive, Neutral, and Negative. That is the way I believe it should be done. If a seller leaves a negative feedback then the buyer has the option of leaving retaliatory negative feedback. Which ALL sellers will avoid! Plus, give buyers an option to remind sellers to leave them feedback. We as sellers have it.. Buyers should have it also..

Neutrals should not count. I truly do not understand why this was changed. I have had buyers who have left me neutral feedbacks and who were overall satisfied with my service. So much so they returned to buy more items. I did not mind because the neutral did not effect my rating.. But now if I receive a neutral or negative and I feel it was not justified I will add them to the block bidders list..

DSR’s

This is a flop in my honest opinion. If you want to have this then it should only be seen by the sellers and not the eBay community. Personally I liked it when it first came out.. It let me know what areas in my business needed to be strengthened. But as time has gone by and I see how I am being rated, I am finding it to be ridiculous.
Item as described: I have one account that I sell clothing items.. The description consists of item measurements and nothing more. All the measurements are accurate and sizing is accurate as well being all the items are brand new with tags.. So why don’t I receive a 5.0 rating?

Communication: Since this started I expanded my business hours from 8 hours a day to 12 to accommodate buyers/potential buyers in different time zones. PLUS I have also given our staff members access to our email accounts from the comfort of their own homes to answer emails throughout the night. So effectively we are offering 24 hour support.. The most anyone ever waits for a reply is 2-4 hours. And that is only if the question is asked at 3:00 in the morning.. So I should be getting a 5.0 rating in communication no?

Shipping Time: I ship items Mon-Fri using all of the major carriers. Most items are shipped the very same day payment is received. PLUS I typically always upgrade my buyers shipments to a more expedited service when cost prohibit the upgrade. I.E. Parcel Post to Priority Mail and so on.. So again I should be receiving a 5.0 rating OK maybe a 4.8 being I do not ship on Saturdays. But buyers confuse Transit Times with this rating.. So I get rated when the shipping carrier takes a long time to deliver the item to the buyer.

Shipping & Handling Charges: I have been working at this one the most since the DSR’s started. I typically charge a $2.50 handling fee to cover the costs associated with the shipment of an item. (Box, peanuts, bubble wrap, etc, etc.) But I have never gotten this above a 4.5 average.. I was so disturbed by this that I spent the past 3 months offering FREE SHIPPING on all purchases. I took the loss, and my goal was to at least have 1 month where my DSR rating for this was a 5.0. What did I get? 4.5 4.6 and now I am at a 4.4. WHY?! I DO NOT CHARGE FOR SHIPPING!! So how can I be averaging a 4.4 on S&H charges?! What do I have to pay people to get a 5.0?!

So again if you want to have a DSR I am all for it.. But make it seen only by the sellers and not the buyers. Also be more realistic on the discounts.. 4.7 should be the maximum 20% discount to PowerSellers. Maybe I could get a 4.9 if I sell 1 item a month.. Plus put in an extra $20 to get the 5 star rating!

These are my thoughts and please take them into consideration.. This is a healthy way to ensure a good buyer & seller satisfaction all around..

Pierre:
Too bad he wont see this, but, in the miraculous event he does, Pierre, please ask yourself HOW is it that this so-called “Buyer experience” and the sellers’ opposition to it, going against their best interest?
First, let me be extremely clear here. Ebay is NOT doing this for a better “buyer experience”. Its all smoke and mirrors dribble. Its an attempt to fool investors and the media into thinking ebay is changing its long standing policy of doing zip for buyers. The fact of the matter is that ebay will continue to zip for the buyer. IF ebay REALLY wants to make ME, a buyer feel safe from REAL risky sellers,
I offer one solution that will better the community:
KICK THE BAD SELLER! Any short of this is pussyfooting around, and simply a means of pretending you care. You’re a business. You dont care about anything but our money. Admit it, and move on. I for one would have more respect for the company as opposed to the disrespect I have for all this artificial nonsense that is going on.

Btw, I love the brilliance behind forcing so-called risky sellers to accept PayPal only or 3rd party credit cards.
Lets assume I run into a REAL risky seller; not one of these artificially defined sellers ebay is categorizing as risky. But, lets say for argument’s sake, I run into a REAL risky seller, and ebay has forced them to decide Accept PayPal or a 3rd Party credit card. Now, realize that as stupid as criminals are, they aren’t dumb. They realize that ebay is forcing paypal to hold their funds for 21 days. Thats no good, so, they say, “What the heck? Ebay is now offering me the unsuspecting buyer’s credit card info. Now I can have the money, the item, AND their credit card info too!”
Yeah, I as a buyer feel REAL safe under these conditions. And your solution? Force PayPal only? Sorry. But, PayPal is your baby. I can’t trust ebay, and now I see ebay is screwing up paypal as well? I cant trust that either. Not after seeing how PayPal took $2000 from someone’s bank account, and having proof, paypal STILL refused to refund the money, until attorney and lawsuit was brought up. Then suddenly paypal says, “Oh, we discovered we took double payments…” Sorry, guys, there is ZERO credibility.

Tim
myspace.com/boycottebay

We have ended our work together due to the announced changes and we both lose something by that.

As a small seller, eBay won’t miss me by myself or our store, but they will miss the cumulative effect of all the “me’s” leaving, many quietly and without any announcement, just gone to other sites.

I was a good, stable seller. I packed well, offered fast shipping (priority mail out in 24 to 48 hours post payment received)reasonable handling fees, had no problem that I did not attempt to resolve- simply asking that the item be returned and a refund would be sent on receipt of the returned item- and not many of them.

My stars weren’t the 5.0, but they were all above 4.8 (partly due to eBay stating a “4″ was good to buyers but dinging sellers on that number)until I got a nasty one and that was the one that lowered all my stars and really hurt me on the s/h charge ($1.00 handling on items, but yes, $2.00 on delicate or fragile items to cover the extra supplies), though the poor buyer only paid after a UID had been opened, and never contacted me about any problem. Just the nasty FB left.

Now, add that to the messed up search, the store items out of any form of search as well, the DSR’s which are not accurate ( nor anonymous, either),the FB mess currently started, and the threat of eBay cramming Paypal down everyone’s throat( and seller protection from PP is a joke, just a joke)….anyone who has NOT read the user agreement on PP really needs to read the parts about the money holds and the way PP can force a amount to be held regardless of the money’s owners choices. Not a good thing and no, I am not talking of the 21 day hold at all.

The 21 day hold is a goodie, though, look at the interest that can be made and added to the coffers of eBay through that alone. And the 6 month hold on the money if you try to quit Paypal…more interest and you know how long you will control that money, too, how wonderful for the profits!

Disruptive innovation? A large mess is more like it, from my point of view, but that is because it has affected us directly, and many others we know personally, as well as the effects on the boards/ other chat boards.

I am so sorry to hear that the founder of eBay feels as he appears to in the above interview. I had a lot of respect for the company that he had created and carried up to the top in it’s field- actually creating a somewhat new field altogether. That was an accomplishment and I truly do hope that he enjoys all the rewards he has as he did this wonderful thing and had that vision and the guts to carry through with it.

No company can stay static, changes must come, yes- but not at the base of what made eBay unique and a giant among others- the sellers and buyers both, the PS and the mom and pop’s. all contributed to the success of eBay in the past.

Who will be contributing to eBay anymore, many of the unique ( you could find “IT” on eBay before, yes, most any IT there was, some precious, some foolish, but “IT” was on eBay, when the very people that helped make eBay what Mr. Donaho is trying to destroy?

Search continues to be awful. It just is plain old awful. Costs are way up (and spare me the “reduction in fees” thing, not stupid enough for that), scammers up and working harder than ever, system glitches and security breeches. Just a few things that need to be addressed quickly and competently by eBay.

But no, innovation that is disruptive is not always good- and it is not good on eBay in general.

Yes, there are bad sellers and bad buyers- but most are good and honest- I still believe that.

Obviously, eBay does not.

Thank you for posting the link! :-)

To me, that story is eBay. eBay improved the lives of millions through its marketplace. So, although I understand that things have changed in the last ten years, I still feel that it’s that story that is eBay. It’s not someone doing $100M in sales on the site or eBay generating $100B in GMS. It’s the many lives that it changed through the power of its many-to-many marketplace.

I understand that eBay is a public company and is obligated to its shareholders to grow. So, I understand the urge to sign up a Buy.com and import all of their listings into eBay’s marketplace. However, I would urge you to reconsider what steps like this will do to eBay, the community. And I would urge you to take a look at what happened to Google Base when millions of listings were imported into the marketplace at once. It killed it. Google Base never had a chance, and this is why. If you start doing things like importing all of Buy.com’s listings into eBay’s marketplace, you will be infusing this massive supply and completely disrupt any sense of equilibrium in the product lines that they sell for all of the existing sellers of those product lines.

This, to me, seems like eBay is headed down the path of becoming a few-to-many marketplace. I think that would be a monumental mistake to let that happen, and would basically make eBay just like Amazon; a retailer. The power lies in the many, not the few. Because with many, eBay has community. And eBay stays a place where that nurse can quit her job and take care of her sick father. I understand the need to grow, but grow by diving deeper into each of the vertical communities and growing the masses. It’s harder work, and it’s slower at first, but this allows the vertical communities to grow in equilibrium, and it allows many people to succeed.

Just my 2 cents.

I don’t get it.

It was HIS decision to hire Meg. He has Ebay stock in numbers that defy comprehension.

He sits on the board of directors. He created Ebay. Who would be more intimately knowledgeable than he. If he is ignorant of any of the aspects of what is going on that is still ultimately his responsibility.

It isn’t as though he is a child king of yesteryear at the mercy of evil regents. The man is an adult and as such is capable of making adult decisions.

Maybe some of this ” constant … let’s talk ” approach of Ebay is a little bit counter productiv;
it is possible to discuss too much and get nothing accomplished.

And there is a saying … that … Actions speak louder than words.

Nor do I, for any purpose, even Richard hardly makes any replies anymore. Replies to posts are way down, and it’s really starting to look like a one sided bitch blog. Like the discussion forums, without the pink slap.

Funny thing though, most of what everyone has said is true, when seen from the seller perspective.

Speaking of my experiences, I had a listing pulled last night for “keyword spamming”. My crime? I used the words “like new” in the title. BOOM, pulled listing. I was selling a camera lens, which is literally like new, but oh no, can’t say “like new” in the title.

I mean really, what’s all this coming too?

I contacted live help, which was no help, because the agent had no power/authority/responsibility to help me. He just kept parroting the party line, and telling me that he also sold and had listings pulled for using “like new” in the title. When I pointed out that if you did a search on “like new” 6400 items came up from all over the site, including eBay Motors, I asked why those listings were not pulled too? “Is it fair” I asked “that my listing gets taken down and 6400 other people are committing the same violation? If you’re going to make a rule, you have to enforce it unilaterally”. The response was “users report those to us, and yes, we take them down when notified”. “So,” I said “its possible then that another seller who had the same exact lens listed AND used ‘like new in box’ in his title could have reported me to get my listing removed and eliminate me as competition to his item”. I was told oh no, that’s not possible. Uh-huh, OK. Brooklyn Bridge time. Well, I guess I should start reporting those 6400 other listings then…

Is it the one MSNBC runs every once in a while?